Tim Keeley – The Age Factor in Foreign Language Acquisition

The proposition that there is an age factor at play in the acquisition of additional languages has long been – and continues to be – a hotly debated topic. According to Singleton (1985), the views range from the position that children are in all respects more efficient and effective in acquiring additional languages to the complete contrary position that adolescents and adults are more efficient and effective learners. A central and very controversial part of this debate is the alleged critical period hypothesis (CPH). The CPH was first proposed by neurologists Penfield and Roberts (1959) and later popularized by Lenneberg (1967). It should be noted that the focus in both these cases was on first or primary language acquisition (PLA-CPH). Later the CPH was extended to encompass second language acquisition (SLA-CPH). This presentation gives a broad introduction to the subject and then focuses on critically examining the research of Johnson and Newport (1989) in relation to immigrants and that of Patricia Kuhl (2004, 2007, 2010) in relation to early childhood development. The conclusion is that there is overwhelmingly more counter evidence than supporting evidence for biological age-related constraints on foreign language acquisition. Age-related differences in learner outcomes can be effectively explained by social, psychological and attitudinal factors. Join us at: PolyglotConference.com fb.com/PolyglotConference fb.com/groups/PolyglotConference twitter.com/Polyglot_Confer instagram.com/PolyglotConference The Language Event Join us at: TheLanguageEvent.com fb.com/TheLanguageEvent fb.com/groups/TheLanguaageEventEdinburgh fb.com/groups/TheLanguageEventAuckland fb.com/groups/ThelanguageEventMelbourne twitter.com/PolyglotMeetup instagram.com/TheLanguageEvent Filming & Editing: Simos Batzakis