Age Restrictions on Second Language Acquisition

Euis Fauziah Ramadhani

17070835002
States University of Surabaya

Studies on sequential language acquisition by children have been carried out in the
field of L2 acquisition. There are many theories if age affects second language acquisition.
To start with, in critical period hypothesis suggests that there is a period when language
acquisition takes place naturally and effortlessly. Dornyei & Ushioda (2009) point out that
the age effects in naturalistic SLA and in formal school learning. In the same view, Ellis
(1997) argued that someone should experience three sequence of language development
(silent period, formulaic speech, and structural and semantic simplification) in which the
optimum age for language acquisition it starts the first ten years of life due to the
lateralization of the language function in the left hemispheres of the brain. The main topic of
this paper is to see if the age in which children of immigrant have any effect on their
relationship with the second language. It will discuss further about description of the
acquisition process of Italian as a second language of two Turkish-speaking brothers, in an
immersion context written by Peçenek (2011).
The older brother, A, nearly eight years old, and E, five, are native speakers of
Turkish, arrived in Italy and began to attend Italian schools a month after the arrival. Their
mom is a Turkish Italian teacher. Two brothers experience the same exposure of Italian and
sequence of language development but experience different language experience and
stumbling block in learning second language. In his first months of exposure to Italian, A had
linguistic problems at school. He was not able to comprehend what his teacher was saying; he
was playing a part in activities by mimicking his friends’ performances and utterance. A year
after being exposed to Italian, A has underway to have a little talk with his friends. He can
understand of any kind is said to him to some extent; however he cannot react or does not
willing to answer. His teachers say that A understands what people saying but predominantly
is refusing to speak in the class.
According to provided data, even after a year Italian exposure, he was still in his
silent period. He was trying to get what language and what the meaning of it by hearing,
repeating, and joining communication by non-verbal behaviours without willingness to speak
the language. It reflects the early stage of L2 acquisition named silent period proposed by
(Ellis, 1997). He states that children who undergo a silent period make no attempt to say
anything to begin with even they learning a lot by listening or reading. It serves a preparation
for subsequent production. Some learners talk to themselves in the L2 even when they
decline to talk to others. (Bochner & Jones, 2003) believe that in the silent period, children
need to adjust to a new linguistic, cultural environment time as well as difficulties to learn
new languages; it can last for a few months or for as long as a year.
Two years after being exposed to Italian, he began to respond someone in Italian. He
used certain tenses in his speaking. He starts from the use of present tense and present
continuous then learning future and past tense. In this stage, A began to experience of
accuracy order where he is aware of grammatical feature used in the sentences spoken. In the
second half year, he speaks fluently with good grammar as well as knows the roman dialect,
the grammar while communicating orally but having difficulty in written. He has no
difficulty in speaking Turkish either. Moreover, he speaks Turkish with Turkish speakers and
Italian with Italian speakers and he does not code-mix in either language. He does not have
any problem expressing himself in either language.
Conversely, during the first few days, the younger brother, E imitated his friends’
behaviours which made it possible for him to understand the expectations of his teachers. He
began to understand conversations during the very first week. In less than a year, E does not
have any trouble with Italian. He has started talking to his friends visiting him at home in a
sophisticated manner as well as express himself in the class. He has reached the level where
he can express himself very well with Italian pronunciation. He is really good at speaking,
reading, and comprehends the Roman dialect pretty well but he deals with the use of tenses
when he started primary school.
However, E started to struggle in distinguishing even forgetting his first language,
Turkish after two years of Italian exposure. Based on the data, he said ‘But I don’t know
Turkish’ and he does not even make an effort. He does not know the days, months, and
numbers in Turkish. E has a tendency to use Italian words while speaking in Turkish. In
contrast, he does not use Turkish words while speaking in Italian. It may happen because of
his exposure to Turkish or the first language acquisition has not complete yet which make
him accept the new language as well forget the previous acquired language easily.
In addition, two brothers’ language development shows that language maturation of
first language and cognitive maturity play important role to help children acquire the second
language without forgetting their first language. Slabakova (2016) argues that cognitive
maturity is a factor in developing these and other interpretations. According to Tokuhama-
espinosa (2001) seven years old little ones start, sadly enough, to become self-conscious.
They start to care about what others think of them like how they speak, act, and dress. They
start to act in ways either to avoid embarrassment or to gain recognition. It is same as what
have passed through A in his language development which makes him take longer language
preproduction or silent period. However, children under the age of seven are not inhibited by
making mistakes in public because language is a game, a code to play with (Tokuhama-
espinosa, 2001). It is exactly what happened to younger brother, E, he spent less time in silent
period and jump out to direct speech production but begin to face difficulty between his first
and second language specifically in the next stage related to grammatical used.
In summary, the children were exposed to the L2 under the same conditions and
during the same periods. Their parents provided the same opportunities for both of them; they
both went to school full-time, they both interacted with native speakers, they were together
with their friends at home and at the playground. They also pass through same sequences in
acquiring second language. It is in align with Socio-Cultural Theory declared by Vygotsky
(1978). He claimed that children's thinking and meaning-making is socially constructed and
emerges out of their social interactions with their environment. In the other words, providing
supportive environment in each development stage will help to foster second language
acquisition. However, they differed in relation with first language exposure’s length and the
process of acquisition of Italian. It reveals that several factors significantly affect specifically
cognitive development related to age and the language maturity.
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