A test of the Critical Period Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition

In this study (Hakuta, Byalistok , & Wiley , 2003), realized in 2003, the
researchers used the data from the 1990 U.S. Census focusing on selected
language groups, from what 2.3 million immigrants living in some of the main
cities of the U.S were selected for the study, 75% of them being Spanish speakers
and 15% Chinese speakers. For the selection process, the main requirement was
to have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years. Other aspects like age, social
status, background, etc. were used as parameters for analysis.

The main objective of the survey was to test the fundamentals of the Critical
Period Hypothesis which establish a range of time, including a critical year, in
which the level of successfulness of a second language acquisition starts to drop
significantly. For that reason, the amount of surveyed people was that high
because it would give more accurate data for this purpose.

The main question asked for the level of English the surveyed person had, among
other questions related to their characteristics such as age, place of origin,
education, etc.; all this in order to obtain a general view of that population, and
also to have more accurate data. As expected, the results gave interesting
statistical answers and showed a new perspective regarding the critical period
theory.

First of all, they did not find evidence that supports the idea of the discontinuity
in the level of language learning potential through the lifespan. Instead, they did
observed a decline in the level of successfulness of a second language acquisition
relative to the age increase but it was not as prominent as the theory explain.

According to the researchers, this is because in the studies used as a basis for the
Critical Period Hypothesis the researchers just focused on the biological factors
that are implied in the process, but they did not take into account all other
factors that, as seen in the collected data, it does influence in the second
language acquisition. Factors such as socio-cultural and socio-economic levels,
education levels, investment, motivation, etc. can cause variations in the level
of successfulness of learning a second language, apart from the age factor. In
other words, the researchers of this study did not completely agree with the
arguments of the Critical Period Theory.

Kerwin José Ceballos Mier

References
Hakuta, K., Byalistok , E., & Wiley , E. (2003). Sage Journals. Obtained from
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1467-9280.01415