Age and Acquisition:

The Critical Period Hypothesis

Alejo, Alejandra Angel L.

Contents:
The Critical Period Hypothesis
I. First Considerations
B. Affective Considerations
A. Neurobiological Considerations
o Egocentricity
o Hemispheric Laterization
o Language Ego
o Biological Timetable
o Attitude
o Right Hemispheric Participation
o Peer Pressure
o Anthropological Evidence
B. The Significance of Accent
C. Linguistic Considerations
II. Second Considerations
o Bilingualism
A. Cognitive Considerations
o Interference between first and second
o Piaget’s Cognitive Development
Language
o Implicit/Explicit Learners o Order of Acquisition
o Laterization Hypothesis
o Piaget’s Notion of Equilibrium
o Ausubel’s rote and meaningful learning
 Question
Do you think there is a
specific period of time in
which people can learn a
language?
There is a biological
timetable.

The “classic”
argument is that
critical point for
second language
acquisition occurs
around puberty.
 I.
First
Considerations
First considerations in the
critical period hypothesis
 A.
Neurobiological
Considerations
 A. Neurobiological Considerations
01
02
Biological
Hemispheric Laterization
Timetables
Brain is divided into left and development of a
right hemisphere socially bonding
accent

Anthropological
Right
Hemispheric 04 Evidence
Participation a person may acquire
more languages; as he
more encouragement of approaches old age
right-brain activity
03
 1. Hemispheric Left hemisphere
Laterization
intellectual, logical
and analytical

As human brain matures,

certain functions are Right Hemisphere

assigned
emotional & social needs
 2. Biological
Timetables
Walsh & Diller (1981)
“different aspects of second
language are learned at different
3. Right Hemispheric
Participation
indicate that right-brain-oriented
activities helps in the language
classroom

ages” (Total Physical Response and

Natural Approach)
Scovel (1988)
“accents after puberty, may be a which are more psychomotor,
genetic leftover” integrated, social atmosphere in
the classroom.
 4. Anthropological
Evidence
Sorenson (1967)
“during adolescence, individuals
actively and almost suddenly began
to speak two or three other
languages to which they had been
exposed at some point”
Mover (2004)
a multitude of cognitive, social,
psychological, and strategic
variables affecting the ultimate
attainment of proficiency in a
second language.
 B.
The Significance
of Accent
 The Signifance
of Accent

Foreign Accent – accent produced from the first language

Native Accent – accent produced from the second language

*Most evidence indicates that a

person beyond age of puberty do not
acquire authentic pronunciation
(native-like speaker)
 “pronunciation of a
language is not by any
Strong means of the sole criterion
i on for acquisition”
Ver s
CPH —Scovel (1999)
“using native
“should have positive
accent as the perspectives of multi-
yardstick” competence”
-Cook 1995
 II.
Second
Considerations
Second considerations in
the critical period
hypothesis
 A.
Cognitive
Considerations
1. Piaget’s Cognitive
Development

* Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2)

critical stage for a
* Preoperational stage (ages 2 to consideration on
7)
* Operational stage (ages 7 to 16)
Piaget’s theory is
 Concrete operational stage
(ages 7 to 11)
at puberty
 Formal operational stage
(ages 11 to 16)
Ausubel (1964) said that adults
learning second language profit
from grammatical explanations
and deductive thinking. Is it possible, that if you
are conscious of learning
the language, you will
Rosansky (1975) noted that
initial language acquisition have more difficulty
takes place when the child is learning it?
highly centered.
 Logically
2. Implicit/Explicit
Learners
A higher intellectual capacity
should teach the language Implicit - naturally occurring
language behavior such as
conversation
Anecdotal Evidence

Explicit - explanation of rule or

Some adults are successful in request to focus on
learning second language grammatical feature
 3. Laterization 4. Piaget’s
Hypothesis Equilibrium
Equilibration –
As human brains mature, progressive interior
they are divided into left organization of knowledge.
and right hemisphere. Sullivan (1967)
doubt & resolution &
uncertainty certainty
(disequilibrium) (equilibrium)
 5. Ausubel’s
Rote learning
rote and meaningful
learning Use of little brain or use of
mechanistic learning,
memorization and repitition
People of all ages have
little need for rote and Meaningful learning
most items are
Relating new items of
acquired by experiences to knowledge,
meaningful learning. understading how it works.
 B.
Affective
Considerations
 1. Egocentricity 2. Language Ego

*children – focused on “sense of inferiority while

themselves learning the language”

*as they grow older – more

self-conscious Adult second language
learner have difficulty
*adolescence – learning the language due
self-identity to language ego.
 3. Attitude 4. Peer Pressure

Children – told to be better

“less cognitive about
like the rest o the kids
attitudes towards race,
culture, ethnic groups, Adult – tolerate the
classes & language are less linguistic differences
affected”
 C.
Linguistic
Considerations
 1. Bilingualism
● mixing up language
child learning 2 languages
at the same time ● code- switching

Coordinate Bilinguals

Two meaning system, separate context “bilinguals are not 2

monolinguals in the same
Compound Bilinguals
head”
one meaning system
2. Interference of First
and Second Language

On linguistic and “First language

cognitive processes, serves as facilitating
factor not just
Children – same in FLL interfering factor.”
Adult – more vulnerable
effect of FL
 3. Order of
Acquisition

"transfer of L1 “use a creative

syntactic patterns
construction
process”
rarely occurs"
 Orders from Dulay
& Burt (1972)
1. present progressive (-ing)
2. and 3-1 (in, on )
4. plural (-s)
5. past irregular
6. possessive (-’s)
7. uncontractible copula
(is, am, are)
8. articles (a, the)
9- past regular (-ed)
10. third-person regular (-s)
11* third-person irregular
5 Determinants of acquisition
order (Goldshneider &
Dekeyser 2005)
1. Perceptual salience (how easy it is to see
or hear a given structure)
2. Semantic complexity (how many
meanings are expressed by a particular
form)
3. Morpho-phonological regularity (the
degree to which language forms are affected
by their phonological environment)
4. Syntactic category (grammatical
characteristics of forms)
5. Frequency in the input (the number of
times a given structure occurs in speech
addressed to the learner)
References
REFERENCES:

Books
●Brown, D. (2007). Prnciples of Language Learning and Teaching, Fifth Edition. Pearson Education. San Francisco
California. Available at: http://matefluah.weebly.com/uploads/2/8/0/6/28065741/brown_-_teaching_by_principles.pdf
●Birdsong, D. (1999). Second Language Acquisition and the Critical Period Hypothesis. Lwrence Erlbaum Associates,
Publishers. Mahwah New Jersey. Available at https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED436980
●Singleton, D. & Lengyei, Z. (1995). The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition : A Critical Look At the Critical
Period Hypothesis Multilingual Matters (Series). Multilingual Matters. Clevedon Philadelphia Adelaide. Available at:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Age_Factor_in_Second_Language_Acquis.html?id=r2HEqsWeQTYC

Online Sources
●Manuel, J. (2002). The Critical Period Hypothesis. English Post Org.
https://worldenglishes.mc.gatech.edu/critical-period-hypothesis-cph/
●Abello-Contesse (2006). Age and the critical period hypothesis. ELT Journal, Oxford Academic.
●https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccn072
Thank you!