Essay Example on Critical or sensitive period in the process of the acquisition of first or second Languages

Summary Aim of the study to discuss and clarify that if there is a critical or sensitive period in the process of the acquisition of first or second languages Research Questions Does language acquisition progress normally and does the child display a full proficiency in the language when he she begins to learn at an early age Context Participants and Methodology The context of this study is first and second language learning ESL English as a Second Language Participants are just existing through examples there is no study on a specific group of people They are random people who are learning a second language for example immigrants who moved to the United States from China and Korea Findings of the study Suggestion from Eric Lenneberg 1976 human language acquisition is an example of biologically contrived learning If a person acquire the language in his her critical period beginning with childhood and ending with puberty his her language proficiency can be at the maximum degree but if language is acquired after critical period there will be a different or more difficult learning process For him critical period ends because the brain reaches its mature organization in the last stage of adolescence 

The author basically tells about the case of Genie According to him studies of feral children show a strong relation between the age of exposure to a first or second language and the proficiency level in that language Learning in the first months of exploring a language may be advantageous for adult learners especially for vocabulary and accuracy in speaking but for long term outcome it is better to learning a language in childhood These effects above have been shown for both L1 and L2s Age factor has effects even on sign languages deaf adults whose first language is American Sign Language show effects of age of exposure to language on their grammatical skills in American Sign Language even 50 years later A current research indicates that just overhearing a foreign language in childhood may lead to learning to pronounce that foreign language with a more native accent as an adult Age of exposure does not affect all aspects of language learning equally The author tells the results that I shortly mentioned above fairly strong evidence for a sensitive or critical period in language acquisition process Researcher s Recommendation for Future Research 

The Author indicates that Further research is needed to characterize the structures that do and do not show strong effects of age of learning a language A few questions have been raised about critical or sensitive period in language acquisition recently The author mentions these questions as a recommendation for future research One of these questions is Must a critical period involve an abrupt decline and a total loss of plasticity at the end Some investigators argued to support the critical period hypothesis and justify that age effects must coincide with the onset of puberty On the other hand other investigators opposed if there were a sensitive or critical period in language learning acquisition no adult learners would achieve a native proficiency in language acquisition process Article 4 Type Review Title The Critical Period Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition Tailoring the Coat of Many Colors Researcher David Birdsong Year 2014 End of text Reference Birdsong D 2014 The Critical Period Hypothesis for Second Language Acquisition Tailoring the Coat of Many Colors In Pawlak M Aronin L eds Essential Topics in Applied Linguistics and Multilingualism Second Language Learning and Teaching Springer Summary Aim of the study Birdsong s study is an extension of David Singleton s 2005 IRAL chapter The Critical Period Hypothesis 

A coat of many colors He suggests that the Critical Period Hypothesis in its application to second language acquisition could benefit from methodological and theoretical with respect to the shape of the function that relates age of acquisition to proficiency the use of nativelikeness for falsification of the Critical Period Hypothesis and the framing of predictors of L2 attainment Research Questions What critical period looks like What is the role place of nativelikeness in Critical Period Hypothesis in second language acquisition Context Participants and Methodology The context of this study is second language acquisition The author of the article Birdsong reviews the Singletons study on Critical Period he adds a fitting metaphor to Singleton s original title he tries to show that the coat of many colors might warrant some methodological and theoretical tailoring to accommodate the facts and phenomena associated with age and attainment in second language acquisition Findings of the study The author gives examples from former studies which are held with people who are learning a second language from different countries different nationalities in terms of Critical Period 

Hypothesis Birdsong shows that results differ according to variables Since there are differences between bilingual and monolingual people their effects from critical period hypothesis in terms of nativelikeness are different There is a connection between AoA and second language proficiency level this situation is consistent with the Critical Period Hypothesis in second language acquisition This data is from a set of studies on 57 Hungarian immigrants to the United States Limitations of the study Framing the studies on Critical Period Hypothesis around the existence robustness of the CPH education factor is neglected though it has the biggest effect on second language proficiency Article 5 Type Review Title Assess the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition Researcher Lihong Du Year 2010 End of text Reference Du L 2010 Assess the Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition English Language Teaching Vo 3 No 2 Summary Aim of the Study This study s aim is first review and compare former articles and studies on Critical Period Hypothesis and then evaluate the CPH