Write about the Article Review for Linguistics and Multilingualism.
The issue of the second language has been a topic of discussion for long years. This article by Muñoz & Singleton (2011) highlights the issues of second language acquisition regarding age-related attainment effects. It seeks to answer the question of whether those effects can be discussed or elaborated regarding their impact on a broader range of aspects. There has been undeniable evidence proving the strong connection between age factor and the success of learning and understanding an additional language (L2). Nevertheless, major controversies surround this issue for many decades now. Two questions have been addressed in this paper that points out the area of contention; (1) Could there be a window of constrained opportunity- that is the critical period, that ends at the end or during the childhood period and is connected to language acquisition? At which stage does the effectiveness of acquiring and learning new language start to become less effective, more arduous, or unsuccessful in its outcome?
Does the impact of factors affect the outcome of language-acquiring capacity concerning the changes connected with age or does it stem from a language-focused critical period?
Muñoz & Singleton, (2011) in the current study focused majorly on four issues in their pursuit of determining how age factor influences the attainment of L2 language acquisition.
(i) Determining the extent at which native-like performance can be regarded as a dire standard in the measurement of L2 attainment.
(ii) Determining the degree to which the unitary Critical Period Hypothesis can be achieved.
(iii) Comparing the various variables such as linguistic, contextual, and age and how they relate to the onset of L2 acquisition.
(iv) Analyzing different parts of the brain used during early and late language acquisition.
Individuals who have been exposed to a certain language since the time they were born, have a greater chance of learning an L2 language quickly as compared to those that have encountered it for the first time when they are grown up already. Therefore, there is a high likelihood of success for the L2 language learning in the native speakers. The authors, therefore, aimed to understand how native-speaker yardstick influences the attainment of L2 language. They observed that there is a close link between people who acquire a certain language in the early stages of their life and native-speaker performance as compared to those who acquire it in later stages (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 2014). However, this comparison needs more understanding and elaboration in exploring the maturation and age effects issues. The late acquirers mostly can be grouped into two classes; children who had no chance to have a linguistic interaction or been deprived of their rights to normal human social relations. The second group included children who were born deaf and got no opportunity to learn through language/signed input until a later stage. Llurda (2016), explains that it’s hard to define the concept of a native speaker. However, he tries to bring out the concept of temporary performance. Away from this, Abrahamsoon & Hyltenstam (2008) established that various language aptitude ranks that the late L2 learners possessed, had a significant influence on the success of the L2 acquisition. The native speaker can be described as culture-bound, and a huge difference is observed between the child L2 acquirer and the post-pubertal L2 acquirer regarding inborn bio-endowment.
Human brain progressively becomes rigid and stiff when one attains the age of nine. According to Birdsong, (2014), if one learns the L2 language in later stages, one cannot achieve good results as compared to one who learns it in early stages. Puberty as well has been shown to be the critical offset point for L2 learning. After this, the concept of language-learning-blocks increases and, therefore, learning of foreign languages calls for a conscious and great effort. Phonetics and phonology are other factors that influence the offset points (Hakuta, Bialystok, & Wiley, 2003). Therefore, pointing out the exact end of a critical period in language learning remains elusive to date.
Quality input and contextual factors have a huge role to play in the success of L2 learning. The biological age, length of residence/exposure, and age of onset are some of the factors that influence how one responds to foreign language learning. In the same way interaction with the length of years that one has been in contact with the native language and the environment influences the diversity and intensity of obtaining the L2 language. The same is true for people who have been exposed to some degree of a foreign language while growing as compared to those who learn it for the first time in their adulthood. Social-affective and cognitive factors as well have an impact on the learning experience of an individual. Willingness to learn a new language also enables one to be fluent and proficient within a short period.
Little is known on how the brain works regarding language acquisition learning. L1 and late-acquired L2 time frames have been determined by the part of the brain used as it varies. It has been shown that a patient who suffers from the Broca’s area of the brain has selective L2 loss thereby proving that it’s the region responsible for native language acquisition. On the other hand, L2s could be influenced by the left frontal gyrus. For instance, L1 grammar learning is implicitly attained while L2 is obtained explicitly. The study, therefore, concluded that both the monolinguals and bilinguals have a significant influence on L1 and L2 language learning (Paradis & Jia, 2017).
In conclusion, I believe more focus should be on discussion of attainment study factors regarding the L2 acquisition. The critical period hypothesis issue also needs to be analyzed further. In my view, however, I believe learning L2 depend solely on the individual. Despite the fact that children who have been exposed to native language have the upper hand in learning L2 as compared to those exposed for the first time, there is still room for learning.
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on oral fluency. ELT Journal, 71, 341-353. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccw115
Education on the elementary-level foreign language has received much attention over the recent years regarding second language learning. As such in various countries, it has been implemented as an educational policy issue. The study by de Wolf, Smit, & Lowie (2017), was aimed at determining whether there are any fluency benefits associated with the teaching of a foreign language at an early stage. It also aimed at investigating how external factors influence fluency in learning of the second language. Some of these external factors include; the attitude that the children have towards English, motivation, and the exposure they have after school (Gardner, 2014).
Since the year 2002, the European council needed the multilingualism field to advance regarding foreign languages which ought to be taught. Therefore, every European pupil needed to be taught two or more foreign languages at a very early age. The study used two groups of children; those in Grade 7 or 8 ranging from 10-12 years of age (late starters) and those in Grade I- mostly at age 4 (early starters). Muñoz, (2014) has shown that pupils who begin studying the L2 language early enough, they have better results as compared to those who start learning later. The results are in agreement with those obtained by Unsworth, (2015), where early learners from 4-5 years outperformed those in the same class but had not received any English instructions nor enrolled in the EFL programs. The issue of whether the teaching of English language in early stages adds value to L2 language acquisition has received lots of controversies. Early starters usually have a low level of production, unable to construct sentences, limited receptive skills, and vocabulary after the teaching of the English language for about two years. However, they seem to improve their receptive skills with time, but in their productive skills, no tangible benefits can be attributed to the early language teaching. On the other hand, Mora, (2006) demonstrated that regarding oral fluency, late starters perform better than the early starters. The differences in these studies could be due to several factors originating from input conditions. For example, the length or extensive exposure to instruction time.
Achieving oral fluency while learning L2 language should be the goal of every person. Oral fluency can be described as the art of obtaining language proficiency through eloquence, smoothness, and ease of perception of speech (Saito et al., 2016). When an individual can be described as being orally fluent, she/he has to have L2 linguistic knowledge control and enhanced speed in which they understand and communicate the language. Since several factors influence the outcome, the study aimed to answer two questions.
(i) Whether the early starters are better compared to late starters regarding oral fluency
In the article, the writers used two groups of pupils (early and late starters) who underwent some tests based on fixed contents. The samples of the speech obtained from these groups were analyzed using PRAAT computer software which provides an accurate and dependable mechanisms of determining speech rate basing on the number of syllables spoken per unit time. Analyzation of the results was based on speech and articulation rate, mean of the syllable duration, and utterance length in seconds.
After carrying out the Mann-Whitney U-test analysis, it was found that in respect to word utterances, early starters produced fewer filled pauses and longer utterances as compared to the late starters (Brink, 2015). On the other hand, there were no significant differences regarding performance between these two groups.
(ii) The effect in which exposure to English outside the school influences oral fluency.
Exposure has a certain degree of influence to the oral fluency in the L2 language. The questionnaire offered to the pupils aimed to investigate the exposure regarding reading books, messages on the internet, and DVD watching without the subtitles. The weighted index on exposure was based on; email writing, magazine and book reading, playing of computer games, and letter and postcard writing.
After the regression analysis of the data, exposure the pupils encounter outside the school was shown to be a significant contributor to the oral fluency in both the early and late learners. The frequency of exposure is positively correlated to several other factors such as; phonation-time ratio, mean length of utterance in seconds and syllables, articulation and speech rate. Nevertheless, the exposure duration is negatively associated with other factors such as mean pause and syllable duration. The syllable duration of a pupil when speaking English is normally lowered after an exposure outside the school. In conclusion, it was found that exposure had a direct as well as strong influence on oral fluency for both the late and early starters.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Despite the advantages that the early starters have over their late counterparts, there is still hope for the late learners to catch up with them and be at the same level at the end of it all. The early starters find it easier to learn new languages and pronounce better since they have been using the same language for long and frequently. The degree of exposure outside the school largely influences the language proficiency and oral fluency. Therefore, teachers, parents, and the government should put appropriate measures which would encourage more out-of-class exposure. It would also be important to integrate programs such as out-of-school exposure to the normal English programs.
References
Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2008). The robustness of aptitude effects in near-native second language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 30(4), 481-509.
Birdsong, D. (2014). The Critical Period Hypothesis for second language acquisition: Tailoring the coat of many colors. In Essential topics in applied linguistics and multilingualism (pp. 43-50). Springer, Cham.
Brink, P. (2015). L2 Vocabulary Acquisition of Dutch Pupils in Group 8 (Grade 6): Differences Between Late and Early Starters (Master’s thesis).
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on oral fluency. Elt Journal, 71(3), 341-353.
Gardner, R. C. (2014). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. In Bilingualism, multiculturalism, and second language learning (pp. 63-84). Psychology Press.
Hakuta, K., Bialystok, E., & Wiley, E. (2003). Critical evidence: A test of the critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition. Psychological science, 14(1), 31-38.
Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (2014). An introduction to second language acquisition research. Routledge.
Llurda, E. (2016). ‘Native speakers,’ English and ELT. The Routledge handbook of English language teaching, 51.
Mora, J. C. (2006). Age effects on oral fluency development. Age and the rate of foreign language learning, 19, 65-88.
Muñoz, C. (2014). Contrasting effects of starting age and input on the oral performance of foreign language learners. Applied Linguistics, 35(4), 463-482.
Muñoz, C., & Singleton, D. (2011). A critical review of age-related research on L2 ultimate attainment. Language Teaching, 44(1), 1-35.
Paradis, J., & Jia, R. (2017). Bilingual children’s long?term outcomes in English as a second language: language environment factors shape individual differences in catching up with monolinguals. Developmental Science, 20(1).
Saito, K., Webb, S., Trofimovich, P., & Isaacs, T. (2016). Lexical profiles of comprehensible second language speech: The role of appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, and sense relations. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38(4), 677-701.
Unsworth, S., Persson, L., Prins, T., & De Bot, K. (2014). An investigation of factors affecting early foreign language learning in the Netherlands. Applied Linguistics, 36(5), 527-548.
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