Introduction

Is there really an ideal age at which second language learning should begin? Is there
only a slim chance for an adult learner to master a second language? These thought-
provoking questions arising from the Critical Period Hypothesis, as well as the
interesting phenomena relating to the hypothesis that occurred during my life as a
teacher make it the focus of discussion of the essay.

The Critical Period Hypothesis: A highly debatable issue

One prominent proponent of the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) was Eric Lenneberg
(1967), who based his hypothesis on neurological development. He explained that there
is a maturation process called cerebral lateralization, during which the brain loses its
plasticity as it gradually matures.

This process, starts at around two, is supposed to be completed at puberty, after which
it is very difficult or even impossible for a learner to successfully acquire a new language.
The CPH has been widely discussed in the area of second language acquisition (SLA)
and has aroused much controversy.

The CPH is most closely linked to the acquisition of the phonological system. As put
forward by Scovel (1988), it is not possible for learners beyond the age of 12 to attain a
native-like pronunciation though they might be able to master the syntax and
vocabulary of a second language.

A similar view regarding phonological attainment was propounded by Flege and

Fletcher (1992, p.385). They concluded from their studies that ‘a foreign accent first
emerges at an age of L2 learning of between 5 and 8 years’, which probably implies, in
the domain of phonology, that the ‘critical period’ ends even earlier than what
Lenneberg proposed. This coincides with later studies conducted by Krashen (1973),
who claimed that lateralization is completed at around age 5.

Mark Patkowski (1980) conducted a study on how the age factor is related to the
acquisition of linguistic features other than accent. The findings further supported the
CPH as the results indicated that the age factor is very important in a sense that it limits
the learner’s development of a native-like mastery of various linguistic features of a
second language. Jacquline Johnson and Elissa Newport (1989) also carried out a study
relating to the rules of English morphology and syntax and found that those earliest
starters got the highest scores on the grammaticality judgement test.
Despite some clear evidence that supports the CPH, a remarkable research undertaken
by Catherine Snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Ho_hle (1978) provided evidence against it.
The findings revealed that both adolescent and adult learners could surpass the children
learners by making enormous and rapid progress in a wide range of language
knowledge. White and Genesee (1996) also revealed in a grammaticality judgement task
that late starters are able to achieve near-native proficiency.

Robert Dekeyser (2000) done something along the line of Johnson and Newport and
found that adult and children might have different way in learning language.

Insights gained from the CPH: A Self-reflection

Taking into account what I have explored from the literature review, I do believe that the
evidence for CPH is somewhat mixed, especially when I reflected upon the L2 learners I
taught in a secondary school in Hong Kong. In all my years of teaching, I have had a
chance to teach a fairly large number of L2 learners who are immigrants from the
Mainland. They are of diverse backgrounds in terms of age, gender, financial condition,
etc.

Very importantly, not all of them started learning English at the same age. There are a
few cases which impressed me most. Two girls who first came to Hong Kong at the age
of 17 joined my S4 class. Both of them started learning English at the age of around 12
when they were in the mainland. What was so remarkable was that both of them could
write very fluently with highly accurate grammar and a variety of sentence patterns.
Their performance in writing and reading even surpassed their local counterparts who
started taking up English in kindergarten.

This can somewhat be taken as counter-evidence to the CPH. Both girls revealed that
they had an extraordinary strong motivation to improve their English and to catch up
with their classmates. These social-psychological factors did play a part in their success
of L2 acquisition. As discussed in Lightbown (2006), learners beginning at primary school
level might not have an absolute advantage over adolescent learners in attaining greater
proficiency in the long run.

This is especially true when learners, confining to a classroom setting, receive just a few
hours of training every week. Interesting enough, despite extra tutorials to improve the
girls’ oral skills, they carried a rather strong foreign accent. In fact, they do speak
Cantonese (a different dialect) with an accent, let alone English, a language which is far
different from their mother tongue. This seems to support findings demonstrating that it
is very unlikely for late starters to attain native-like pronunciation.
Conclusion

As an experienced and sensible teacher, I believe that one should not constrain
ourselves too much in any one of the theories or models. If a teacher is a true believer of
the CPH, it would somehow affect their expectation on their students who are beyond
the puberty period. This in turn would also lead to a lower expectation of the students
themselves even though they are not aware of the fact that their teachers assume that
they have already gone beyond the optimal period of learning a second language.

Instead we should be flexible and reflective enough to cater to our learners’ needs and
facilitate their learning regardless of their age. Though I am convinced that the age
factor does play a part in affecting SLA, I concern more in how I could adjust my
teaching methods to suit the needs of learners at different ages.

It is no doubt that the hypothesis should not be oversimplified and overgeneralized and
to be indiscriminately applied to our students because second language learning is a
really complicated process in which a lot of factors can be intermingled to affect how
successfully a person can learn a second language.

To conclude, there has been no overwhelming evidence showing that young learners
have absolute superiority over their adult counterparts. Despite the difference in the
research findings, there seems to be a general consensus that there are a number of
factors interacting to affect SLA, and it is possible that late learners might achieve
success in SLA, most likely via a different route from children learners, as discussed by
Krashen (1975); (Dekeyser 2000). I believe it is also due to this reason that a lot of other
factors cognitive, psycholinguistic and socio-cultural that come into place as to how a
learner acquire a second language.

References

Lightbown, P. & Spada, N. (1993). How Languages Are Learned. Oxford University Press

Robertson, P. (2002) The Critical Age Hypothiseis, The Asian EFL Journal (On-Line)
http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/marcharticles_pr.php

Flege, J.E. and Fletcher, K.L. 1992, talker and listener effects on degree of perceived
foreign accent. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 91, 370-89.

Daniels, D. and Moos, R.H. (1990). Assessing Life Stressors and Social Resources among
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Erikson, Erik H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Hall, J.A. (1987). Parent-Adolescent Conflict. An Empirical Review. Adolescent, 22, 767-
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Ormrod, J.E. (2000). Educational psychology: developing learners (3rd ed.). London:
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Rice, F.P. (1993). The adolescent: Development, relationships, and culture (7th ed.).
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The concept of critical period was initially introduced by Wilder Penfield and Lamar
Roberts (1959). As summed up by Hong and Morgan (2005), they proposed that the
relatively higher plasticity of a child’s brain, as compared to that of an adult, enables a
child to learn a language more easily.