The Critical Period Hypothesis reconsidered: Successful adult learners of Hungarian and English

Research has consistently shown there is a negative correlation between age of onset (AO) of acquisition and ultimate attainment (UA) of either pronunciation or grammar in a second language (L2). A few studies have indeed reported nativelike behavior in some postpuberty learners with respect to either phonetics/phonology or morphosyntax, a result that has sometimes been taken as evidence against the critical period hypothesis (CPH). However, in the few studies that have employed a wide range of linguistic tests and tasks, adult learners have not exhibited nativelike L2 proficiency across the board of measures, which, according to some, suggests that the hypothesis still holds. The present study investigated the relationship between AO and UA and the incidence of nativelikeness when measures of phonetic and grammatical intuition are combined. An additional aim was to investigate whether children and adults develop the L2 through fundamentally different brain mechanisms—namely, whether children acquire the language (more) implicitly as an interdependent whole, whereas adults learn it (more) explicitly as independent parts of a whole.

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The Reliability of Critical Period Hypothesis

International Research in Education ◽

10.5296/ire.v8i1.15525 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Zakaria Bziker

Keyword(s):

Adult Learners ◽

Critical Period ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Social Construct ◽

Critical Period Hypothesis ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Ultimate Attainment

This article is an attempt to examine the reliability of the Critical Period Hypothesis (Note 1) in light of subsequent studies. The high improbability of successful L2 acquisition among adults is the main point of strength that CPH enjoys. However, we have incidents of nativelikeness with individuals that began L2 acquisition years past the critical period (Note 2) in addition to supporting studies that show ultimate attainment among L2 learners is still possible. In this case do we still talk about a reliable hypothesis? This opens us to ponder whether CPH is purely biological or there are other social construct factors at play that help some L2 adult learners to attain nativelikness despite the high unlikelihood of its occurrence.

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The Critical Period Hypothesis for Language Acquisition and It's Implication for the Management of Communication Disorders

NSSLHA Journal ◽

10.1044/nsshla_20_25 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 25-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Sean Redmond

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Critical Period ◽

Communication Disorders ◽

Critical Period Hypothesis

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The critical period hypothesis: A diamond in the rough

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728918000147 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 915-916 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

ROBERT DEKEYSER

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Critical Period ◽

Age Effects ◽

Learning Capacity ◽

Signed Languages ◽

Critical Period Hypothesis ◽

L2 Learners ◽

Age Range

For several decades now, research on the acquisition of ASL and other signed languages has contributed to our understanding of language acquisition and of age effects in particular. A strong decline in learning capacity with age has been shown in numerous studies with ASL as L1, and the age range for this critical period phenomenon appears to be very similar to what has been observed in even more studies in L2 (for both spoken and signed languages). Mayberry and Kluender (Mayberry & Kluender) argue that the two phenomena are quite different, however, to such an extent that the concept of a critical period is not applicable to L2. Their two main arguments are that L2 learners are less affected by late acquisition than L1 learners and that some L2 studies have not shown the kind of discontinuity in the age-proficiency function that is predicted by the concept of a critical period. As space is very limited, I will limit my comments to these two issues.

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