Age, Rate and Eventual Attainment in Second Language Acquisition

Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are learned. The avenue of socialization is crucial in learning a second language. When natural conversations occur with native and non-native speakers, a natural

Judie Haynes’ article, “Stages of Second Language Acquisition”, clearly states five stages that a new learner of English may go through. In Haynes’ theory, there are five stages in total, and they are pre-production, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. According to Haynes, new learners of English acquire language by going through the same stages. However, how much time each student spends at a particular stage may be different. Despite the different time length, the stages of people acquiring new language are worth discussing.

* support structures for learning and language development at home and at school (NALDIC, 1999)

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Since, the second language is an additional language after we acquire the first language, the L2 learning process can be influenced by the L1 learning process This essay will demonstrate the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 acquisition by discussing various theories. Then, draw a conclusion based on the evidence provided and my own experience.

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Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided

Acquiring the first language is much easier than acquiring any second language as it comes “naturally” after birth. The child passes through different stages before acquiring the language till he masters it. Children follow a predictive language development through their language acquisition but it can vary from a child to another according to the external surroundings especially in the early stages.

An older starter’s exposure to a second language will likely be mostly classroom based and acquired in a more structured and explicit way, e.g. night classes, language courses etc. In this case, then, their L2 input will be a lot more limited than that of a younger immigrant and it will probably take them longer to become proficient. There is also the idea that some individuals may have access to more natural input than others depending on their area of work. What this means is that some individuals may be employed in jobs that require a lot more interaction in their target language than other fields of work. Compare, for example, the exposure an immigrant whose job involves working as a personal assistant will have access to, versus the input of L2 work as a cleaner may entail. The two jobs provide different levels of interaction, and as such, some individuals may progress in their second language at a faster rate than other depending on their field of work. This idea is supported by the statement that immigrants are ‘exposed to qualitatively and quantitatively different samples of the new language’ (Hakuta, Bialystok and Wiley, 2003:31).

Abstract: In second language acquisition, age factors has always been the study focus and one of the most controversial issues of linguistics. Based on the Brain Plasticity Theory and the Critical Period Hypothesis, the purpose is to prove such a hypothesis that the younger the leaner who begins to learn an second language,the greater the probability that he or she will achieve a native-like command of it.