The Critical Period Hypothesis

1. The Critical Period Hypothesis

2. Definition A maturational period during which some experience will have its peak effect on development or learning resulting in normal behaviour attuned to the particular environment the organism has been exposed to. If exposure to this experience happens after this time, it will only have reduced or no effect. (Newport)

3. Critical period or critical periods? The basic claim - strong and weak versions Evidence - feral children - child aphasia - deaf speakers and signers - L2 learning and acquisition

4. Evidence from the deaf: Chelsea • Retareded or deaf? • Hearing aid, normal capacity • IQ = 10 year old • Works at a vet’s, reads, writes, communicates • Strings of words, no syntactic structure • Utterances comprehensible in context

5. Evidence from sign language • Native – clear advantage in the use of grammatical markers • Early starters • Late starters

6. Evidence from neurology • Medical evidence: childhood aphasia • Right hemisphere compensates for language capacity in childhood • No such compensation in adulthood • Controversial evidence for normal exposure and brain capacity

7. Processing L1 and L2 • L1 in both moniolinguals and bilinguals shows strong left hemisphere control • In later learners (even after 7) the active brain regions processing L2 and partially or completely non-overlapping with L1 areas • Neural organisation in late L2 is also less lateralisaed (more strategic control!!)

8. Onset of L1 has great influence, onset of L2 doesn’t • Even overhearing a language, but not speaking or using it or hearing it again can reult in native like control later in life

9. Feral children • Socialising, teaching and observing • Problems - ethical experiments? - teacher=researcher bias - relation between lack of language and mental + social retardation

10. Wild Peter (13/1724)Victor (11/1800)Kaspar Houser (16/1828)Kamala and Amala (18m., 8/1920)

11. Genie • Found: 13/1970 • Severe social isolation • Thought to be mentally retarded • Punished for speech • 20 words, colours,”stoppit”, „nomore”

12. Research and socialisation • Taken into care • The first year: HOPE • plural and singular nouns, • positive and negative sentences • 2/3-word sentences.

13. Later: slow-down • Four years later • No negation • 'No' + V + Object • No proper questions "Where is may I have a penny?" "I where is graham cracker on top shelf?"

14. Chomsky- no 'movement‘( reorganise the underlying declarative sentence) • Confused her pronouns, 'you' and 'me' interchangeable • 'Hello‘, 'Thank you‘ • 'Stopit‘, 'Nomore' addressed to herself

15. Achievements • Sign language • Making sense of chaos • Spatial intelligence • Social relations • No apparent mental retardation

16. Support for CPH? • Severe neglect and emotional trauma • Possibility of mental retardation • Right-hemisphere dominance • Language not lateralised to left-hemisphere: cause or result?

17. Conclusion • Is there a CPH in FLA? • Clear neurological evidence (compensation) • Suggestive evidence from the deaf • Feral children - inconclusive

18. Critical Period Hypothesis in second language learning and acquisition

19. CPH in SLL/SLA: Weak version • Neurological • Psychomotor • Cognitive • Affective • Linguistic • Contextual

20. Neurological considerations • Lateralisation • Time - Lenneberg: 2-puberty - Krashen: 5 - Walsh & Diller: different timetables for different functions

21. Alternative considerations and counterevidence • Left/Right cooperation in SLA Obler (1981): strategies of acquisition, guessing meaning, formulaic utterances

22. Scovel: socio-biological basis for accent in Western middle-class societies

23. Hill (1970), Sorenson (1967): multilingual tribes, no accent

24. Psychomotor considerations • Problems in accent studies -native judgement - testing isolated utterances, controlled language • Key issue: accent -depends on muscular plasticity, subject to CP - the Henry Kissinger effect - significance? ELF

25. Cognitive considerations • Piaget, 1972 - sharp change from concrete to formal operation at puberty

26. A watched pot never boils? • Equilibrium • Superior cognitive capacity in adults (Ausubel, 1964) - a watched pot never boils? • Rote and meaningful learning

27. Rosansky, 1975: „Problem-centred learning” of children

28. Csíkszentmihályi’s Flow

29. Affective considerations • Attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes, • Inhibition egocentrism – decentration – defending ego

30. Motivation - internal - external - integrative - instrumental

31. Identity (Guiora) - face threat - second identity - language ego - permeability of language ego

32. Bilingualism - coordinate vs. compound Linguistic considerations

33. similar mistakes in acquisition acquisition order (Dulay and Burt, 1974) transfer is rare, creative language acquisition adults rely more on system of L1 Strategies and processes in child L1 and L2 acquisition similar

34. Context • Learning vs. acquisition • Input (motherese vs. foreigner talk) • Peer pressure and group dynamics

35. Benefits for young learners in instructed FLL - Accent (esp. with native speaker) - Acquisition (if rooted in activity and ample time and + atmosphere available) - Low inhibition, communicating in L2: natural - Natural curiosity - Little L1 influence - No preconceptions about language and culture

36. Drawbacks • No (recognition of) communicative need • No reliance on reading/writing • No formal operation • Difficult to reproduce a rich „here and now” context in classroom • Emergence of speech is to be tolerated • Difficult to demonstrate a sense of progress • Highly context and person dependent

37. Benefits for adults in instructed FLL • Formal operation: grammar, vocabulary • Learn through explanation (no exposure) • L1 • Previous learning strategies • Controlled motivation, goal orientation • Not strongly context dependent • Experience, beliefs might create + attitude • Faster development, better use of instructional time

38. Drawbacks • Too much reliance on the rational mind • Monitoring • Low tolerance of ambiguity • No or little involvement of affect • Inhibitions, L2 ego • Previous experience, attitudes • Accent • L1, L2, etc.