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18INFLUENCE OF AGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Umida Sabirova https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10686995
Introduction
Several factors can affect language learning. They are motivation, aptitude, learning styles, personality, sex, learning strategies, and age. In my research, I want to find answers to some questions about the influence of age on second language acquisition. During the second language acquisition course, we have learned how age can influence SLA and got information from several resources about the Critical Period Hypothesis. Now I want to clarify from my study if the effect of age is so important in learning and teaching languages. What aspects of my learners should I deal more attention and which methods of teaching can be more beneficial according to their ages? From the materials we have studied, mainly, it is believed that younger learners can be more successful in this process. However, there are some cases showing proficiency levels even beginning learning a language later. I want to write about the critical period of second language acquisition comparing two of my learners' learning progress, beginning learning English from different ages.
Literature review
Long (1990) and Saville-Troike (2006) argue that language learners older than 15 years cannot acquire native-like fluency in second language acquisition. They believe that "some learners can achieve native-like proficiency, although they constitute a minority of second language learners" (Long, 1990, 89).
According to Slobin (1982), there is a sensitive period for language learners in childhood when they can acquire a second language better (as cited in Brown's article). Beyond this particular age successful acquisition of a second language is not possible because of some physiological brain changes (Kim et al., 1997).
Brown (2007) differentiated very young learners (4-6-year-olds) from pre-pubescent children (12-13-year-olds) and teenagers. Until the age of 15, they are all considered as children, however, their abilities and intellectual stages are different. Language teachers should take it into account when teaching them. Teenagers are more like adult learners than children and require special attention and strategy to teach them. So, we should not divide our learners before and after the age of 15 started language learner, but the particular age they began learning is also important. For instance, there would be a significant difference between the child who began learning at the age of 6 and the child who started at the age of 14. They both are considered as before puberty learners, but cannot be compared in success.
Mark Patkowski (1980) concluded his research on the relationship between an SLA and age hypothesizing the importance of the starting age not only for proficient fluency of a second language but for other linguistic features as morphology and syntax. His study showed that for achieving a full native-like mastery, second language learning must be begun as earlier as possible before the age of fifteen.
Lighbown and Spada (2013) mentioned different conditions while children and adults come across learning a second language. In addition to the Critical Period Hypothesis, the influence of environmental conditions is also should be considered while comparing adults and children learning. Children usually have more time and support from the beginning while adults are often criticized more severely and demanded to perform more proficiently. In this case, adults may feel demotivation and willingness to speak the target language. If older and younger learners
are taught in similar circumstances, adults are even better at learning because of their cognitive abilities like memory strategies, problem-solving skills, and metacognitive knowledge. They can compare their native language structures to the target language and cognitively instruct grammar rules.
Robert DeKeyser (2000) studied Hungarian immigrants to the USA according to the age of immigration. Participants took language aptitude tests in addition to the tests of grammatically. According to the aptitude test results, people who began learning English as an adult were more successful. From the results can be seen that adults and children have different advantages in the second language learning process.
Opposing results to the Critical Period Hypothesis were conducted by Snow and Hoefnagel (1978) based on research carried out in Holland. By the end of the yearly studies, adolescents and adults performed the highest levels showing the advantage of learning faster than children.
Learners' Profile
My first student is a girl named Shahrizoda. She is 12 years old now and English is a foreign language for her. Her parents do not speak English at all, however, her father studied English at school several years ago and may have a little vocabulary base at beginner level. Shahrizoda began attending my English classes from the age of 9 when she was in the 4th grade. However, she had English lessons from the first grade at school. Now she is still learning English at the intermediate level.
My next student is a teenager named Ismoil who is 16 years old. He started learning English attending my classes at the age of 14. In his family, there is nobody who can speak English. At school, they had English from the grade of 5 (at the age of 11) without any additional lessons. Now Ismoil also learning at his intermediate level, but there is a significant difference between him and Shahrizoda.
Research design
Both of my students have been learning English with me for more than two years, so I have not taken any tests as an initial knowledge checker. I interviewed them asking about the language learning period, the age when they began learning English, and the age at the time of the test. Interview questions are given in Appendix 1 below.
The next step was a grammar test taken from a particular grammar book which I usually use as the main resource in my lessons. The grammar test consisted of nine different grammar tasks. Some of them required completing and some of them could be chosen from the given items. The students were given 60 minutes to do the test. The test can be found in Appendix 2.
The third test was on reading comprehension. Students were given a short story to read in 20 minutes and answer multiple-choice questions based on the reading. There were 10 questions for checking participants' understanding of the passage. The story was taken from the book "Short stories reading comprehension 3." (Hill, 1994, pp. 33-34). The reading passage is in Appendix 3.
Data collection
The interview was administrated individually to the learners at school orally. I helped them with translation when they could not understand the questions and took notes on their answers. Shahrizoda began learning English from the first year at school while Ismoil had not had such an opportunity until he was in grade 5. Due to some changes in the educational system of Uzbekistan, English started to be taught from the first grade in 2015 and Shahrizoda started school this year at the age of 7 for her luck. When Ismoil started learning English he was already 12. Now Shahrizoda is 12 and Ismoil is 17 years old.
According to the results of the grammaticality test, Shahrizoda got 96% out of 100% when Ismoil did 79% out of 100%. Shahrizoda made a mistake with a definite article and three mistakes with tenses. Ismoil had some challenges with plural forms, pronouns, articles, prepositions, and tenses. The results can approve the existence of the Critical Period in second language learning, as Shahrizoda began learning English long before puberty and Ismoil started learning when he was already a teenager who was just below full maturation.
Furthermore, I have concluded that Shahrizoda could show higher results because she had more time to learn and practice, and better memory as an early beginner. However, Ismoil also managed to catch up with Shahrizoda in terms of level, as they are both learning from the same book and the same level, but he has less practice and vocabulary than Shahrizoda. He can understand grammar rules very well but lack of necessary vocabulary causes some challenges in translating and consequently he makes grammar mistakes with tenses and prepositions. Also, I want to mention that Shahrizoda was more self-confident while doing the test and she finished it before the time. I think it is the result of much practice and opportunity to do such tests several times. She got used to doing grammar tests and feels more comfortable.
Reading comprehension tests was easier for my students than grammar tests. Shahrizoda did answer all ten questions correctly and Ismoil did only 2 mistakes. It is connected with vocabulary range and shows that younger learners can remember more words for a longer period.
Moreover, in story reading readers can guess the meaning from the context and can be successful even without knowing the exact translation. That is why Ismoil was better in this type of test rather than the grammaticality test, I guess. When I ask Ismoil to learn vocabulary, he tries but he forgets them quickly. To remember them for a long time, we need to practice them a lot. So Shahrizoda's success is at this point, she had more time to practice and acquire the knowledge into real-life situations.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that the Critical Period exists and learners have more opportunities to acquire a second language if they start learning before puberty (Patkowski, 1980). In my case, both of my learners began learning English before the age of 15, but the earlier they begin, the better they can acquire. Age is one of the most influential factors in SLA but there are some other factors as motivation, attitude, personality, and learning styles that cannot be denied. In this paper, I considered my learners' progress from the point of the critical period, however, I believe there is plenty of influences of other factors too. In the future, I want to make some research on the factor of personality which can influence the language learning process no less than age.
Credits
During the long process of writing, my case study for the SLA key assessment I have practiced several theories connected read articles with my real classroom and students. As I am writing this kind of academic research paper for the first time, I had several difficulties and must thank Professor Sadikov for his support and advice. He is a model of a real professor with a great teaching and learning experience in ESL and EFL areas. I am very grateful to be taught by such educators.
REFERENCES
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2. DeKeyser, R. M. (2000). The robustness of critical period effects in second language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 22(4), (pp. 499-53).
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5. Lighbown, P.M. & Spada, N. (2013). Individual differences in second language learning. How Languages are Learned (3rd ed., pp. 75-100). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
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