AGE AS AN IMPORTANT FACTOR AFFECTING THE PROCESS

OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Aria Septi Anggaira

E-mail: ariasepti@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT: Second language (L2) learners are different. They learn with different speed and different
results. There are many explanations for that issue. The general factors that influence second language
learning are: age, aptitude and intelligence, cognitive style, attitudes, motivation and personality. The aim
of this article is to present age as one of the internal factor and its contribution to success or failure in
language learning.

Key Words: Age, internal factor, second languge acquisition

Learner is affected by many factors in the second language acquisition process. The
level of cognitive development, socio-economic and cultural background, and the ability
to acquire a language, age, and motivation of the learner’s can be expressed as the
factors affecting second language acquisition. The competency of a learner’s in his or
her first language has a direct relationship with his or her age. Schooling and cognitive
development are the other factors affecting the second language acquisition. In
researches and studies made on second language acquisition, the learners who
completed their first language acquisition have been found more successful in second
language acquisition.
Learners’ age has been identified by researchers – no matter whether their
particular orientation is theoretical or applied – as one of the crucial issues in the area of
second language (L2) acquisition. . A learner’s age is one of the important factors
affecting the process of second language acquisition. Collier (1988), expresses that
successful language acquisition depends on the learner’s age. It is generally believed
that younger learners have certain advantages over older learners in language learning.
The common notion is that younger children learn L2 easily and quickly in comparison
to older children (Ellis, 2008; Larsen-Freeman, 2008; Mayberry & Lock, 2003).

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) refers to the study of how students learn a
second language (L2) additionally to their first language (L1). Although it is referred as
Second Language Acquisition, it is the process of learning any language after the first
language whether it is the second, third or fourth language. Therefore, any other
language apart from the first language is called a second language (SL) or also referred
to as a target language (TL). To distinguish between Second Language and Foreign
Language, The Collins Dictionary defines Second Language as the language that a
person learns after his or her native language and Foreign Language as a language that
is used in a country other than one’s native country (2013). There are different ways to
acquire second or foreign languages.
Second language acquisition is concerned with the study of the way in which an
individual becomes able to use one or more language different from his first language.
This process can take place in a natural setting or through formal classroom instruction,
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and, although the degree of proficiency that can be attained is a controversial topic, it
can start at childhood or during the adult age (Krashen, 1982). It can be in a formal way
as in a classroom environment or informal way such as when the learner picks up the
language by being culturally active participant of the society. This can be done by
attending school in the target country, watching local television, listening to radio
or/and reading newspapers in L2. By being actively involved in the learning
environment, the learner is constantly in contact with the target language through
normal daily routines.
Second-language (L2) acquisition is generally thought to be constrained by
maturational factors that circumscribe a critical period for nativelike attainment.
Consistent with the maturational view are age effects among learners who begin L2
acquisition prior to, but not after, closure of the putative critical period. Also favoring
the maturational account is the scarcity of late L2 learners at asymptote who perform
like natives, and weak effects of native language–target language pairings.

AGE
Age is one of the factors that influence second language learning. It is generally
believed that children are better at languages than adults. However, only the studies
conducted in naturalistic learning settings provide the evidence that supports this
assumption. Researchers have proved that learners who start learning a foreign language
as children achieve a more native-like accent than those who start as adolescents or
adults (Oyama 1976; Asher and Garcia 1969) and they are also better in the acquisition
of grammar (Patkowski 1980; 1990). On the other hand, the research carried out in
formal learning environments give the opposite results. In the case of classroom
learning adults appear to be better both in syntax and morphology, while adolescents are
the best (Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle 1978; Fathman 1975) and they also progress
faster. The studies concerning the age factor were summarised by Ellis (1985) who
states that the route of SLA is not influenced by the starting age, but there is a
relationship between the rate of learning and the age of the learners.
Young learners grow and, at different stages, develop a set of cognitive,
emotional, physical and social characteristics that are essential in order to orient the L2
teaching and understand their learning. The popular belief that children learn an L2 in
the early years with ease has been maintained for many years. The belief that young
learners are better at learning languages than adults is supported by the critical period
hypothesis (Penfield and Roberts 1959, Andersson 1960, Lenneberg 1967). This
hypothesis states that the early years before puberty offer the most favourable stage for
L2 learning to take place naturally and with ease. After this span of years this capacity
decreases. Lenneberg posited a lower bound for that period at the age of 2 and an upper
bound around puberty. This separated pre-puberty learners from post-puberty learners
and hypothesized that while the former will unfailingly be successful, the latter will –
with only very rare exceptions – attain native-like proficiency (Bley-Vroman 1989). In
contrast, the influence of age on L2 acquisition in a foreign language setting has not
attracted the same degree of attention and research findings have not appeared to be so
consistent. Nevertheless, the advantages of an early start observed in a natural setting
have been influential for educational decisions concerning the optimum time for
students to embark on foreign language learning in schools. In fact, the general opinion
concerning the age at which children should begin learning a foreign language in
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schools is strongly influenced by findings obtained in naturalistic language learning
settings.
For Lenneberg (1967), the years before puberty are also considered a biologically
active period of language development. This ability deteriorates after puberty when the
brain's left and right hemispheres have developed specialized functions. Later works
have proved that lateralization and the ability to acquire a second language completely
are not related, questioning thus the neurological basis of the critical period hypothesis
(Krashen 1982).
Nevertheless, an early start does not guarantee success if the teaching and learning
processes are not adequate. As Gleeson and Stevenson have pointed out
(1994),"beginning at 8 years of age does not seem to hold the perfect solution per se nor
necessarily result in more proficiency or in speedier learning" if the teaching process is
poor, unsuitable and inappropriate. Their research work proves that the proficiency level
of some students that had studied English for 13 years was similar to others' with 6
months intensive tuition and a month holiday in England So it is clear that the starting
age is important, but the type of tuition, the environment, opportunities to interact with
natives and other external factors are also fundamental.

AGE AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

There is some consensus among SLA researchers that age as an affective factor
that brings about different performance stages in second language learning. Most
experts also agree that individual learners learn differently depending on many variables
like learning opportunities, the motivation to learn, individual differences and learning
styles in second language acquisition.
Age is one of the most important affective factors in Second Language
Acquisition (SLA). SLA theories and research have explained the impact of age in
second language acquisition. Some researchers have focused on the view that the
younger learners as the better learners whereas others opine the older learners as the
better learners. However, there are different perspectives on how the children and adults
learn a foreign or second language. Adults naturally find themselves in such situations
that demand more complex language and expression of more complicated ideas whereas
children lack pressure and maturity in second language learning. David Singleton
(1998) offered a number of proposals related to age and second language acquisition.
The most popular notions are “the younger =the better” and “the older =the better” He,
on the basis of revious studies and research on age factor, focused on learners’
pronunciation skill and other linguistics features.
There are a number of research to support “the younger the better” hypothesis.
Yamanda et al. (Singleton, 1998) studied 30 Japanese elementary school pupils of seven
to ten ages old. These students did not have any previous experience of English. The
researchers used a list of 40 English words and recorded the rate of success of the
students. Their finding was that more than average older learners decreased with age i.e.
the older the age the lower the score.
The Lenneburgian notion of CPH that puberty as a milestone for SLA has been
reversed by the other researchers. Carroll (1963) suggested that the ability to acquire a
native like accent declines toward puberty. Ekstrand (1982) carried out a research on
age and length of residence of 2400 Swedish pupils. The test consisted of six areas
including pronunciation, diction, listening, reading, oral and written production.
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Ekstrand grouped the total population into 26 categories according to third month of
year of birth and observed effects of age and effects of length of residence in the process
of second language. He found that language learning ability goes almost linearly with
age. He also noticed that social and emotional adjustment did not seem to be related to
age. He deduced that age was strongly correlated with grade levels because quality and
quantity of instruction was an important factor in second language learning. For
Ekstrand, the more developed the brain was, the better it was suited for second language
learning.
The second strong hypothesis is that older learners are more successful that than
younger language learners in SLA. This notion was highly supported by a number of
short term experimental researchers. These studies and research were based on teaching
projects and second language immersion programs. Some of these studies have
highlighted adolescents and adults of different ages where results have indicated that the
older learners are far better than the younger ones. In 1967 Ashor and Price (Singleton,
1998) have carried out an experiment with 96 students from the second, fourth and
eighth grades of a school and 37 undergraduate students from a college. The subjects
did not have any previous knowledge of Russian, the targeted language. After three
short trainings conducted in Russian language, the results showed that the eight graders
performed significantly better than the second graders and the fourth graders. They also
noticed a consistently positive relationship with advancing age because of above
average mental ability of the adults.
Politzer and Weiss (Singleton, 1998) have conducted another study in which they
found that an advantage of SLA for older learners than younger ones. Their subjects
were second, fifth, seventh and ninth graders. The experimental procedures were
consisted of an auditory discrimination test, a pronunciation test and a reading test
among 257 pupils. They recorded a gradual improvement of scores with an increase age
in all three tests.
Krashen et al. (1979) claim that:
(1) Adults proceed through early stages of syntactic and morphological development
faster than children (where time and exposure are held constant).
(2) Older children acquire faster than younger children (again, in early stages of
syntactic and morphological development where time and exposure are held
constant).
(3) Acquirers who begin natural exposure to second languages during childhood
generally achieve higher second language proficiency than those beginning as
adults. (p.161).

There seems to be no clear evidence that can without a doubt conclude that
children learning an L2 will outperform older language learners in the long run.
Summing up, age is one of the characteristics that determine the way in which an
individual learns second language. Age is highly associated with critical period in many
research studies. There are a number of controversial issues related to second language
acquisition and critical period hypothesis. As Singleton (2005) has predicted, a
multiplicity of CPs, “like mythical hydra, whose multiplicity of heads and capacity to
produce new heads rendered it impossible to deal with”. He declares the end of critical
period. Some researchers limited the CP between perinatality and puberty, while the
others extended it after the puberty. In the realm of pedagogy, the researchers have
advocated CPH into two main categories—the younger the better and the older the
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better. A group of researchers including Singleton, Yamanda et al., Carroll and et al,
and Patkowski believed that the young learners have higher learning potentiality than
the adults whereas Asher and Price, Politzer and Weiss opined the opposite.
The young learners are considered fluent in communication of the second
language and achieve native like accent. Learners after the age of puberty do not acquire
native like accent of a second language but have complex learning pattern. Children and
adults L2 learners pass through different developmental states in second language
learning. Learning depends on the cognitive maturity and neurological factors. Julia
VanSickle and Sarah Ferris (2005) have shown the relation between age and second
language acquisition as, “One of the dangers of the emphasis on critical periods is that it
prompts us to pay too much attention to when learning occurs and too little attention to
how learning might best occur” Age is not everything in second language learning.
However, factors related to the age, for example the learning opportunities, the
motivation to learn, individual differences, and learning styles, are also important
determining variables that affect the rate of second language learning in various
developmental stages of the learners.

CONCLUSION
The success in second language acquisition depends on many factors. Age factor
is among the most important ones. If a learner has a competency in his or her own
language, he or she is more advantageous than those who have not completed his first
language.

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