Children vs. adults in second-language learning

Psycholinguistic

Daniela VillelaIngrid BurgosMaria LopezMarilyn RodriguezSenovia Alvarado

Children vs. Adults in second-language learning

Children are better: A Common Belief

Factors involved in second-language acquistion can be divided into two categories:

Psychological

Social

Basic psychological factors affecting second-language

Intellectual Processing

• Explication:

Is the process whereby the rules and structures of the second language are explained to a learner.

• Induction:

Learning rules by self-discovery is the essence of this process.

Intellectual Processing

• Memory:

Learning and memory are both creative processes. When memorizing new pieces of information, you form connections between disparate acts to create something new.

Syntax learning and episodic memory

Children’s memory ability

Children under 7 years display a phenomenal ability at rote memorization. Older children, however, do not, with some decline beginning around 8 years of age and with more of a decline from about 12 years of age.

Older children begin to apply their cognitive abilities in analyzing the syntactic rules of the second language while younger children relie more heavily on their use of rote memory for language learning.

Motor skills

Articulators of speech

The creation of speech sounds is related to the ability to control the muscles that manipulate the organs of speech. Motor Skills is a term that psychologists use to describe the use of muscles in performing certain skills, from general ones like walking to fine ones like writing and speech.

Decline in ability for new articulations

Decline in general motor skills

As we age and as our ability to acquire new motor skills declines, our ability to command our articulators of speech is negatively affected.

somewhere around the age of 12 years, the ability to acquire new motor skills begins to decline.

Important psychological and social factors affecting secondlanguage learning for children and adults

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Attitude

Motivation

And

A negative attitude towards the target language or its speakers, or the other members of the class, may also affect one’s determination and persistence to be involved in the classroom and its activities

An older child of 4 or 5 years, however, may need motivation in order to learn a second language since by that age the child may be aware of whether a language is positively or negatively regarded by others, or the child may prefer other activities.

Social situations affecting second-language learning

Classroom situation involves the social situation of the school

The community context allows students to have access to a natural situation outside of the class and thereby supplement their classroom learning.

The natural situation in which a second language is learned is one that is similar to that in which the first language is learned.

The natural situation

A natural situation for second-language learning is one where the second language is experienced in a situation that is similar to that in which the native language is learned. That is, language is experienced in conjunction with the objects, situations, and events of everyday life.

The Classroom Situation

The classroom is isolated from other social life

Learning Language as part of a group and not as an individual

Who is better? Children or adults?

-In a natural situation

-In a classroom situation

English as a Foreign Language (EFL)

English as a Second Language (ESL)

VS

ESL context provides more language-learning opportunities for the second-language learner.

EFL context where they can apply their superior cognitive for learning in the classroom situation.

Is there a critical age for second-language learning?

Adults can learn a second language

Critical age for pronunciation

Is it possible to learn a second language so well that one truly sounds like a native speaker? Thomas Scovel, has claimed that no adult can ever be successful in that regard. ‘The critical period for accentless speech simply means that adults will never learn to pass themselves off as native speakers phonologically . . . ’ (Scovel, 1988)

As far as adult second-language learning is concerned, we have the common observation that a very great number of adults do, in fact, learn the syntax of other languages perfectly. There are those who speak second languages so well that, on the basis of the grammar alone, they would be judged native speakers.

early exposure to language, no matter wheter spoken or signed, contributed the most to later success in learning a second language

Mayberry and Lock (2003)

L1

EFL

L2

Thanks!

ESL