Post-critical period age of arrival and its relationship to ultimate attainment in a second language
The effect of an individual's age of arrival in the second language community on her ultimate attainment in the target language has come under considerable scrutiny by Second Language Acquisition researchers in the last 25 years. However most research has focussed on comparisons of learners who arrive as children and those who arrive as adults, post-puberty. There is now a compelling body of empirical evidence that the former are much more likely than are adults to reach native levels both of performance (in phonology and syntax) and competence - that is to achieve a mental representation of the second language grammar that matches that of a native speaker. Nevertheless, many cases of successful language learning by adults are attested in the literature. Moreover not only exceptionally talented but also highly proficient adult learners reveal knowledge of the second language that cannot have been arrived at by deductive processes alone: access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar is clearly implicated. The purpose of this thesis is to attempt a synthesis of age studies with ultimate attainment studies by investigating the effect of age of arrival on learners' knowledge of English as an L2
Rice, Catherine Mary
Post-critical period age of arrival and its relationship to ultimate attainment in a second language. The effect of an individual's age of arrival in the second language community on her ultimate attainment in the target language has come under considerable scrutiny by Second Language Acquisition researchers in the last 25 years. However most research has focussed on comparisons of learners who arrive as children and those who arrive as adults, post-puberty. There is now a compelling body of empirical evidence that the former are much more likely than are adults to reach native levels both of performance (in phonology and syntax) and competence - that is to achieve a mental representation of the second language grammar that matches that of a native speaker. Nevertheless, many cases of successful language learning by adults are attested in the literature. Moreover not only exceptionally talented but also highly proficient adult learners reveal knowledge of the second language that cannot have been arrived at by deductive processes alone: access to the principles and parameters of Universal Grammar is clearly implicated. The purpose of this thesis is to attempt a synthesis of age studies with ultimate attainment studies by investigating the effect of age of arrival on learners' knowledge of English as an L2
post critical period age arrival relationship ultimate attainment second_language effect individual age arrival second_language community ultimate attainment target_language come considerable scrutiny second_language_acquisition researcher however focus comparison learner arrive child arrive adult post puberty compel body empirical_evidence former much likely adult reach native level performance phonology syntax competence achieve mental_representation second_language grammar match native_speaker nevertheless many_case successful language_learn adult attested literature moreover exceptionally also_highly adult_learner reveal knowledge second_language arrive deductive process alone access principle parameter universal_grammar clearly implicate purpose attempt synthesis age study ultimate attainment study_investigate effect age arrival learner knowledge english