Critical Period Hypothesis

WHAT IS CRITICAL PERIOD
HYPOTHESIS?
There is a period of growth in which full native competence is
possible when acquiring a language.
This period is from early childhood to adolescence.
Acquisition theories say that adults do not acquire languages as
well as children because of external and internal factors, not
because of a lack of ability.
Example:
Older learners rarely achieve a near-native accent. Many people
suggest this is due to them being beyond the critical period.
According to Catherine E. Snow and Marian,
The critical period hypothesis holds that

first language acquisition must occur
before cerebral lateralization is
complete, at about the age of puberty.
One prediction of this hypothesis is that

second language acquisition will be
relatively fast, successful, and
qualitatively similar to first language
only if it occurs before the age of puberty.
WHAT IS BRAIN
LATERALIZATION?
The term brain lateralization refers to the fact that the two halves of
the human brain are not exactly alike. Each hemisphere
has functional specializations: some function whose neural
mechanisms are localized primarily in one half of the brain.
In humans, the most obvious functional specialization is speech and

language abilities. In the mid-1800s, Paul Broca (a French
neurosurgeon) identified a particular area of the left hemisphere that
plays a primary role in speech production.
Shortly afterwards, a German neurologist, Carl Wernicke, identified

another part of the left hemisphere primarily concerned with
language comprehension.
THE CRITICAL PERIOD FOR LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION: EVIDENCE FROM SECOND
LANGUAGE LEARNING
The CPH also is the subject of long standing debate in
linguistics and language acquisition over the extent to
which the ability to acquire language is biologically
link to the age.
If language input does not occur until after this time
the individual will never achieve a full command of
language especially grammatical system.
The critical period hypothesis claim that an optimal
period of language is ending at puberty.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by
neurologist, Wilder Penfield and co author, Lamar
Roberts in 1959.
The main study is the neuroscience of language.
Wilder said that any child up to age 9 can learn

multiple languages.
It was then popularized by Eric Lenneberg in 1967
with his famous book Biological Foundations of
Language.
Eric said that children have certain amount of time to
acquire language and language acquisition is a
biologically constrained learning.
Another well known person who also supports the
critical period hypothesis would be Noam Chomsky.
He believes that children are born with an inherited
ability to learn any human language.
Every child has a language acquisition device (LAD)
which encodes the major principles of language and its
grammatical structures into the childs brain.
RELATIONSHIP OF CPH IN SLA
We have Johnson & Newport in 1989 who performed a study on 46
native Chinese and Korean speakers who arrived in the US between the
ages of 3 and 39 AND who lived in US between 3 and 26 years by the
time of testing to compare their English proficiency.
Tested on a wide variety of structures of English grammar, using a
grammaticality judgment task.
The results of testing show a clear and strong relationship between
age of acquisition and performance on the test of English grammar.
Test analyses demonstrated a clear & strong advantage for earlier
arrivals over the later arrivals.
Test performance was linearly related to age of arrival up to puberty.
After puberty performance was low but highly variable & unrelated to
age of arrival.
Critical period affects phonology, morphology and syntax AND not the
semantic and vocabulary processing in second language acquisition.
The critical period hypothesis states that the first few years of life is the
crucial time in which an individual can acquire a first language if presented
with adequate stimuli.
If language input does not occur until after this time, the individual will
never achieve a full command of languageespecially grammatical;
systems.
In second-language acquisition, the strongest empirical evidence for the
critical period hypothesis is in the study of accent, where most older
learners do not reach a native-like level.
However, under certain conditions, native-like accent has been observed,

suggesting that accent is affected by multiple factors, such
as identity and motivation, rather than a critical period biological constraint.
FURTHER SUPPORTIVE STUDIES
1. The story of Genie, a 13 year girl,
who was a victim of child abuse.
She has been kept strapped to a potty chair & wearing diapers.
She appeared to be entirely without language when she was found at her
age of 13.
Her father judged her retarded at birth and isolate her, and so till she was
found at the age of 13.

Linguist conducted an experiment on her and it was proved that she was
unable to acquire language completely & could only make infant like
sounds and no words and sentences.
2. Isabella under training and care
She is a girl who was incarcerated with her deaf mute mother until the
age of 6 years ( pre- pubescent).

She also had no language skills but unlike Genie, she quickly acquired
normal language abilities through systematic specialist training.

NEUROBIOLOGICAL
CONSIDERATION
The study of the function of the brain in the process of
acquisition is one of many promising areas of inquiry.
Walsh and Diller (1981) concluded that different aspects of a
second language are learned the best at different ages:
(1) Lower-order processes such as pronunciation are dependent
on early maturing and less adaptive macro neural circuits, which
makes foreign accents difficult to overcome after childhood.
(2) Higher-order language functions, such as semantic relations,
are more dependent on late maturing neural circuits.
PHONOLOGICAL
CONSIDERATIONS
Given the existence of several hundred muscles
(throat, larynx, mouth, lips, tongue, etc) that are used
in the articulation of human speech, a tremendous
degree of muscular control is required to achieve the
fluency of a native speaker of a language.
Control of some complex sounds in certain languages
is sometimes not achieved until after age five (e.g. in
English, the r and l are typical).
Research on the acquisition of authentic control of the
phonology of a foreign language supports the notion of
a critical period.
Most of the evidence indicates that persons beyond the
age of puberty do not acquire an authentic (native
speaker) pronunciation of the second language.
There are special people who possess the ability to
override neurobiological critical period effects and to

achieve a almost perfect native like pronunciation of a
foreign language.
But in terms of statistics, it is clear that the chances of
any individual commencing a second language after
puberty and achieving a scientifically verifiable
authentic native accent are extremely small.
PSYCHOMOTOR
CONSIDERATIONS
Problems in accent studies
- native judgement
- testing isolated utterances,
controlled language
Key issue: accent
- depends on muscular plasticity, subject to CP
AFFECTIVE CONSIDERATIONS
Attitudes, beliefs, stereotypes.
Inhibition
egocentrism decentration defending ego

LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATION
Bilingualism
- coordinate vs. Compound
Sources:
http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html
https://
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/critical-period-hypothe
sis
https://www.jstor.org
https://
www.slideshare.net/pokray/critical-period-hypothesis-2?
from_m_app=android
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What is the critical period hypothesis?

What is brain lateralization?

WHAT IS CRITICAL PERIOD

The critical period hypothesis holds that

One prediction of this hypothesis is that

In humans, the most obvious functional specialization is speech and

Shortly afterwards, a German neurologist, Carl Wernicke, identified

Wilder said that any child up to age 9 can learn

However, under certain conditions, native-like accent has been observed,

found at the age of 13.

age of 6 years ( pre- pubescent).

normal language abilities through systematic specialist training.

override neurobiological critical period effects and to

egocentrism decentration defending ego

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