brief opinion about the paper format, explanation of how the paper discribe the article that it trying to resume? on what need to improve
In the article, “The Robustness of Critical Period Effects in Second Language
Acquisition” written by Robert DeKeyser there are different hypotheses being tested and
analyzed. In order to summarize the basis of this journal article we must first discuss the value
and understanding of the hypothesis tested.
The hypothesis being tested has a wide range of theories and analyses on language
acquisition learning. For example, “Critical Period Hypothesis” (pg.500) is the theory that once
an individual past a certain age they no longer can obtain the acquisition of learning an L2 to the
best of their ability. Alongside with the Critical Period Hypothesis, the article also discusses the
“Fundamental Difference Hypothesis” (pg.500) which states that the natural learning of L1 in
natives is fundamentally different compared to language acquisition in nonnative adults. The
prediction for the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis that the author, DeKeyser, tries to argue is
that unless the adults learning the language have strong, “…strong verbal ability…” (pg.500)
would not be able to succeed in L2 language understanding. Meaning that the adults would have
to have skillful knowledge, comprehension, and exquisite communication in order to learn their
second language to a certain degree.
The three main hypothesis being tested by DeKeyser are: (1) the correlation between age
and score on a grammatical judgment test (pg.512), (2) no adults would be graded close to the
children being tested without high verbal ability, and (3) age arrivals in region of language.
Generally the prediction of the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis is that adult
acquisitions can be successful in grammatical competence close to native learnings if they use
proper problem-solving skills, and logical reasoning in adulthood since they do not have the
brain resources as they did as a child. Along with those predictions, the other structures and
variables that are available for investigation are the role of verbal aptitude and how attitude are
the predictors of subconscious acquisition with conscious learning (pg. 506). In the participant
study, the variables were socioeconomic status, gender, age, education and age of arrival for
individuals learning L2 in that specific area, to see if the participants are affected by the
variables.
The linguistic structure being examined is the grammatically judgment test that involves
past-tense, irregular verbs, particle movements, gender errors, pronominalization, determinators,
present progressive, third-person singular, plural, word-order, wh-questions..etc.
In a study where the population consisted of fifty-seven native speakers of Hungarian
were tested and all that were tested had been in the United States for at least 10 years, the ages
ranged from 43-60 years old, the socioeconomic status ranged from blue-collar workers to
individuals with doctoral degrees. After a background questionnaire was conducted on the
participants, the methods used to collect the data by a native English male-speaker recorded the
200 items from the grammaticality judgment test. The systematically prepared 20-minute test
was conducted to indicate if the items were correct or wrong, and was generated through a
computer processor. Some examples of the stimuli were:
Past Tense
JN John sing for the church choir yesterday.*
JN John sang for the church choir yesterday
Third-person -s marked on main verb after modals (TPSM).
DK Mary will goes to Europe next year.*
DK Mary will go to Europe next year.
Gender errors (PRGE).
JN The girl cut himself on a piece of glass.*
JN The girl cut herself on a piece of glass.
After the study was completed the most crucial part of the test was found to be that
between 0-20 age of arrival scored higher on the tests than 40-50 age of arrivals, while 20-40
averaged out, meaning that the age of arrival did not affect aptitude scores.
In conclusion, the hypothesis that correlates and supports best with the experiment is
hypothesis one. The reason for this is because the hypothesis states that there is a negative
connection between the judgment test and age of arrival, “…strong negative correlation between
age of acquisition and score on the grammaticality judgment test was confirmed. A correlation of
??.63 was found, which is similar to the ??.77 reported by Johnson and New-port (1989)”
(pg.512). The other hypotheses indicate that the age of arrival has a crucial impact on the test
scores or that “no adults acquirers would score within the range of child acquirers unless they
had high verbal aptitude” (pg. 514) which is not what the study has shown.
The question that still remains unanswered is how acquisition of language learning is
affected by stress, and substance abuse. Certain people in the wrong mindset can have no mental
capacity to continue learning a language, or even new skills when they are under a tremendous
amount of stress. It is not an easy task at hand conducting an experiment with the elements of
stress levels, substances, medication…etc. In our daily lives you can notice that people with
many children have high stress levels and do not have time or the space in their brain to obtain
more information, like a new language. Substances come into the equation when stress levels are
so high, that in order to stay calm one must take medication or other forms of drugs. It takes
patience, time, and mental calmness in order to learn a new language, and patience runs thin
when stress levels are high.
