This is the summary of a webinar presentation given by Victoria Murphy of the Cambridge university on the December 10th, 2014, alongside my own notes and commentaries.
The default question stands Do young learners have advantage over adult learners? By the popular opinion, yes. It is universally acknowledged that it is easier to learn languages (or any one thing for that matter) at younger age. However, research shows that the answer may be not so simple.
According to a theory from the 1960s, originally proposed by Lenneberg, there is a specific moment in the development of every animal when a specific input is required in order to achieve further development. In the animal kingdom, this input almost always comes from parents who teach their young ones skills necessary to survive later in life. This is called Critical Period Effect.
In other words, a person must receive the right kind of input in the right period of their lives in order to maintain their development in healthy fashion. According to the theory, same logic is applicable to children in the context of language learning as well.
The arguments for the thery come from a) isolation studies (cases of isolated children that remained undeveloped without parents' input), b) young learners are more succesful in learning languages than adult learners (Johnson & Newport study, 1989, stated that there is a negative coherence between the age of immigrants and their later L2 outcomes in the destination country).
Contrary to the aforementioned popular opinion, Spanish research (2003,6) show that older learners (11-12 years) are actually more successful in language learning than younger learners (4-8 years).
The most important factor appears to be the environment, in which in the young learner spends the majority of time. Traditionally, there are model situations: 1) an immigrant child having to face L2 on daily basis in everyday life as it is the main language of the country, and L1 being used only at home OR 2) the child's L1 is the dominant language of the country and the exposure to L2 is limited only to class time.
The acquisition factor is therefore of crucial importance in L2 learning as the best results of language learning are those of immersion (constant exposure to L2) which is most common with immigrant children.
The worst results come from input-limited FL (commonly limited only to classroom time, e.g. 3x45mins a week). Sadly, this is what most young learners receive in non-English speaking countries.
What we can conclude from this is that of primary interest among language teachers (and those responsible for the legislative concerning language teaching) should be how to best simulate the language learning conditions of immigrant children even for those learners living in the country where their L1 is the first language of the country, i.e. how to raise learners' level of exposure to the language outside the classroom. This is where it is possible for ICT to play crucial role in the process of language learning.
Coming back to the school environment, the factors that influence the FL outcomes there include:
- nature of provision (n. of hours per week and how these are distributed, type of materials)
- learner variables (personal motivation, attitude and aptitude)
- teacher factores (level of professional support and training)
- exposure to FL outside of school
- parent support
The difference between younger and older learners is a major one (personally I would draw the line between younger and older learner somewhere around the age of 14-16) and it must be addressed in approach to learners as well. Learning language at younger age may be slower but it is nonetheless essential. Simply lowering the age for beginning to learn foreign language is simplistic - the form of learning must be equally adjusted as well.
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