THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS

THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS

1. A critical point for second language acquisition occurs around puberty (age of 12 or 13), beyond which people can't seem to be relatively incapable of acquiring a native like accent of the second language.

   • NEUROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
     • The child is neurologically assigning functions little by little to one side of the brain or the other; included in these functions, of course, is language.
       • Thomas Scovel (1969) proposed that the plasticity of the brain prior to puberty enables children to acquire not only their first language but also a second language.
   • PSYCHOMOTOR CONSIDERATIONS
     • A tremendous degree of muscular control is required to achieve the fluency of a native speaker of a language considering the hundred of muscles that are required for the articulation: throat, larynx, mouth, lips, etc).
   • COGNITIVE CONSIDERATIONS
     • Human cognition developed rapidly throughout the first 16 years of life and less rapidly after adulthood. Some of these changes are critical, others are more gradual and difficult to detect.
   • AFFECTIVE CONSIDERATIONS
     • We as human beings are emotional creatures. All that surrounds us full of emotions.
       • Very young children are egocentric. They do not distinguish between themselves and the world around them. However, as the children grow older, they become more aware of themselves and more self-conscious.
   • LINGUISTIC CONSIDERATIONS
     • Children learning two languages simultaneously acquire them by the use of similar strategies. Linguistic and cognitive processes of second language learning in children are general similar to first language processes.