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THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING IN TWO DIFFERENT AGES
(CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE)
Rahmatova Nozima Baxtiyor qizi
Buxoro davlat Pedagogika instituti stajor-o’qituvchisi
+998 88 135 16 66
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13896549
Annotation.
This thesis shows that the age is an essential factor that
influences language learning. The differences on language acquisition and
ultimate proficiency in childhood and adolescent period are studied exploring
some scholars’ research works.
Key words.
Language acquisition, adolescent, childhood, maturity, lexical
diversity, immersion, accent, language awareness.
Аннотация.
Этот тезис показывает, что возраст является важным
фактором, влияющим на изучение языка. Различия в овладении языком и
его конечном владении в детском и подростковом периоде изучаются на
основе исследовательских работ некоторых ученых.
Ключевые слова.
Овладение языком, подростковый возраст,
детство, зрелость, лексическое разнообразие, погружение, акцент,
языковое осознание.
Annotatasiya.
Ushbu tezis yosh tilni o'rganishga ta'sir qiluvchi muhim
omil ekanligini ko'rsatadi. Bolalik va o‘smirlik davridagi til o‘zlashtirish va
yakuniy malakadagi farqlar ayrim olimlarning tadqiqot ishlarida o‘rganilgan.
Kalit so’zlar.
Tilni o'zlashtirish, o'smirlik, bolalik, yetuklik, leksik xilma-
xillik, immersiya, urg'u, tilni bilish.
The study of age effects on second language acquisition has been explored
and reached various valuable results. The conducted researches show that the
instructional methods and acquiring a language are different between young and
adult learners. Researches connect learners’ metalinguistic awareness to their
schooling. According to Singleton and Pfenninger (2018), the age is not always a
factor that effects on acquisition: exposure, language instruction and native-like
environment. Second language is acquired for education, employment, or an
official or social language in a particular country. Second language acquisition
can be any language acquisition after acquiring a native language. The ages of L2
learners are important for second language acquisition. Johnson and Newport
(1989)’s two interpretations based on Lenneberg’s Critical Period Hypothesis
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show differences between age-related acquisition: Exercise Hypothesis ( states
learner's capacity for acquiring a language through continuous exercises on
language learning and this ability will remain intact through the whole life or if
not, a decline or disappearance of learning language ability can happen during
maturational period) and Maturational Hypothesis (states disappearance or
decline of capability of acquiring language with maturation naturally). The latter
has age effects on L2 acquisition. It is used age-appropriate instructional
methods for children, adolescent, and adults because they have different
experience, cognitive ability and maturity.
Childhood period.
Early language learners are engaged in pre-school
programs that are specialized to make language learning easy. Because children
look like “sponges” that they are eager to absorb language and literalization of
language features (Munoz, 2019). According to Lenneberg (1967), in order to
gain native-like performance in fluency, language acquisition must be occur
before puberty. Penfield and Roberts (1959) consider that first ten years of life
is the optimum period of acquiring a language. According to Singleton (1989),
learners who begin to learn second language in their early age are more likely to
reach higher levels of success in language proficiency, particularly pronunciation
and grammar in comparison with those who begins in later life. According to
Llanes and Munoz (2013), children's rate of learning language in SA context is
advantageous and accelerated than other ages by the immersion situation.
Children outperform adults in gaining foreign accent when they are exposed to
SA setting being able to communicate with native speakers. However, Harley’s
study shows that older immersion learner are more successful in comparison
with the younger one. Childhood does not mean to grow physically, but it is also
considered as the period of mental development. According to Cook (2012),
students who acquire a language in formal circumstances cannot be at the same
process with those who acquire languages in natural environment. But children
are learners who acquire linguistic and social knowledge simultaneously.
Children acquire a language easily and a natural way which is less anxious than
that of adolescents or adults do. The best way to learn a new language for
children is to hear the target language being spoken regularly. According to Sun
(2015), children benefit when they are provided with language exposure and
usage rather than with input-limited instructional classes. Games, visual or aural
stories and also interesting and colorful instructional materials are useful tools
for child language acquisition. At this stage, external motivation sources are
teachers, parents or caregives, peers, people in surroundings, and mass media
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(particularly cartoons and interesting short films). Early starters are easily
motivated and encouraged with external rewards when they perform well. As it
is difficult to hold their attention, interesting class should be organized with the
help of attentive instructions (picture cards). According to Nikolay and
Djigunovich (2006), instructions provided in classroom should be designed with
opportunities that are provided in natural SLA in order to reach attainment in
children’s language acquisition in foreign language context. Early starters are
taught only repetition of structures to make sentences (
I have a dog, I have a ball,
I have a cat).
Moreover, in order to widen a set of lexicon knowledge, childhood
is important period. Because vocabulary learned in childhood is recalled and
used in oral conversation easily. This can be enhanced by practicing drills and
imitations, so they are able to pronounce easily. In the period of childhood, the
age of 6 and 7, almost all phonological features and important rules are acquired
fully (Kerswill, 1996). The young are better learners in morphosyntax and
pronunciation skills. Despite their slower rate in the beginning of learning,
children have high achievement in long term (Munoz, 2019). Children have less
affective-liter when acquiring a new language rather than adults. Because they
are not afraid of making mistakes. Larson-Hall (2008) and Dwaik Shehadeh
(2015)’s study shows early starters achievement in auditory perception and in
reading respectively, but not listening, grammar, writing after short-term
instructions.
Adolescence.
According to Munoz et al. (2010), in comparison with
children, formal settings which give clear instruction and assessment tests is
beneficial for both adolescents and adults and school instructions more closely
match their capability than it does those of younger students. Grammar is
intentionally acquired by adolescents and adults with the help of explicit
instructions. Deductive grammar instruction which gives specific rules and
examples of how to use, is beneficial to adolescents. Language learning of
adolescents is influenced by maturation, neurocognitive development, and
affective-factors. Teenagers are experienced enough to comprehend and they
are able to produce conversation, apply methods in their learning, and they have
potential goals why they are learning a language which is led by intrinsic
motivation. Adolescents enjoy experiencing a teacher’s authority that means
teacher should act as a lecturer, guide and director. According to Nikolov and
Djigunovic (2006), every child is not ready for language learning because of
some lack specific cognitive skills but adolescents and adults acquire language
using their problem-solving skills and experience in their native languages.
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When it comes to phonology, age-related decline occurs through the years
passed. Adolescents whose arrival was after 12 years old, showed less native-
like performance but child arrivals under 12 had (Munoz, 2019). Inspite of
having advantages of learning language in childhood, the young tent to mix their
L1 and L2. Adolescents are quick learner and they outperform children and
adults in syntax and listening skills. For adolescents, instructional classes and
teachers can be a source of language. They can improve their ability in language
learning by listening to various sources, challenging themselves in beyond their
level materials consciously. Adolescents see more advantages in receiving
comprehensible input, retaining word in memory and expressing themselves
rather that children. Age-related decline occurs in morphological domain and
syntax domain (Johnson & Newport, 1991) after puberty. This means there is
the loss in linguistic features at the age of adolescents and adults despite some
outperformance and this is explained by Maturational State Hypothesis.
In conclusion, learners are not differentiated merely by their ages, but culture
and backgrounds has a great influence on second language acquisition. Munoz
(2014b) stated about time spent abroad and current informal contact as the best
predictors of fluency, lexical diversity and accuracy when examining oral
performance of SLLs. Moreover, the initial rate of acquisition and ultimate level
of attainment are performed differently in different age groups. The former
shows how rapidly different aged learners learn a language, the latter highlights
native-like attainments achieved in second language acquisition.
References:
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Cook, V. (2012). Some key issues for SLA research. In Pedrazzini, L. &
Nava, A. (Eds.), Learning and teaching English: Insights from research (pp. 39-
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Dwaik, R. & Shehadeh, A. (2015). The starting age and ultimate attainment
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