Maturational Constraints in SLA

“For SLA researchers who interpret the extant empirical evidence to be in support of a critical period for the learning of human language (e.g., Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003), the purview of SLA should be postpubescent learners.”

“In a reexamination of the Johnson and Newport (1989) data, Bialystok and Hakuta (1994) moved the cutoff point separating early- and late-arriving groups to 20 years.”

“…1995; Moyer, 2009), and differences in their affective profiles (e.g. Moyer, 2004) and cognitive maturity (e.g. Newport, 1990), have all been proposed, but in the opinion of most reviewers (e.g. DeKeyser and Larson-Hall, 2005; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; Long, 1990) have been found wanting.”

“Differential long-term outcomes for L2 learners with variations in age of acquisition within childhood have been well documented (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“…evidence; however, some authors interpret studies in favor of the existence of the CPH (e. g., DeKeyser, 2003; DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2001, 2003) or against it (e. g., Bialystok, 2001; Birdsong, 2005; Marinova-Todd, Marshall, & Snow, 2000, 2001; MacWhinney,…”

“Yet, some adult learners do achieve near-native global proficiency that is virtually indistinguishable from native speakers on certain tasks, or as judged by naı̈ve raters (Birdsong, 2009; Bongaerts, 1999; Bongaerts, Mennen & van der Slik, 2000; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“…there have been many reformulations of this critical period hypothesis (CPH; for overviews, see Birdsong, 2006; DeKeyser & Larsen-Hall, 2005; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003), but in most of them, the basic tenet is still that the ability to acquire and to produce the L2 in a native-like…”

“I Introduction Research on ultimate attainment in the L2 has hitherto investigated whether endstate L2 speakers attain levels of grammatical knowledge comparable to that of native speakers (e.g. Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; Sorace, 2003).”

“As a second type of support for critical period effects in L2 acquisition, some researchers point to the lack of evidence for across-the-board nativelikeness in late L2 acquisition (e.g., Long, 1990; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; DeKeyser and Larson-Hall, 2005).”

“Extensive testing has established that ‘younger is better’ when it comes to both first and second language acquisition (for recent reviews, see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; DeKeyser and Larson-Hall, 2005).”

“…lead to a critical period for language acquisition (Penfield and Roberts, 1959; Lenneberg, 1967; Newport, 1990; Birdsong, 1999; for an overview, see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003), multiple critical periods (Meisel, 2007) or to multiple critical periods that each affect different aspects of the…”

“link with studies in language acquisition and learning – which may be considered the reverse of attrition if we expand Jakobson’s regression hypothesis (1941) – as documented by a growing number of studies attempting to apply theories of L2 acquisition/learning to L1 attrition (e.”

“Greater variability in UA with increasing age is likely due to factors other than age proper [47], such as the concomitant greater variability in exposure to literacy, degree of education, motivation and opportunity for language use, and by itself represents evidence neither in favour of nor against the CPH.”

“…PERIOD is used by some researchers to indicate a less abrupt cut-off point than is usually associated with a critical period (for references, see Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003a, p. 556). group had been adopted from South Korea as children and had thus L1 acquisition experience with Korean.”

“Different explanations, ranging from maturational (Lenneberg, 1967; McLaughlin, 1977; see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2008 for an overview), sociolinguistic (Lewandowski et al., 2009), and psychological (Rota and Reiterer, 2009) factors to personality-related issues (e.g., extraversion,…”

“…the L1 critical period hypothesis comes primarily from two groups with atypical 3 For useful overviews covering key literature on the critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition, see Birdsong (1999a), Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson (2005) and Harley and Wang (1997). language development.”

“Whereas Lenneberg thought that the critical age was around puberty, since then it has generally been assumed that the end of such an optimal period lies around age seven or eight (for a recent overview, see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“…studies have shown that age-related maturational constraints1 are a powerful variable in the explanation of ultimate attainment in the L2 (for reviews, see DeKeyser & Larsen-Hall, 2005; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003), whereas only a few studies have reported age effects in the first language (L1).”

“Evidence that differences between adopted and non-adopted children persist with more exposure to the adoptive language would suggest that other factors, such as delayed age of exposure, might be involved (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003; Thordardottir, 2008).).”

“In contrast, L2 children are observed – and to a certain extent are assumed – to regularly attain native levels of competence (for relevant discussion, see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“1 For a discussion of the relation between sentence negation and constituent negation, see Moser (1992). Studies including the L2 acquisition of other types of negation (e.”

“L2 learners rarely achieve complete native-like competence in all domains of their second language (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“…variety of communicative settings, and those who continue to use it into adolescence and adulthood are likely to be perceived as no different from monolingual native speakers in terms of their pronunciation (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003) and their use of grammatical morphology (Patkowski, 1980).”

“…and phonology, for which AoA has been claimed to play a significant role in ultimate attainment (Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, 2009; DeKeyser, 2000; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003; Johnson & Newport, 1989; Long, 1990; Paradis, 2004, 2009), this study suggests that visual word recognition seems to…”

“…of theoretical explanations and empirical studies, summarized by, for example, Abrahamsson and Hyltenstam Language Learning 69:S1, March 2019, pp. 157–183 168 (2009), Birdsong (2006), DeKeyser (2012), De Groot (2011), Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson (2003), Long (2013), and Muñoz and Singleton (2011).”

“Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson ( 2003 ) advocated a more empirical approach when they claimed that inquiry into the CPH should not be limited to core aspects of grammar.”

“Such shortcomings may not be immediately evident, however, and differences between near-natives and natives sometimes manifest themselves only under close scrutiny (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003 ).”

“…of opportunity closes before the chosen age range, studies particularly on morphosyntax have repeatedly demonstrated that the offset of a critical period is to be expected around the age of 12 (e.g. Granena & Long, 2013; for reviews see DeKeyser & Larson-Hall, 2005; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“Learning (near-) native pronunciation is often seen as the most prominent and persistent difficulty for adult second language learners (e.g., Bongaerts, van Summeren, Planken, & Schils, 1997; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“Our results do not support the notion that while language abilities in children evolve slowly, children outperform adults in the long run [3,22,63].”

“Experimental work has shown that age of exposure is a crucial factor for ultimate attainment of a language (e.g. Johnson and Newport, 1989, see Long, 1990; Birdsong and Molis, 2001 for reviews), although a definite cut-off age is disputed (see Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“However, the exact nature, cause and magnitude of this sensitive period phenomenon in language learning remains an issue of wide controversy (Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; Birdsong, 2006; DeKeyser, 2013), to the extent that the journal Science, in its 125th anniversary edition, labeled the…”

“…from findings in research is generally that the earlier one starts acquiring a language before adulthood, the better the chances are of attaining target competence (Johnson and Newport, 1989; Hyltenstam, 1992; DeKeyser, 2000; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson, 2003; Singleton and Ryan, 2004 ch. 7).”

“The CPH researchers have recently called attention to these methodological differences, in particular the differences in the sensitivity of the language measures and stimuli (Abrahamsson and Hyltenstam 2009; Birdsong and Molis 2001; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson 2003; Long 2005; Newport et al. 2001).”

“The researchers emphasized the need for research on not only cognitive, but also affective factors in exceptional foreign language learners, which are capable of compensating for the late start (cf. Hu & Reiterer, 2009; Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“Overall, this research has found that, although an early start seems a crucial, perhaps even necessary, condition for native-like achievement, it does not guarantee it (Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003).”

“In order to tie this together I would like to refer to a model that specifies the interaction of maturation (or CPL) effects, exercise effects and social/psychological factors in defining L2 ultimate attainment under different circumstances (see Hyltenstam & Abrahamsson, 2003, p. 573).”