FOREIGN ACCENTS, LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, AND CEREBRAL DOMINANCE 1
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It has long been accepted that children are able to master the sound patterns of a second language with much greater ease than adults. In fact, adults never seem capable of ridding themselves entirely of a “foreign accent”. There have been many attempts to account for this discrepancy in language learning between children and adults in terms of nurture, but, for the most part, these theories have proved inconsistent. It is proposed that it is the nature of the human brain, not its nurture, that is essentially involved here‐specifically, that the onset of cerebral dominance, which seems to occur around the age of twelve, inhibits the ability of a person to master the sound patterns of a second language without an impinging foreign accent.
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Scovel argued that the loss of pronunciation ability is related to the completion of speech-function lateralization at about age thirteen.
“Scovel 34 has made a case for the relationship of loss of pronunciation ability to the completion of lateralization of speech function which is achieved at approximately age 13.”
From Construct validity and transpositional research: Toward an empirical study of psychoanalytic concepts (1972) · cites this paper as [34]
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- Authors
- Scovel, T.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Scovel, Tom
- Venue
- Language Learning
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1969-12
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3-4
- Pages
- 245-253
- ISSN
- 0023-8333 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-9922
- OpenAlex
- W2108615210
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 22 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 3.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Language Learning (publishedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Phonetics and Phonology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning
- Keywords
- foreign accent, second language acquisition, hemispheric dominance, critical period
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