What’s age got to do with it? Accounting for individual factors in second language accent

“In fact, Katie possessed many of the characteristics thought to be critical for exceptional pronunciation attainment (Moyer, 2014a): She considered pronunciation be one of the most intriguing aspects of the Spanish language and although she reported noticing and evaluating her peers’ pronunciation,…”

“…as it extends the scope of research to the role of instruction, motivation, attitudes and other variables believed to explain high levels of L2 attainment (see Nikolov 2000; Moyer 2007; Rota & Reiterer 2009; Moyer 2010, 2013, 2014; Forsberg Lundell & Sandgren 2013; Muñoz 2014).”

“Hence, the aspect of ‘‘phonetic ability’’ has often been considered the first or only sub-ability in language learning which is ultimately subjected to a critical period (Moyer, 2014).”

“Email: simone.pfenninger@es.uzh.ch I Introduction In recent decades, it has become increasingly apparent that factors of a social, psychological and contextual nature are prominent in both early and late second language (L2) learners in naturalistic settings as well as classrooms (see Moyer, 2014a).”

“Similarly with what Moyer (2014) has emphasized that the age at which an individual is first exposed to a foreign language affects long-term outcome.”

“Moyer (2014) gives an insightful discussion on the role of age in the acquisition of L2 pronunciation.”

“For example, the notion that in order to attain a nativelike accent, one has to begin one’s L2 experience in early childhood was devastatingly contradicted by Bongaerts’ series of studies (e.g., Bongaerts 1999, 2003) and by Moyer’s work (e.g., Moyer 1999, 2004, 2013, 2014).”

“Here, we tested children before puberty, to see the influence of working memory and musicality before the controversial but still largely presumed phenomenon of a critical period in foreign language learning, which, basically says the earlier foreign languages are acquired, the better the proficiencies of speakers (Mo…”

“Issues pertaining to the ‘age factor’ and the question of the existence of a ‘critical period’ is one of the contested issues among linguists and practitioners (Montrul, 2008, 2012; Moyer, 2014).”

“…has been well established in monolingual child language and literacy acquisition (Goldin-Meadow & Mylander, 1990; Hoff, 2006; Huttenlocher, Vasilyeva, Cymerman, & Levine, 2002; Quiroz, Snow, & Zhao, 2010; Snow, 1977) and among adult bilinguals (Collentine, 2004; Flege & Liu, 2001; Moyer, 2014).”

“Scholars argue that the accentedness of speech is especially affected by the starting age of learning the second language after the CP (Scovel 1988; Bongaerts 1999; Moyer 2014).”

“…• 101 to check for accuracy, mimic native speakers, pay special attention to difficult features (Moyer, 2014b; Purcell & Suter, 1980), identify strongly with the TL and culture (Major, 1993; Moyer, 2004, 2007; Polat, 2014), and seek L2 input and practice in informal contexts (Moyer, 2004, 2014a).”

“Phonetic ability has also been proposed to be the sole capacity ultimately subject to a critical period (Moyer, 2014).”

“Furthermore, it is important to create an environment supporting the use of L2 during the lesson (Piske, 2017), and within students’ own inner circles, where L2 is used in relation to L1 (Moyer, 2014).”

“Recent research suggests that maturational constraints have been overestimated (Moyer 2014; Munoz/ Singleton 2011; Yates/ Kozar 2015) and that there may be an issue of negative attitudes towards mature learners and their ability to learn.”

“Abundant research both in monolingual children language development (Hoff, 2006; Quiroz, Snow and Zhao, 2010) and the acquisition of second language in adults (Moyer, 2014; VanPatten, 2015) mention the importance of profuse high-quality input, and plentiful opportunities for interaction (Gass and Mackey, 2015), for su…”