A Hypothesis Has No Legs
Lenneberg inferred that there exists also a critical period for learning a second language. He believed that young learners possess better language-learning capacity than old learners. After puberty, the capacity for language learning will decline.
However, there is no actual proof presented in Lenneberg’s literature to buttress the inference about the existence of a critical period in the learning of a second language.
In his study, the subjects of the experiment were monolingual. So for the “CPH for language learning” presented by Lenneberg, the scope of application should be limited to the learning of the first language (mother tongue).
In fact, the development of such a hypothesis into a theory for second language learning seems to show a lack of circumspect consideration.
After various citations by other researchers, e.g. under the emphasis of the concept of universal grammar by Chomsky (1975), the CPH has been further discussed toward the phenomenon of second language acquisition (SLA).
Besides, Scovel (1969) used this hypothesis to explain the mechanism of SLA. So far Lenneberg’s paper has been regarded as an important reference for the critical period for the second language. There are a few scholars who hold the same opinion.
In 1959, neurophysiologists Penfield and Roberts proposed, from the perspective of brain plasticity, that the best age to learn a second language is before ten years old. The findings of Bickerton (1981) and Coppieters (1987) also tend to support the idea that a “critical period for language learning” exists.
References
Bickerton, D. (1981). The Roots of Language. Ann Arbor MI: Karome Publishers.
Chomsky, N. (1975). Reflections on Language. New York: Pantheon Books.
Coppieters, R. (1987). Competence differences between native and near-native speakers. Language, 63, 544–573.
Scovel, T. (1969). Foreign accents, language acquisition, and cerebral dominance. Language Learning, 19, 245–254.
Originally published at http://poeticmindfulness.wordpress.com on September 14, 2020.
