This document summarizes research on factors affecting late second language acquisition. It discusses how age of acquisition can influence adult learners' ultimate attainment of pronunciation and other language skills. Specifically, it summarizes a study that found age of arrival predicted pronunciation abilities in spontaneous but not controlled speech. Exposure to an L2 environment alone does not ensure language development, as amount and type of use depends on individual choices and circumstances. While age and aptitude impact late L2 acquisition, motivational and social factors must also be considered. Teachers must help learners of various ages and abilities given input limitations in EFL contexts by addressing cognitive, motivational, and sociocultural factors.
1. Other variables affecting
late L2 acquisition
LAP seminar Topic5, 25 November 2014
Presented by Takashi Oba
2. Today’s
• L2 phonological acquisition of adult learners (Saito, 2013)
- Does age effects influence on L2 ultimate performance (phonology) of adult L2 learners
(after puberty) or late bilinguals?
- To what extent can adult L2 learners attain native-like pronunciation (phonological acquisition)?
• Exposure to L2 rich environments in late L2
acquisition (Derwing & Munro, 2013;Ranta & Meckelborg, 2013)
- Can merely exposed to L2 speaking environments increase adult learners’ L2 use and develop
fluency, like children do so?
- Are there any other interactive variables influencing on late L2 acquisition?
3. Today’s focus 1
L2 phonological acquisition for adult
learners
4. Saito (2013)
Purpose: Attempt to examine
whether and to what degree of
age of acquisition can be
predictive of L2 production
attainment and nativelikeness of
of word-initial /ɹ/ by late English-
Japanese bilinguals
Dr. Kazuya Saito
(Waseda University, Japan)
5. Age effects on post-pubertal ultimate attainment
and nativelikeness
• Early learners: age = + factors on ultimate L2
performance in…
- L2 phonology (Flege, Munro, &MacKay, 1995; Fledge et al, 1999)
- L2 morphology (Abrahamsson & Hyltenstam, 2008; Johnson&Newport, 1989;DeKeyser, 2000)
• Adult L2 learners (after mid-teens) - - - > inconclusive!
- Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) vs. Cognitive Aging Hypothesis (CAH)
- CPH: AOA effects are absent in late bilingualism due to a loss of plasticity,
resulting from neutral maturation after puberty (fundamentally different)
- CAH: AOA continues to be observed even after puberty as predictors for
the success in L2 acquisition
6. Birth
4
6-7
12 L1 late learners: higher rate and greater variety errors (>12)
16-17
Age of arrival and maturational
constraints on L1&L2
Native-like fluency (<4: L1; <7:L2)
Start to decline of L1 (Newport: 6~7)
& L2 performance (8~10:J&N)
After puberty: end of maturational constraints ?(J&N/DK)
Age of
arrival
Losing implicit learning mechanism (6-
7~16~17)
- No age effect: indivi. differences
- High aptitude adults+ explicit
learning=++L2 ability ?
7. English /ɹ /
• 4 acoustic domains: F1: tongue hight; F2: tongue retraction;
F3: labial, palatal, and pharyngeal constructions; transition
duration for phonemic length
• Natives: F3 >> F2 (steady drop in F3) sensitive to F3!
⇔ Japanese L2 (less experienced): F2>F3 (shorter transition)
• Approximate category in Japanese= /j/ and /w/
• Word-initial /ɹ / (i.e. read, rain) in controlled & spontaneous
condition → aware of F3 as well as F2 & transition
8.
9. Method
• Participants: 88 high-proficiency Japanese learners
of English compared to 10 natives and 10 low-proficiency
Japanese learners of English
• Assessment: Listener judgement & acoustic analysis
through controllers tasks (word reading, and
sentence reading), and a spontaneous task (timed
picture description task)
10. Result 1: Acoustic analysis
AOA & F3:
Significant
correlation!
AOA: No
significant
correlation
with F2
11. F3: linear
decline across
the groups
F2: 80-90%
Japanese reached
native like!
12. Result 2: Listener judgement
Controlled (WR):
No significant AOA
effects!
Spontaneous (TPD):
Significant AOA
effects!
14. Main findings
• AOA significantly predicted the ultimate performance of /ɹ/
at a spontaneous (PDT), but not controlled (WR&SP)
speech level in processing the new articulate parameter
(F3), which requires us much L2 experience to acquire and
entails various levels of processing abilities
• Most Japanese L2 learners attained nativelike
performance in resetting existing articulatory patterns
(F2) under controlled /ɹ/ production
• Ultimate attainment and native likeness of late bilingualism
are multidimensional phenomena characteristic as a
result of interaction of AOA, processing abilities and L1
influence
15. Question: L1 interference for adult learners
• Flege (2003) & Iverson et al (2003) posit that L1 interference effect will
progressively stronger as L1 develops
• Flege (2003) claims, “the best way for adult learners of an L2 to circumvent L1
interference effects may be…to receive exaggerated acoustic cues, multiple
instances by many talkers, and massed listening experience” (p.325-326)
Q. Experienced late bilinguals may develop the
high phonetic sensitivity (F2), but can we apply the
finding to late L2 learners living in Japan? They
receive strong L1 interference effects and limited
exposure to natural input of L2. Can they attain
native-like phonetic acquisition in F2 level? How
can teachers assist them to develop the phonetic
skill and what is the ultimate goal of pronunciation
teaching? Attaining “native-like” pronunciation?
16. CPH vs. CAH
• CPH=“the concept of endpoint, a point beyond
which learning becomes difficult or impossible”
(Dekeyser&Larsen-Hall, 2005, 97)
• The results in Saito (2013) support CAH (language
learning capacity used in successful L1 acquisition
remains active even after puberty)
• Does our brain actually loose plasticity after the
cutoff point (mid teens)?
17. Cognitive neuroscience of aging studies
• age-related change in brain activity
(fMRI)
• found considerable degree of plasticity
in the brain over the lifespan
• older people activate “frontal lobes” in
memory tasks compared to young
people, resulting in better memory
• imply the possibility of reorganization
of brain activity with aging & training
which will maintain memory abilities in
older adults
Dr. Cheryl Grady
(Toronto University)
18. Medial temporal region
(language recognition; memory)
Left prefrontal cortex
(executive function)
20. Richard Snow:
aptitude&treatment
(a) human aptitude is made up of a
complex of abilities, interrelated in
hierarchical fashion rather than a
simple or direct fashion
(b) differential cognitive processing
abilities are intertwined with the
contexts and affordances of the
environment
(c) differential aptitude cannot be fully
explained unless motivational and
affective influences are taken into
account as well Dr. Richard. E Snow
(Stanford University)
21. • Regardless of plasticity in the brain and continuity of
age effects before/after puberty, other variables must
be taken into consideration in adult L2 learning!
• ‘instead of focusing on the limited success of older
learners, it is more productive to examine the factors
that lead to very high levels of proficiency in the
L2 for learners of any age’ (Marinova-Todd, 2003, p.
67)
22. Today’s focus 2
Exposure to natural L2 environment and
longitudinal L2 development
23. Derwing & Munro (2013)
Dr. Tracey Derwing
(Alberta University)
Dr. Murray Munro
(Simon Fraser University)
Purpose: examining age effects on adult L2 leaners’
longitudinal oral development process of their
language acquisition for different adult groups
24. Motivation for the study
• Policy maker’s assumption: adult immigrants will pick
up L2 skills they need once they have the basic
underpinnings of their L2
• Need longitudinal study to trace their oral language
progress over time
→What kind of factors affect their eventual L2 development?
25. Significance of the study
• Age of L2 learning studies: L2 ultimate performance
(i.e. phonology) between children vs adult (Flege, Murano,
& Mackay, 1995)
• Few studies examining effects age of L2 on late L2
learners
- age-related decline trend in L2 ultimate attainment over
time (Hakuta et al, 2003; S&L test=>Derwing et al, 2010;
phonetic skills=>Baker, 2010)
- plateau between age 18-40 in grammar (Dekeyser, 2010)
26. Background of the study
• Extending the previous studies examining for 2 years to
7 years
• English vowel development (Munro & Derwing, 2008);
accent & fluency (Derwing et al, 2006); fluency between
L1 & L2 (Derwin et al, 2009)
• At the end of 2nd year…
- Mandarin speakers: very little change in fluency &
comprehensibility
- Slavic speakers: improvement in fluency and
comprehensibility
27. Why different?
Factors within willingness to communicate (WTC),
such as intergroup climate, social situation,
communicative competence, L2 self-confidence,
and motivation contributed to the difference between
Mandarin and Slavic speakers (Derwing et al, 2008)
34. Result2: Correlation analysis (3 variables)
comprehensibility accent fluency
Years of prior
English study
NS NS NS
Age of arrival
◎
( M: NS, S:◎)
◎
( M: NS, S:◎)
NS
( M: ◎, S:◎)
Amount of
English use
Self report: little shift in the frequency of conversation
(only 5 people /22↑)
◎: significant correlation; NS: Non significant
But! participants (22) are large size enough? Is r
value valid?
36. Main findings
• Slavic speakers significantly improved in comprehensibility
and fluency (accent was improved in the first 2 years), but
Mandarin speakers showed little change over time in all
measured skills
• Years of prior L2 study & amount of L2 use are not predictive
factors on eventual L2 performance
• Age of arrival (age19-49) significantly correlation with
comprehensibility & accent for the combined groups after 7
years (individual sig. r = Slavic group)
• Older arrivals showed a marked tendency to have stronger
accents than young arrivals (pronunciation learning is subject to
age effects even during adulthood)
37. Implications
• In addition to age of arrival, overall experience with
L2, as determined by WTC factors (i.e. self-confidence,
social situation) and relation to L1,
affected L2 oral development
• Correlational analysis (age - oral performance) using
small participants should be carefully interpreted;
need larger size participant & diverse L1
• One-size-fits-all programs will not serve the needs of
all learners
38. Ranta & Meckelborg (2013)
Purpose:
Examine longitudinally the
amount and type of
exposure experienced by
Chinese graduate students
in Canada
Is exposure to L2 speaking environment sufficient
to effectively acquire L2?
Dr. Leila Ranta
(Alberta University)
39. Method
• Participant: 17 Chinese graduate students at a
Canadian university, < 6 months residence
• Measurement: The Language Activity Log (LAL)
• Length: completion in the computerized log once a
month over a six-month period (Jan-June)
44. Qualitative data
Learners themselves CREATE
the kind of exposure!
Each individual encounter
different affordances for
using L2!
45. Main findings
• General trend: receptive >> interactive use of L2
• Considerable variation among individuals in terms of
amount (timing of data collection) and type of L2 use
(academic reading/writing, conversation with friends,
watching movies or reading for pleasure)
• Small amount of oral interaction may be associated with
individual proficiency level, affective factors (nervous,
embarrassment, difficulty of expressing themselves), and
other social factors
• The amount and type of exposure depends on (1) learners’
own choice (2) affordances of daily use of L2 for studying
or working
46. Implications
• Low levers of interaction implies that exposure to L2
speaking environment does not necessarily ensure
large amount of L2 use opportunities, improvement of
L2 fluency and acquisition of more idiomatic words
Do you still believe
“studying abroad” or
“merely exposure to
L2-rich envorment" is a
perfect way to learn
• Individual differences (motivation; self-confidence;
preference of learning style; strong will), cultural-background
(mismatching learning strategies), & other
L2??
social factors may have played in their degree of L2
development
47. Useful implications from qual. data,
but…
• To what extent the data from
self-reported assessment in the
long period is valid? (always
asked to log in…)
• Participant number is small, and
need to examine other L1
backgrounds and other socio-status
(i.e. working) ?
48. Summing up all findings!
• AOA predicts late L2 learners’ ultimate ability in phonological
processing in controlled condition (F2): Saito (2013);
comprehensibility and fluency in L2 speech: Derwing & Munro,
(2013)
• In consistent with CAH, these findings indicate that even after cutoff
point (puberty) adult L2 learners may attain high/native-like
proficiency in certain domains of L2 over their life span
• However, taking into account cognitive aging (Hakuta et al, 2003) or
DeKeyser’s (2000) viewpoint, individual differences (i.e. WM,
aptitude, motivation), cultural & social factors interactively serve a
crucial role in determining success of L2 acquisition
• Merely exposed to naturalistic L2 environments does not ensure the
frequency of L2 use and its development, attributing to learners’ own
choice and circumstances L2 learners encounter (Ranta &
Meckelborg, 2013)
49. Advanced questions: What do you think?
• Even if age and aptitude (analytical ability) may have
strong impact on late L2 acquisition, as Richard Snow
said,motivational and affective factors must be taken into
account. Do you think we can incorporate such affective
factors into our research in different ways? If so, how?
• L2 learners mainly access the target language in
classrooms in EFL setting. Teachers must assist variety
of aged learners to attain high level of L2 proficiency.
How can we mediate (1) limited amount/type of input, (2)
cognitive factors (i.e. motivation, aptitude) and (3)
social/cultural factors in L2 classroom teaching setting?
50. Dörnyei and Kormos (2000): the role of individual and
social variables in oral task performance
• Investigate the effects of a number of
affective and social variables on L2
learners’ engagement in oral
argumentative tasks
• Assumption: students’ verbal behaviour
in oral task is partially determined by
non-linguistic and non-cognitive factors
• Found the interrelationship of the
multiple factors determining the learners’
task engagement and some variables
only come into force under certain
conditions
Dr. Judit Kormos
(Lancaster University, UK)
51.
52. Additional references
Dörnyei, Z., & Kormos, J. (2000). The role of individual and social variables in oral task performance. Language teaching research,
4(3), 275-300.
Csizér, K., Kormos, J., & Sarkadi, A. (2010). The dynamics of language learning attitudes and motivation: Lessons from an
interview study of dyslexic language learners. The Modern Language Journal, 94(3), 470-487.
Flege, J. E. (2003). Assessing constraints on second-language segmental production and perception. Phonetics and phonology in
language comprehension and production: Differences and similarities, 319-355.
Grady, C. (2012). The cognitive neuroscience of ageing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 13(7), 491-505.
Iverson, P., Kuhl, P. K., Akahane-Yamada, R., Diesch, E., Tohkura, Y. I., Kettermann, A., & Siebert, C. (2003). A perceptual
interference account of acquisition difficulties for non-native phonemes. Cognition, 87(1), B47-B57.
Marinova-Todd, S.H. (2003). Know your Grammar: What the Knowledge of Syntax and Morphology in an L2 Reveals about the
Critical Period for Second/Foreign Language Acquisition. In M.P. Garcia-Mayo & M.L. Garcia-Lecumberri (Eds.), Age and the
Acquisition of English as a Foreign Language: Theoretical Issues and Field Work (p. 59-73). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Editor's Notes
Does age effects influence on L2 ultimate performance (phonology/morphology) of adult L2 learners (after puberty) or late bilinguals?
Early age bilinguals: Many researchers have mostly paid attention to AOA as the most powerful factors on ultimate L2 performance: early bilinguals (AOA<16 yrs) in L2 phonology & L2 morphology
However, late bilinguals (AOA>16 yrs), previous studies have revealed much disagreement, results in great deal of theoretical discussion
Competing and different predictions as to age effects on post-pubertal ultimate attainment and nativelikeness; CPH vs. CAH
As CPH (J&N) indicated, after puberty, there was no age effect on ultimate L2 performance due to loss of plasticity, instead, various individual differences (aptitude) play a determining role in eventual L2 performance
4 acoustic domains were measured in acoustic analysis : F1: tongue hight; F2: tongue retraction; F3: labial, palatal, and pharyngeal constructions; transition duration for phonemic length
/r/ : a severe dip in F3 (native speakers lower F3)
Japanese L2 learners: approximately category in Japanese phonetic system is /j/ and /w/
Less experienced Japanese learners tend to substitute several L1 counterparts for English /r/ (/l/) in perception and production
Japanese= higher F3 and F2 with shorter transition duration (no stretching or shrinking) , more sensitive on F2 than F3
Development of a new sound requires mastery of more than one phonetic segment at various processing levels
Table2: the correlation between AOA and F3 values remained statistically significant in WR, SR, TPD. But, the use of secondary cue (F2: raw and normalized transition duration) showed no significant correlation
As you can see on your left, the percentage of Japanese learners who met native like criteria (2_SD) seemed to lineally decline across four groups in the primary cue (F3)
In contrast, most Japanese learners reached native like proficiency in secondary cue (F2: raw and normalized transition duration) in spite of their various AOA profiles
Listener judgement (based on “accuracy”, “intelligibility", “goodness”) revealed clear age effects, especially when L2 production was elicited at a spontaneous speech level.
F4&5: Although many Japanese learners showed ceiling effects under the controlled production task (word reading), the ultimate attainment of their spontaneous /r/ production (TPD) varied widely and correlated moderately with their age of arrival in Canada
Can we overcome “L1 interference effects” by merely exposed to L2 or through instruction?
Left prefrontal cortex (activated): Executive function relates to abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, determine good and bad,
Medial Temporal region: declarative and long-term memory; recognition (semantic processing in both speech and visual)
A hypothetical model of the various dimensions that can interact with ageing.
-The model is intended to show the interplay among a wide array of physical and behavioural aspects and the ageing process.
- The arrows are bidirectional to indicate that the influence can potentially arise from these factors on the ageing process, or vice versa.
Naive notion/beliefs = best way to learn L2 is to study it in L2 speaking countries
Assumption: studying in naturalistic setting will provide learners with ample opportunities for exposure to the target language and interaction with native-speakers of that language
-Test the policy makers’ assumption on which adult immigrants will pick up L2 skills they need once they have the basic underpinnings of their L2
-Need longitudinal study
The present study affords us an opportunity to examine the relationship between age and acquisition of oral skills in adult (age 19-49)
MacIntyre, Clément, Dörnyei, and Noels (1998) conceptualized WTC in a L2 in a theoretical model.
-In this model, many individual factors are interrelated in influencing WTC in a L2 and L2 use.
-This model, represented as a layered pyramid, illustrates the complexity of the concept of WTC in a L2 (Figure 3).
-The first three layers (I, II, III) are seen to have situation-specific influences, whereas the latter three (IV, V, VI) are believed to have stable influences on WTC.
Table 1:result of Mixed-design ANOVA with L1 (between-subjects) &time (within-subject) factors
The firs set of ANOVA evaluated changes in comprehensibility, and the second one is fluency and the third one is accentedness
main effect of ‘time’ were sig. at all dimensions / ‘interactional’ effect was also significant
-Bonferroni adjusted post-hoc test revealed that significant improvement over time for the Slavic but not the Mandarin
-In sum, Mandarin speakers showed little improvement 5 years after the last testing point, but Slavic speakers significantly improved in comprehensibility and fluency.
-In sum, as expected… the difference continued to diverge over 7 years
Mandarin: little or no improvement 5 years after the last testing point
Slavic: become more fluent and comprehensible
* accent score did not change from 2 -7 year point
The table shows the correlation between two variables and c/a/f scores.
Prior experience has no significant effect, but age of arrival showed sig effects on comprehensibility and accent
As this graph represents, there was a significant negative reration between age and accent after puberty
- F3: English used > Mandarin over all, but the amount of using Eng does not simply increase over time , English use decrease and Mandarin increase from start to the end
- F4: Monthly trends, downward trend in L2 use takes place around April to May (test)
-Table 2: displays the amount of time over 42 days
-Most of time - - - > reading&writing
-In oral interaction, only 10 mins were spent on interaction (face to face)
there is some tendency= not to engage in L2 oral interaction- - - low:1,2,5, 12 & 13 / high: 3
14, 15& 18 - - - >less consistent, high & low
15 highest, but change relationship between native?
- Problems of low interaction <- - - low proficiency of listening comprehension,nervous, embarrassment, difficulty of expressing themselves
- Amount &type of interaction is associated with (1) Learners’ own choice & (2) affordances of daily use of L2 for studying or working
AOA may continue to predict the quality of ultimate attainment and incidence of native likeness over their life span without a cutoff point