Critical Period for Language (wild children, plasticity, and second languages)

StudyBlue printing of Critical Period for Language (wild children, plasticity, and second languages) html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, font, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; outline: 0; font-size: 100%; background: transparent; } body { line-height: 1; } blockquote, q { quotes: none; } blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after { content: ''; content: none; } /* remember to define focus styles! */ :focus { outline: 0; } /* remember to highlight inserts somehow! */ ins { text-decoration: none; } del { text-decoration: line-through; } /* tables still need 'cellspacing="0"' in the markup */ table { border-collapse: collapse; border-spacing: 0; } /* end RESET */ .header { min-width:800px; } .logo { padding:6px 20px 2px 20px; margin:0; font-size:25px; font-weight:bold; color:#808285; position:relative; border-bottom: 1px solid #c5c5c5; } .logo-blue { color:#70adc4; } .logo-desc { font-weight:normal; font-size:19px; color:#cccccc; margin-top:50px; position:absolute; display: none; } .back-button { position:absolute; top:20px; right:20px; font-size:13px; line-height:25px; color:rgb(0,175,225); font-weight:normal; } .back-button a { color:rgb(0,175,225); } .instructions { padding:0; margin:0; width:100%; position:relative; color:rgb(100,100,100); } .step-holder { border-left:1px solid #ededed; margin-left:20px; } .steps { padding:15px 0; float:left; width:24%; border-right:1px solid #ededed; text-align:center; } .steps-01 { } .steps-02 { } .steps-03 { } .steps-04 { } .label { padding:5px 10px; } .print-button { } .print-button a { background-color:rgb(0,175,225); color:white; line-height: 19px; padding:9px 8px 5px 30px; font-size:14px; text-decoration:none; background-image: url(images/printer.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 7px 50%; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; } .print-button a:hover { background-color:black; } .theNote .content { width: 8.0in !important; margin: 5px auto; padding:20px; background-color:white; } .theNote .header { border-bottom: 1px dashed #C8C8C8; font-size: 17px; padding: 0 0 10px; line-height: 19px; color: #00ADE1; min-width:500px; } .theNote .body { font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; padding: 10px 0; } .theNote{ padding:6px 0; clear:both; background-color: rgb(200,200,200); } .theNote h3{ color: rgb(100,100,100); } .theNote h1, .theNote h3{ background-color:white; padding:2px 20px; width:8.0in !important; margin: 0 auto; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1{ padding-top: 10px; font-size: 15px; } .theNote h1:first-child{ font-size: 20px; } .theNote h3 { font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; } #options { border: 3px double #ccc; padding: 5px 12px; margin: 10px 50px 10px 20px; float: left; } #info { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; padding-top: 5px; font-style: italic; } li { margin: 5px 10px 5px 25px; } ul li { list-style: disc; } ol li { list-style: decimal; } img { border: 0; } table { clear: both; width: 100%; border: 1px solid #c5c5c5; border-width: 1px 0; margin: 0; page-break-after: always; } table#page { page-break-after: auto; } td { text-align: center; font-size: 12px; border-bottom: 1px dashed #c5c5c5; height: 1.75in; width: 50%; padding-left: 15px; } .leftside { border-right: 1px solid #cccccc; padding: 0 15px 0 0; } .bottom td { border-bottom: none; } .clearfix { clear:both; line-height:1px; height:1px; } img { max-width:80%; max-height:150px; margin:20px; } @media print {.header { display: none; } .content .header{ display:inherit; } table { border: 1px dashed #bbb; border-width: 1px 0; } .theNote{ background-color:white; } } Critical period hypothesis Language won't be learned to full standards unless it's in a certain time span (critical period) Early infancy - puberty If the child is not exposed to the neccessary information to process, their ability to develop these skills will be permanently impaired Proposed in depth by Lenneberg (1967) This supports the biological model to a certain extent, as it focuses on the biological age of the individual, relying on its maturation and not the cognitive methods by which language is learned. Laterlisation : when this is complete, the critical period ends, as the brain loses some of its plasticity. This lateralisation is concerning the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex (where Broca's and Wernicke's regions are found) But end of laterlisation process does not seem to coincide with Lenneberg's proposed end of the critical period (Witelson & Pallie, 1973 ) Plasticity Adults who suffer brain damage to language-related areas results in aphasias (Bellugi, Poizner, & Kilma, 1989) 3-5 year olds with brain lesions effecting language performed as well as healthy control group by the age of 9, showing critical period may reflect changes in brain structures (Reilly et al., 1998) There is some evidence that the brain is not fully "plastic" before this though (Newman, Lovett, & Dennis, 1986) SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: Wild children Wild children have difficulty grasping language. Victor (1800) -12 when found, but never learned to produce words, only meaningless sounds. -Understood only a few words. Genie (1970) -13 when found -Learned a few words and showed understanding of basic word order -However, showed abnormal phonology -Minimal morphology -Understanding was greater than speaking, but never on par with others But these are individual case studies so they are difficult to generalise. Also, it is difficult to tell if these lack of ability to acquire language is because of emotional privation, lack of cognitive stimulation at a young age, or just a low IQ. Second languages When testing immigrants on their English ability (asking if sentences were grammatically correct or not), the score was related to the age at which they were first ezposed, but not length of exposure (Johnson & Newport, 1989) Brain imaging: Hemispheric organisation differed in adults who were exposed to different languages at different times. Those who were in contact with language 1-3 years old showed hemispheric activation for grammatical processing similar to native speakers (Neville & Bavelier, 1999) However, this may all indicate less of a "critical" period than a sensitive period, as there appears to be a decline rather than sharp cut-off point. Also, sometimes there may be no grammatical error effect. When studying Korean students learning English, the grammatical judgement test wasn't correlated with age of exposure - however, accent was, showing effect on morphology instead (Flege et al., 1999).