When timing is everything: Age of first-language acquisition effects on second-language learning

When timing is everything: Age of first-language acquisition effects on second-language learning

The present paper summarizes three experiments that investigate the effects of age of acquisition on first-language (L1) acquisition in relation to second-language (L2) outcome. The experiments use the unique acquisition situations of childhood deafness and sign language. The key factors controlled across the studies are age of L1 acquisition, the sensory–motor modality of the language, and lev...

effects of first language on second language writing-a preliminary contrastive rhetoric study of farsi and english

to explore the idea the investingation proposed, aimed at finding whether the performances of the population of iranians students studying english in an efl context are consistent in l1 and l2 writing taks and whether there is a cross-linguistic transfer in this respect. in this regard the subjects were instructed to write four compositions-two in english and two in farsi-which consisted of an ...

On the First and Second Language Acquisition of Spatial Language

Age Constraints on Second-Language Acquisition

This study evaluated the critical period hypothesis for second language (L2) acquisition. The participants were 240 native speakers of Korean who differed according to age of arrival (AOA) in the United States (1 to 23 years), but were all experienced in English (mean length of residence 5 15 years). The native Korean participants’ pronunciation of English was evaluated by having listeners rate...

Acquisition of Timing Patterns in Second Language

The paper presents an analysis of speech rhythm development in second language. 51 German learners of English with varying degrees of proficiency were recorded producing 33 identical sentences of quasi-spontaneous speech. Durational characteristics of syllables, consonantal and vocalic intervals were calculated to allow for analysis of timing patterns on different proficiency levels. We found t...