Aging and Nativelikeness in Second Language Acquisition

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Aging and Nativelikeness in Second Language
Acquisition

• TuBBS
• June 28, 2004
• David Birdsong
• University of Texas
• birdsong_at_ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

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Session 1Common Misconceptions About Age and
L2A
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Common Misconceptions About Age and L2A

• Age effects are critical period effects.
• Age effects are maturational in nature.
• Age effects are only biological in nature.
• There is nothing you can do about age effects.

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More Misconceptions

• (5) Nativelike attainment is rare to
  nonexistent.
• (6) Nativelike attainment requires special
  talent.
• Nativelikeness is restricted to narrow domains of
  performance.
• Among postpubertal learners at L2A end state

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Age Effects in L2A

• Age of acquisition predicts level of ultimate
  attainment. BUT
• (1) Age effects are not bounded, i.e., they are
  not confined to a (critical) period.

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Age Effects in L2A

• Age of acquisition predicts level of ultimate
  attainment. BUT
• (1) Age effects are not bounded, i.e., they are
  not confined to a (critical) period.
• (2) Age effects are not maturational in nature.

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Age Effects in L2A

• Age of acquisition predicts level of ultimate
  attainment. BUT
• (1) Age effects are not bounded, i.e., they are
  not confined to a (critical) period.
• (2) Age effects are not maturational in nature.
• (3) Age-related effects are not uniquely
  biological in nature.

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Age Effects in L2A

• Age of acquisition predicts level of ultimate
  attainment. BUT
• (1) Age effects are not bounded, i.e., they are
  not confined to a (critical) period.
• (2) Age effects are not maturational in nature.
• (3) Age-related effects are not uniquely
  biological in nature.
• (4) Age effects can be moderated.

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Maturationally-Based Critical PeriodGeometric
and Temporal Features

• 1 peak sensitivity 2 beginning of offset
• 3 end of offset 4 baseline
  sensitivity
• gt 3 coincides with end of maturation
• gt Age effects do not persist past 3

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STRETCHED Z (Johnson Newport, 1989) (Pinker,
1994)
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3
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Johnson Newport (1989, p. 79)

• If the explanation for late learners poorer
  performance relates to maturation, performance
  should not continue to decline over age, for
  presumably there are not many important
  maturational differences between, for example,
  the brain of a 17-year old and the brain of a
  27-year old. Instead, there should be a
  consistent decline of performance of age for
  those exposed to the language before puberty, but
  no systematic relationship to age of exposure,
  and a leveling off of ultimate performance, among
  those exposed to the language after puberty.

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STRETCHED Z (Newport, 1991)
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JN89 Early vs. Late AoA
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Observed Age Effects in L2A 1
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Observed Age Effects in L2A 2
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Observed Age Effects in L2A 3
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Flege, Munro, MacKay (1995)
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(1 2) Generalization L2A age effects persist
over the span of AoA

• Observed unbounded age effects ? period. The
  CP construct is a poor fit for the data.
• Observed postmaturational effects ? maturational
  effects. Age effects are not (just) maturational
  in nature.

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(1 2) Generalization L2A age effects persist
over the span of AoA

• EXPLANATIONS?
• gt maturation
• maturational effects early on
• general age effects later on
• gt progressive entrenchment of L1
  representationsgt inhibition of L2 reps
  interference with L2 processing
• gt biographical factors covarying with age
• gt neurocognitive aging

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Age vs. maturation

• Age and maturation differ in the timing and
  geometry of their effects.
• Maturation and aging are distinct mechanisms.
  Merck Manual of Geriatrics Aging is a
  biological process maturation is a result of,
  and discrete phase within, that process.

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Shallow age function
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Steep age function
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(3) Age-related effects are not uniquely
biological in nature. (Some age effects are
biological, others arent.)

• Consider first Biologically-based age effects
  in temporal-associative areas of the brain

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Age associative memory

• HISTOLOGICAL Cellular features of normal aging
  are concentrated in neural regions implicated in
  associative memory (Scheibel, 1996)
• Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) - found in
  hippocampus temporal
• association areas
• Amyloid plaques - found in hippocampus
  2nd/3rd layers of temporal / associative cortex

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NFTs (black) Plaques (brown)
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Age associative memory

• HORMONAL Stress / Age-related elevation of
  cortisol levels gt hippocampal atrophy, impairing
  learning memory function (Lupien et al., 1998
  Newcomer et al., 1999).
• HORMONAL Estrogen enhances verbal memory
  function in associative areas (Maki et al., 2001
  Miles et al., 1998) females gt males on verbal
  memory tasks (Halpern, 2000 Kimura, 1999).
  Estrogen levels generally decline with age.

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Non-biological factorsaffecting the age function

• L1/L2 Pairing Typological proximity gt
  facilitation in syntax (parameter resetting)
  inhibition in accent (segmental level).
  Interplay with biographical factors?

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JN (1989) vs. BM (2001)
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Non-biological factorsaffecting the age function

• L1/L2 Pairing Typological proximity gt
  facilitation in syntax (parameter resetting)
  inhibition in accent (segmental level).
  Interplay with biographical factors?
• Input/Interaction Use of L2 predicts accent
  also knowledge of lexical /grammatical
  idiosyncrasies.

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Non-biological factorsaffecting the age function

• L1/L2 Pairing Typological proximity gt
  facilitation in syntax (parameter resetting)
  inhibition in accent (segmental level).
  Interplay with biographical factors?
• Input/Interaction Use of L2 predicts accent
  also knowledge of lexical /grammatical
  idiosyncrasies.
• Training In most studies, years of FL schooling
  age of 1st schooling do not predict level of
  end state proficiency. However, training may be
  a necessary condition for nativelikeness.

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(4) Moderating the effects of age

• Biographical
• L2 input/interaction
• L2 training
• Lifestyle (nutrition, exercise, smoking,
  alcohol)
• Relevant cognitive experiences
• Biological
• Health (blood pressure, cortisol levels)
• Hormones (estrogen levels)

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(No Transcript)
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Cotman (2000)
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Age Effects in L2ASUMMARY

• Age of acquisition predicts level of ultimate
  attainment. BUT
• (1) Age effects are not bounded, i.e., are not
  confined to a (critical) period.
• (2) Age effects are not maturational in nature.
• (3) Age-related effects are not uniquely
  biological in nature.
• (4) Age effects can be blunted.

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AsideMy friend (spouse, case study subject,
etc.) has been immersed in the L2 for 15 years
and still has non-native pronunciation (lexis,
AGR, etc.). Obviously youre wrong about the
moderating role of L2 use (phonetic training,
psycho-social factors, etc.)!
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Results clearly suggest that factors like
professional motivation, integrative motivation
or strength of concern for L2 pronunciation
accuracy do not automatically lead to accent-free
L2 speech (Piske et al., 2001, p. 202)
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My friend (spouse, case study subject, etc.) has
been immersed in the L2 for 15 years and still
has non-native pronunciation (lexis, AGR, etc.).
Obviously youre wrong about the moderating role
of L2 use (phonetic training, psycho-social
factors, etc.)!Distinction
Necessary vs. sufficient conditions
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Nativelike attainment in late L2A

• Studies of end state in post-pubertal L2A reveal
• (5) Nativelike attainment is not rare.

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Nativelike attainment in late L2A

• Studies of end state in post-pubertal L2A reveal
• (5) Nativelike attainment is not rare.
• (6) Nativelike attainment does not require
  extraordinary talent.

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Nativelike attainment in late L2A

• Studies of end state in post-pubertal L2A reveal
• (5) Nativelike attainment is not rare.
• (6) Nativelike attainment does not require
  extraordinary talent.
• (7) Nativelikeness is not always confined to a
  narrow L2 performance domain.

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Bley-Vroman (1989, p. 44)

• gt In late L2A, complete success is extremely
  rare, or perhaps even nonexistent
• 0 to 5 percent rate of nativelike attainment
• gt Success in late L2A is as pathological as
  failure in L1A.

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(5) Observed nativelikeness

• Since 1992, /- 20 experimental
  (psycholinguistic) observations of late L2
  learners performing in the range of native
  controls, or to even more stringent criteria.
• Segmental global pronunciation, perception,
  morphosyntax, lexis.

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(5) Rate of nativelikeness not rare

• In these studies, the incidence of nativelikeness
  is typically between 5 and 20 percent (range 3
  - 33).

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(6) Talent The Received View

• Successful learners have talent or aptitude for
  learning language resulting from special
  neurocognitive abilities (Obler)

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(6) Nativelikeness lt? special talent(Schneiderman
, 1992)

• Wechsler Memory Quotient
• California Verbal Learning
• MLAT I -- number learning
• MLAT II -- phonetic script
• MLAT III -- spelling cues
• MLAT IV -- words in sentences
• MLAT V -- paired associates
• MLAT Total
• Verbal IQ
• Performance IQ

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Nativelikeness lt? special neural organization
(Scheiderman, 1992)

• Successful learners are NOT weakly left
  lateralized (ruling out cognitive flexibility
  in the neural substrate as the source of success
  in postpubertal L2A).

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(7) Narrow vs. comprehensive nativelikeness

• Claim Nativelikeness, when observed, is
  restricted to isolated performance domains.
  Absolute nativelike command of an L2 may in fact
  never be possible for any learner (Hyltenstam
  Abrahamsson, 2003, p. 575 see also Long, 1993)

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Marinova-Todd (2003)

• 30 late (gt16 YOA) arrivals in U.S.
• gt 5 years LOR (mean 11 years)
• Screened for proficiency
• College educated
• 30 native controls, comparable ages and education

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Marinova-Todd (2003)

• Nine tasks, covering
• Pronunciation
• reading aloud a paragraph from a novel
• telling the Frog Story
• Morphosyntax
• (3) GJT from White Genesee (1996)
• (4) error analysis of Frog Story recounting
• (5) sentence comprehension test from Dabrowska
  (1997)

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Marinova-Todd (2003)

• Nine tasks, covering
• Lexical knowledge
• (6) lexical diversity in telling Frog Story
• (7) Revised Peabody Vocabulary Test
• Language Use
• (8) narrative coherence test
• (9) Discourse Completion Test adapted from
  Blum-Kulka et al. (1999)

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Marinova-Todd (2003)

• Results
• Three of the 30 subjects performed within the
  range of native controls across all 9 tasks
  (above native means in some cases).
• Six other subjects in native range on 7/9 tasks.

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Birdsong (2003)

• 22 late (gt18 YOA) Anglophone arrivals in Paris
  area
• gt 5 years LOR (mean 11 years)
• Not screened for proficiency
• College educated
• 17 native controls, comparable ages and education

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Birdsong (2003)

• Seven tasks, covering
• Pronunciation
• VOT for initial consonants (word lists)
• (2) vowel lengths (word lists)
• (3) syntactically-conditioned liaisons interdites
  with real and nonce lexis
• (4) global pronunciation (passage from literary
  text)

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Birdsong (2003)

• Seven tasks, covering
• Morphosyntax GJTs for
• (5) Null Object Larmée le trouve difficile de
  prévoir les nouvelles attaques de lennemi
• (6) Exceptional Case Marking Mes profs trouvent
  ces vers etre indignes de Shakespeare
• (7) Distribution of SE in unaccusatives se
  verdir sempourprer

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Birdsong (2003)

• Results
• Three of 22 subjects performed in native range
  on 6 of 7 tasks.

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COMPOSITE RESULTS
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(7) Nativelikeness in L2 is not always confined
to a narrow performance domain.(Marinova-Todd,
2003 Birdsong, 2003)
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Aside The relevance of nativelikeness in L2A
research

• Selinker (1972) even suggested that the rare
  cases of apparent complete success could perhaps
  be regarded as peripheral to the enterprise of
  L2A theory
• (Bley-Vroman, 1989, p. 44)

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Determining the upper limits of L2A

• Recognize limits of current theories practices
• Fill descriptive voids w/r/t outcomes
• Fill descriptive voids w/r/t factors
• Relate outcomes and factors to models of
  acquisition and representation

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GERIATRIC SCIENCE
fitness
disease
wellness
infirmity
BALANCE COMPLETENESS
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Dont ignore the upper limits

• Marathon running
• Fauja Singh
• 92-year-old marathoner
• 26.2 miles in 5 hours 40 minutes

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L2A END STATE STUDY
nativelike
learnable
not learnable
not nativelike
BALANCE COMPLETENESS
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Dont ignore the upper limits

• Post-pubertal L2 acquisition
• Earlier AoA is better, but
• at L2A end state, 10 perform like natives on
  challenging language tasks.

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End of Session 1THANK YOU

• Session 2
• Nativelikeness in L2A Research