Does younger mean better? Age of onset, learning rate and shortterm L2 proficiency in young Danish learners of English

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a semi-longitudinal study investigating the role of age of onset in early foreign language (English) learning. We compared two groups of Danish school children (N = 276) who, following an educational reform in 2014, started their first English classes the same year but at different ages. One group (the early starters) was introduced to English in the 1st grade (age 7-8) and the other group (the late starters) in the 3rd grade (age 9-10). Children’s receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar, and phonetic discrimination skills were followed for three years, allowing comparisons across groups and time and tracking learning rate and shortterm proficiency (after one and two years of instruction). Results showed that the late starters outperformed the early starters in most tests. With respect to learning rate, the tests also revealed that the late starters had an advantage in the receptive grammar test, whereas the phonetic discrimination test showed a more diffuse picture with the late starters seemingly halting in development and the early starters advancing. The results also showed gender differences with boys achieving a higher level of proficiency and exhibiting a faster learning rate than girls. The pedagogical implications of the results are discussed.

Second language acquisition of Spanish prosody by Chinese speakers: Nuclear contours and pitch characteristics

“…In this study, we did not specifically control for Chinese learners' origin, age of L2 acquisition, or length of exposure to the target-language environment, due Second language acquisition of Spanish prosody by Chinese speakers: Nuclear contours and pitch characteristics to the dramatic reduction in subject pool which would result from including these selection criteria. However, as these variables were reported in previous literature to exert certain effects in the L2 speech (Cadierno et al, 2020;Juan-Garau & Pérez-Vidal, 2007;Kharkhurin, 2008;Pfenninger & Singleton, 2016), we decided to include this additional information for the non-native groups (see Appendix A for more details). The L2 participants were native speakers of Mandarin Chinese and declared that this was their dominant language, despite having different places of origin within China.…”

Oral English performance in Danish primary school children: An interactional usage-based approach

“…Bo, the more proficient one, was a late starter and Nicoline, the less proficient one, was an early starter. The fact that there was one from each group is a by-product of the first selection criterion: The early starters, as we know from the quantitative studies in the large-scale project (Cadierno & Eskildsen, 2018;Cadierno et al, 2020), are generally much less proficient than the late starters.…”

How do differences in exposure affect English language learning? A comparison of teenagers in two learning environments

“…Similarly, in a study with young learners in the Netherlands starting English lessons at age 4, Unsworth et al (2015) found that after two years of instruction, amount of classroom exposure (more than 60 minutes of weekly classroom exposure versus 60 minutes or less) was a significant predictor of children's outcomes in receptive vocabulary and grammar skills. However, in a study with Danish children (ages 7-8 and 9-10) who attended schools that differed in hours of instruction, ranging from 68.25 to 141, Cadierno et al (2020) found that the total number of lessons was not a significant predictor of English proficiency in relation to receptive vocabulary, receptive grammar and phonetic discrimination skills. In fact, the relatively limited role of years of instruction in English FL proficiency has been evidenced in studies conducted in other geographical contexts.…”