Sunday, February 17, 2008
Critical Period Hypothesis
I've read a lot and heard a lot about CPH. I'm certainly not an expert by any means. I do have a few theories on the reasons why things happen. I think that children definitely have an easier time learning the language, however, I don't believe that it is impossible for an adult learner to speak another language with a proper accent. I've seen people that have no problem distinguishing sounds and producing them. I think there is maybe something involving our individual intelligences that plays a role. Some people cannot produce the right sounds at all, for others it seems easier. I think that children are used to listening for noise differences and they spend most of their time mimicing what other people are saying. When we get older, i believe that we stop listening to whole words all together. We start to fill in and only listen to partial speech. I think this could be a reason why we can't differentiate between the sounds of our first language and those of a second. Another reason why adults have trouble producing other sounds is because our muscles are used to using the sounds of our first language, the ones required for a second language often are not used in the same way and need to be "worked-out" before you are able to produce those sounds naturally. Children, especially babies, use all of the muscles in their mouths when making the random sounds that seem "foreign" to the adults around them. These are just some of the observations I've had when studying and discussing this topic in the past.
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5 comments:
Amber:
I think you're on to something with the "muscle memory" thing. Maybe it's like learning to throw a baseball or swing a golf club. If you start early it can become natural and graceful - but if you pick up the sports late in life - becoming effective is a little tougher - and rarely aesthetically pleasing.
But that makes language less a cognitive domain and more of a ... what? reflex? ...conditioned instinct? ...I don't wanna go down the primrose path of behaviorism, but...
The sport analogy is a metaphor I've played with before - but I haven't quite worked my way through it yet.
Maybe someone else can pick up on it.
g~
g~
Amber I think you hit on a big factor with your muscles remembering how they work in language. My first month of study abroad my jaw ached. It happened again upon my return home and speaking English. I thought it was completely bizarre because I had never considered the muscle memory of speaking English. It is like children's mouth muscles are a "blank slate".
What Sarah said makes me think. I've heard students say that after visiting for a month or two their "mouths hurt". Somebody speculated it had to do with the change in food, but I was always suspicious of that theory.
Way to pick up and respond to each other.
I'm really not sure where I fall with this whole CPH thing, but I do think it is possible for adults to learn another language;however, it may not come as easily and it depends on the conditions. I definitely agree that it is harder to mimic other sounds once we are older, but it is possible. I have actually heard that some Spanish speakers are never even able to make the rolling "r" sound in the first place, something that seems to be difficult for a lot of people I know who only speak English. I wonder what that means?
Muscle memory is certainly part of the mix. Mouth muscles, like any other, are trained/conditioned to make certain sounds and need retraining. I see that with students who have problems at the beginning of the year with certain sounds that are new, but at the end of the year are making them with ease.
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