The Critical Period Hypothesis And The Optimal Age To Start English Learning In China

While it is commonly believed that children are better language learners than older learners, opinions differ as to what is the optimal starting age in relation to foreign language learning, especially in a formal school learning context.The present study, with the critical period hypothesis (CPH) as its theoretical basis, which states that there is a critical period for language acquisition― a biologically determined period of life (2-12 years of age) when language can be acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to acquire, attempts to investigate the relationship between different initial English learning ages and English proficiency outcomes among Chinese learners of English whose intensive exposure began at different ages in a formal school learning context.This study replicates Burstall's study in1974 and Johnson and Newport's study in 1989 in combination, with adapted testing methods of Burstall's study, adapted data analysis methods of Johnson and Newport's study, and a different population of participants. The subjects in this study are randomly selected 695 sophomores and 218 freshmen in continuing English learning starting from kindergartens, Grade 1 in elementary schools, Grade 3-4 in elementary schools, and junior middle schools respectively. Data of participants'initial age of exposure, oral test scores, college English test, band 4 (CET4) scores were collected. Quantitative analyses were employed to interpret the results.The results indicate that the age factor has a significant effect on learners'ultimate outcome, especially on oral language, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. Evidence is found to support the two hypotheses that participants in this study will show a strong negative correlation between age of first exposure to English and performance on the oral test and the CET4 proficiency test, and that not all components are equally sensitive to the critical period effect, i.e., different components of proficiency will show different correlations with age of first exposure to English. Alternative explanations for the age learning differences are discussed and the...