A Research Review On The Effect Of Age On The Acquisition Of Second Language Phonics

With the increase in international communication, the attention paid to the foreign language learning is greatly strengthened and the trend in the education of the foreign language turns to younger. The viewpoint of"the earlier the study, the better in acquiring a foreign language"is advocated by many educators and psychologists. However, whether does the age have a substantial influence on the acquisition of a second language, especially for the pure pronunciation, what kind of the influence does it have, and which age bracket is the best period of the language learning, have become the focus and hot questions among the psychologists, linguists and the foreign language educators in the world at present. Nevertheless, a survey of the researches on this topic shows that hitherto there is no clear and definite conclusion.This thesis presents a detailed introduction to the theories of critical period hypothesis (CPH) and sensitive period hypothesis (SPH), the support and objecting views to the critical period hypothesis, and a speech learning mode (SLM) which has a significant influence on the phonetic acquisition. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies, the respective advantages and disadvantages of the second language learner in different age brackets were compared and analyzed. According to our national conditions and current situations, we put forward a viewpoint that the age is an important yet insufficient condition in affecting the acquisition of the second language phonics. Moreover, the research prospect under the environment of a formal education and the teaching strategy for the acquisition of a pure second language pronunciation were proposed. This research provides an important guidance in understanding the dependence of the acquisition of the second language phonics on the age factor as well as in scientific utilization of this relation to make the rational education system and teaching tactics.