earticle

영어

This paper will survey inquires that have been made into the issue of how age might influence ultimate attainment in language acquisition, and some of the theories that have been offered to explain possible maturational constraints on language learning. The approach of the paper will largely be historical, examining how the questions, methods of investigation, and proposed answers have changed over time and thereby casting light on the issue of epistemology in applied linguistics. Although the issue of age and language has been scrutinized in different ways for centuries, few generally accepted findings have been established. This paper takes the position that maturational constraints on language learning have not yet been satisfactorily proven or explained by any of the approaches attempted to date. The search will no doubt continue because of the pedagogical benefits that would derive from an understanding of how people learn languges at different ages, and the level of attainment that could be reasonably expected from students who begin language study at different ages.