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Critical Period Hypothesis

Terms and Concepts
A critical period: a time during an organisms life span when it is more sensitive to
environmental influences or stimulation than at other times during its life.
Critical period:

- begins and ends abruptly

- period beyond which a phenomenon will not appear

Sensitive period:
- begins and ends gradually
- period of maximal sensitivity
Window of opportunity:
- popular metaphor
- introduced by P. Bateson, 1978 in his critique
Questions:
- How long does the critical period last?
- When does the plasticity of the brain come to an end?
Lenneberg's (1967) Critical Period Hypothesis

Lenneberg theorized that the acquisition of language is an innate process determined

by biological factors which limit the critical period for acquisition of a language
from roughly two years of age to puberty.

Lenneberg believed that after lateralization (a process by which the two sides of
the brain develop specialized functions), the brain loses plasticity.

Lenneberg claimed that lateralization of the language function is normally

completed at puberty, making post adolescent language acquisition difficult.

Studied Scenarios of the

Those who believe in it say.
Critical Period

Those who DON'T believe in it argue

Childhood Aphasia (an

injury to the brain)

Children's brains were able to recover from this

much faster than an adult with the same injuries.
Because the brain heals so quickly when young,
this must be the critical period for learning
language.

More rapid recovery in children is due to the

fact that a different side of the brain took
over the function in a child; adults' brains
are already fully developed so this isn't
possible.

Second Language
Acquisition

Long term mastery of a second language

decreases as age increases. Because children can
pick up a second language faster, this must be
because they are still in their critical period.

Second language acquisition doesn't

necessarily have anything to do with first
language acquisition. Just because one can
acquire a second language faster does not
mean he couldn't acquire it outside of his
critical period.

Deaf children with

hearing parents

Studies find that these children do

The older a child is when he starts learning sign
eventually acquire sign language proficiency
language, the harder of a time he has acquiring it.
although it does take longer to learn. This
This must mean that he has missed his critical
refutes the critical period hypothesis saying
period for learning language.
that one can learn language at any age.

Cases of Childhood
extreme deprivation

It is not certain if children in cases of

If the child was rescued before the age of 7, much
extreme deprivation have trouble learning
greater gains were made in acquiring language.
language because they have missed their soThis must be because a child is still in his critical
called "critical period" or if it is because of
period before the age of 7.
the extreme trauma they have experienced.

Feral Children
See the classroom handout
Questions:
- Look at the ages at which the children were first exposed to
language. Do you think the evidence supports the idea of a
critical period? If so, at what age do you think it ends?
- Do you think researchers should consider other factors besides
age in studying delayed language acquisition? If so, what are
they?
David Skuse (1993) draws the following conclusions from the language deprivation data:
- In adverse childhood circumstances, language seems more
vulnerable than other cognitive faculties.
- In cases of deprivation, speech appears to be more retarted than
comprehension. It develops more slowly after discovery.
- Interpersonal contact makes an important contribution to the
speed and success of late language development
Genie: A study of a young girl who was deprived of language in her early years

BACKGROUND
Her parents had abused her and kept her locked up for most of her 13 years until she was
discovered.
She had been kept in a small room tied to her potty chair.
She was not allowed to speak or make sounds.
She was only given baby food and cereal to eat.
She had been to the doctor one time in her childhood and there was no sign or retardation
in her first 3 years of life.
When she was admitted to the hospital in November of 1970, she was 54 inches tall and
weighed only 62 pounds.
She could not stand, chew solid food, and couldn't make sounds.
RESULTS OF TESTS ON GENIE
At first, Genie was unwilling to cooperate. Researchers had to wait 11 months to run tests
therefore making it hard to truly assess Genie's linguistic capabilities.
At first, it was clear Genie could understand more than she was able to speak.
Slowly, over 2 years, she began to understand more and more.
She finally picked up the difference between singular and plural nouns, negative and
positive sentence distinctions, possessive constructions, a few prepositions, and some
modifications.
CONCLUSIONS BASED ON TESTS RUN
ON GENIE CONCERNING THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS

It is unclear if her inability to learn was due to the fact that she had missed her critical
period, or the fact that she had undergone extreme trauma as a child.
It is also hard to assess this case because researchers weren't able to test her immediately
upon discovery to really get a grasp for her language acquisition skills early on. They had
to wait until she was ready to cooperate. In that window, Genie could have picked up
more language or less than was accounted for.
Critical Period hypothesis and the SLA
The hypothesis is:
-

That the plasticity of the brain permits younger learners to

acquire a second language much more successfully than adult
ones;
That the universal grammar which permits us to acquire our fist
language is no longer available after a certain age.

An influential study by Johnson and Newport (1989) reported results highly consistent with
the critical period hypothesis. The study is widely cited as authoritative evidence for a
critical period in L2 acquisition. In their study of native speakers of Chinese and Korean
who came to the United States at ages ranging from 3 to 39 years old, they asked subjects
to identify grammatical and ungrammatical sentences that were presented in the auditory
mode. The reported that prior to age 15, there was a very strong negative correlation with
age but after age 15, there was no correlation with age (satisfying Conditions 1 and 2); in
addition, the adult learners showed great variability in learning outcomes whereas the child
learners did not (Condition 4).
A minute paper:
The Critical Period Hypothesis for learning a first language and the reasons I believe and
don't believe in it.