Treść książki
Przejdź do opcji czytnikaPrzejdź do nawigacjiPrzejdź do informacjiPrzejdź do stopki
TheoryandPracticeofSecondLanguageAcquisition
vol.3(1)2017,pp.7-27
DorotaLipińska
UniversityofSilesiainKatowice,Poland
TheInfluenceofAgeandL2
onThirdLanguageAcquisition
inaCorporateEnvironment
Abstract
TheroleofagefactorinSLAhasbeensystematicallystudiedbynumerouspsycholin-
guistsformanyyears(Ellis,1994),startingfromtheCriticalPeriodHypothesis(firstproposed
byPenfieldandRoberts,1959,andthenpopularizedbyLenneberg,1967)andcontinuing
untiltoday.However,sometimeslearners’ageisnottheonlypotentialdifficulty.Thesitua-
tionbecomesevenmorecomplicatedinthecaseofL3acquisitionwhennotonlyallfactors
influencingSLAareactive,butalsonumerousotherprocessesaffectTLA.
Theaimofthisstudywastoanalyzetheinfluenceoftheagefactorandlearners’L2
onTLAinacorporateenvironment.Agroupofsubjectsfromaninternationalcompany
situatedinthesouthofPolandagreedtoparticipateinthestudy.Theywerenativespeakers
ofPolishlearningL3-Germanintheircompany,butvaryingintermsofL2(Englishand
Russian),aswellasintermsofage.Theparticipantswerebetween28and62yearsold.
Theresultsofregularlyadministeredtestsfocusingonvariouslanguageskills,obtainedby
thelearnerswerecompared.Thesubjectsalsocompletedquestionnairesconcerningdifficul-
tiestheyencounteredwhilelearningGerman.Bothinformationsourcesdeliveredintriguing
resultscontributingtotheareaofTLAandage-relatedresearch.
Keywords:age,thirdlanguageacquisition,in-companyteaching,foreignlanguagelearning
TheAgeFactorinSLA
TheagefactorinSecondLanguageAcquisitionisoneofthemostwidely
discussedelementsaffectingthisprocessandithasbeensystematicallystud-
iedbynumerouspsycholinguistsformanydecades(e.g.,Jackiewicz,2009).
Itiswidelyknownthatthetendencytoacquirenoveltieschangesduringthe
