The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters) [Paperback]

Singleton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 16, 2000 | ISBN-10: 185359301X | ISBN-13: 978-1853593017

Assembles a variety of perspectives on the age factor in second language acquistion through all of which runs the common thread of certain scepticism with regard to absolutist version of the idea that there is a particular maturational stage beyond which language learning is no longer possible.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters (February 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185359301X
• ISBN-13: 978-1853593017
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,513,432 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An SLA Must, November 14, 2010

By 

Stephen Pellerine (In a bookshelf somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition (Multilingual Matters) (Paperback)

This book is wonderful.

This is an academic book addressing not only second language acquisition (SLA) in reference to age, but it also acknowledges a need for the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach for SLA research. There is a lot of reference made to the works of Penfield, Milner, and Hebb for example. Despite the large volume of books on SLA - this is quite a specialty.

One very important area addressed is a "kind of" criticism on research that is currently conducted in that most SLA oriented research (perhaps it would be safe to say educational research: in general) is based on short-term studies hence short-term memory and the explicit dimension of memory. This is quite a flaw in research, and unfortunately a lot of untrained linguists conduct such research and jump to conclusions that inform the field. This book addresses this and having read this over a decade ago had a great influence on how I approached my thinking/conclusions regarding perceptions and views within SLA discussion.

It also looks at the familiar area of "focus on form" and "consciousness-raising" as it was written before Sharwood-Smith detracted the term and replaced it with input enhancement. So - if you are interested in either: noticing, consciousness-raising, or input enhancement, this may also be of value to you.

This is an academic resource, a very good one, but not popular fiction here. For the great majority this would not be a good read - I recommend this for those with deep interests in linguistics, SLA, or age-language matters. If this is your cup of tea this book may be a sugar cube for it.