The critical period hypothesis

Fil: The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), originally proposed by Lenneberg (1967), states that there is a maturational period of time during which language acquisition can take place. The CPH is often cited to account for difference in success between early and late language learners. Based on Lenn...

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Autor principal: Diaz, Claudia
Otros Autores: Insaurralde, Andrea
Formato: Tesis de grado Trabajo final de grado acceptedVersion
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación 2016
Materias:
Critical Period Hypothesis
Native-like pronunciation
Acceso en línea:https://dspace.ufasta.edu.ar/handle/123456789/87359
Aporte de:
Repositorio Digital (UFASTA) de Universidad FASTA
id I42-R148-123456789-87359
record_format dspace
spelling I42-R148-123456789-873592025-12-02T18:45:08Z The critical period hypothesis Diaz, Claudia Insaurralde, Andrea Bicoff, Carla Critical Period Hypothesis Native-like pronunciation Fil: The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), originally proposed by Lenneberg (1967), states that there is a maturational period of time during which language acquisition can take place. The CPH is often cited to account for difference in success between early and late language learners. Based on Lenneberg’s hypothesis, other researchers have generated additional hypothesis, all of which consider a maturational period of time during which language acquisition take place. This Final Research Project investigates the critical period hypothesis for second language pronunciation from and English-as-a-foreign-language perspective. It aims to investigate whether it is possible for late learners of English to achieve a native-like pronunciation regardless of maturational constraints. This project also investigates whether the variable ‘exposure to the target language’ influences significantly or not the ability for late L2 learners to obtain native-like pronunciation. In order to find out about this, two groups of non-native speakers, differing in the amount of exposure they receive to the target language in their secondary education, were included in this study, alongside a native speaker control group. Three speech samples were collected for each speaker: a word list, a paragraph, and an answer to an open-ended question. After these speech samples were collected from each subject, 6 linguistically naïve native speakers of English evaluated the sound samples based on native likeness. After these scores were obtained, means were calculated to determine their performance and to determine intergroup comparison. Results indicate that there were no late L2 learners of English who had obtained a native-like pronunciation. This could provide evidence in favor of a critical period for second language pronunciation. Results also indicate that there was a significant difference in mean scores between the non-native speaker groups, with an advantage for students in bilingual Spanish-English programs over those in monolingual Spanish programs, suggesting a significance for the variable ‘exposure to the target language’ in determining second language pronunciation in late learners. Thus, exposure to the target language influences the acquisition of second language pronunciation, possibly, alongside a developmental critical period. Fil: Diaz, Claudia. Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina. Fil: Insaurralde, Andrea. Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina. Fil: Bicoff, Carla. Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina. 2016 2025-09-19T21:52:47Z 2025-09-19T21:52:47Z info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis info:ar-repo/semantics/trabajo final de grado info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion https://dspace.ufasta.edu.ar/handle/123456789/87359 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.es_AR application/pdf application/pdf Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación
institution Universidad FASTA
institution_str I-42
repository_str R-148
collection Repositorio Digital (UFASTA)
language Inglés
topic Critical Period Hypothesis
Native-like pronunciation
spellingShingle Critical Period Hypothesis
Native-like pronunciation
Diaz, Claudia
The critical period hypothesis
topic_facet Critical Period Hypothesis
Native-like pronunciation
description Fil: The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), originally proposed by Lenneberg (1967), states that there is a maturational period of time during which language acquisition can take place. The CPH is often cited to account for difference in success between early and late language learners. Based on Lenneberg’s hypothesis, other researchers have generated additional hypothesis, all of which consider a maturational period of time during which language acquisition take place. This Final Research Project investigates the critical period hypothesis for second language pronunciation from and English-as-a-foreign-language perspective. It aims to investigate whether it is possible for late learners of English to achieve a native-like pronunciation regardless of maturational constraints. This project also investigates whether the variable ‘exposure to the target language’ influences significantly or not the ability for late L2 learners to obtain native-like pronunciation. In order to find out about this, two groups of non-native speakers, differing in the amount of exposure they receive to the target language in their secondary education, were included in this study, alongside a native speaker control group. Three speech samples were collected for each speaker: a word list, a paragraph, and an answer to an open-ended question. After these speech samples were collected from each subject, 6 linguistically naïve native speakers of English evaluated the sound samples based on native likeness. After these scores were obtained, means were calculated to determine their performance and to determine intergroup comparison. Results indicate that there were no late L2 learners of English who had obtained a native-like pronunciation. This could provide evidence in favor of a critical period for second language pronunciation. Results also indicate that there was a significant difference in mean scores between the non-native speaker groups, with an advantage for students in bilingual Spanish-English programs over those in monolingual Spanish programs, suggesting a significance for the variable ‘exposure to the target language’ in determining second language pronunciation in late learners. Thus, exposure to the target language influences the acquisition of second language pronunciation, possibly, alongside a developmental critical period.
author2 Insaurralde, Andrea
author_facet Insaurralde, Andrea
Diaz, Claudia
format Tesis de grado
Trabajo final de grado
acceptedVersion
author Diaz, Claudia
author_sort Diaz, Claudia
title The critical period hypothesis
title_short The critical period hypothesis
title_full The critical period hypothesis
title_fullStr The critical period hypothesis
title_full_unstemmed The critical period hypothesis
title_sort critical period hypothesis
publisher Universidad FASTA. Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación
publishDate 2016
url https://dspace.ufasta.edu.ar/handle/123456789/87359
work_keys_str_mv AT diazclaudia thecriticalperiodhypothesis
AT diazclaudia criticalperiodhypothesis
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