2001/01/01 by David Singleton · 169 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Language Development and Disorders #Second Language Learning and Teaching #Sketch #Absoluteness #Information Age #Psychology #Language acquisition #Section (typography) #Linguistics #Computer science #Epistemology #Political science #Philosophy #Mathematics education #Law
paper · doi:10.1017/s0267190501000058
published in Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 21, 77-89 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2001/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The idea that there is an age factor in language development has long been — and continues to be — a hotly debated topic. This review begins by briefly revisiting some of the early perspectives on this issue; it goes on to sketch some of the relevant findings which emerged in the three decades following the onset in the late 1960s of serious empirical investigation of the age factor in L2 acquisition; and, finally, in the third section of the survey, it hones in on the results of some more recently published age-related research. The article concludes with a short discussion — in the light of the foregoing — of (a) the degree of absoluteness of the age factor in L2 acquisition; and (b) the notion that there may be not one, but a number, of age-related factors at work.