Page 7 - ELG1806 June Issue 458

NEWS
LANGUAGE MASTERY TAKES 30 CHINESE
STUDENT
YEARS, CRITICAL AGE STUDY FINDS PILOT
‘KIDNAPPED’
By Melanie Butler had been suggested by smaller less started relatively late in the critical
An internet quiz taken by nearly diverse studies. In order to establish period... would simply run out of
700,000 people has helped this, the quiz included a survey time.’
American researchers model an of participants’ language learning So what about non-natives?
answer to the question: why don’t history which was completed by In a sample of 11,3700 migrants,
adult learners master English over 80 per cent of respondents. the paper found no significant
syntax as well as native speakers? By matching these demographic difference in attainment at the
The short answer is, they don’t details to the outcomes of native end of 30 years between migrant
have enough time. speakers, the researchers were children who arrived before the age
The results of the quiz show that able to establish that the rate of of 12 and simultaneous bilinguals.
the rate you learn any language acquisition was fastest in childhood After this the decline was steeper
slows down significantly after the and adolescence, but this learning and dropped sharply among those
age of 18. curve flattened out at between who arrived after the age of 20.
But everyone, including native 17 and 18 years old. However, The same trajectory was found
speakers, continues to improve, learning continued, albeit at a among 30,000 language learners
albeit more slowly, for a total of 30 slower pace, until the age of 30. who had studied English for 30
years after they first started. As authors Joshua Hartsthorne, years.
So, an Afghan migrant boy Joshua Tenenbaum and Steven The best results were obtained By Irena Barker
arriving in Aberdeen, UK at age Pinker point out in their ground- by learners who started between Two employees of a Californian
5, has 13 years of learning at a fast breaking paper: the ages of four and nine, indeed flight school are under arrest for
rate and will continue to develop ‘Even native speakers – who those who started at the top of that kidnapping one of their Chinese
mastery of grammar until he is 35, are able to make full use of the range did slightly better. students in what appears to be a
on average. critical period – take a very long After the age of 12, however, it vigilante deportation.
But his 16-year-old sister in time to reach mature, native-like declined sharply, although learners According to the website
the same situation will only have proficiency. continue to improve for between Record Searchlight, which broke
two years of fast-paced learning By implication, someone who 20 and 30 years. the story, the student Tianshu
– followed by many years of more Shi was threatened by the two
gradual learning – and will never staff on the night of May 24. At
reach native-speaker level. 6am the following morning they
However, the difference in returned to his apartment and
ultimate mastery of syntax between bundled him into a car.
native speakers and proficient non- Monolinguals Police officers later located Shi
natives is not, in fact, that great, as  at the local airport accompanied
the graph on this page shows. Immigrants by flight school general manager
The key finding that native  Jonathan McConkey and his
speakers continue to improve assistant Kelsi Hoser.
their syntax until the age of Bilinguals Hoser claimed that Shi was
30, for example, is based on being deported because of
analysis of the quiz results from his poor English skills, police
250,000 monolingual and 30,000 corporal Rob Peterson told the
simultaneous bilinguals aged UK’s Guardian newspaper.
between seven and 80. Large In a joint statement after
samples like these allow the their arrests, lawyers for the two
researchers to establish nuanced Foreign employees ‘vehemently’ denied
patterns across age groups, learner their clients had kidnapped Shi.
types and language groups. language The attorneys said the student
For example, researchers were learners had been previously expelled
able to establish that simultaneous from the training program due
bilinguals achieve a slightly lower to incompetence, and ‘was
level of proficiency than their given ample notice that he was
monolingual peers. The difference, required by law to return home
which has also been found in to China.’
previous studies on phonology, is Shi, who had paid £70,000
small but statistically significant. dollars to attend the course, told
The main aim of the research, the Record Searchlight: ‘I can’t
however, was to establish whether speak English well in life, ‘but
there was a critical period for I can speak well to air traffic
learning syntax, something that control’.

editorial@elgazette.com 7

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