闽江学院本科毕业论文(设计)题目A Study on the Influence of CriticalPeriod Hypothesis on the EnglishLevel of Chinese English Majors 学生姓名叶翠学号120080201227系别外语系年级08级专业英语教育指导教师林庆英职称讲师完成日期2012年5 月18 日闽江学院毕业论文（设计）诚信声明书本人郑重声明：兹提交的毕业论文（设计）《A Study on the Influence of Critical Period Hypothesis on the English Level of Chinese English Majors》，是本人在指导老师林庆英的指导下独立研究、撰写的成果；论文（设计）未剽窃、抄袭他人的学术观点、思想和成果，未篡改研究数据，论文（设计）中所引用的文字、研究成果均已在论文（设计）中以明确的方式标明；在毕业论文（设计）工作过程中，本人恪守学术规范，遵守学校有关规定，依法享有和承担由此论文（设计）产生的权利和责任。
声明人（签名）：2012年5月17日摘要对于儿童期开始学习外语是否比少年、成人期开始学习外语更具有优势，关键期假说在二语习得领域究竟有多少解释力，语言研究者和外语教学界长期以来没有达成共识。
因此，本文试从英语专业学生的英语水平与其学习英语的起始年龄的关系角度来研究关键期对中国英语专业学生英语水平的影响，探讨了以下两个问题：（1）是否在关键期内开始学习英语会不会影响英语专业学生的英语综合水平？（2）是否在关键期内开始学习英语会不会影响英语专业学生的口语水平？该研究通过问卷调查从闽江学院外语系大三、大四两个英语专业年级的学生中筛选出322名受试，并根据他们的初始英语学习年龄（小学学习者、初中学习者）将其分成两组比较各自的综合英语水平和口语水平。
然后，对所收集到的两组调查数据进行了定量分析比较。
研究结果表明是否在关键期内开始学习英语对英语专业学生的英语水平有一定的影响。
因此，本研究在一定程度上证明了关键期假说在中国外语学习环境中的可行性，这对二语习得领域的研究是一个有意义的补充。
关键词：关键期假说；英语专业学生；英语水平；起始年龄AbstractThere has been a heated debate among linguists and researchers on the Critical Period Hypothesis and on whether children have absolute advantages over teenagers and adults in second language acquisition. Therefore, this thesis sets out to explore the influence of the Critical Period Hypothesis on the English level of Chinese English majors through the relationship between the English level and the age onset of English learning of English majors. It mainly discusses the following two questions: (1) Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the comprehensive English level of English majors? (2) Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the oral English skills of English majors?By virtue of a questionnaire survey, 322 subjects were first selected from the juniors and seniors of English majors in Foreign Language Department of Minjiang University. Then the selected subjects were divided into two groups according to the age onset of English learning (elementary school starters, secondary school starters) so as to compare their comprehensive English level and oral English skills. At last, quantitative analyses were employed to interpret the collected statistics. As is shown by the results of the study, there is certain difference between the English level of students who started English learning within or after the critical period. Thus, this finding lent some support to the applicability of Critical Period Hypothesis in the foreign language learning in China, which is a meaningful supplement for the research in the second language acquisition.Key words：The Critical Period Hypothesis; English majors; English level; onset ageContents1.Introduction (1)2. Literature Review (1)2.1 The Critical Period Hypothesis (1)2.2 Relevant Studies on Critical Period Hypothesis (2)2.2.1 Studies Abroad (2)2.2.2 Studies Home (3)3. The Current Study (4)3.1 Research Questions (4)3.2 Questionnaire Design (5)3.3 Method (5)3.4 Subjects (5)4. Results and Analyses (6)4.1 Comparison of Comprehensive English Level (6)4.2 Comparison of Oral English Skills (8)4.3 Comparison of Personal Views on the Critical Period's Influence (10)5. Conclusion (12)5.1 Conclusions of the Study (12)5.2 Limitations and Recommendations (12)References (14)Appendix (15)Acknowledgements (16)A Study on the Influence of Critical Period Hypothesis on theEnglish Level of Chinese English Majors1. IntroductionWith the increasing number of English learners, many psychologists, applied linguists and educators show great interest in the study of effects of age on second language acquisition. They have spent a great deal of time on the research of the relationship between age factor and second language acquisition from various aspects. However, the results are not in agreement, even contradictory. Among the theories and hypotheses they have put forward, the most controversial one about second language acquisition is the Critical Period Hypothesis by Lenneberg (1967), who states, "there is a period when language acquisition can take place naturally and effortlessly, but after a certain age the brain is no longer able to process language input in this way.”[1](P176) According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, there exists a common conception that the younger the children start to learn a foreign language, the better. Some scholars have done a lot of research and experiments to support this hypothesis.In recent years, there has been a heated discussion about whether the age factor has an effect on foreign language learning in China. Hence this thesis focuses on the influence of Critical Period Hypothesis on the English Level of Chinese English Majors and presents the author's views on some issues concerned. To further explore such doubts is both of theoretical significance for the system of foreign language teaching and of practical significance for implementation of educating plan in our country with a large number of foreign language learners.2. Literature Review2.1 The Critical Period HypothesisThe Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) refers to a period in one's life extending from about age two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and withoutexplicit instruction[2]. Penfield, a Canadian neurosurgeon, was the first to propose the concept of the optimum age, that is, the optimum age for the acquisition of language is before 10 years of age, during which time the brain remains its plasticity; but when puberty comes, the brain loses plasticity, which is caused by lateralization[3]. Later, In 1967, Lenneberg improved and introduced CPH into the process of foreign language learning. Lenneberg argued that language was the output of brain. Before puberty, when both hemispheres of the brain participate in language learning, language can be acquired naturally effortlessly because of the plasticity of brain. After puberty, most people's brain is lateralized and their neurological system loses such plasticity, which makes language acquisition more and more difficult[1].CPH was primarily concerned with first language acquisition, and it was generally accepted among psycholinguists that a critical period for first language acquisition exists. But since the testing of CPH was moved into second language acquisition, it has aroused great controversy[4].2.2 Relevant Studies on Critical Period Hypothesis2.2.1 Studies AbroadPenfield and Roberts are responsible for pointing out the notion of critical period initially. As stated by Penfield and Roberts, a child's brain was more plastic by comparison with an adult. A child could learn two to three languages as easily as one before the age of nine. However, the brain gradually became inflexible and tough when one was at the age of nine to twelve[3].Patkowsky suggested that a critical period for second language learning did indeed exist from his study which meant to find out the likelihood of a critical period for learning a second language. Patkowsky found that learners under the age of fifteen achieved higher syntactic proficiency than those who were over the age of fifteen at the onset of exposure. Thus, Patkowsky posited that among all the factors he examined in his study, age was the factor that had the most significant impact on success in learning a second language[5]. His findings were fully consistent with the Critical Period Hypothesis.As the Critical Period Hypothesis proposes, there are also lots of opposed viewsaccompanying with its supporting views in the field of linguistics. Snow clearly expressed her points of view that there was no critical period for second language learning, in that there was no biologically determined constraint on language learning capacity that emerged at a particular age, nor any maturational process which required that older language learners functioned differently than younger language learners[6].Since Ervin-Tripp showed some of the ways in which older children learnt certain aspects of language more efficiently than younger children, a good deal of evidence was accumulated that being young was no more an advantage in language learning than in many other aspects of life. Likewise, Swain was surprised to find that late immersion learners had many better results than early immersion learners[4].With the development of the medical science in the world, some points of the Critical Period Hypothesis are also under criticism. Some research work has challenged the precise age when lateralization takes place, resulting in doubts about the neurological basis of the Critical Period Hypothesis. Actually, Seliger, Krashen and Ladefoged did a study in 1975, showing that puberty may be an important turning point in language learning. But this confirmation of Lenneberg's critical period does not imply that its basis is the development of cerebral dominance.2.2.2 Studies HomeThe CPH has also attracted much attention of the scholars in China. But it seems that many of them have negative opinions. Gui Shichun expressed his points of view: "It is hard to get a definite answer of what is the best age of foreign language learning, so we cannot simply draw any conclusion whether there exists a CPH; instead we should study the learning features of different age stages, and then make full use in our teaching and learning".[7](P54)He declared that the mythical event was just an assumption without reasonable proof in theoretical and practical evidence in formal school context, so the idea should not be accepted as a basis for a decision by policy-makers[7], which was later approved by LiuZhenQian[8].Shu Dingfang believes that learners at any age onset could succeed in foreign language learning[9]. Given fine language surroundings and scientific teaching methods, children who started learning a foreign language at twelve can also have their foreign language abilities and reach the level of the native-speaking students. Similarly, DaiWeidong commented that the age onset had little effect on the acquisition procedures; learners at any age onset can learn a foreign language well. Besides, the different study time would affect the success degree of the acquisition. He also suggested the best age for the Chinese students to study a foreign language should be between twelve and fifteen[10].Actually, recent studies revealed that those who were exposed to English at an early age did have some advantages over those at an older age[4][11][12]. Nevertheless, Su Yunhua put forward that the Critical Period Hypothesis was too absolute and it still needed further exploration[13]. To sum up, it is still lack of a persuasive answer to whether there is inevitable relation between the Critical Period and the Second Language Acquisition. Thus, it is of necessity to further explore the issue from a new perspective---English majors with a view to supplement and enrich the research of CPH in second language acquisition. That is, the relationship between English majors' English level and the onset age of English learning will be investigated in details in this paper.3. The Current Study3.1 Research QuestionsAs the above-mentioned in this thesis, Critical Period Hypothesis still has many approval as well as disapproval opinions. And there is a growing tendency to start English learning and teaching at a lower age in China. Thus the study on age factors of language learning has an important theoretical and practical significance. This research sets out to examine, by data collecting and statistics analyzing, whether English majors have significant differences between the elementary school starters and the secondary school starters in their English level. That is to find out the answers to the following questions:(1)Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the comprehensive English level of English majors?(2)Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the oral English skills of English majors?3.2 Questionnaire DesignThe questionnaire here is a self-report inquiry, including eight items (See Appendix) which were designed for collecting three kinds of statistics: comprehensive English level, oral English skills and personal viewpoints. The information of Question 1, about the age onset of English learning, is of great importance, for the feedback of when to start his/her English learning will be adopted for the classification of the two different groups of learners in the coming study, while the answers to Question 2, 3 and 4 are set for judging the learners' comprehensive English level, and the answers to Question 5, 6 and 7 are set for evaluating the learners' oral English skills; then the last question aims at collecting the subjects' personal views on the critical period's influence on the English level of English-major students.3.3 MethodWhen conducting the questionnaire, we show our deep expectation of receiving the honest and serious answers; besides, in order for the subjects to answer conveniently and quickly, all the questions are concise multiple-choice questions, along with some blanks for complementary answers.The answer to Question 1 was thought to be most believable, since everyone would remember clearly when they started learning English. And the different scores of different groups of subjects, that is, the scores of College Entrance Examination and the scores of TEM-Band 4 were chosen by different sections to ensure the truth and accuracy. So the reliability of the research can be greatly improved.3.4 SubjectsAltogether 322 English majors handed in the answered questionnaires that were all effective. Originally, it was hoped that the students could be classified into four groups: kindergarten or Grade one starters, Grade three or Grade four starters, Grade five or Grade six starters and secondary school starters. However, as English teaching before secondary school was not so popular ten years ago, only 7 kindergarten starters were found, hence much fewer than the original expectation (i.e. 30 for each group). Since there are only 87 students who started learning English before puberty, also 87 subjects were randomly selected from the 235 secondary school starters in order to keep reliableof the study. Besides, the research is based on the Critical Period Hypothesis, so the data of the former three groups was collected into Group 1 (n=87), the elementary school starters, and the data of the last group was collected into Group 2 (n=87), the secondary school starters.4. Results and AnalysesIn the research, the comprehensive English level of the subjects from Group 1 and Group 2 was evaluated by collecting the scores of College Entrance Examination and the scores of TEM-Band 4 and the number of students who participated in the National English Contest for College Students. Similarly, their oral English skills were evaluated by the number of students who participated in the speech contest, by the case of achieving Spoken English certificates and by their own assessment of their communication skill in English. Finally, the subjects were required to express their personal views on the critical period's influence on the English level of English majors. The results and analyses are to be shown in the following three sections.4.1 Comparison of Comprehensive English level051015202530354045Fail 90-100100-110110-120120-135more than135Group1Group2Note: Group1= elementary school starters Group2= secondary school startersFigure 4.1 Scores of Group 1 and Group 2 in College Entrance Examination (CEE)Figure 4.1 illustrates that the number of students who got lower scores in CEE is less in Group 1 than that in Group 2, while the number of students who got higher scores is larger in Group 1 than that in Group 2. Although the numerical gaps betweenGroup 1 and Group 2 are not quite obvious from Figure 4.1, a conclusion can still be drawn that students who started learning English before puberty do better than those who started learning English after puberty in CEE to some degree.05101520253035404550Fail 60-6970-79more than 80Group1Group2Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersFigure 4.2 Scores of Group 1 and Group 2 in TEM-Band 4Figure 4.2 displays that the number of students who failed in TEM-Band 4 is less in Group 1 than that in Group 2, while the number of students who passed the TEM-Band 4 is slightly larger in Group 1 than that in Group 2. Thus, a conclusion can be made from the figure that students who started learning English before puberty do a little better than those who started learning English after puberty in the performance of TEM-Band 4.32343638404244G roup1G roup2Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersFigure 4.3 The number of Group 1 and Group 2 participating in the National English Contest forCollege Students (NECCS)Figure 4.3 demonstrates that the number of students who participated in the NECCS is larger in Group 1 than that in Group 2. As is known to all, NECCS is a comprehensive competition with certain difficulty, and it is often the case that students having confidence in their English proficiency will be more likely to participate in the NECCS. So it can be concluded that more elementary school starters have confidence in their English proficiency than secondary school starters.According to the above data analyses from their performance in College Entrance Examination, TEM-4 and participation in NECCS, it can be inferred that as for comprehensive English level, Group 1 showed better performance than Group 2, though the differences between them seem not so significant.4.2 Comparison of Oral English Skills05101520Group1Group2Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersFigure 4.4 The number of Group 1 and Group 2 participating in the speech contestAs is shown in Figure 4.4, the number of the two groups of English learners who participated in the speech contest is the same. Generally speaking, speech contest participants have preferable oral expression abilities. It can be consequently concluded from the figure that students from the two groups are similar in their oral expression ability.Table 4.1 The number of Group 1 and Group 2 with different kinds ofSpoken English certificatesGroups BECHigherBEC Vantage Oral Business English Other Spoken English certificates Non-participants Group 1 312 10 12 50 Group 2 4 6 8 6 63Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersApparently, the number of Group 1 who hold different kinds of Spoken English certificates is larger than that of Group 2. To make a clear contrast, the total number of different kinds of Spoken English certificates holders of the two groups will be presented in the following figure.0510152025303540Group1Group2Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersFigure 4.5 The number of Group 1 and Group 2 with different kinds of Spoken English certificatesIt can be seen from Figure 4.6 that the two groups of English learners' self-assessment on their own English communication skills are not significantly different. Then the conclusion could be reached that students of the two groups are of comparable ability in their English communication skills.0102030405060very poor poor ordinary good very goodGroup1Group2Note: Group 1= elementary school starters Group 2= secondary school startersFigure 4.6 The self-assessment of Group 1 and Group 2 on their own English communication skillsBased on the above figures and data analyses, it can be found that elementary school starters enjoy a slight advantage over secondary school starters in oral English skills. That's to say, students who started learning English before puberty have better oral English skills than those who started learning English after puberty, while the difference is not quite apparent.4.3 Comparison of Personal Views on the Critical Period's InfluenceThe last part of the questionnaire is set to know about the subjects' opinion on the critical period's influence on their English level. And the two groups' responses will be illustrated in the following two figures.Figure 4.7 shows clearly that only nearly 38% elementary school starters insist that starting English within Critical Period is conducive to their English learning. Other about 62% elementary school starters believe that starting English within Critical Period has no advantage for or is irrelevant to their English learning.37.93%37.93%24.14%0.00%5.00%10.00%15.00%20.00%25.00%30.00%35.00%40.00%Conducive Without advantage IrrelevantFigure 4.7 Responses of elementary school starters to the influence of Critical PeriodAs it can be seen from Figure 4.8 that only a little more than 25% secondary school starters hold that starting English after Critical Period is unfavorable to their English learning. While other about 75% secondary school starters deem that starting English after Critical Period has no influence on or is irrelevant to their English learning. .25.29%27.59%47.20%0.00%5.00%10.00%15.00%20.00%25.00%30.00%35.00%40.00%45.00%50.00%U n f a v o u r a b l e W i t h o u t i n f l u e n c e I r r e l e v a n tFigure 4.8 Responses of secondary school starters to the influence of Critical PeriodActually, from the above two figures, it can be known easily that only a small number of the two groups of subjects assert that their English level is relevant to their age onset of English learning. In other words, most of the subjects assume that CriticalPeriod has little effect on their English learning.To sum up, from the above-mentioned data analyses, it can be seen that subjects in Group 1 have slight superiority in English comprehensive level and oral English skills over those in Group 2. Hence, Research Question 1 "Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the comprehensive English level of English majors?" was confirmed. Besides, it seems that Group 1 enjoys a minor advantage over Group 2 in the comparison of their oral English skills. Thus, Research Question 2 "Whether starting learning English within the critical period will influence the oral English skills of English majors?" was also verified. Nonetheless, the subjects' personal views on the influence of Critical Period's influence on the English level don't provide valid proof to the findings. That means, the tentative results in this study awaits further exploration and verification.5. Conclusion5.1 Conclusions of the StudyThough many a study about CPH has been conducted, to examine English majors as subjects has seldom been involved in previous research. Therefore, the present study was undertaken primarily to explore the influence of the Critical Period Hypothesis on the English level of Chinese English majors. Indeed, the outcomes of the study gives some support to the research questions whether there are some differences between the Comprehensive English level and Oral English Skills of English majors who started learning English within the Critical Period and those who started learning English after the Critical Period. In other words, it can be deduced that the Critical Period Hypothesis seems to exert a little influence on the English level of Chinese English majors.The argument about CPH in SLA has never stopped since its appearance. Frankly speaking, it is still far to bring any conclusive result of this study in this topic; however it's anyway of much significance to investigate the relationship between starting English learning within or after the Critical Period and its relevant achievements, for the results of this kind of research can provide the educators and parents with some helpful reference for whether it is necessary to let children learn English at a quite early time. 5.2 Limitations and RecommendationsJust the same as other studies on the age and second language acquisition, this study also has its own limitations which could not be approached immediately. Firstly, due to a limited number of kindergarten or Grade one starters and Grade three or Grade four starters, the subjects can't be divided into four groups; therefore, grouping in this research is too general. Secondly, the region distribution of the subjects is too unitary; all the subjects are from the same department of the same college. Owing to the limit of number and range of the subjects, maybe the experiment results are not extensive and representative enough. Finally, the scores of CEE and TEM-Band 4 of the subjects fail to be showed in specific points, which makes it impossible for the Software SPSS to calculate the significant difference. Hence the thesis is not convincing enough.Anyway, this research is the first trial among Chinese English majors, while the further study can be more objective and reliable by making some improvements from the given limitations. For example, the scores of TEM-Band 8 can be also included, and more subjects from other universities can be chosen to enrich the subject groups.References[1]Lenneberg, E. Biological Foundations of Language[M]. New York: John Wiley, 1967: 176.[2]何兆熊，梅德明. 现代语言学［Ｍ］.北京:外语教学与研究出版社,1998：220.[3]Penfield, W., Roberts, L. Speech and Brain Mechanism [M]. New York: Atheneum Press, 1959：125-138.[4]黄怀飞．二语习得的起始年龄及其相关成就研究［Ｄ］．福州: 福建师范大学,2004.[5]Patkowski, M. S. The Sensitive Period for the Acquisition of Syntax in a Second Language [J]. Language Learning, 1980, (30): 449-472.[6]Snow, C. and Hoefiiagel-Hohle, M. The Critical Age for Language Acquisition: Evidence from Second Language Learning [J]. Child Development, 1978, (4): 1114-1128.[7]桂诗春．‘外语要从小学起’质疑［J］.外语教学与研究,1992,(4)：52-54.[8]刘振前．语言习得关键期假设研究述评［J］．当代语言学，2003，(2)：158-172．[9]束定芳，庄智象.《现代外语教学》［Ｍ］.上海：上海外语教育出版社,1998： 89.[10]戴炜栋．外语教学的＂费时低效＂现象［J］．外语与外语教学，2001，（7）：1-2.[11]许娜．二语习得中的年龄因素研究［D］．大连：辽宁师范大学，2008．[12]付珊娜．年龄因素如何影响第二语言习得及其对二语教学的启示［D］．哈尔滨：哈尔滨工程大学，2008．[13]苏云华．学校环境下的外语学习成绩与起始年龄的调查［Ｄ］．兰州: 西北师范大学,2007.Appendix英语学习问卷调查亲爱的同学们，大家好！此问卷仅为个人教学科研使用，所收集信息不会用于其它目的，请如实填写。
