Age and Second Language Acquisition: Is Earlier Really Better?

Theoretical Background

The learning of English at an early age is becoming more and more commonplace in the Spanish educational system. However, this contrasts with the situation in other European countries where they start the teaching of a foreign language in primary education. Actually, there is no real evidence that demonstrates the effect of age on learners’ second language achievement, that is, whether learners who begin learning as children are able to reach higher levels of L2 ability than those who start learning in adolescence or adulthood.

Studies on Age and Language Acquisition

According to Clavel-Arroitia, several studies in the literature examine the effects of starting foreign language education in primary school compared with beginning in secondary school and how this can affect the students’ level of attainment.

Early Starters vs. Late Starters

In the first study, Burstall carried out a pilot study in England and Wales in which she compared two groups of students who had had five years of language instruction. One of them had begun learning French at the age of 8, while the second group had started at the beginning of secondary school (11 years old). Her results showed that the learners that had started later were consistently superior.

Harley, in the same line, examined the levels of attainment of children in French bilingual programs in Canada. Her study focused on the students’ acquisition of the French verb system. Her study included the comparison of early and late immersion students after both groups had received 1,000 hours of instruction. She concluded that neither of the two groups had acquired full control of the verb system, but she could confirm that the late immersion students showed greater overall control.

Oller and Nagato’s research carried out in a Japanese school found that older learners quickly caught up to those who had started earlier. Holsmtrand (1982) obtained similar results in a Swedish school when he compared students who had started learning English at the age of 6 with others who had started at the age of 8.

Muñoz et al.’s comparison of three different initial ages of instruction in the foreign language (8, 11, and 14) showed that after a similar number of hours of instruction, students who had started when they were older performed better in nearly all the linguistic areas.