A Study on the Acquisition of English as Second Language at the Critical Age

Abstract

This research studied about acquisition of second language (hereinafter referred to as L2) at the critical age. Critical age plays a crucial role in Language Acquisition. Critical period (hereinafter referred to as CP) refers to the span of time in one’s life within which one must acquire a first language. A learner can never gain full proficiency if no language is acquired during the CP. The aim of this study is to find out a child’s capability of L2 acquisition during the CP i.e. how far the age can determine the skill gained in CP. The competence and performance shows a significant difference between children exposed to L2 in the CP and children exposed to L2 after the CP.The research is embodied with scholarly findings. Details and findings of previous researches done by many linguists, grammarians and scholars were taken into consideration. Namely Noam Chomsky, Leonard Bloomfield, Lev Vygotsky, Prof. Lydia White, Roger Browns etc. are prominent names in the field of study of L2 acquisition. A sample of 100 subjects was selected for data collection. ANOVA was computed to see the difference between critical age group and non-critical group in listening and writing. The results clearly revealed that the subjects who were fallen under the category of critical age showed better performance and the subjects who were fallen under the category of non- critical age showed poor performance. The results were categorized as poor, below average, average, good and excellent