Is There a Critical Period for Learning a Foreign Language?
– Page 2 Foreign-Language Learning and Critical Periods The question of whether or not there is a critical period for learning a foreign language is not easily answered. But there is certainly no specific age at which the window of opportunity closes completely. As with the visual system, the language system consists of several features, and is not, as Singleton writes, a “monolith.” Certain features of the language system may be more related to distinct critical periods than others. According to Ellen Bialystok and Kenji Hakuta, authors of In Other Words, “The controversy over the optimal age for learning a second language really hinges on the acquisition of a subset of possible linguistic features and functions.” The Grammar-Learning Window Never Completely Closes Although acquiring the grammar of one’s first language does seem to be subject to a critical period which ends around puberty, the issue of whether or not there is also a critical period for second-language grammar acquisit
