A case study exploring the differences reported between adult and child L2 learners

Abstract

"The current research is concerned with how age affects foreign language learning. The importance of the students‟ age is a vital factor that intervenes in this process (Ellis, 1989). Learning a foreign language could be more or less successful depending on the maturity of the person. Age is a factor in the foreign language learning process that is sometimes not understood by course instructors and insufficient attention is often given to the age of the learner. A second language (L2) according to Sharwood Smith (1994) stands as a cover term for any language other than the first language learned by a given learner or a group of learners a) irrespective of the type of learning environment and b) irrespective of the number of the other

non-native languages possessed by the learner. Krashen (1982) maintained that adult second- language learners have at their disposal two distinct and independent ways of developing

competence in a second language acquisition, which is a “subconscious process identical in all important ways to the process children utilize in acquiring their first language” and learning which is a “conscious process” that results in knowing about the knowledge."