Article Review on Age-Related Research on L2 Ultimate Attainment and Influences of Early English Language Teaching on Oral Fluency

This article review discusses the issues of second language acquisition regarding age-related attainment effects and the influences of early English language teaching on oral fluency. It analyzes factors influencing L2 language acquisition and the critical period offset points. The article also compares early and late starters regarding oral fluency and the effect of exposure to English outside the school.

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Article review
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Muñoz, C., & Singleton, D. (2011). A critical review of age-related research on L2 ultimate
attainment. Language Teaching, 44(1), 1-35.
The issue of the second language has been a topic of discussion for long years. This
article by Muñoz & Singleton (2011) highlights the issues of second language acquisition
regarding age-related attainment effects. It seeks to answer the question of whether those effects
can be discussed or elaborated regarding their impact on a broader range of aspects. There has
been undeniable evidence proving the strong connection between age factor and the success of
learning and understanding an additional language (L2). Nevertheless, major controversies
surround this issue for many decades now. Two questions have been addressed in this paper that
points out the area of contention; (1) Could there be a window of constrained opportunity- that is
the critical period, that ends at the end or during the childhood period and is connected to
language acquisition? At which stage does the effectiveness of acquiring and learning new
language start to become less effective, more arduous, or unsuccessful in its outcome?
(2) Does the impact of factors affect the outcome of language-acquiring capacity concerning the
changes connected with age or does it stem from a language-focused critical period?
Muñoz & Singleton, (2011) in the current study focused majorly on four issues in their pursuit of
determining how age factor influences the attainment of L2 language acquisition.
(i) Determining the extent at which native-like performance can be regarded as a dire standard in
the measurement of L2 attainment.
(ii) Determining the degree to which the unitary Critical Period Hypothesis can be achieved.
(iii) Comparing the various variables such as linguistic, contextual, and age and how they relate
to the onset of L2 acquisition.
(iv) Analyzing different parts of the brain used during early and late language acquisition.

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Point of comparison using the native speaker
Individuals who have been exposed to a certain language since the time they were born,
have a greater chance of learning an L2 language quickly as compared to those that have
encountered it for the first time when they are grown up already. Therefore, there is a high
likelihood of success for the L2 language learning in the native speakers. The authors, therefore,
aimed to understand how native-speaker yardstick influences the attainment of L2 language.
They observed that there is a close link between people who acquire a certain language in the
early stages of their life and native-speaker performance as compared to those who acquire it in
later stages (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 2014). However, this comparison needs more
understanding and elaboration in exploring the maturation and age effects issues. The late
acquirers mostly can be grouped into two classes; children who had no chance to have a
linguistic interaction or been deprived of their rights to normal human social relations. The
second group included children who were born deaf and got no opportunity to learn through
language/signed input until a later stage. Llurda (2016), explains that it’s hard to define the
concept of a native speaker. However, he tries to bring out the concept of temporary
performance. Away from this, Abrahamsoon & Hyltenstam (2008) established that various
language aptitude ranks that the late L2 learners possessed, had a significant influence on the
success of the L2 acquisition. The native speaker can be described as culture-bound, and a huge
difference is observed between the child L2 acquirer and the post-pubertal L2 acquirer regarding
inborn bio-endowment.
Determining the critical period offset points
Human brain progressively becomes rigid and stiff when one attains the age of nine.
According to Birdsong, (2014), if one learns the L2 language in later stages, one cannot achieve

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good results as compared to one who learns it in early stages. Puberty as well has been shown to
be the critical offset point for L2 learning. After this, the concept of language-learning-blocks
increases and, therefore, learning of foreign languages calls for a conscious and great effort.
Phonetics and phonology are other factors that influence the offset points (Hakuta, Bialystok, &
Wiley, 2003). Therefore, pointing out the exact end of a critical period in language learning
remains elusive to date.
Factors influencing L2 language acquisition
Quality input and contextual factors have a huge role to play in the success of L2
learning. The biological age, length of residence/exposure, and age of onset are some of the
factors that influence how one responds to foreign language learning. In the same way
interaction with the length of years that one has been in contact with the native language and the
environment influences the diversity and intensity of obtaining the L2 language. The same is true
for people who have been exposed to some degree of a foreign language while growing as
compared to those who learn it for the first time in their adulthood. Social-affective and cognitive
factors as well have an impact on the learning experience of an individual. Willingness to learn a
new language also enables one to be fluent and proficient within a short period.
Neurolinguistics dimensions
Little is known on how the brain works regarding language acquisition learning. L1 and
late-acquired L2 time frames have been determined by the part of the brain used as it varies. It
has been shown that a patient who suffers from the Broca’s area of the brain has selective L2 loss
thereby proving that it’s the region responsible for native language acquisition. On the other
hand, L2s could be influenced by the left frontal gyrus. For instance, L1 grammar learning is
implicitly attained while L2 is obtained explicitly. The study, therefore, concluded that both the

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monolinguals and bilinguals have a significant influence on L1 and L2 language learning
(Paradis & Jia, 2017).
In conclusion, I believe more focus should be on discussion of attainment study factors
regarding the L2 acquisition. The critical period hypothesis issue also needs to be analyzed
further. In my view, however, I believe learning L2 depend solely on the individual. Despite the
fact that children who have been exposed to native language have the upper hand in learning L2
as compared to those exposed for the first time, there is still room for learning.
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on
oral fluency. ELT Journal, 71, 341-353. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccw115
Education on the elementary-level foreign language has received much attention over the
recent years regarding second language learning. As such in various countries, it has been
implemented as an educational policy issue. The study by de Wolf, Smit, & Lowie (2017), was
aimed at determining whether there are any fluency benefits associated with the teaching of a
foreign language at an early stage. It also aimed at investigating how external factors influence
fluency in learning of the second language. Some of these external factors include; the attitude
that the children have towards English, motivation, and the exposure they have after school
(Gardner, 2014).
Background information
Since the year 2002, the European council needed the multilingualism field to advance
regarding foreign languages which ought to be taught. Therefore, every European pupil needed
to be taught two or more foreign languages at a very early age. The study used two groups of

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children; those in Grade 7 or 8 ranging from 10-12 years of age (late starters) and those in Grade
I- mostly at age 4 (early starters). Muñoz, (2014) has shown that pupils who begin studying the
L2 language early enough, they have better results as compared to those who start learning later.
The results are in agreement with those obtained by Unsworth, (2015), where early learners from
4-5 years outperformed those in the same class but had not received any English instructions nor
enrolled in the EFL programs. The issue of whether the teaching of English language in early
stages adds value to L2 language acquisition has received lots of controversies. Early starters
usually have a low level of production, unable to construct sentences, limited receptive skills,
and vocabulary after the teaching of the English language for about two years. However, they
seem to improve their receptive skills with time, but in their productive skills, no tangible
benefits can be attributed to the early language teaching. On the other hand, Mora, (2006)
demonstrated that regarding oral fluency, late starters perform better than the early starters. The
differences in these studies could be due to several factors originating from input conditions. For
example, the length or extensive exposure to instruction time.
Oral fluency
Achieving oral fluency while learning L2 language should be the goal of every person.
Oral fluency can be described as the art of obtaining language proficiency through eloquence,
smoothness, and ease of perception of speech (Saito et al., 2016). When an individual can be
described as being orally fluent, she/he has to have L2 linguistic knowledge control and
enhanced speed in which they understand and communicate the language. Since several factors
influence the outcome, the study aimed to answer two questions.
(i) Whether the early starters are better compared to late starters regarding oral fluency

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In the article, the writers used two groups of pupils (early and late starters) who
underwent some tests based on fixed contents. The samples of the speech obtained from these
groups were analyzed using PRAAT computer software which provides an accurate and
dependable mechanisms of determining speech rate basing on the number of syllables spoken per
unit time. Analyzation of the results was based on speech and articulation rate, mean of the
syllable duration, and utterance length in seconds.
After carrying out the Mann-Whitney U-test analysis, it was found that in respect to word
utterances, early starters produced fewer filled pauses and longer utterances as compared to the
late starters (Brink, 2015). On the other hand, there were no significant differences regarding
performance between these two groups.
(ii) The effect in which exposure to English outside the school influences oral fluency.
Exposure has a certain degree of influence to the oral fluency in the L2 language. The
questionnaire offered to the pupils aimed to investigate the exposure regarding reading books,
messages on the internet, and DVD watching without the subtitles. The weighted index on
exposure was based on; email writing, magazine and book reading, playing of computer games,
and letter and postcard writing.
Results
After the regression analysis of the data, exposure the pupils encounter outside the school
was shown to be a significant contributor to the oral fluency in both the early and late learners.
The frequency of exposure is positively correlated to several other factors such as; phonation-
time ratio, mean length of utterance in seconds and syllables, articulation and speech rate.
Nevertheless, the exposure duration is negatively associated with other factors such as mean
pause and syllable duration. The syllable duration of a pupil when speaking English is normally

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lowered after an exposure outside the school. In conclusion, it was found that exposure had a
direct as well as strong influence on oral fluency for both the late and early starters.
Conclusion and Recommendations
Despite the advantages that the early starters have over their late counterparts, there is
still hope for the late learners to catch up with them and be at the same level at the end of it all.
The early starters find it easier to learn new languages and pronounce better since they have been
using the same language for long and frequently. The degree of exposure outside the school
largely influences the language proficiency and oral fluency. Therefore, teachers, parents, and
the government should put appropriate measures which would encourage more out-of-class
exposure. It would also be important to integrate programs such as out-of-school exposure to the
normal English programs.

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References
Abrahamsson, N., & Hyltenstam, K. (2008). The robustness of aptitude effects in near-native
second language acquisition. Studies in second language acquisition, 30(4), 481-509.
Birdsong, D. (2014). The Critical Period Hypothesis for second language acquisition: Tailoring
the coat of many colors. In Essential topics in applied linguistics and multilingualism
(pp. 43-50). Springer, Cham.
Brink, P. (2015). L2 Vocabulary Acquisition of Dutch Pupils in Group 8 (Grade 6): Differences
Between Late and Early Starters (Master's thesis).
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on oral
fluency. Elt Journal, 71(3), 341-353.
Gardner, R. C. (2014). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. In Bilingualism,
multiculturalism, and second language learning (pp. 63-84). Psychology Press.
Hakuta, K., Bialystok, E., & Wiley, E. (2003). Critical evidence: A test of the critical-period
hypothesis for second-language acquisition. Psychological science, 14(1), 31-38.

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Larsen-Freeman, D., & Long, M. H. (2014). An introduction to second language acquisition
research. Routledge.
Llurda, E. (2016). ‘Native speakers,’ English and ELT. The Routledge handbook of English
language teaching, 51.
Mora, J. C. (2006). Age effects on oral fluency development. Age and the rate of foreign
language learning, 19, 65-88.
Muñoz, C. (2014). Contrasting effects of starting age and input on the oral performance of
foreign language learners. Applied Linguistics, 35(4), 463-482.
Muñoz, C., & Singleton, D. (2011). A critical review of age-related research on L2 ultimate
attainment. Language Teaching, 44(1), 1-35.
Paradis, J., & Jia, R. (2017). Bilingual children's long‐term outcomes in English as a second
language: language environment factors shape individual differences in catching up with
monolinguals. Developmental Science, 20(1).
Saito, K., Webb, S., Trofimovich, P., & Isaacs, T. (2016). Lexical profiles of comprehensible
second language speech: The role of appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication,
abstractness, and sense relations. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 38(4), 677-
701.

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Unsworth, S., Persson, L., Prins, T., & De Bot, K. (2014). An investigation of factors affecting
early foreign language learning in the Netherlands. Applied Linguistics, 36(5), 527-548.