With the average life expectancy in especially developed countries steadily increasing, healthy ageing is
prioritised on the research agenda. Various studies have looked into bilingualism as a possible anti-ageing tool to delay the
onset of symptoms of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, with as perhaps the most promising recent line of work intervention
studies that introduce bilingual experiences to seniors in the form of foreign language courses meant to induce a protective
effect on cognitive decline. Unfortunately, the scant studies available have not found convincing results, most likely due to
several pitfalls in their designs, one of the most important being that method of instruction is rarely specified or controlled
for. In this paper, we identify methodological concerns that need to be addressed when conducting experimental work related to
third-age language learning, resulting in a research agenda for third-age language learning studies.
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