This study investigates the possibility of a sensitive period for the acquisition of lexical and collocational knowledge in a second language. The participants were ten adult native speakers of English and 38 very advanced adult non-native speakers with a range of ages of onset of learning. They performed a battery of tests, comprising a standard word-association test, an oral production task, and a range of written lexical tasks (developed for this study) focusing on the use of core vocabulary and multi-word units. The results are taken to support the existence of a sensitive period for lexical acquisition in a second language, and the overall tendency to similarity in scores obtained by NNSs with AOs of 7–12 and 13+ appears to indicate that this sensitive period closes around the age of six.
2019. Experience, Aptitude, and Individual Differences in Linguistic Attainment: A Comparison of Native and Nonnative Speakers. Language Learning 69:S1 ► pp. 72 ff.
Granena, Gisela & Michael H Long
2013. Age of onset, length of residence, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment in three linguistic domains. Second Language Research 29:3 ► pp. 311 ff.
Gisela Granena, Long, Michael H. & Yucel Yilmaz
2016. Major Research Issues in SLA. Brill Research Perspectives in Multilingualism and Second Language Acquisition 1:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Jeong, Hyojin & Robert DeKeyser
2023. Development of automaticity in processing L2 collocations: The roles of L1 collocational knowledge and practice condition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 45:4 ► pp. 930 ff.
Long, Michael H.
2016. Stefano Rastelli: Discontinuity in Second Language Acquisition. The Switch between Statistical and Grammatical Learning.. Applied Linguistics 37:4 ► pp. 590 ff.
Long, Michael H., Gisela Granena & Fátima Montero
2018. What Does Critical Period Research Reveal about Advanced L2 Proficiency?. In The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, ► pp. 51 ff.
Nishikawa, Tomomi
2022. Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations
. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 60:2 ► pp. 287 ff.
2023. What affects second language vocabulary learning? Evidence from multivariate analysis. Frontiers in Education 8
Yi, Wei
2018. STATISTICAL SENSITIVITY, COGNITIVE APTITUDES, AND PROCESSING OF COLLOCATIONS. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 40:4 ► pp. 831 ff.
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