Starting age and other influential factors: Insights from learner interviews
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Date
2014-10
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Zakład Filologii Angielskiej Wydział Pedagogiczno-Artystyczny Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Kaliszu
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Abstract
The present study uses oral interviews with foreign language learners in search of
influential factors in their language learning histories. The sample for the study
was drawn from a larger sample of intermediate/advanced learners of English as
a foreign language with a minimum of 10 years of exposure/instruction. The sam-
ple includes 6 early learners (range of starting age: 3.2-6.5) and 6 late learners
(starting age: 11+). Half of them in each group were among those with the highest
scores on two English language tests in the larger sample and half among those
with the lowest scores on those same tests. A qualitative analysis of the interviews
of these learners yields insights into their experience of foreign language learning
and the role played in it by starting age and other significant factors, such as motivation and intensive contact with the language.
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Keywords
individual differences, language learning histories, motivation, starting age
Citation
Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 2014, vol. 4, no. 3, pp.465-484