C. Muñoz (ed.): AGE AND THE RATE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING.

Extract

This edited volume reports the results of a research project, the ‘Barcelona Age Factor’. The various chapters have been written by researchers who took part in the project and researched different aspects of the acquisition of English as a foreign language by different age groups. The ten chapters report on a comparison between learners who have received the same amount of instruction in English but who started learning English at different ages: at 8, 11, 14, and in adulthood. The comparisons were made at three different points in their trajectories: after 200, 416, and 726 hours of instruction. The volume has ten chapters which report different comparisons.

In the first chapter, ‘The effects of age on foreign language learning: The BAF Project’, Carmen Muñoz explains the project and summarizes its theoretical and empirical background. One of the most important characteristics of this project is that it was conducted in a foreign language context in which learners do not have opportunities to use English outside the classroom. Muñoz describes the design of the project and reports the longitudinal and cross-sectional results of the different tests which measure oral and written production and reception. The results indicate that the rate of acquisition of older learners is faster in the first stages and that younger learners get better results when they get older and have had more hours of instruction. The differences in cognitive development and test-taking strategies can explain the poor results of the group with an earlier time of onset in the first measurements.