留学语言学essay代写范文—关键期假说的自我反思，本文是一篇留学生管理专业的Essay写作格式参考范文。开始学习第二语言真的有一个理想的年龄吗?一个成年学习者掌握第二语言的机会很渺茫吗?这些由“关键时期假说”引发的发人深省的问题，以及我在教师生涯中与该假说相关的有趣现象，成为本文讨论的重点。以下是语言学essay范例写作的全部内容，是一篇符合国外大学Essay写作格式要求的范文，供参考。
A Brief Literature Review and Self-reflection on the Critical Period Hypothesis关于“关键时期假说”的文献综述与自我反思
Introduction引言
Is there really an ideal age at which second language learning should begin? Is there only a slim chance for an adult learner to master a second language? These thought-provoking questions arising from the Critical Period Hypothesis, as well as the interesting phenomena relating to the hypothesis that occurred during my life as a teacher make it the focus of discussion of the essay.
The Critical Period Hypothesis: A highly debatable issue关键时期假说:一个极具争议性的问题
One prominent proponent of the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) was Eric Lenneberg (1967), who based his hypothesis on neurological development. He explained that there is a maturation process called cerebral lateralization, during which the brain loses its plasticity as it gradually matures.
This process, starts at around two, is supposed to be completed at puberty, after which it is very difficult or even impossible for a learner to successfully acquire a new language. The CPH has been widely discussed in the area of second language acquisition (SLA) and has aroused much controversy.
这个过程从两岁左右开始，应该在青春期完成，之后学习者就很难甚至不可能成功地掌握一门新语言。CPH理论在二语习得领域一直受到广泛的讨论，并引起了很大的争议。
The CPH is most closely linked to the acquisition of the phonological system. As put forward by Scovel (1988), it is not possible for learners beyond the age of 12 to attain a native-like pronunciation though they might be able to master the syntax and vocabulary of a second language.
A similar view regarding phonological attainment was propounded by Flege and Fletcher (1992, p.385). They concluded from their studies that ‘a foreign accent first emerges at an age of L2 learning of between 5 and 8 years’, which probably implies, in the domain of phonology, that the ‘critical period’ ends even earlier than what Lenneberg proposed. This coincides with later studies conducted by Krashen (1973), who claimed that lateralization is completed at around age 5.
Flege和Fletcher(1992，第385页)也提出了类似的关于音系成就的观点。他们从他们的研究中得出结论，“外国口音在学习第二语言的5到8岁之间首次出现”，这可能意味着，在音韵学领域，“关键期”结束的时间甚至比Lenneberg提出的还要早。这与Krashen(1973)后来的研究一致，他声称5岁左右就完成了侧化。
Mark Patkowski (1980) conducted a study on how the age factor is related to the acquisition of linguistic features other than accent. The findings further supported the CPH as the results indicated that the age factor is very important in a sense that it limits the learner’s development of a native-like mastery of various linguistic features of a second language. Jacquline Johnson and Elissa Newport (1989) also carried out a study relating to the rules of English morphology and syntax and found that those earliest starters got the highest scores on the grammaticality judgement test.
Despite some clear evidence that supports the CPH, a remarkable research undertaken by Catherine Snow and Marian Hoefnagel-Ho_hle (1978) provided evidence against it. The findings revealed that both adolescent and adult learners could surpass the children learners by making enormous and rapid progress in a wide range of language knowledge. White and Genesee (1996) also revealed in a grammaticality judgement task that late starters are able to achieve near-native proficiency.
尽管有一些明确的证据支持CPH, Catherine Snow和Marian Hoefnagel-Ho_hle(1978)进行的一项杰出的研究提供了反对CPH的证据。研究结果表明，无论是青少年学习者还是成人学习者，都可以通过在广泛的语言知识方面取得巨大而迅速的进步而超越儿童学习者。White和Genesee(1996)还在一项语法判断任务中揭示，起步晚的人能够达到接近母语的熟练程度。
Robert Dekeyser (2000) done something along the line of Johnson and Newport and found that adult and children might have different way in learning language.
Insights gained from the CPH: A Self-reflection从CPH获得的洞察力:自我反思
Taking into account what I have explored from the literature review, I do believe that the evidence for CPH is somewhat mixed, especially when I reflected upon the L2 learners I taught in a secondary school in Hong Kong. In all my years of teaching, I have had a chance to teach a fairly large number of L2 learners who are immigrants from the Mainland. They are of diverse backgrounds in terms of age, gender, financial condition, etc.
Very importantly, not all of them started learning English at the same age. There are a few cases which impressed me most. Two girls who first came to Hong Kong at the age of 17 joined my S4 class. Both of them started learning English at the age of around 12 when they were in the mainland. What was so remarkable was that both of them could write very fluently with highly accurate grammar and a variety of sentence patterns. Their performance in writing and reading even surpassed their local counterparts who started taking up English in kindergarten.
This can somewhat be taken as counter-evidence to the CPH. Both girls revealed that they had an extraordinary strong motivation to improve their English and to catch up with their classmates. These social-psychological factors did play a part in their success of L2 acquisition. As discussed in Lightbown (2006), learners beginning at primary school level might not have an absolute advantage over adolescent learners in attaining greater proficiency in the long run.
这在某种程度上可以被当作CPH的反证据。这两个女孩都表示，她们有很强的动力去提高自己的英语水平，赶上同班同学。这些社会心理因素确实在二语习得的成功中起了一定的作用。正如Lightbown(2006)所讨论的，从小学水平开始的学习者在长期获得更大的熟练程度方面可能并不比青少年学习者具有绝对优势。
This is especially true when learners, confining to a classroom setting, receive just a few hours of training every week. Interesting enough, despite extra tutorials to improve the girls’ oral skills, they carried a rather strong foreign accent. In fact, they do speak Cantonese (a different dialect) with an accent, let alone English, a language which is far different from their mother tongue. This seems to support findings demonstrating that it is very unlikely for late starters to attain native-like pronunciation.
Conclusion结论
As an experienced and sensible teacher, I believe that one should not constrain ourselves too much in any one of the theories or models. If a teacher is a true believer of the CPH, it would somehow affect their expectation on their students who are beyond the puberty period. This in turn would also lead to a lower expectation of the students themselves even though they are not aware of the fact that their teachers assume that they have already gone beyond the optimal period of learning a second language.
Instead we should be flexible and reflective enough to cater to our learners’ needs and facilitate their learning regardless of their age. Though I am convinced that the age factor does play a part in affecting SLA, I concern more in how I could adjust my teaching methods to suit the needs of learners at different ages.
It is no doubt that the hypothesis should not be oversimplified and overgeneralized and to be indiscriminately applied to our students because second language learning is a really complicated process in which a lot of factors can be intermingled to affect how successfully a person can learn a second language.
To conclude, there has been no overwhelming evidence showing that young learners have absolute superiority over their adult counterparts. Despite the difference in the research findings, there seems to be a general consensus that there are a number of factors interacting to affect SLA, and it is possible that late learners might achieve success in SLA, most likely via a different route from children learners, as discussed by Krashen (1975); (Dekeyser 2000). I believe it is also due to this reason that a lot of other factors cognitive, psycholinguistic and socio-cultural that come into place as to how a learner acquire a second language.
总之，没有压倒性的证据表明年轻学习者比成年学习者有绝对的优势。尽管研究结果存在差异，但似乎有一个普遍的共识，即有许多因素相互作用影响着SLA，正如Krashen(1975)所讨论的那样，晚期学习者可能通过与儿童学习者不同的途径在SLA方面取得成功;(他们2000)。我相信，也正是由于这个原因，许多其他的因素——认知、心理语言学和社会文化——在学习者如何习得第二语言方面发挥了作用。
References参考文献
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