Critical period hypothesis from an English; as a Foreign Language perspective

The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), originally proposed in Lenneberg (1967), states that there is a maturational period of time during which language acquisition can take place. The CPH is often cited to account for differences in success between early and late language learners. Based on Lenneberg's hypothesis, other researchers have generated additional hypotheses, all of which consider a maturational period of time during which language acquisition can take place. This thesis investigates the critical period hypothesis for second language (L2) pronunciation from an English; as a foreign language perspective. It investigates whether it is possible for late learners of English; to achieve a native-like pronunciation regardless of maturational constraints. This thesis also investigates whether the variable 'exposure to the target language' significandy influences the ability of late L2 learners to obtain native like pronunciation. In order to investigate whether the variable exposure to the target language significantly influences the ability of late L2 learners to obtain a native-like pronunciation, two groups of non-native speakers, differing in the amount of exposure they received to the target language in their secondary education, were included in this study alongside a native speaker control group. Three speech samples were collected for each speaker- a word list, a paragraph, and an answer to an open-ended question. After three speech samples were collected for each subject, 21 linguistically naive native speakers of English; evaluated the sound samples based on native likeness. After these scores were obtained, means were calculated for each individual speaker, in order to determine their performance, and for speaker groups, in order to determine intergroup comparison.