Age and motivation in l2 learning

Hugvísindasvið
Second Language Acquisition
The Effect of Age and Motivation
Ritgerð til BA prófs
Einar Garibaldi Stefánsson
Maí 2013

Háskóli Íslands
Hugvísindasvið
Enska
Second Language Acquisition
The Effect of Age and Motivation
Ritgerð til BA prófs í ensku
Einar Garibaldi Stefánsson
Kt.: 030382-4209
Leiðbeinandi: Ásrún Jóhannsdóttir
Maí 2013

Abstract
This paper looks into the competence of second language acquisition by
investigating how second language is acquired. Furthermore it explores the age factor in
learning another language other than mother tongue and also attempts to answer if there
is enough current evidence that can demonstrate clearly that starting young makes any
real difference in achieving better language competence. Moreover, research such as on
motivation in relation to the learning environment along with language exposure and
attitudes will be discussed and data analysed to find out if it plays any significant role in
aiding learners to achieve successful second language competence. It has been a
common belief that starting young to learn a second language makes a significant
difference in language learning. However, results indicate that this is not entirely true in
all cases since there are further factors that affect successful second language
acquisition achievement such as language exposure and motivation. Consequently, if
there is not enough language exposure, this might prevent the learners from succeeding
in learning the language. Clearly, those factors, motivation and exposure, seem to play a
more important role in the learning process than the age factor and therefore it is
extremely important to implement motivation and provide sufficient language exposure
to the learner right from the start of the learning journey regardless of how old the
learner is.

SLA, MOTIVATION AND THE AGE FACTOR 1
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………………2
2.0 Theories of Second Language Acquisition……………………………………2
3.0 Young Learners and SLA……….…………………………………………….5
3.1 The Five Stages of Second Language Acquisition……………….…….5
3.2 Children’s Language Acquisition…………………………………...….6
3.3 Bilingual Children Better Language Learners? ……………………...7
4.0 Age and Second Language Acquisition………………………………….…...10
4.1 Does age really matter in SLA? ………………………………..………12
5.0 Motivation and the Learning Environment.....................................................14
5.1 Motivation…………………………………………………….……….....14
5.2 Natural Setting and Instructed Setting……………………….……......16
5.3 Educational Context and Cultural Context………………………...….18
5.4 Motivation in the Learning Environment………………………..…….20
5.5 Motivation and Young Learners in the Classroom……………...….…22
6.0 Conclusion….………………………………….……….………………….…...24

1.0 Introduction
Second Language Acquisition (SLA) refers to the study of how students learn a
second language (L2) additionally to their first language (L1). Although it is referred as
Second Language Acquisition, it is the process of learning any language after the first
language whether it is the second, third or fourth language. Therefore, any other
language apart from the first language is called a second language (SL) or also referred
to as a target language (TL). To distinguish between Second Language and Foreign
Language, The Collins Dictionary defines Second Language as the language that a
person learns after his or her native language and Foreign Language as a language that
is used in a country other than one’s native country (2013). There are different ways to
acquire second or foreign languages. It can be in a formal way as in a classroom
environment or informal way such as when the learner picks up the language by being
culturally active participant of the society. This can be done by attending school in the
target country, watching local television, listening to radio or/and reading newspapers in
L2. By being actively involved in the learning environment, the learner is constantly in
contact with the target language through normal daily routines. It is extremely important
in second language acquisition to look at the learning environment and investigate if the
age factor has any effect. Also, motivation is another significant factor of SLA that
needs to be discussed to find out if it is related to higher language competences as
Gardner and Lambert (1979) have thoroughly investigated. Second Language
Acquisition (SLA) and Early Language Learning (ELL) have been thoroughly
investigated over the years and there is a popular belief that second language acquisition
among children is achieved relatively fast and without effort (Nikolov and Djigunovi'c,
2006). However, more recent studies post criticism on this widely spread claim of the
effortless and quick second language competence among children (Haynes 2007,
Genesee 2006). Although age plays a significant role in SLA, the benefit of motivation
and exposure can provide better results in achieving complete second language
proficiency.
2.0 Theories of Second Language Acquisition

There are various factors that have impact on learning a second language and it is
important to discuss the theories behind second language acquisition and try to find out
how we learn a language and what elements needs to be present for a successful
language acquisition. This chapter will discuss three SLA theories, the Creative
Construction Theory, Communicative Language Teaching and the Cognitive Approach.
As indicated by Altenaichinger (2003) during the seminar about “The interface
between theory and practice”, the Creative Construction Theory, often referred to as the
Naturalistic Approach, deals with the assumption that we are born with a special
language system that we use to acquire a language. Altenaichinger explains that Stephen
Krashen is among scholars that singled out the differences between acquisition and
learning by explaining that acquisition supposedly is a subconscious process that results
in fluency while learning is conscious process that involves learning rules and
structures. Additionally, Altenaichinger cites Krashen’s discussions and argues that
there are three internal elements involved in second language acquisition. Those
elements from Krashen’s book include a “filter”, an “organizer” and a “monitor”. He
mentions that the “filter” deals with how the learner is influenced in a social context and
how he reacts in various social environments. The “organizer” determines the
arrangement of the learners language system and “the usage of incorrect grammatical
constructions as provisional precursors of grammatical structures, the systematically
occurrence of errors in the learner’s utterances as well as a common order in which
structures are learnt” (Krashen 1983, as cited in Altenaichinger, 2003). The “monitor”
operates the conscious learning part where the learners correct their speech according to
their age (Altenaichinger 2003). Those highly debatable SLA elements, which are often
fuelled by criticism, are based on the following five hypotheses from Brown (2002) as
cited in Altenaichinger:
1. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis: An acquisition is a “subconscious and
intuitive process of constructing the system of a language” (p. 278) while
learning is a conscious process that students are aware of their learning process
and what is expected of them.

2. The Monitor Hypothesis: Is the learning process with the purpose to “monitor”
the learning progress and propose improvements to what has already been
learned.
3. The Natural Order Hypothesis claims that we acquire the rules of a language in
a predictable order.
4. The Input Hypothesis bolsters the importance for the learner to understand the
language a bit beyond his or her understanding with an influence such as
motivation.
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis suggests that language is acquired more easily if
certain emotion factors are met, such as being mentally stable and not angry,
anxious or bored. This means that positive attitude seems to be important in SLA
(Brown 2002 as cited in Altenaichinger, 2003, p. 8-9).
The second theory discussed by Altenaichinger revolves around Communicative
Language Teaching and is completely learner centred. Communicative Language
Teaching has been highly favoured for the last 20 years and scholars agree that this
theory is excellent because it focuses on communicative proficiency in language
teaching. In fact, one of the most important aspects of Communicative Language
Teaching is a language competence, or in other words, the knowledge and ability to use
the target language. As well, it is essential to incorporate activities that influence the
learner to communicate in the target language. Through these activities, students need to
be able to use the language in a meaningful way and they need to be motivated and
aware of the importance of learning the language in order to benefit significantly from
the learning process (Altenaichinger 2003).
The 3rd
SLA theory from Altenaichinger’s paper is the Cognitive Approach.
Scientists claim that one of the main features of SLA is to build up a system of
knowledge that can be unconsciously automatically recollected. Due to that fact, the
learner has to be provided with knowledge and exposure to the target language to
understand and socially participate in a social context. Once the learner has experienced
the language enough, he or she should be able recall the language automatically and
focus on to improve other more complicated language skills. Indeed, the main function

of the Cognitive Approach is the process of being able to construct and use the language
automatically (Altenaichinger, 2003, p.10-11).
Altenaichinger moves on to show the relationship between these three theories
and how they inter-relate. Moreover, she mentions that many teachers will apply
teaching strategies that involve all of the three theories. Those teachers who are native
speakers of the target language might prefer the Natural Approach to others.
Communicative Language Teaching today is an extremely important element of
language learning and can be found in almost every language classroom and nearly
every language schoolbook. However, the Cognitive Approach is a relatively new
theory of Second Language Acquisition and might not be so popular yet to apply inside
the classroom (Altenaichinger 2003). Nevertheless, it is important for instructors to
understand the three approaches and use them properly as a guide to aid their students
towards successful second language acquisition.
3.0 Young Learners and SLA
3.1 The Five Stages of Second Language Acquisition
The process of Second Language Acquisition occurs in stages. In order to
examine SLA, it is important to look at the 5 stages of second language acquisition.
According to Haynes (2007), the first stage is Preproduction and is also referred to as
“the silent period” where learners gradually build up their vocabulary to about 500
words without speaking the language but more echoing the language. Then there is the
second stage called Early Production and at this stage learners will have around 1000
word vocabulary with the capacity of constructing words in short phrases and memorize
and use short language forms although not necessarily correctly (Haynes 2007). Haynes
talks about the third stage, Speech Emergence, where learners have acquired around
3000 words and should be able to speak short sentences and simple phrases. By now,
learners should be able to engage in conversation and ask simple questions. Also they
can understand short stories if they are supported with pictures. The 4th
development
stage, Intermediate Fluency, he explains that the learners have an active vocabulary of
6000 words. Also, he adds that students can now form longer and more complex
phrases both spoken and written with grammatical errors but demonstrate excellent

comprehension. The last developing stage is called Advanced Fluency and as he points
out, it takes around 5- 10 years to achieve proficiency in second language acquisition
and by now the learners are considered near-native. Indeed, Haynes says that on the
surface it might look quite effortless to learn a second language but there are various
factors that can have impact on the learning process such as motivation and age.
3.2 Children’s Language Acquisition
It is argued that second language acquisition is learned among children in two
ways, simultaneously or sequentially as demonstrated by Halgunseth (2009) as she cites
Tabors (2008). Young children acquire L1 and L2 languages what it seems to be almost
without any effort through a process that is called simultaneous second language
learning. According to her, simultaneous learners are children under the age of three
who are exposed to their mother tongue at home and another language in an early
educational context such as kindergarten or other early program. However, those
learners can also be children from a multi-language home where the child is exposed to
two different languages at home, for example Spanish from mom and English from dad
(Halgunseth 2009, as cited by Tabors, 2008). She points out that although being
exposed to two different languages at home, children learn both languages the same way
without favouring one or the other. As their brain mechanism allows them to learn more
than one language, they construct two separate language systems in their brains for each
language. Similarly, this language system is almost identical to the process that children
develop through exposure to one language (Halgunseth 2009). When the child reaches
the age of 6 months, they are able to distinguish between the two languages and at this
point they may begin to favour one language over the other. If parents expose their child
to one language more than the other, the child might focus more on the language that it
receives more exposure from (Espinosa, 2008; Kuhl, 2004; Kuhl et al., 2006; Tabors,
2008).
In sequential language learning environment, the child speaks its native language
but is also exposed or introduced to a second language. For example, when a Spanish
speaking child attends class where English is the dominant language spoken.
Halgunseth states that contrary to simultaneous language learning, sequential learning is
not related to any age factor, but it can be stimulated or influenced by elements like

motivation. There are four stages of sequential second language learning according to
her, which are the following:
Stage 1: Home Language Use: Children might refuse to use their native language even
though others do not understand them.
Stage 2: Silent Period: Children can hardly speak but rely on nonverbal communication.
It is argued that the younger the child is, the longer the silent period might last.
Stage 3: Telegraphic and Formulaic Speech: At this stage children will start to speak in
the target language but only using short phrases or repeat the words of others.
Stage 4: Productive Language, children construct their own sentences. Those sentences
might be very basic and incorrect but with time it will improve (Helgunseth
2009).
Although children are exposed to two languages at the same time at an early age,
it does not have to mean that they confuse the languages easily. As mentioned, children
become bilingual sometimes when one parent converses in one language while the other
converses in the second language. Additionally, parents might converse to each other in
both languages so children are exposed to both languages. However, being bilingual has
its downside also (Helgunseth 2009).
3.3 Bilingual Children Better Language Learners?
Although many research, such as claimed by Halgunseth indicate that bilingual
children tend to perform better than monolingual children in many language tasks,
Bialystok (2001) shows that any language knowledge of a child is incomplete when
compared with the knowledge of an adult. Continuing with Bialystok’s discussion, she
explains how bilingualism is acquired and mentions that some people live “in home
environments where the language of the extended family reveals an ethnic, cultural, or
national background that is different from that of the community” (p.3). In fact, children
who become bilingual in those family environments could become more efficient and
productive learners.

Despite many studies favour bilingual children as being more effective than
monolingual children, there are downsides of being bilingual. In an article by Genesee
(2008), he raises concerns about bilingual acquisition in early childhood and points out
that it can be a difficult task for a child to learn more than one language and can
eventually lead to delays in language development. However, it is extremely important
to take into account the individual learning differences in second language acquisition
and therefore have in mind the different learning abilities as some children learn faster
than others. He explains how this “delay” does not have to be a negative aspect of
language gaining and explains that the process of acquiring the language for the child
takes longer time. The importance of sufficient exposure is confirmed as he states how
important it is to provide learners with sufficient exposure to both languages all the
time. Also, how important it is to avoid any radical changes to the language
environment because that can create problems and difficulties for the child (Genesee
2008)
Another concern from parents and professionals and discussed by Genesee is the
problem that bilingual children might never master either language fully and in
comparison to monolingual children, they might never become as proficient in the
language. He talks about how bilingual children might have different language
development patterns in the short term. Moreover, he points out in comparison with
monolingual children at the same age, that young bilingual children struggle in
vocabulary and they know fever words in one or both of their languages. His reasoning
is mainly because all young children have limited memory capacities as bilingual
children need to memorize words from two languages and not one like monolingual
children. In addition, it is worth noting that bilingual children might know certain words
from one language but not the other. However, these are “short term” problems that
most likely will disappear by the time that the children begin their school journey
(Genesee 2008).
Continuing with the earlier concerns about bilingual children who might
encounter problems on their learning journey, Genesee shows how bilingual children’s
proficiency and competence’s in the second language reflects the amount of time they
spend in each of the two language environments. He supports his claim by giving an

example of a child who just arrived back home after visiting grandparents for short
periods of time and only one of the languages was used. The child might favour that
language over the other for a while, and therefore the child loses proficiency in the other
language. Note that this is just a temporary shift that will revert back once the exposure
to the other language is sufficient (Genesee 2008).
Another concern discussed by Genesee is the belief that young bilingual children
are unable to keep their languages separate which mean that they can get confused and
use both languages at the same time. He points out that most bilingual children use
sounds and words from both languages in the same utterances although people talking
with them are using only one language. This particular problem has raised concerns
among childhood educators as they tend to believe that this is because the child is
confused and unable to distinguish between the two languages. Moreover, his claims are
based on the reason that children mix their languages simply because they lack
vocabulary in one or both languages to express themselves entirely in each language.
Therefore he states that they borrow words from the other language. This is an effective
communication strategy in most families due to parents and other adults that are part of
the child’s language environment tend to mix the languages themselves when they talk
to the child as they understand both languages. Genesee states that it is common to mix
up languages and it is actually a natural and normal process of early bilingual
acquisition that will occur even between proficient adult bilinguals. The role of parents
is very important in this case and they should not stop or worry when their children mix
up languages because children will naturally stop doing it (Genesee 2008).
The exposure mentioned above is extremely important. To help the child to
develop its own identity, it is important that parents provide their children with
sufficient exposure to the target language. Similarly, like discussed earlier, parents who
speak two different languages but only use one language at home might result in the
child favouring that language unconsciously because there is not enough language input
and the ability to express in that language declines. Hence, the motivation becomes
evident now because if instructors and parents motivate children and provide them with
enough exposure, it could lead to effortless second language acquisition (Genesee
2008).

4.0 Age and Second Language Acquisition
The second language acquisition competences among adults seem to differ
significantly from the way children acquire their first language. This has led researchers
on the path of investigating the development of the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH).
Originally CPH was introduced by Penfield and Roberts in 1959 and was later made
popular and discussed further by Lenneberg in 1967. Brown (2007) refers to this
hypothesis (CPH) as “a biologically determined period of life when language can be
acquired more easily and beyond which time language is increasingly difficult to
acquire” (p. 57). According to him, “Critical point for second language acquisition
occurs around puberty, beyond which people seem to be relatively incapable of
acquiring a second language”(p. 58). Also, this has led to confusion among many who
took it for granted that once you reach a certain age level (12-13) you would be
considered too late for successful second language acquisition (Brown 2002).
It is important to investigate if L2 learning capacity declines over a period. There
are rather few studies that thoroughly investigate SLA achievement between old and
young language learners. David Singleton (2004) cites Seright (1985), who points out
that only few studies that deal with success and age-related issues between young and
old learners, show that the younger learners perform better than adult L2 learners.
Furthermore, Seright supports her claims by citing an experiment on the learning of
Esperanto that was conducted by Thorndike in 1928. Singleton says that this study
shows young learners performing better than the old ones. In addition, she also cites
d’Anglejan et al.’s study from 1981 of Canadian immigrants who were learning French
in an intensive language course which also shows how young learners gained more
success than older learners, or in other words, less success with age (Singleton 2004).
On the other hand, there is evidence that favours the hypothesis that “the older the
better” in terms of second language acquisition. However, Singleton points out that all
of those investigations were the result of formal instruction. In other words, these
investigations are short-term research and based on SLA in primary school classroom
and L2 bilingual programs. Also, he does mention that the results of some immigrant
studies indicate an advantage for older learners. Most of the relevant studies that
Singleton mentions involve children as at least one element of comparison. Hence, there

are few studies that incorporate teenagers and adults of different ages and that show
evidence that older learners perform better than those who are older. Singleton shows
that some immigrant studies suggest that L2 learning improves with age, as he cites and
refers to a study from 1974 that Ervin-Tripp conducted of 31 young English speaking
children who had been exposed to French for a period that spanned nine months. The
results of Ervin-Tripp’s research showed that the older students outperformed the
younger learners in every field of the learning process (Singleton 2004).
Since the early 1990s, studies have shown positive results of older beginners that
achieve high level of L2 proficiency. Singleton explains how White and Genesee (1996)
hardly found any differences between English Grammatically test scores among native-
like French speakers who begun learning English after the age of twelve and those
attained by native-speakers in language control groups. Moreover, Singleton talks about
an investigation conducted by Bongaerts et al. (1995) about Dutch learners that were
beginning to learn English in a classroom environment after the age of twelve. This
research demonstrated that classroom learners were able to gain English pronunciation
ratings within the same range as native-speakers (Singleton 2004). Interestingly, this
shows that even though L2 acquisition began at the age of 12 and in classroom
instruction setting, those learners could nevertheless attain a native-like accent.
As previously stated, there are evidence that favour “the younger the better” and
also studies indicating that older students can exceed younger learners. In addition, there
is another hypothesis that indicates that younger learners are extremely efficient in
acquiring native-like accent in second language. It has to be taken into account that for
this to happen, it is important that the exposure to the target language is sufficient.
Moreover, this is confirmed by Singleton (2004) as he states “the strong version of this
position being that unless exposure to the L2 begins in the childhood years an authentic
accent will not normally be acquired” (p. 84).
It is also important to discuss if it is better over the long run to start learning L2 at
an early age. Krashen et al. (1979) explore this subject further and show the short-term
and long-term results in L2 acquisition. They claim that:

(1) Adults proceed through early stages of syntactic and morphological
development faster than children (where time and exposure are held constant).
(2) Older children acquire faster than younger children (again, in early stages of
syntactic and morphological development where time and exposure are held
constant).
(3) Acquirers who begin natural exposure to second languages during childhood
generally achieve higher second language proficiency than those beginning as
adults. (p.161).
There seems to be no clear evidence that can without a doubt conclude that
children learning an L2 will outperform older language learners in the long run.
Singleton’s conclusion and summary regarding this matter is that it is not possible to
conclude, based on current studies that younger l2 learners are more efficient and
successful language learners than the older ones (Singleton 2004). On the other hand,
Singleton does mention that there is extremely reliable evidence to support the
hypothesis that over the long run, those who begin learning an L2 in childhood
generally gain higher level of proficiency than those who begin at later stages in life
(Singleton 2004). However, the studies that contradict this hypothesis are those made in
a classroom environment. Therefore, it is hard to compare classroom instruction over
the long run and natural L2 acquisition that does not take place inside a classroom.
4.1 Does age really matter in SLA?
The question when is the best age for Second language acquisition seems to be
connected with the amount input or exposure to the target language. Scholars are still
struggling to understand sufficiently what effect age has on the language learner when
the exposure to the target language is not enough. Munoz (2010) argues that the amount
and the quality of the language input is extremely important to young learners at the
early stages of second language learning. She presents results that compare younger and
older language learners and declares that young learners consistently show better
language results than those who start SLA later on in life as adults. Similarly, she
declares that those results provide positive support for the Critical Period Hypothesis
(CPH) and indicate what has been discussed earlier about the existence of certain age

period and incomplete language acquisition. Discussing this further, this strong
evidence supporting the claim that children benefit much more by participating in the
cultural environment, where they are naturally exposed to the language input rather than
starting at an early age in classroom environment, show that children are exposed to
more quality of natural input of the target language (Munoz, 2010, p. 40-41). This
suggest that exposure is more important than the age factor when comes to SLA.
According to Larson-Hall (2008), most studies on the critical period seem to
favour the theory that “the younger, the better”. However those studies have been
conducted when learners were active participants and culturally involved in the target
country. The participants were actively exposed to the target language on daily basis
and received great amount of exposure to the target language outside of the classroom.
Researchers agree on the importance of the amount of exposure regarding the critical
age of SLA because there is no guarantee of “the younger the better” when the exposure
is minimal. As discussed by Larson-Hall, children and adults learn language through
different strategies and have different learning abilities. She talks about how young
learners learn in an implicit way, which makes minimal exposure to the target language
not enough to form morphological, syntactic or phonological system. This statement is
confirmed when older results are analysed and show that there is no linguistic advantage
of SLA, having in mind “the younger the better” when the exposure is minimal (Larson-
Hall 2008). One of those earlier studies from 1974, conducted by Oller and Nagato and
later cited by Larson-Hall involve Japanese elementary school students who were
starting to learn English (1-2 hours per week) and they compared them with older
students who were beginning their SLA in junior high. Statistical differences were
diagnosed within the younger learners but not within the older and the conclusion was
that the advantages of the younger learners were not present anymore. Oller & Nagato’s
argument for this particular reason show no differences within the older group and
results were purely statistical because the older students had 50 students and the
younger group had 24 which demonstrate that if effects sizes are small, the results from
statistics can disappear (Tversky and Kahneman 1971). However, more recent
investigations regarding “the earlier, the better” are still debatable and the focal point
has led scholars to investigate further the language exposure and motivational factors.

To explore further the motivation and attitudes towards learning a second
language, Larson-Hall’s investigation from 2008 suggests that young learners have
more positive attitude towards studying a foreign language (Larson-Hall 2008). In
conclusion, the study made by her focused on if there was any correlation between
starting early and high scores in environment that provided minimal input of exposure
to the second language as the debate has often been about how age plays a significant
role in a natural or immersion environments. According to her, this is not always true as
she argues that “age does seem to play a non-negligible role in improving second
language acquisition, given that language learners receive enough input“ (p.24).
Moreover, the reality is that age can play a role in improving second language
acquisition, but it is important to provide students with enough exposure to the target
language during their learning process.
5.0 Motivation and the Learning Environment
5.1 Motivation
It is extremely important to understand the role of motivation in SLA because
investigations (Gardner and Lambert 1972 and Dörnyei 2001) show that motivation
plays a significant role in achieving SL proficiency and competence. According to
Pandey (2005) “motivation, defined as the impetus to create and sustain intentions and
goal-seeking acts, is important because it determines the extent of the learner's active
involvement and attitude toward learning”(p.79). Gardner and Lambert (1972) state that
motivation is extremely influential factor in successful second language acquisition and
the term motivation was brilliantly bolstered in 1985 by Gardner who defined
motivation as being “the combination of effort plus desire to achieve the goal of
learning the language plus favourable attitudes toward learning the language” ( p. 10).
Gardner and Lambert (1972) are considered to be research pioneers on the field of
second language learning and motivation. In their investigation, they included two
motivational factors, integrative and instrumental motivation where the learner is
focusing on achieving certain goals perpetrated in those two sets of motivational factors.
In second language acquisition, instrumental motivation can be thought of as a
motivation for those who want to learn a second or foreign language for educational
purpose or seeking work opportunities (Gardner and Lambert 1972). However,

integrated motivation, as explained by Shirbagi are those learners who want to
culturally interact with other community members and are willing to participate as
valuable members of the target language country. In other words, the main goal of the
language learner is to use the language for social interaction (Shirbagi 2010).
Early investigations conducted by Gardner and Lambert from 1972 focus on
integration motivation as being more important than instrumental motivation. Shirbagi
points out that in later studies, the focus has been shifting towards integrative
motivation as being more important. Instrumental motivation is still considered valuable
element but today integrative motivation is constantly being linked to successful second
language competence (Shirbagi 2010). Gardner’s statement from 1985 confirms this
belief as he claims that “An integratively oriented learner would likely have a stronger
desire to learn the language, have more positive attitudes towards the learning
situation, and be more likely to expend more effort in learning the language” (p.11).
In those two learning contexts the students should be aware of the importance of
the SLA process because it might be easier for the teacher to help the student towards
success. Shirbagi shows how students are driven by a motivational force because of
their awareness of the importance of SLA which will furthermore develop integrative
and instrumental motivation. He continues to argue the essence of integrative and
instrumental motivation for the student. Additionally, he states that an extremely
important factor of integrative and instrumental motivation is the instructor’s role
because the teacher needs to be aware and understand the ability of each student and
how they are motivated (Shirbagi 2010). For that reason, he states the importance of
providing language learners with opportunities to practice integrative and instrumental
motivation. Instructors need to provide activities that promote such motivation and this
is only possible as long as the teacher understands the learning abilities of his/her
learners (Shirbagi 2010).
Consequently, teachers should be aware of the importance of the motivational
element in order to assist students to develop their learning techniques and to achieve
their language learning goals. Engin (2009) also investigated the role of motivation and
found out that it can significantly influence the student to succeed. Engin suggests that
the teacher should focus on positive reinforcement rather than empathise on error or

negative motivation which can decrease the learner’s ability to succeed. Also, he
continues and says that implement positive motivation during the learning process will
benefit the learner more from learning the target language. Students need to receive
enough motivation and the instructor needs to make his students aware of their learning
expectations (Engin 2009). Motivation is an important factor that needs to be discussed
in terms of SLA but the learner also needs to be provided with proper learning
environment.
5.2 Natural Setting and Instructed Setting
It is extremely important to be aware of the natural and instructional settings, in
order to investigate the effect of the methods in relation to age factor. It is essential to
understand the two settings to be able to implement the methods in the learning period
and for the learner to be able to succeed. In Munoz (2010), she heavily favours the
natural setting and points out the negative elements of instructed setting. Her point is
that in instructed setting the instruction is limited to 2-4 sessions per week of
approximately 50 minutes each session. Also, the target language exposure is extremely
limited in addition to the target language not being used as form of communication
between learners and tutor. Moreover, the oral fluency of the teacher in the target
language might be limited and at last the language is not spoken outside of the
classroom (Munoz 2010). Just by pointing out the differences between the two setting, it
is easy to notice that exposure to the target language is a significant factor in any
language acquisition. Traditional instructional setting focuses on the language itself
rather than the use of the language. But in regards to age and sufficient exposure, one
might think that it is better to start as early as possible in order to succeed in language
acquisition. As pointed out by Munoz, there are differences between the two learning
setting and she explored further four aspects that need to be discussed regarding the
effect on age in second language acquisition as she doubts whether “the younger, the
better” is better or not.
To conclude if “the younger the better” is true, Munoz mentions four crucial
asymmetries between the natural approach of learning and the instructed setting
approach. Past results of the effect of age and natural setting indicate that young
learners tend to outperform older learner in many different skills (Munoz 2010).

However, other studies cited by Munoz show that the primary focus has been to
compare learners in natural setting and that older language learning starters in most
cases outperform younger starters in short period of time. The reason for this, as argued
by Munoz, is that the older learner becomes a more efficient learner in the earlier stages
of the learning process and tends to advance much faster than the younger learner.
Furthermore, young learners might start slower to learn the language but in the long
term they acquire a superior proficiency level that can be compared to almost native-
like language skills (Munoz 2010). The fact that the older students are more efficient
learners than the younger ones leads to the conclusion that “if the older learners’
advantage is mainly due to their superior cognitive development, no differences in
proficiency are to be expected when differences in cognitive development also
disappear with age” (Munoz, 2006, p. 34). This clearly demonstrates that older starters
in instructed setting seem to have advantage over younger starters and as Munoz (2010)
argues when she summarizes the results from the BAF Project that focused on investing
if age has any effect on foreign language learning:
“in an instructed foreign language learning setting an early start does not
automatically confer an ultimate attainment advantage. This may be considered to
be a crucial age-related difference between a foreign language learning setting and
a naturalistic language learning setting”(p. 43-44).
Munoz furthermore claims that the early beginning learning process cannot play
the same role in both of the learning contexts. It is obvious that the amount of exposure
is significant factor in second language acquisition. However, she explains that the
“parallelism between age effects in a naturalistic language learning context and in an
instructed language” (p. 43) indicates that the time that the learner spends in the target
country (living and learning) comes to an end as a measurement tool of L2 proficiency
level. Clearly, she points out that this will not happen in a classroom environment with a
language exposure that is nowhere near the same as in a natural learning environment.
This leads to an interesting fact from Alderson (1999) that Munoz refers to and explains
that research have shown that the connection between the time spent learning a
language and the level of proficiency is not always linear

Continuing with Munoz’s discussions from 2010, she states that “the long term
advantage of younger starters is not found in a foreign language learning setting” (p.
46). Pursuing this further, she states that instructed language learners are missing the
important exposure that naturalistic context environment provides to the learners. In
other words, students in instructed environment do not have the same access to the
amount of quality exposure to the language. As Munoz claims, this lack of exposure
results in children not being able to benefit enough from the learning concepts that they
are acquiring. On the other hand, direct teacher instructions (instructed context) favours
older learners because they are more efficient learners and they know what the teacher
is expecting from them and also they are more aware of their learning outcomes (Munoz
(2010).
At last, Munoz’s argument regarding “the younger the better” and taking into
account all the past studies that favours natural context of learning, the earlier might be
better but it has to be followed with motivation and enough exposure to the target
language. Therefore, the amount of exposure and motivation are key elements in SLA.
Additionally, instructors should always provide learners with enough opportunities to
practice the language in various L2 social contexts. Munoz compares a young second
language learner in an instructed learning context and an older language starter in a
natural learning context and showed that the natural learner outperformed the instructed
one. She claimed that the reason was that the natural learner receives constant exposure
from the social environment and therefor will be a more successful language learner
than the younger one who does not receive any target language exposure. She argues
that the quality of the exposure to the target language has a significant influence on the
effect of second language learners. Moreover she points out that this particular influence
“explains the older learners’ persistent advantage in rate of learning as well as the
difficulty that younger learners have to show any long-term benefits due to an early start
in a school setting.” (Munoz, 2010, p. 39)
5.3 Educational Context and Cultural Context
In order to investigate the roots of motivation in second language acquisition it is
essential to discuss both the educational context (classroom learning) and the cultural

context (outside the classroom). Gardner(2000) shows how complex it is to study a
second language that involves learning exotic cultural concepts such as new vocabulary,
pronunciation and language structure while other school subjects focus on parts that the
learner can relate to his own culture (Gardner(2000).
The educational context is the environment that the learner is familiar with. There
are factors in the educational context that can contribute to greatly influence the
learning during SLA. The expectations of the school system, quality of the language
program, classroom environment, materials used in class and the curriculum are among
few factors that Gardner (2000) considers being influential elements of motivation in
SLA. The Cultural Context is reflected in the learner’s ability to express attitude,
beliefs, personality, characteristics, expectations, ideals, etc. Gardner (2000).
It might be easier for adults to learn a second language because they are more
aware of their learning process and more aware of what kind of results they want to
achieve. On the other hand, language environment seems to play an important role in
this case as children might catch up native-like accent much quicker and better than
adults if they are learning the language in the natural way such as when they participate
in the community rather than in the classroom (Gardner 2000). Consequently, Gardner
suggests that since the learner will be motivated by various elements and attitudes that
exist in the cultural context such as values, meaningfulness, awareness of the learners
learning potential, differences in personality. For that reason, he claims that “the
cultural context can have an effect on the individual’s ultimate success in learning the
language” (Gardner, 2000, p.6). Pursuing this further, his discussions leads to the point
that educational context and cultural context are not independent elements and do not
influence each other. Interestingly, cultural context can influence the learner’s attitude
towards the classroom environment and educational context can have an effect on the
learner’s integrativenes. Key element in Gardner’s investigation is his assumption that
the educational context plays a significant motivational role as the learner has built up
attitude toward the learning situation. This is extremely important because within the
educational context, this attitude is the factor that influences the individual level of
motivation (Gardner 2000).

Over the years, Dörnyei (1994) has been investigating the motivation within the
educational context and moreover he has been looking at factors that affect second
language learners’ motivation. One of the factors discussed by him is the role of the
teacher in the classroom. He explains how the teacher is considered to be one of the
most significant parts of L2 learners’ motivation because of the many roles that he has
in the classroom. The teacher is not only considered an instructor but also a role model,
motivator, mentor, consultant. In fact, the role of the teacher should be to engage the
student into the learning process so the student can benefit and gain successful
competence in the target language (Dörnyei 1994). Also, more recent discussion from
2001 by Dörnyei, he empathises that the motivational effectiveness of the teaching
strategies should highly depend on the perception that the students have on teaching
strategies. Additionally, he went further than Gardner and investigated the elements in
the language learning process that affects learner motivation and additionally
constructed a framework of L2 motivation based on three key elements of L2 learning
in education context. Dörnyei’s framework from 1994 is divided into three sections of
levels; language level, learner level, and learning situation levels. Learning situation
level is then subdivided into three more levels:
 Course-Specific Motivational Components; which involves learner’s interest,
expectancy and satisfaction.
 Teacher-Specific Motivational Components; involving the student’s desire to please
the teacher. Authority type (controlling vs. autonomy-supporting) and Direct
Socialization of Motivation (includes modelling, task presentation and feedback)
 Group-Specific Motivational Components.
With his framework idea, Dörnyei suggested that the L2 teacher should be aware of
students learning ability and needs as mentioned earlier. He agrees that the teachers
should be more of a facilitators rather than authorities and he stresses the importance of
promoting learner autonomy. In conclusion, he empathises on the importance of using
proper teaching strategies to motivate students towards successful language competence
(Dörnyei 1994).
5.4 Motivation in the Learning Environment

Although earlier studies suggest that age is an important influential factor in
gaining complete SLA competence, motivation seems to be key element in the learning
process. However, Gardner (2007) says that “Motivation to learn a second language is
not a simple construct. It cannot be measured by one scale; perhaps the whole range of
motivation cannot be assessed by even three or four scales” (p. 10). Moreover, he
proposes the question why motivation plays so important role in learning a second or
foreign language and explains that children that come from bilingual home easily learn
two languages. Additionally, they seem to be capable of understanding, write and read
the language properly (Gardner 2007). There has to be some sort of motivation involved
in SLA, weather it concerns young learners or adults. The question how motivation is
fostered leads to another important aspect of SLA, which involves the learning
environment of the student, whether it is classroom instruction or simply a cultural
participation.
There have been numerous studies conducted over the years that deal with the
learning environment and motivation. That is to say, to find out if classroom
environment or cultural participation is more motivating among learners to gain
complete second language acquisition. Kissau (2006) explored the field of motivational
environment and focused on motivation theory in his study in Canada. He points out
how studies of second language (L2) motivation from the past 30 years have evolved by
stating that societal approaches dominated the research of 1970s and 1980s but has
gradually changed to an approach that focuses on the classroom based environment of
the L2 learner.
Kissau agrees with Gardner (2007) regarding the influential aspect of motivation
in language learning. He moreover claims that Gardner is one of the most exceptional
researchers in the field of SLA area who claims that motivation is considered to be the
most influential factor in learning a new language (Gardner 1985). Later study
conducted by Gardner in 2001 and cited by Kissau (2006) where Gardner claims that
the attitudes toward the learning situation are key elements for motivation but it is the
motivation that is responsible for the achievement. Gardner stated that language
learning success was determined by the attitude of the learner toward the target
language and country. Like Kissau mentions, Gardner categorized learners as being

integratively or instrumentally oriented meaning that they are integratively oriented if
they have positive attitudes towards culture and language of the target country. On the
other hand, those who are considered instrumentally oriented are students who learn in
classroom environment (Kissau 2006). Gardner (1985) supports his claims and says that
if a student is showing positive attitude towards the culture and people who speaks the
language that the student is learning, then it will be an important determinant for
success. However, researchers have been calling for more investigations on classroom
approach to L2 motivation that involves more input from the classroom instructor.
5.5 Motivation and Young Learners in the Classroom
As pointed out in this paper, it has been explored if it is better to start learning
second language when you are young. Discussions have been debatable and there seem
to be no unambiguous results that declare if “the younger the better”. Moreover, those
who favour “the younger the better“ argue that young learners easily achieve second
language from what it seems almost effortless, they are interested to learn, motivated
and curious to participate in creative activities (Nikolov and Djigunovi'c 2006).
Furthermore, scholars favouring the statement say that children learn by doing, and are
not conscious about the learning process, contrary to old learners who are more aware
of what is expected of them. This will lead to the fact that the second language
acquisition in young learners is more natural (Halliwell 1992, Cameron 2001).
As for the motivational aspect of young learners towards SLA, they generally
have more positive attitude towards SLA and are highly motivated. Nikolov (1999) has
been exploring the field of SLA among young learners and has showed that motivation
is normally high at the beginning but tends to decrease with time. Therefore, as
discussed earlier, it is extremely important to provide young learners with supportive
learning environment at the very beginning of the learning process. Therefore, the
teacher plays a significant role during the learning period. However, as they grow
older, the impact changes and other factors seem to influence the ups and downs of
young learner’s motivation (Djigonovic 2012).
Despite these findings, there are not yet any sufficient evidences that indicate it is
more beneficial to start language learning at an early stage but results has shown that it

could be beneficial to start early although (contrary to what has been discussed earlier)
the benefit is not noticeable. Although it has not yet been proofed significantly that “the
younger the better”, Torfadóttir and associates expose that there is great interest in
adapting foreign/second language at an early stage in Europe for example. In fact, to
motivate young learners in the language process and provide them with positive
attitudes towards the target language it is extremely important to look at the factor that
influence the learning process. They continue by explaining that there are certain
conditions that need to be present during the language learning process. Students need
discipline, repetition, support and motivation to learn a new language. Students need
opportunity to listen to the target language as much as possible (Torfadóttir, et al.,
2006). As a matter of fact, one motivational aspect of SLA in young learners is to make
the classroom environment alive with pictures, posters, flashcards and real objects that
stimulate the learning. Moreover, they argue that the exposure needs to be sufficient and
the more students listen, the better they get used to hear the language. Because when
students constantly hear the language, they get used to it and they start to feel more
confident using the language, or at least try to use it. The instructor should use the
language at all times and make simple instructions and a lot of repetition because with
time children tend to absorb the language unconsciously. Despite the importance of
using the target language as much as possible, it can be essential to switch to mother
tongue in order to explain better more complicated instructions (Torfadóttir, et al.,
2006).
It is evident that young learners need opportunities to explore the language inside
the classroom and practice it in a social context. It is generally believed that the
language is learned by doing, children learn the language through games, singing,
movements and imitation games (Torfadóttir, et al., 2006).The methods used in the
classroom can have significant influence on how young learners learn the second
language and the type of vocabulary used can influence their learning process.
Therefore it is important that the instructor uses variety of teaching methods and topics
to use in the classroom because children learn from their teacher and tend to absorb the
accent and vocabulary of the teacher as discussed by Torfadóttir and associates.
Besides, if the target language is supposed to be used in the classroom, it is important to
make the young learners used to the language inside the classroom and emphasize that

the target language will only be used and also that it is all right to make mistakes.
Alternatively, if the teacher always uses the language in the classroom he will influence
and motivate students to practice it and use it as well. Furthermore, motivation plays an
important role in second language acquisition and it influences the learner. If he is not
interested in the subject or topic, it is likely that he will not succeed. Studies conducted
by Torfadóttir and associates have demonstrated that motivation and a positive attitude
towards the target language tend to lead towards better grades.
Interestingly, it is important to focus on the teaching methods and supportive
classroom environment in order to engage the student into the learning process. The
teacher’s responsibility is extremely important in this case. The instructor needs to
provide students with proper learning environment so that students can feel confident in
exploring the language. In order for this to happen, the instructors need to be properly
trained because the teacher sets the groundwork for the student’s future and therefor he
needs to motivate the student with the suitable tools to build on the future success of
learning the language (Torfadóttir, et al., 2006).
6.0 Conclusion
Although the hypothesis about “the younger the better” and the debate about if learning
a second language at later stages in life is not effective, it is interesting to note from the
discussions in this paper that the main factor seems to rely on the language exposure
along with motivation and the type of learning environment that is provided to the
learner. For best second language attainment it seems to be beneficial to be culturally
involved in the target language. Young language learners who are starting to learn a
second language seem to outperform older learners but it has been pointed out here that
over the long run the older students are more effective learners if they are provided with
the sufficient target language exposure and motivation. Larson-Hall (2008) showed us
that there is no linguistic advantage of SLA when having in mind the hypothesis “the
younger the better”. The amount of exposure to the target language is extremely
important element in this case and Larson-Hall (2008) among others conclude that age
does play an important role in SLA but certain conditions need be present such as
sufficient exposure to the target language and motivation. Almost any second language
learner who is provided with sufficient exposure to the target language will outperform

those who are not giving the opportunity to practice the target language in a social
environment. To influence second language learners the teacher’s role is extremely
important to achieve complete SL competence. Gardner and Lambert (1972) argued that
motivation is an extremely influential factor in successful second language acquisition.
Moreover, by involving motivation in the learning process it will benefit the learner
from learning. Gardner (2000) also favours the idea that students who are motivated in
the cultural context will be more successful in SLA than those who practice
instructional way. It is almost impossible to declare based on current data that starting
young to learn second language is better than to start at later stage in life. The reason is
the amount of participants in every research. For that matter, it is hard to generalize that
young is better if for example 2000 participants in few schools are supposed to conclude
the hypothesis. There is a huge demand for bigger and broader research on age and SLA
and this topic will always be debatable although there are excellent scholars out there
that have investigated the age factor, motivation, exposure and the learning environment
in SLA.
In conclusion, “the younger the better” hypothesis, as mentioned above, is not
always true because Munoz provided several evidence that if sufficient exposure is not
available for young learners, they can lose their advantage and it might prevent them
from benefit from the learning. As a final point, the age might play an important role in
SLA and earlier might be better but for that to happen, there has to be motivation and
sufficient exposure to the target language for the learner to benefit from. In other words,
for successful SLA, exposure and the role of motivation seems to be more significant
than the age factor.

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