Background
- The critical period is the time, usually before age eleven, when a person can learn a second language and have virtually no accent (Nora).
- Test anxiety, fear of negative evaluation, communication apprehension (Gursoy, 830).
- Research conducted at the University of Illinois suggests that those who arrive in the United States at a younger age do better on English grammar tests (Johnson, 78), and as their age increases, people do progressively worse on the same tests.
- In today’s society, a second language for a child will be more beneficial in the long run than a diploma alone used to be.