Cainntear wrote:mentecuerpo wrote:The papers I presented here are research-based.
But none of them describe linear relationships.
What do you think about the Canadian immigrant paper?
Did you read it?
Yes. It doesn't describe a linear relationship.
I can say then that linear stops at age 17 or maybe younger.
You can say it, but the Canadian paper contradicts your hypothesis. It shows a pattern that is repeated across all research in this area:
There is a slow decline in ability to pick up a natural accent in pre-school years, and the decline accelerates during early school years, reaching its fastest around the onset of puberty, then slows again in the early 20s.
i.e.
not linear.
FiCTITIOUS EXAMPLE
I am referring to my common sense of anticipation results, not back up by science; it is my opinion. It is fictional and imaginary sample crated by me.
Why? Why invent a fake example? I know what you're claiming, so the made-up example doesn't clarify, and because it's made up, it doesn't support your argument anyway.
Imagine a nuclear family consisting of four monolingual members with no prior knowledge of the English language who immigrated from Vietnam to Canada. On the date of arrival to the new home country, the father is 55-yo, the mother is 48-yo, the older child is 15-yo, and the youngest is 8-yo. They all immigrate together. After five years of living in Canada, we meet the family and assess their language proficiency 0 to 10, ten in better.
Results are as follows:
After five years of living in Canada, native speakers rate the family member's English language proficiency with a simple 0 to 10 scale, ten is native-like pronunciation and prosody.
Dad=3
Mother=4
Older child=6
Younger child=8
...and it's flawed anyway. One thing noted in a lot of Asian immigration is that women often end up spending less time with native speakers and more time with fellow immigrants, so tend to achieve a lower level than men, who typically end up working alongside native speakers and socialising with their workmates. The 7 year difference between husband and wife is likely going to have negligible effects, completely masked by their different social situations.
Cainntear, thank you for reading the article about the Italian immgrants to Canada and give feedback.
So it is not linear after puberty, that is the conclusion from the scientific evidence.
I still think that age plays a role in adulthood.
An adult English as a second language teacher will probably be more qualified to speak on the topic than me for sure. A linguistic who specializes in Language acquisition is more qualified for sure.
Suppose you have a monolingual person, the average joe, with no prior exposure to the target language, and no previous interest in learning languages. Then, this person immigrates to the target language country. For multiple factors, it is my observation, from cases I know, that the age of arrival will influence the proficiency levels reached on the new language, especially pronunciation and language prosody. The person may learn enough vocabulary and simple grammar structure that will allow him to interact in his environment, but the pronunciation and prosody of the language will be harder to acquire with age.
Age will contribute in favor or make it harder to finding a job, to interact outside the social group of immigrants from his same country or language. The age will determine a stronger relationship with his native language, including culturally, psychological, and phonetical muscle memory. This stronger relationship with his L1 will influence his new L2.
It is hard for a Chinese young adult person to learn English well, and I would imagine that the older at time of arrival, will be harder for the person.
I can tell you that I still have a strong English accent, and I need a lot of work in my English Prosody. I have been living in the USA for 11 years and I work using English. I first learned English at age 16 yo with immersion for one year in an American High School. I came to NY at 30 yo, then moved back to El Salvador at 36 yo, then back to the USA in the early 40's. Spanish and English are related languages Indo-European in a way with tons of Latin words in common. It is still hard to learn the language at reasonable levels. If I would have started from Zero English at Age 40's, my current English prosody and pronunciation will be even worse. If my native language were not Spanish, but Chinese, it would be even more challenging for me in the 40's.