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Language Aquisition

            Al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University
          Faculty of Language and Translation
          Department of English
          Postgraduate Studies
          Second Language Acquisition
 
 
        
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  The Effect of Age on Pronunciation of Second          Language Learners
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
     Submitted by:
   Maram
  
     Supervised by:
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Introduction
      There is consensus in the field of second language acquisition research that a period of time exist in which the acquisition or learning of a second language        can   be accomplished more rapidly and easily than times falling outside this period, Broun, 1994 LARSEN FREEMAN and long 1991, Social, 1998, The hypothesis concludes that children between birth and somewhere around the age when a child enters puberty can more easily acquire language than children past this age. Learners of a second language that begin the learning process after this ''critical period'' (around age 10 or 12)are indeed still able to acquire a second language but the learners` pronunciation will not be the same as those  learn the language as early as six years old on younger.
     So if this critical period does exist what does this mean for teachers of a second language? The important of this hypothesis has received a great deal       attention from educatiors,speech pathologists, administrators and those involved in language-acquisition research to support this hypothesis,Fromkin and Rodman,1993.
     Through my experience as a Saudi English teacher in elementary schools early childhood as well as the observations of numerous children have noticed that students have different accents. I believe that children should learn English during this critical period. The Saudi government should strive to teach English to all students from grade one not grade six. These observations show that there is a need to know more about...