Age And the Rate of Foreign Language Learning

Common wisdom and even personal experience may tell us that acquiring a second language is more difficult as we age. This collection of articles goes beyond the knowledge that children are better second language learners than adults in natural settings by examining foreign language learning in school settings, including unusual situations such as those in which low-proficiency learners are acquiring a third language. Topics include a survey of the methods, research design and materials of the longitudinal project generally under study, the influence of starting age on foreign language learning, age effects on oral fluency and vocabulary, accuracy orders and rate of learning in morphological acquisition, narrative development, writing, interaction, strategy use, and language learning motivation. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Carmen Munoz received her MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading, UK. and her PhD in English Linguistics from the University of Barcelona, Spain, where she is now a Professor of English Linguistics and Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include second and foreign language acquisition, as well as bilingual acquisition. She is the coordinator of the Barcelona Age Factor (BAF) Project. Her recent publications have focused on the age factor in foreign language acquisition, cross linguistic influence and individual differences.