Age, Accent and Experience in Second Language Acquisition (review)

In Age, Accent and Experience in Second Language Acquisition, Alene Moyer sets out to provide a holistic evaluation of ultimate success in second language acquisition (SLA), synthesizing biological constraints with those rooted in socio-psychological domains. She begins with a comprehensive overview of the literature pertaining to age-related effects on SLA. Critiquing traditional critical period approaches, Moyer argues that their lack of explanatory power results from an over-reliance on biological and strictly cognitive dimensions of SLA, with inadequate attention to the contribution of socio-psychological factors. The rest of the text is devoted to demonstrating why, in the case of L2 phonology, a unified approach that includes multiple dimensions is more predictive of learner success.

Chapter 2 provides a critical overview of previous research on ultimate attainment in L2 phonology, covering topics such as Universal Grammar, developmental variables, the effect of instruction, and socio-psychological context. Moyer criticizes much of the previous research for focusing on learners who fail, arguing that successful learners are more likely to provide insight into the factors that contribute to success. She maintains that variability in the degree of success experienced by post-puberty learners must be accounted for by factors other than biological age, claiming that the linearity of the age–outcome relationship fades with maturation. This claim seems to be in direct conflict with the only large-scale study of age-related effects on pronunciation, in which Flege, Munro, and MacKay (1995) found a clearly linear relationship continuing through adolescence into adulthood.

To support her arguments, Moyer discusses a study of 25 immigrants to Germany who share what she describes as optimal learning conditions: a balance of both formal and informal learning experiences. She reports both quantitative and qualitative aspects of her study, focusing specifically on how age of onset with an L2 interacts with both opportunities for interaction with native speakers (NSs) and socio-psychological factors such as motivation and self-perception. Relating age of onset to ultimate attainment, the results of the study suggest that while biological age is important, much of its effect is the consequence of its co-varying relationship with non-biological factors. The quantitative analyses strengthen Moyer's claims that socio-psychological, experiential, and instructional variables contribute to ultimate attainment independently of age. Unfortunately, the limited number of participants in her study makes the quantitative conclusions somewhat tenuous.

Moyer's qualitative analysis was, for me, the most interesting and insightful part of the book. The learners' own narratives offer rich insights into the contribution of their socio-psychological orientation, sense of belonging, and concomitant access to opportunities for interaction with NSs. The study participants indicated that making initial contacts with NSs was not difficult; rather, it was establishing and maintaining deeper relationships that presented the greatest challenge. In Moyer's qualitative analysis, the learners speak of a variety of conscious strategies they have used to gain greater experience in their new language.

One Turkish participant's lesser degree of success in German L2 phonology seems to have been connected to his status as an outsider. Moyer does not pay sufficient attention to the effect of the learner's L1 group on the affinity he or she feels for the target community. It is not surprising that most of her participants, coming from cultural backgrounds relatively similar to Germans, found it easier to identify with the host community than did the Turkish participants, who reported struggling with identity issues. Rather than resulting from their orientation alone, such learners' lesser degree of success may be largely due to the lack of welcome afforded them by German society. Immigrants' origins and the host culture's response to members of ethnic communities play a large part in their ability to participate. The size of and degree of cohesion within particular immigrant communities, which make it easier for immigrants to maintain their L1 identity, also contribute to failure to successfully adopt a new L2 identity.

In the final chapter, Moyer summarizes her...