Perspectives on a Critical Period for Language Acquisition: Implications for language research and practice

In recent years there has been much discussion about whether there is a critical, or sensitive period for language acquisition. Research on a critical period provides an excellent example around which we can organize a discussion of the behavioral and neural evidence. In this paper, the early history of critical periods and evidence for the existence of critical periods in various domains of human cognition and learning are reviewed. Followed by this overview, evidence for a critical period in both linguistic and non linguistic area are presented. The paper then provides some unresolved questions regarding a critical period in language acquisition and states what the outcome of this issues mean for an understanding of language acquisition. Finally the paper concludes with some educational implications of a critical period for practice.