What is the article about in general? Is this article an empirical study or a literature review?

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)
5th Edition
ISBN:9780134477961
Author:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White
Publisher:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White
Chapter1: The Science Of Psychology
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What is the article about in general? Is this article an empirical study or a literature review?
Abstract
The question of a sensitive period in language
acquisition has been subject to extensive research
and debate for more than half a century. While it
has been well established that the ability to learn
new languages declines in early years, the extent to
which this outcome depends on biological
maturation in contrast to previously acquired
knowledge remains disputed. In the present study,
we addressed this question by examining phonetic
discriminatory abilities in early second language
(L2) speakers of Swedish, who had either
maintained their first language (L1) (immigrants) or
had lost it (international adoptees), using native
speaker controls. Through this design, we sought
to disentangle the effects of the maturational state
of the learner on L2 development from the effects
of L1 interference: if additional language
development is indeed constrained by an
interfering L1, then adoptees should outperform
immigrant speakers. The results of an auditory
lexical decision task, in which fine vowel
distinctions in Swedish had been modified, showed,
however, no difference between the L2 groups.
Instead, both L2 groups scored significantly lower
than the native speaker group. The three groups
did not differ in their ability to discriminate non-
modified words. These findings demonstrate that
L1 loss is not a crucial condition for successfully
acquiring an L2, which in turn is taken as support
for a maturational constraints view on L2
acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be
viewed at: https://youtu.be/1J9X50aePeU.
Transcribed Image Text:Abstract The question of a sensitive period in language acquisition has been subject to extensive research and debate for more than half a century. While it has been well established that the ability to learn new languages declines in early years, the extent to which this outcome depends on biological maturation in contrast to previously acquired knowledge remains disputed. In the present study, we addressed this question by examining phonetic discriminatory abilities in early second language (L2) speakers of Swedish, who had either maintained their first language (L1) (immigrants) or had lost it (international adoptees), using native speaker controls. Through this design, we sought to disentangle the effects of the maturational state of the learner on L2 development from the effects of L1 interference: if additional language development is indeed constrained by an interfering L1, then adoptees should outperform immigrant speakers. The results of an auditory lexical decision task, in which fine vowel distinctions in Swedish had been modified, showed, however, no difference between the L2 groups. Instead, both L2 groups scored significantly lower than the native speaker group. The three groups did not differ in their ability to discriminate non- modified words. These findings demonstrate that L1 loss is not a crucial condition for successfully acquiring an L2, which in turn is taken as support for a maturational constraints view on L2 acquisition. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/1J9X50aePeU.
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