Difference between Adult and Children Performances in Second Language Acquisition.

Difference between Adult and Children Performances in Second Language Acquisition
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December 17, 2019
Language has a vital role in people’s culture, which in turn affects their personality. Language acquisition may have a different impact depending on different variables such as age, culture, first or primary language, and/or country. Second language acquisition is an extensive field of knowledge explored by diverse groups of researchers in different fields. This discussion will focus on the different variables in the second language acquisition of adults and children as well as the difference between their efficiency and eloquence.
Second Language Acquisition in Children
           Second language acquisition in children is governed by both internal and external factors. These include phonological short-term memory, age, primary language, logical or rational reasoning, duration of experience using the second language, learning the languages simultaneously versus successively, and the diversity of the vocabulary of the second language being learned (Paradis, 2011).  Conversely, the use of the primary language is central to learning a new one (Wu, Le, & Lu, 2014).
           The factors associated with second language acquisition in children were distinct especially in the immigrants. This is exemplified in the following statements.
The language used, whether primary or secondary, affects the learning and full understanding of the language. This is suggested by the study conducted by Janssen, Segers, McQueen, & Verhoeven (2015) which states that mastery in a subject matter is largely influenced by the language exercised during the child’s formal education. The study exposed the sluggish verbal fluency in children who used their second language as a primary language in their formal education years. Here, they experimented with Dutch monolingual and Turkish-Dutch bilingual children where they were trained to use words with only negligible differences in phonemes. Its outcome was both the monolingual and bilingual children have great progress in phoneme blending. This effect is apparent as an initial part of phonemic attentiveness (Janssen, Segers, McQueen, & Verhoeven, 2015).
           Additionally, a study was also performed in Hong Kong analyzing the correlation between the English-speaking and non-English speaking migrant domestic workers on Hong Kong children’s ability to ability to speak English. The results revealed that English-speaking migrant domestic workers in working-mother households escalates the children’s possibility of using English as their language by twenty-five percent (25%) whereas the non-English speaking migrant domestic worker mothers only increase the probability of acquiring English as the children’s second language by twelve percent (12%) (Tang, 2019). Also, a study by Chow, McBride-Chang, & Cheung (2010) explored the consequences of using English in parent-child reading on fifty-one (51) Hong Kong kindergarteners who are studying English as their second language. These children were randomly designated to three (3) different groups which are dialogic reading (DR), typical reading (TR) or control. They concluded that there is a high chance of transmission of the English language from the parent to the child, even when Chinese is their first language (Chow, McBride-Chang, & Cheung, 2010). 
There are also studies other than those established in immigrants regarding child learning of a second language.
A study by Baker et al (2008)investigated a group of Korean adults and children. It revealed that Korean children outshined the Korean adults in the assembly of certain vowels but there is no difference between them with respect to vowel perception (Baker et al, 2008).
There are also some instances where are preschool children who do not yearn to learn a second language. This circumstance makes it insensible. Thus, these children must not be forced to do so (Farzaneh & Movahed, 2015).
It has also been found that there is no difference between older children that used English as a second language and children who used English as a primary language in terms of their vocabulary and understanding contexts, specifically in basic information processing. However, in more complex word meanings, especially in their grade level, children who used English as a primary language were better than the children who used English as a secondary language (Jean & Geva, 2009). This has been supported by the research conducted by which revealed that in Dutch children, there are more subject-verb agreement errors in using English, which is their second language, as compared to using Dutch, their primary language. These children also commit errors of omission in terms of the cohesiveness and comprehensiveness of their thoughts which were exemplified in their statements. And the differences in performance vary greatly depending on the child’s age (Blom & Baayen, 2013).
Also, in children studying a second language, greater exposure to the second language is linked to procedural memory while at a lower language experience, it is only deemed related to declarative memory (Hamrick, Lum, & Ullman, 2018).
Second Language Acquisition in Adults
           Second language acquisition in adults also has different internal and external factors. Albarracin, Cabedo-Timmons, & Delany-Barmann (2019) examined the factors that influence the second language acquisition of adult Mexican immigrants in the countryside. They divulged on both the intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors are defined as the capability of oneself to learn the language secondary to pure interest. On the other hand, extrinsic factors refer to the circumstances that are contributory to second language acquisition. The researchers concluded that intrinsic factors do not have a significant contribution to language acquisition whereas extrinsic factors considerably improved their second language eloquence. These extrinsic factors include gaining a better job, communication with health care professionals, bank tellers, and grocery store workers (Albarracin, Cabedo-Timmons, & Delany-Barmann, 2019). Also, O'brien, Segalowitz, Freed, & Collentine (2007) revealed that phonological memory, which is an intrinsic factor, has a massive role in second language acquisition by adults. In their report, an analysis was done between the correlation between Spanish verbal fluency and phonological memory which is a speech-based short-term memory or otherwise known as serial non-word recognition. Their study supported the importance of phonological memory in second language acquisition. This is evident in their discovery that phonological memory is vital in the eloquence of a second language (O'brien, Segalowitz, Freed, & Collentine, 2007).
           Furthermore, a study by Liu (2017) found the correlation between some of the intrinsic factors and language acquisition. These consist of the negative correlation between the person’s disposition to communicate using the Chinese Language and the Speaking Anxiety Scale, positive correlation between the Chinese communication skills and length of stay in the country, anxiety as a very strong predictor of the overall eagerness to speak the language. Other factors such as proficiency and intercultural communication sensitivity have an insignificant correlation (Liu, 2017).
           Second language acquisition may be best analyzed in adult migrants and immigrants who do not speak of the language in the country where they settled.
           It has been demonstrated that immigrants, especially those who did not have formal education regarding their primary native language, have more difficulty in learning a second language. This might be due to the lack of mastery of the previous language, thereby increasing the complexity of the process of learning a new one. In a study in the 1970s revealed that uneducated immigrants made a very gradual development and improvement in using the second language. However, the goal of poverty reduction by finding a suitable job required or forced these immigrants to learn the second language. This enhanced their motivation, thereby increasing their confidence in learning such language. They usually started with communicating using short phrases which became sentences, and finally, paragraphs. This skill requires immense practice and repetition was found to be the primary factor in learning a second language (Young-Scholten, 2013).
This is supported by research conducted by Liu & Flege (2001) showed that the immigrants in the United States of America (USA) and the critical differences in the time and pattern of learning of child and adult immigrants. The study revealed that both the child and adult immigrants were able to learn the English language. However, child immigrants were more efficient than adults. The variable that made the difference was the length of stay in the US. The length of stay is said to be directly proportional to the learning time of the child immigrants but not of the adult immigrants (Flege & Liu, 2001). 
The length of stay was also the most significant factor in determining the e...