First, on the sound system, there is a general consensus that adult learners cannot reasonably hope to ever achieve a native accent in a second language. ¡°Learners who start as children achieve more native-like accent than those who start as ¡­adults.¡±(Ellis: 489) Some may argue that this advantage of children do not exist in classroom situation. It is true that the contrast between child and adult would not be so obvious as in SLL situation. However, in my personal view, if an adult and child are exposed to the same foreign language teacher and the same hours of class instruction, child would still be better imitators of the teacher¡¯s pronunciation. As explanation, ¡°evidence shows that the particular motor skill of speech pronunciation is best developed at a younger age.¡±(Steinberg: 208) Another possible reason is offered by Flege (Theo Bongaerts et al, 1997) that ¡°one of the main cause of foreign accents is the increasing tendency of L2 learners, once they have established the phonetic categories for their L1, to perceive L2 sound in terms of those categories. To support this view, we may have a look at our students who are outstanding in pronunciation. Most of them have the experience of going to foreign language middle school and being taught at an early age by foreign teachers.

would also be helpful to state in the beginning my purpose of making the comparison, as it predisposes the organization of my argument. Though the comparison between adults and children is naturally followed by an interesting question ¡°who is better language learner, adult or child,¡± I am reluctant to make the judgment. Learners could be better either by learning faster in the beginning stages or by ultimately attaining a higher proficiency level. If adults do the former and children the later, which is most possibly the case, then problem arises as to decide who is better. Moreover it is not as meaningful to make the distinction between two groups as between individuals. While it could be predicted that both children and adults have their respective advantages and disadvantages, the advantage of one group may not be true to all its members. And the difference in one aspect between two children or adults can be greater than that between an average child and adult. The task for an individual, therefore is to develop her strong points, whether they are personal or age-related, and avoid her weaknesses.

My discussion of native language interfer

Some topics in this essay:
Piaget Yue, Theo Bongaerts, Motivation Motivation, , native language, language learning, children adults, foreign language, child adult, learning strategies, rote learning ability, learning ability, language interference, rote learning, cognitive abilities, native language interference, factors learning strategies, 1 cognitive factors, 2 affective factors,