Bilinguismo

CRITICAL PERIOD AND COLOMBIA BILINGÜE PROGRAM

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS IN THE COLOMBIA
BILINGÜE PROGRAM

by

Andres Insuasty Cardenas

Submitted to the School of Human Sciences
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of B.A. in English and French
Linguistics and Languages Department
University of Nariño
October, 2011

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CRITICALPERIOD AND COLOMBIA BILINGÜE PROGRAM
Table of contents

The importance of the critical period hypothesis in the Colombia bilingüe program...................... 3
Colombia Bilingüe program ............................................................................................................. 3
The definition of standards for English in the Colombia bilingüeprogram…………................................6

Bilingualism ..................................................................................................................................... 8
The age factor and second language acquisition
A brief reference about Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories......................................... 10
Interactionisttheory........................................................................................................................ 11
Behaviorist theory .......................................................................................................................... 13
Contrastive analysis hypothesis ..................................................................................................... 13
Innatist theory................................................................................................................................. 14
Language acquisition device .......................................................................................................... 14
Critical period hypothesis (CPH) ................................................................................................... 16
First language acquisitionCPH ...................................................................................................... 17
Second language acquisition CPH ................................................................................................. 19
Sensitive period hypothesis ............................................................................................................ 25
Assumptions forthe language classroom ....................................................................................... 28
References ...................................................................................................................................... 35

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CRITICAL PERIOD AND COLOMBIA BILINGÜE PROGRAM
The importance of the Critical Period Hypothesis in the Colombia BilingüeProgram
This research paper intends to explain how the critical period should be taken into account
when teaching a foreign language in Colombia in order to foster bilingual study. It is a common
fact that in Colombia many people consider going abroad in order to get a job or study. These
reasons have been important to learn a foreign language which brings many advantages to our
lives. However,learning a foreign language is a process that involves different aspects such as
social, educational and age aspects. For this reason, this research emphasizes mainly on how age
influences on the process of learning a foreign language both in children and in adults. In
addition, some theories and studies will support the Colombia Bilingüe program taking into
account the teaching of English in theearly stages of life. It is known that developing and
acquiring a language is considered as a minimal part in the complete development of human
beings. Language is also the main means in which people know about others thoughts and
establishes relationships. Every time people speak, they reveal something about language. Now,
how foreign language teaching is going to be carried out in...