Kenitra - "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." - Winston Churchill
1 - Understanding attitudes
It is fairly clear that embarking on this research requires the definition of the most relevant concept. The word ‘attitude’ is a flimsy one. Its meaning is evasive. The word is used in different contexts interchangeably with other words such as ‘motivation’, ‘beliefs’, or ‘impression’. If we were to pin down the one single meaning of the word, we may find ourselves talking about perception, culture, past experiences, assumptions, beliefs, impressions and so on and so forth. All these concepts undoubtedly have a strong tie with the word. Although it is not an easy one to define, some definitions seem to be more favored than others. One of the most cited definitions for the word is that of Sarnoff. He defines it as “a disposition to react favourably or unfavourably to a class of objects” (1970: 279). Based on this definition, attitudes can have two directions: positive and a negative one.
“An attitude is a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour.” (Eagley and Chaiken 1998: 269)
Sarnoff, Eagley, and Chaiken in their definitions of attitudes recognize the binary nature of attitudes; that they either have to be positive or negative. However, that is not the end of the matter. There is more to attitudes than just two dichotomic inclinations.
“The concept of attitudes is central to explaining our thoughts, feelings, and actions with regard to other people, situations, and ideas.” (Bordens and Horowitz – 2013 158)
According to Bordens and Horowitz, attitudes are at the heart of mental processes. They are the key concept to understanding personal and subjective experiences. Yet, this definition seems vague and does not render the concept into a graspable and unambiguous meaning. It could be that the ambiguity of the word is what makes it enjoy a sort of flexibility in its use. A more elaborate definition is in order: Attitudes are:
“a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response towards all subjects and situations with which it is related.” Allport (1954: 45)
Allport relates attitudes to personal past experiences. He makes attitudes seem like a repository of impressions accumulated through experience. These impressions filter one’s subjective perception as well as one’s external practices. Although attitudes per se may seem passive and have nothing to do with decision-making, they can have huge influence on one’s behaviors. Pioneered by LaPiere (1934), ‘the relationship between attitudes and behaviors’ triggered a wide range of research in different fields and language teaching/learning makes no exception.
In general, the given definitions capture the most prevailing feature consisting attitudes, if not just the most acknowledged ones. Conventionally, an attitude is a permanent value judgment (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993, 2007) responsive to any given situation.
Now, if pinning down the concept of attitudes may not be achievable, let us then try to break it down into constituents. Baker (1992) divides the concept into three constituents: affective, cognitive and conative. The first constituent has to do with feeling and emotions, the second with thoughts and beliefs, and the third with behavioral intentions. Tension between these components can take place, stresses Baker. For example, somebody may have an inclination to learn English although they may not like the learning process. However, these components unify themselves at a higher lever to represent the larger concept of attitude. In general, this division is very well appreciated in social psychology (Rosenberg and Hovland 1960; Ajzen 1988; Oppenheim 1992; Böhner 2001) although the importance of each constituent may vary from one scholar to another (Bartram, 2010:36).
After having divided the concept into three major parts that may or may not overlap, now we move into differentiating attitudes from motivation which is relevant to the scope of this research.
“Research into motivation and foreign language learning reflects some difficulty with the distinction between motivation and attitude.” Chambers (1999: 26)
There is no dividing line between the two concepts. Most studies regard motivation as being encompassed by attitude (Bartram, 2010:37). However, this is not to say that there is no uncertainty about the nature of the relationship between the two. Schiefele (1963) defines motivation as a mixture of motives and attitudes. Baker (1992) on the other hand differentiates between the two concepts by making attitudes object-specific and motivation goal-oriented. In other words, Baker relates attitudes to the referent object, a foreign language for example; whereas motivation is related to a broader goal, going abroad for example. Nevertheless, this may just be another way of distinguishing between the cognitive and affective components of attitudes themselves (Bartram, 2010:38), and thus motivation is still encompassed by attitudes in this sense.
2 - Understanding attitudes in relation to language learning
Attitudes play a major role in language teaching and learning. The relationship between the two is very intricate.
“Interest in attitude research can also be explained by wide acknowledgement of the relationship between attitudes and successful learning” (Bartram, 2010:33)
Before proceeding to subsequent details, it is of necessity to provide a definition to the linguistic attitude concept. The linguistic attitudes construct is operationalized in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (1992) as follows:
Linguistic attitudes are: “the attitudes which speakers of different languages or language varieties have towards each other’s languages or to their own language. Expressions of positive or negative feelings towards a language may reflect impressions of linguistic difficulty or simplicity, ease or difficulty of learning, degree of importance, elegance, social status, etc. Attitudes towards a language may also show what people feel about the speakers of that language” (p:198)
Understanding the effect of attitudes on L2 and foreign languages is not an unexplored area in language teaching enquiries (Bartram, 2010:33). There is certainly a relationship between language proficiency and attitudes towards the language, but the question is: how can we be sure that we are dealing with attitudes but not something else. Can we isolate attitudes from all other possible variables? Oller and Perkins (1980) for example found that there is zero correlation between second-language proficiency and attitudes.
“In spite of the generally acknowledged importance of attitudes, however, there is much disagreement on their precise nature, their constituent components, classification and their status as a ‘free-standing’ concept in the field of language learning.” (Bartram, 2010:33)
Could not it be possible that the presence of attitudes is merely being assumed for the practical use they provide, that of holding them accountable for behaviors we do not know or understand where they come from?
After having previously approached the concept of attitudes from different sides, it is clear by now that attitudes are not observable behaviors. We only wish to isolate the possible behaviors or inactions that are somehow supposed to be caused by something we call attitudes.
“attitudes are related to behaviour, though not necessarily directly” (Gardner 1985: 9)
Fazio (1990) and Tesser and Shaffer (1990) disapprove of the association between behaviors and attitudes and their use in explaining learning attitudes. Baker (1992), too, refuses to have behaviors as a window to observing language attitudes.
“to ignore the accumulated experiences that are captured in attitudes and concentrate solely on external behavior is unjustified” (Baker, 1992:16)
The cognitive endeavor is by nature always filled with uncertainties like these for the human mind was and still is a black box despite the recent advancement in psychology, neurology and other cognitive disciplines.
Attitudes in relation to language learning is defined in details in Chambers’ quote:
“Attitude is taken to mean the set of values which a pupil brings to the FLL[1] experience. It is shaped by the pay-offs that she expects; the advantages that she sees in language learning. The values which a pupil has may be determined by different variables, such as the experience of learning the target language, of the target language community, experience of travel, the influence of parents and friends, and the attitudes which they may demonstrate and articulate.”(1999: 27)
Most of time pupils or students do not know the cause of their disapproval with a language. It could be that the work of attitudes is probably the most subconscious and complex factor in determining students’ stand on a language. Chambers definition is relevant to the present enquiry since it gives a definition of attitudes in a loose sense and in relation to language learning and it enlists the different variables that will be scrutinized in the practical part.
Some scholars, on the other hand, tried to identify types of attitudes towards foreign language. Gardner and Lambert (1972), who are regarded as the leaders in modern foreign language learning, differentiate between three sorts of language attitudes. The first concerns itself with the target language community. The second concerns itself with the language per se. The third concerns itself with learning foreign languages in general. This classification seems useful and there is relatively a general agreement about it; however, they are far from being uncontroversial (Bartram, 2010:39). Young (1994b) for example disapproves of classifying attitudes because it is too simplistic and that there is more to attitudes than just three categories (p: 31).
Gardner (1985) thinks that motivation can play a decisive role in determining the nature of attitudes. According to him, attitudes are of two types: those of instrumentality and those of integrativeness. The latter can give the learner a strong desire to learn the language without expecting any reward. The reward is in the process itself. Instrumentality attitudes can generate positive attitudes as well but not as strong as the integrativeness ones. This type is more of a means than an end in itself (e.g. learning a language to ensure having a job). Integrativeness is an individual factor and has nothing to do with sociocultural. Young (1994b) highlights some of the individual factors such as personality, intelligence, cognitive style, age, and aptitudes. These factors are as important as the sociocultural and educational ones. For example the inability to do something can generate negative attitudes.
“The considerable divergence between very positive, enthusiastic pupils and the more reluctant, sometimes negative pupils seems to correspond largely to ability.” (Clark and Trafford 1995: 316)
However, this latter point cannot escape the causality conundrum (Bartram, 2010:41). Do negative attitudes cause personal inability or that inability gives rise to positive attitudes? Crookes and Schmidt (1991), for example, discuss this dilemma and conclude: “achievement might actually be the cause instead of the effect of attitude” (1991: 474). On the other hand Baker (1992) thinks that external factor are the main determinants of attitudes.
“Attitude appears more strongly connected with the environmental variables than individual attributes.” (Baker 1992: 68)
In general, attitudes play a major role in the process of language learning whether one recognizes their existence or not.
Learners’ attitudes related to the educational sphere
The teacher
In this part we are going to investigate some of the external variables that may have causal or correlative relation with attitudes. Like other external factors, the educational environment is not an unimportant one. The main important part in the educational system is the teacher. Anyone, at some point in their past, must have been influenced by one teacher or another. Many teachers must have changed the course of some students’ life either in a good or a bad way, consciously or unconsciously. The teacher’s influence is undeniable. It follows that the teacher can have influence on students’ attitudes.
“Again and again, the teacher is named as the reason, for example, why they like/dislike German, why their learning experience has improved/ deteriorated. The teaching methodology, the textbook, the computers available count for little if the teacher-pupil relationship is lacking” (Chambers 1999: 137)
This view is not only recurrent among students but among teachers as well. Clark and Trafford see that teachers consider themselves “the most significant variable affecting pupils’ attitudes towards languages” (1995:318)
The use of the target language
Another aspect that can play a significant role in determining students’ attitudes in language classrooms is the use of the target language. It is no easy task to make students use the target language because with that comes reluctance and embracement from their part. This is mainly due to students’ self-images, unfamiliarity with the language, and maybe even gender issues. Some students may not even appreciate the teacher speaking in the target language (Phillips and Filmer-Sankey,1993: 93) let alone pushing them to speak. Vasseur and Grandcolas (1997) see that these attitudes are originally caused by communication difficulties. If there were not any difficulties for students to speak or understand, then why would they abstain from speaking or listening to their teacher? Here again the teacher’s role is crucial in having the ability to maintain a down-to-earth communication with students (Bartram, 2010:46). This shows the vital role the teacher has vis-à-vis students’ attitudes.
Teaching methods and students’ attitudes
There is a debate concerning the significant effect pedagogy has on students’ attitudes (Bartram, 2010:46). Some views state that there is no important relation between the two especially when students already have negative attitudes (De Pietro 1994: 90). These views are challenged by other views such as those of Nikolov (1998), Clark, Trafford (1995) and Dörnyei (1998). They study the relation between classroom dynamics and pupil motivation and expose classroom specific motives. One cannot deny that there actually is an influence. Despite the fact that students’ attitudes are stronger than the favorable or unfavorable classroom environment, there is still a degree of influence that can, in some cases, be decisive.
“Study after study demonstrates that although students bring some motivational baggage – beliefs, expectations and habits – to class, the immediate instructional context strongly affects their motivation. Decisions about the nature of the tasks, how performance is evaluated, how rewards are used, how much autonomy students have, and myriad other variables under a teacher’s control largely determine student motivation.”(Stipek 1996: 85)
Students may find some activities boring or may not feel comfortable practicing oral activities and this can play a negative effect on attitudes. Some students were reported to have experienced panic and embarrassment experiences because of oral activities (Bartram, 2010:48). Gender related issues were also explored. Male pupils may experience the fear of being embarrassed in front of their female classmates or visa versa (Court 2001: 28–9). Rehearsal and repetition can also be frustrating to students. Further, test grades can also have a direct influence on attitudes (Bartram, 2010:132), but not necessarily since it is unclear whether attitudes influence grades or visa verse.
The language difficulty
The language difficulty can be decisive in regards to language attitudes. In general, and according to Bartram, language difficulty can be perceived in two levels. The first is individual’s own opinion about the language; the second is what the society thinks of the language (2010:90). If the language is perceived to be difficult, then one may be more reluctant to learn it.
Learners’ attitudes outside the educational sphere
Parents
Undoubtedly students’ immediate environment has a great influence on their attitudes if not the greatest. Like the teacher, parents shape their children. A great deal of their own attitudes passes on to their children coloring their perception of life.
“a child’s attitudes are largely shaped by its own experience with the world, but this is usually accomplished by explicit teaching and implicit modelling of parental attitudes”. (Oskamp and Schultz, 2005: 126)
The role of parents in influencing their children’s attitudes towards a foreign language is important; however, it seems there is uncertainty surrounding the extent of significance the role parents have in determining their students’ attitudes as well as in influencing their attitudes towards foreign languages (Chambers 1998; Barton 1997; Phillips and Filmer-Sankey 1993; Court 2001: 36).
There are different ways by which parents may pass on their attitudes towards a foreign language to their children, but in general there are two categories that we generally can agree upon, either positive or negative attitudes (Bartram, 2010:66). Besides, these attitudes may be handed down either in a passive or an active way. The passive way would involve the general negative attitudes parents have towards the foreign-language community that may not be shown explicitly. The active way would mean the parents monitoring their children’s language learning. The active role would also apply at the level of beliefs and confidence that can be instilled in the learner; that is to “nurture a feel good and can do attitude towards language learning in general” (Marsh, 2000:10).
Parents cannot escape the responsibility of influencing their children’s language proficiency. Gardner (1975) goes to the extent of suggesting that there is a correlation between parents’ attitudes towards a foreign language and their children’s language proficiency in that foreign language (Gardner 1975: 239).
Peers and friends
Right after the parents come friends and peers. While Oskamp, Schultz (2005) and Bartram (2006c) think that friends and peers play a major role in shaping students’ attitudes; Wright thinks friends and peers are to be considered a very minor factor. Their influence however may become greater when learners reach adolescence. It is the age when children break apart from their parents and start building a personality of their own. Friends and peers at this stage become a major factor. For example male adolescent students may express their independence and self-image to female students by appearing disinterested in the course or neglecting their homework in order to boast about it as a sign of adulthood and strength (Barton 1997:12). This sort of attitude is contagious and can affect other students who may be having positive attitudes towards the language.
“Learner perceptions and experience of peer attitudes concerning school, education, foreign language learning in general or the learning of a particular language in question may exert considerable influence on the individual’s own FLL orientation, attitudes and motivation.”(Young 1994b: 86)
Peers share lot of things among which we find attitudes. If the majority of peers exhibit negative attitudes among themselves, an individual student may have to comply to the group influence willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, in order to identify themselves with the group and to maintain their group belongingness (Young 1994b: 47).
The target-language speakers and communities
Students’ attitudes towards the target language community are studied thoroughly by Gardner and Lambert (1972). They think that no foreign language to be acquired if the student holds ethnocentric views and hostile attitudes towards the target-language speakers (1972: 134). The student perception of the target language community is mainly influenced by the sociocultural factor which is omnipresent and immersive. The socioeconomic factor has seniority over other factors and may be considered as the main factor (Salters 1991, Gardner 1975, 1985). A foreign language reputation is highly impacted by this factor for it is the “salient characteristic of another culture” (Gardner 1985: 146). Therefore, from this perspective, positive attitudes towards the foreign language community are a prerequisite for language acquisition (Bartram, 2010:71). They are prior to classroom environment and the teacher.
Within the sociocultural dimension we have the social status of the foreign language. For example, in Morocco, French is held in high esteem. It is seen as the language of the bourgeois and intellectuals. Thus this social status can play in favor of its acquisition and the learner’s attitudes. English, however, is considered a foreign language in Morocco and it occupies the 4th position after French (L3), Standard Arabic (L2), and finally the Moroccan Arabic, if not Berber (L1). This, of-course, is not without exceptions but it should hold for the majority of cases. Despite being a foreign language, English is gaining grounds in Morocco nowadays. Teenagers in particular are using more often English words in their daily life. This phenomenon is more noticed on the on-line social networks in what is known as ‘Trolls[2]’. For example “R.I.P”, “Nothing to do here”, “Please”, “Like a Boss”, “True Story” and the like are being used in local pages and this indicates the growing popularity of the English language use in the Moroccan context. However, does this popularity stem from the educational system and how English is taught in Morocco or from the view of society as a whole?
“the causality conundrum rears its head: are attitudes towards MFLL[3] and its place in the education system in?uenced more by the wider views of society on language learning, or does the education system itself mould these social views through the status it grants languages via the school curriculum?” (Bartram, 2010:18)
Phillipson (1992) attributes positive attitudes towards English to outside forces like economics and politics that maintain the global status of English which is a sort of linguistic imperialism. This, according to Pennycook, can lead to the marginalization of local languages (1995). In general both languages have good social status in Morocco.
Media
“By selecting, emphasising and interpreting . . . they (media) help to structure the nature of ‘reality’, . . . which in turn impels the public to form attitudes.” Oskamp and Schultz (2005: 133)
At a global level, the media is playing a major role in the growing popularity of English as well as spreading positive attitudes towards it. The idolizing of popular music artists and movie stars is a common phenomenon among adolescents. Given that many of these stars are from the English-speaking countries, a positive association between the celebrity and the language spoken or sung may take place, which may, in turn, influence attitudes towards the learning of English as a foreign language (Young 1994b: 247). Woodward (2002) and Gosse (1997) draw attention to the internet influence on language attitude since it enjoys the English-language bias and appeal (Gosse, 1997: 158) for the internet is par excellence American.
Pragmatic motives
The given state of the world nowadays and the increasing need for multilingual citizens oblige people to learn foreign languages in order to meet the job market’s needs and to acquire a window to social integration in a globalized world. Morocco is no exception in the world’s current state of affair. If French is considered the prestigious language in Morocco, English is seen as a practical language and a lingua franca. As will be seen in the practical part, there is a growing awareness of the usefulness of the English language in the professional lives and this in turn shape learners’ attitudes.
3 - Students’ attitudes impacting the speaking skill
Attitudes are the silent thoughts, the deep unconscious beliefs. Their shadow is present in every moment of judgment. Yet, we do not know the nature of attitudes and there is no unit of measurement with which to measure their strength or variation. Maybe attitude after all is just a word we use to refer to an unknown mental phenomenon; or a state of mind whose raison d'être is unclear. Given that it is impractical to pin down attitudes, we tried in the previous sections to approach the concept from different angles. All these perspectives are relevant to the present study since they are the only windows from which we can inspect attitudes. In the present section we are going to zoom in on how attitudes influence the speaking skill on the light of what has previously been presented.
Because learner’s motivation, attitudes and self-confidence can contribute to L2 proficiency (Gordon, 1980; Lett & O’Mara, 1990; Lett & O’Mara, 1990; Clément, Gardner, & Smythe, 1977, 1980; Clément, Major, Gardner, & Smythe, 1977; Laine, 1977; Sison, 1991), it is safe to assume that learners’ attitudes can also contribute to the learner’s speaking skill in different ways. For example, a learner with negative attitudes may deem themselves weak and possibly give up verbalizing their thoughts or improving their speaking skill.
“When compared with the students who hold positive attitude towards speaking, a significantly greater proportion of students with negative attitude perceived their levels of oral proficiency as average or lower.” (Thuc Bui,2013:02)
In general, language learners with positive attitudes would be more involved in speaking activities (Tuc Bui, 2013:01).
“living with a positive bent of mind is the first requisite for acquisition of effective speaking skills in English.” (Gangal, 2012:38)
Previous researches noticed that speaking was the most important skill for beginning and intermediate levels foreign L2 learners (Frey & Sadek, 1971; Harlow & Muyskens, 1994; Houston, 2005; Rivera & Matsuzawa, 2007; Tse, 2000; Walker, 1973). Nevertheless, no previous research has investigated, in particular, students’ attitudes towards speaking activities in class (Carlo, 2008).
One of the most noticeable features of speech is accent. It is “the phonetic habits of the speaker”(Ben Said, 2005:03). It is also the “way of speaking typical of a particular group of people and especially of the natives or residents of a region”(Merriam-Webster Dictionary). From the sociolinguistic perspective, accent is seen as a badge of social identity (Ben Said, 2005:03). Social identity can affect the way people speak and judge a certain accent since “some accents, for instance, are believed to be more attractive than others.”(Ben Said, 2005:03). This value judgment is embedded in the attitudes language learners have towards a certain way of speaking. Consequently, the objective of most English learners becomes to speak like native speakers as well as to communicate with them (C. L. Chen, 2003; C. P. Chen, 2002; Chou, 2004; Chuang, 2002; Liao, 2004; Wei, 2003; Yo, 2003). Cook (1999) saw that, in students’ opinion, non-native accents are a sign of failure in learning the English language. Most of the time foreign language learners are unsatisfied with their accent and that is mainly because they keep comparing their accent to natives’ (Derwing 2003). This sort of attitudes may consist an impediment for EFL learners.
The obsession with speech and especially with accent among young EFL learners may prove to be unhealthy for language learning process as well as for communication intelligibility. In a study carried out by Derwing al. (1998), three groups of language learners were given three different language classes. The first focused heavily on accent and pronunciation, the second did not focus on accent and pronunciation at all, and the third focused on higher or macro aspects of speech such as volume, stress, tone, and rhythm. After 12 weeks, an English-native speaking jury evaluated these groups based on the task of narrating a story. The results showed that the jury favored the group that had the macro aspect of speech than the one with the focus on pronunciation and accent or the one with no focus at all on the speaking skill. Fluency and comprehensibility was observed in the favored group that focused on meta-linguistic features.
Another study, carried by Johnson and Frederick (1994), examined the American native speakers’ attitudes towards non-natives’ speech in terms of grammatical and pronunciation errors. Surprisingly, their findings showed that pronunciation inaccuracy were judged less positively than grammatical ones. Although grammar errors can be crucial to communication, American natives considered them of less importance when compared with errors at the level of speech. A further study by Munro and Derwing (1995) explored native Canadian English speakers’ attitudes towards EFL learners’ speech. The results revealed that prosodic inaccuracy affects intelligibility more than phonetic ones. These three studies show that discrepancies at the level of accent and speech are harmful to communication and to one’s speaking skill when they are given more attention than they actually require. These discrepancies might not only be the result of learner’s obsession with foreign speech, but also the result of teacher’s attitudes.
“For decades, traditional language instruction held up native-like pronunciation as the ideal” (Paul, 2012)
Murray J. Munro, a professor of linguistics at Simon Fraser University in Canada and the linguist Tracy Derwing insist that this ideal, of holding native like speech as ideal, is unrealistic and may possibly impose some difficulties like disappointment and frustration among foreign language learners. However, attaining native likeness is not unrealistic after all and in this regard we cannot help but talk about the Critical Period Hypothesis[4] since the subjects of this study are English learners beyond the age of puberty.
The popularity of the Critical Period Hypothesis stem from the observable fact that language acquisition that takes place after the critical period[5] is almost never identical to L1 acquisition (Seel, 2012:1722). The statistical high improbability of attaining a full mastery of a language after the critical period seems to be the strongest evidence in favor of the hypothesis. However, the hypothesis does not completely exclude the possibility of acquiring language after the mentioned period, but it just may be less successful. Many scholars think that native likeness is still possible even after the age of puberty except in pronunciation (Scovel 1988 Paraphrased in Bot, 2005:65). Some think that it is rather the mother tongue interference that prevents learners from becoming native-like speakers (Flege 1999 paraphrased in Herschensohn 2000:43). Finally, Bongaerts, Bialystok, and Herschensohn see that it is still possible to achieve native likeness at all levels (Bongaerts, 1999:155; Bialystok, 1997:116; Herschensohn, 2000:43). So assuming that native likeness at the level of speech is possible, the focal question then is: should it be the main goal for EFL learners?
“new research suggests that we would make better progress, and be understood more easily by our conversational partners, if we abandoned a perfect accent as our goal in the language learning process.” (Paul, 2012)
“Students of language should be guided by the ‘intelligibility principle’, not the old ‘nativeness principle’.” (Paul, 2012)
The urge to be identified with the target language community may be so strong that the only thing that would matter to the learner is to sound native regardless of the intelligibility and comprehensibility of one’s speech. An important point to be mentioned here about attitudes is that positive attitudes are not the main engine that drives students towards language proficiency. Positive attitudes are not all that it takes to acquire a foreign language efficiently but the way these positive attitudes are implemented, exploited, or directed is what matters most. Having good attitudes with nativeness principle may not be the perfect match.
Here again we come back to the issue of culture. It is probably the case that students may experience this admiration for a culture that is not theirs. As a result they tend to imitate what they like which is, as a matter of fact, part of human nature.
Notes
[1] Foreign language learning
[2] Sarcastic or funny posts on on-line social networks that depict an aspect of reality in real life.
[3] Modern Foreign Language Learning
[4] “Is the notion that language is best learned during the early years of childhood and that after about the first dozen years of life, everyone faces certain constraints in the ability to pick up a new language" (Scovel 1988:2)
[5] “…a time during post natal life when the development and maturation of functional properties of the brain, its 'plasticity', is strongly dependent on experience or environmental experience”-- Sengpiel (Quoted in Marc B. Taub 2012: 275)
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