AGE AND THE ACQUISITION OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
María del Pilar García Mayo and María Luisa
García Lecumberri (Eds.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters,
2003. Pp. xii + 209. $29.95 paper.
There have been a number of recent books devoted to the effects of age
on language acquisition; this volume is different. It is the first book to
examine the relationship of age to ultimate attainment in foreign language
learning. One might wonder whether there is, in fact, any relationship
between the age of onset and ultimate attainment in classroom learning
where the language being taught is not spoken within the community.
However, if one exists, then what is the optimal age to begin foreign
language instruction?