What can we conclude about age of acquisition and mastery of a second language?
a. We cannot draw any conclusions until we have research using the experimental method.
b. For speakers of first languages similar to English, it's better to learn English early; for speakers of first languages that are different from English, it's better to learn English late.
c. The research shows quite clearly that children acquire a second language more rapidly than adults do.
d. The research is not clear-cut; instead, the findings seem to depend upon factors such as the similarity between the first language and the second language.
Question 2Suppose you have a 22-year-old friend who came to North America from Korea when he was 15 and then began to learn English. If he is like the participants in Flege's study on bilingualism, he will find that
a. he will develop trouble in Korean with verb tenses and the gender of nouns, but will maintain his Korean vocabulary.
b. he will lose a substantial percentage of his Korean vocabulary.
c. he will have difficulty mastering English vocabulary.
d. he will master English grammar as well as a Korean speaker who learned English as a 10-year-old child, as long as they both have the same amount of U.S. education.
Question 3The in-depth section in Chapter 10 examined a study by Flege and his colleagues (1999), concerning the pronunciation skills of people who had emigrated from Korea to the United States. According to this research,
a. people who had come to the United States during childhood were least likely to speak English with an accent.
b. people who had come to the United States during adolescence were least likely to speak English with an accent.
c. people who had come to the United States during adulthood were least likely to speak English with an accent.
d. age of arrival had no effect on pronunciation skills, though it had a significant effect on the mastery of grammar.
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