History of the CPH

Although Eric Lenneberg (1967) is considered as father of the idea of Critical Period Hypothesis and the one ho populari!ed this pheno"enon# ho proposed the sa"e& 'n the ere e(ploring the

Penfield and $oberts (19%9) are the one

beginning of their studies# these t o neurosurgeons neuroscience of language# concluding that it

as do"inant in the left as focused on the

he"isphere of the brain& Penfield and $oberts) research linguistic perfor"ance of indi*iduals

ith brain da"age# rather than on

linguistic perfor"ance of +nor"al) indi*iduals& $epeating Cho"s,y)s fact that all children are not born as tabula rasa or in other born ords no hu"an being is

ithout any real innate language ability# Penfield and $oberts added the

fact that children up to the age of nine can learn three languages than,s to the hu"an)s ability to learn languages& -he early children e(posure to languages acti*ates a ,ind of refle( in their brain language ith another hich helps the" to s itch one

ithout the need to translate the sa"e into their nati*e

language& Lenneberg supports the theory gi*en by Penfield and $oberts# felling free to de*elop the hypothesis for the critical period# and clai"ing that the critical period for language ac.uisition ends around puberty and after this period the ac.uisition of the first language ill be i"possible& He accepted the

Penfield and $oberts)s ideas that neurological "echanis"s are responsible for the "aturation change in the language learning abilities# connecting the sa"e ith the brain laterali!ation and left he"ispherical speciali!ation for

language around thirteen&

According to Lenneberg up to the age of thirteen the language learning functions are present in both he"ispheres& Later or "ore accurate at the beginning of the puberty the cerebral functions of the he"ispheres separate# and "a,e the language ac.uisition *ery difficult& /ith his studies Lenneberg is pointing out on the idea that there are certain ages that are appropriate for learning a language# so"eho de"onstrating the e(istence of the Critical

Period Hypothesis and the difficulty to ac.uire a second language during and after it& Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to Facebook