User:Christiana Dalton/Critical period hypothesis

Lead
Edit the lead section from:

"The critical period hypothesis or sensitive period hypothesis[1][2] claims that there is an ideal time window of brain development to acquire language in a linguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful."

- it appears that the above opening sentence was taken from a slideshow on the internet. I saw this exact definition on Google images, but the previous Wikipedia editor did not credit the source for this definition. It is also word-for-word the same as the slideshow.

to:

"The critical period hypothesis is a theory within the field of linguistics and second language acquisition that claims a person can only achieve native or native-like fluency in a language before a certain age."

Article body
Edit after peer review: instead of writing "These ideas contradict critical period hypothesis" I will write "Krashen's work conflicts with the critical period hypothesis" to avoid repetition of the word "contradict." I will also change the placement of the citation. Instead of being placed after "language acquisition" in the second sentence, I will put the citation at the end of the paragraph. I will also change the wording in the sentence that says "This research indicates that adults are able to pick up grammar rules, like word order and word parts, more quickly than children can" to "This research indicates that adults are able to pick up grammar rules, including word order and word parts, more quickly than children can." I will also change "Krashen's research" to "Krashen's findings" a few times in the paragraph.

Therefore, the paragraph will read like this:

"Stephen Krashen’s research contradicts the critical period hypothesis. Krashen’s findings claim that adult learners have advantages over children in some aspects of second language acquisition. This research indicates that adults are able to pick up grammar rules, including word order and word parts, more quickly than children can. He also has argued that older children can learn grammar at a faster rate than younger children. Krashen's work conflicts with critical period hypothesis as they argue that older learners can have advantages over younger learners when they are acquiring a second language. "

Under "Krashen" section, add the following paragraph

"Stephen Krashen’s research contradicts the critical period hypothesis. Krashen’s research claims that adult learners have advantages over children in some aspects of second language acquisition . This research indicates that adults are able to pick up grammar rules, like word order and word parts, more quickly than children can. He also has argued that older children can learn grammar at a faster rate than younger children. These ideas contradict critical period hypothesis as they argue that older learners can have advantages over younger learners when they are acquiring a second language."

This paragraph will replace the first paragraph in the section currently that reads

"Krashen (1975) proposed theories for the close of the CP for L2 at puberty, based on Piaget's cognitive stage of formal operations beginning at puberty, as the ‘ability of the formal operational thinker to construct abstract hypotheses to explain phenomena’ inhibits the individual's natural ability for language learning."