A Critical Examination of the Beliefs about Learning a Foreign Language at Primary School

However, if one accepts the relevance of a Universal Grammar for second
language learning and if it should be the case that universal language learning
principles influence certain aspects of language development, such as
morphology and syntax for example, then the question arises whether:

"...the innate principles in question remain available throughout life and are
operative during second language acquisition. Ifthey do remain available, it
follows that the parts of second language grammatical development which they
inform ought not to be affected by the age factor, whatever may be the
situation in relation to other aspects." (Singleton, 1995: 6)

However, as Singleton argued, the question whether innate principles remain
available is not an easy one to settle as illustrated by Bley-Vroman who updated
his original Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (1989) which claimed that
adults have no access to universal language learning principles to a more
modified version (1994) in which he hypothesised that while UG is not available
to the post-puberty learner the late learner can nevertheless derive language
principles from other cognitive sources.

In a strong ^,no access' viewpoint Long (1990,1993) claimed that children 'win
out' in second language development not just quantitatively but also
qualitatively and that only child starters were capable of attaining native-like
second language abilities:

"The evidence here is clearest for phonology but also exists for accent
recognition, listening comprehension and syntax, with suggestive similar
findings for collocation, discourse and pragmatics." (Long, 1990: 166)

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