A more recent study carried out amongst primary school children learning
English in Hungary (Radnai, 1996) suggested that the test performances of
11-12 year old children were better than those of the 8-9 year olds in both
grammatical correctness as well as 'structural completeness' of utterances and
in tasks at both word and sentence level. As was stated earlier, findings on
syntactical development from the Pilot Scheme and from the Scottish National
Pilot will be discussed separately in Chapter Three.
2.3.3.2 Summary on Syntactical Development
The bulk ofthe literature seems to Suggestthat 'older* is 'better1 at least in the
sense Offasteri in second language syntactical development. Ellis (1994: 492)
suggests that the critical period for grammmar might be later than for
pronunciation and that 'some adults may succeed in acquiring native levels of
grammatical accuracy in speech and writing and even full linguistic
competence’. Bialystok & Hakuta (1994) conclude that:
"...it does not appear to be the case that adults lose the ability to learn abstract
aspects of language; rather, the amazing human ability to learn grammar
remains with us as long as we remain human. There is hope, at least with
regard to grammar." (Bialystok & Hakuta, 1994: 75)
A number of questions around how it might be possible for post-puberty
learners to achieve native-like competence in any or all aspects of a second
language, will be addressed later in the chapter.
98
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