The Effect of Age of Acquisition on Age-appropriate Language Use

Abstract

This paper details a pilot experiment used as a preliminary study on the effect of age of acquisition on the use of Japanese by advanced learners. The study compares students who began learning Japanese during high school to those who began learning after the age of twenty. The data comes from a written test which focuses on vocabulary as an indicator of age-appropriate language use. Other factors, such as gender, years of study and length of immersion are considered. This study suggests that in terms of writing ability, subjects who began learning later in life had some advantages, and subjects who began learning earlier had other advantages.