Abstract
This paper has been inspired by Dimroth and Stephany's longitudinal study (Dimroth, 2008) on the acquisition of German by two Russian girls, members of different age groups (8 and 14). Both girls were subjected to the same type of second language program called 'submersion and withdrawal', but showed different progress. Whilst the 8-year old became fluent in German, the 14-year old had difficulty expressing herself in her second language. This paper considers various theoretical approaches and research findings in order to account for the differences between the two learners. By all accounts there may be no single factor responsible for their individual success rates.
Highlights
In a study by Dimroth and Stephany (Dimroth, 2008) the acquisition of German by two Russian girls age 8 and 14, was analyzed
This paper seeks to account for the different learning outcomes of the two learners belonging to two different age groups and being exposed to the same ‘submersion and withdrawal’ learning system
The first thing to be noted is that there is not a single factor which can account for the difference in the success rates of the two girls
Summary
In a study by Dimroth and Stephany (Dimroth, 2008) the acquisition of German by two Russian girls (sisters) age 8 and 14, was analyzed. The two girls arrived simultaneously in Germany with their parents and started to learn German in a nonguided way. Both girls attended the same school which had a policy of ‘submersion and withdrawal’ for the acquisition of German as an L2. At this point, the older child decided to move back to Russia, the younger stayed with her parents in Vienna, but would have liked to return to her friends in Germany. The results show that the younger child speaks German fluently, while the older has many problems
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