Implications of the "Critical Period Hypothesis" in Second Language Acquisition for English Teaching

Abstract

 Second language acquisition(SLA) is one of the branches of linguistics, and research on SLA and English language teaching in China has been fruitful since its inception in the early 1980s. In this paper, I aim to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the Critical Period Hypothesis from the perspective of English education, to take the best of it and remove the worst of it, and to apply its useful insights to English teaching, so as to better guide learners in their language acquisition.