Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages 9781783099412

Table of contents :
Contents
Contributors
Introduction: The Background
Part 1. Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age
1. A Developmental Perspective on Third-Age Learning
2. Really Late Learners: Some Research Contexts and Some Practical Hints
3. The Interactional Challenge: L2 Learning and Use in the Third Age
4. Research on Second Language Acquisition in Old Adulthood: What We Have and What We Need
5. The Use of Indirect Language Learning Strategies by Third- Age Learners: Insights from a Questionnaire Study
6. Balance and Coordination vs Reading Comprehension in L2 in Late Adulthood
7. Compensatory Strategies in Senior Foreign Language Students
Part 2. Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Third Age
8. Student Needs and Expectations Concerning Foreign Language Teachers in Universities of the Third Age
9. Identifying the Characteristics of Foreign Language Teachers Who Work with Senior Learners
10. Teaching English to Senior Students in the Eyes of Teacher Trainees
11. Enhancing Language Awareness in Migrants’ Third Age to Promote Well-Being
Concluding Comments and a Way Forward
Index

Citation preview

Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Series Editors: Professor David Singleton, University of Pannonia, Hungary and Fellow Emeritus, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and Dr Simone E. Pfenninger, University of Salzburg, Austria This series brings together titles dealing with a variety of aspects of language acquisition and processing in situations where a language or languages other than the native language is involved. Second language is thus interpreted in its broadest possible sense. The volumes included in the series all offer in their different ways, on the one hand, exposition and discussion of empirical findings and, on the other, some degree of theoretical reflection. In this latter connection, no particular theoretical stance is privileged in the series; nor is any relevant perspective – sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, neurolinguistic, etc. – deemed out of place. The intended readership of the series includes final-year undergraduates working on second language acquisition projects, postgraduate students involved in second language acquisition research, and researchers, teachers and policy-makers in general whose interests include a second language acquisition component. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION: 120

Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages

Edited by Danuta Gabrys´-Barker

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Blue Ridge Summit

DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/GABRYS9405 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Names: Gabrys´-Barker, Danuta, editor. Title: Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages/Edited by Danuta Gabrys´-Barker. Description: Bristol; Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, [2018] | Series: Second Language Acquisition: 120 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017035525| ISBN 9781783099405 (hbk: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781783099429 (epub) | ISBN 9781783099436 (Kindle) Subjects: LCSH: Language acquisition–Age factors. | Second language acquisition. | Language and languages–Study and teaching. | Older people–Education. Classification: LCC P118.65 .T48 2018 | DDC 418.0071–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017035525 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-78309-940-5 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA. Website: www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2018 Danuta Gabryś-Barker and the authors of individual chapters. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services Limited. Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Books Group Ltd. Printed and bound in the US by Edwards Brothers Malloy, Inc.

Contents

Contributors

vii

Introduction: The Background Danuta Gabrys´-Barker

xiii

Part 1: Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age 1

A Developmental Perspective on Third-Age Learning Rebecca L. Oxford

2

Really Late Learners: Some Research Contexts and Some Practical Hints David Singleton

3

The Interactional Challenge: L2 Learning and Use in the Third Age 31 David W. Green

4

Research on Second Language Acquisition in Old Adulthood: What We Have and What We Need 48 Maria Kliesch, Nathalie Giroud, Simone E. Pfenninger and Martin Meyer

5

The Use of Indirect Language Learning Strategies by Third-Age Learners: Insights from a Questionnaire Study Mirosław Pawlak, Marek Derenowski and Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak

76

6

Balance and Coordination vs Reading Comprehension in L2 in Late Adulthood Monika Grotek and Agnieszka S´lęzak-S´wiat

91

v

3

19

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7

Contents

Compensatory Strategies in Senior Foreign Language Students Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel and Magdalena Szyszka

108

Part 2: Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Third Age 8

Student Needs and Expectations Concerning Foreign Language Teachers in Universities of the Third Age Monika Grotek

127

9

Identifying the Characteristics of Foreign Language Teachers Who Work with Senior Learners Marek Derenowski

145

10 Teaching English to Senior Students in the Eyes of Teacher Trainees Anna Niz˙egorodcew

161

11 Enhancing Language Awareness in Migrants’ Third Age to Promote Well-Being Anna Pot, Merel Keijzer and Kees de Bot

176

Concluding Comments and a Way Forward Danuta Gabrys´-Barker Index

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209

Contributors Kees de Bot received his PhD from the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His interests range from bilingual processing to language attrition and language development over the lifespan; language and ageing; and the circadian rhythm in language learning. Currently, his main research topic is ‘What counts as evidence in Applied Linguistics’. He has published in the main leading journals in the field of Applied Linguistics and, in 2015, published a book on the history of Applied Linguistics with Routledge. He recently retired from the University of Groningen and is now working at the University of Pannonia in Hungary. Marek Derenowski received his PhD in applied linguistics from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan´. He is a teacher and a teacher educator working at the English department of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts of Adam Mickiewicz University (Kalisz, Poland). He also works at the State University of Applied Sciences in Konin. For the last 17 years he has also been a teacher of English in senior high school. His major interest is in foreign language teacher education and teacher professional development, as well as the place of the target language culture in foreign language education and teacher autonomy. Danuta Gabrys´-Barker is Professor of English at the University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland, where she lectures and supervises MA and PhD theses in applied linguistics, psycholinguistics and especially in second language acquisition and multilingualism. She has published numerous articles and two books: Aspects of Multilingual Storage, Processing and Retrieval (2005) and Reflectivity in Pre-Service Teacher Education (2012). She has also edited 12 volumes, among others for Multilingual Matters, Springer and the University of Silesia Press. Professor Gabrys´-Barker has been the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Multilingualism (Routledge) since 2010 (with Professor Eva Vetter) and the co-founder and the editor-in-chief of the journal Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition (University of Silesia Press) since 2015 (with Professor Adam Wojtaszek). Nathalie Giroud has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich since October 2016. She completed her Master studies in cognitive neuroscience and psychology and now focuses her research on auditory speech processing in the ageing brain. During her PhD, she investigated the influence of the ageing brain, age-related hearing loss, hearing loss treatments and inter-individual differences in cognition on language processing. In her

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Contributors

work, she integrates behavioural and neurophysiological measures, such as MRI and EEG on the brain structure and function in younger and older adults. David W. Green is an Emeritus Professor in the Faculty of Brain Sciences at University College London. He has research experience within the broad field of mental representations and language covering experimental and theoretical work on causal mental models – their construction and mental simulation – and how such models underlie argumentation. His specific focus for a number of years has been on the cognitive and neural bases of language control in normal bilingual and multilingual speakers and this focus has led him to be one of the editors of Bilingualism: Language & Cognition. Theoretical work and neuroimaging research with neurologically normal participants from young adults to the elderly has been combined with applied research into the neural predictors of speech recovery poststroke in monolingual and multilingual individuals with aphasia. Monika Grotek is an Associate Professor in the Institute of English at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. She is currently the Deputy Director for Studies of the Institute; she teaches various teacher training and practical English courses and organises BA and MA seminars in applied linguistics. She has experience of teaching similar subjects at a few schools of higher education in the region of Silesia. She holds a PhD in sociolinguistics and her publications are mainly in the field of foreign language acquisition in late adulthood, but they also include articles about e.g. acquisition of English phonology, crosslinguistic influence and etymology. For the last 15 years, she has been teaching general English courses at all levels to students in late adulthood at the U3A operating in association with the University of Silesia in Katowice and Sosnowiec. Maria Kliesch studied at the University of Zurich and did her Master studies in English and Spanish Language and Literature. Her MA thesis ‘Learning a New Language in Old Adulthood’ consisted of a longitudinal, interdisciplinary project between linguistics and cognitive neurosciences (conducted with the Department for Neuroplasticity and Learning in the Healthy Aging Brain, University of Zurich). Through this project, she familiarized herself with the neuroscientific methods and theories and, in particular, with the EEG approach. Her research interest lies in individual differences in FL geragogy and changes in both cognition and the healthy brain over the lifespan. Merel Keijzer is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen, where she also holds a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship position. Her research interests span different facets of bilingualism: bilingual education, bilingual processing, first language attrition and the

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cognitive consequences of bilingualism. Her main research interest is in bilingualism and cognitive ageing. Martin Meyer is an Assistant Professor for Neuroplasticity and Learning in the Healthy Aging Brain at the University of Zurich. His primary research interest is in neurocognition and the evolution of speech and language, the neuroplasticity of speech and language across the lifespan, functional neuroanatomy of hearing and impairments of the auditory system and tinnitus. He did his PhD on fMRI and speech perception at the Max Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig (1996–2000). He then worked as post-doctoral assistant at the Centre for Functional Imaging Studies in Edinburgh, UK (2001–2003) and at the Division of Neuropsychology and the Institute of Neuroradiology, University of Zurich and University Hospital of Zurich (2003–2011). Martin Meyer has to date authored and co-authored more than 80 publications in international peerreview journals. Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak is Assistant Professor at the Department of English Studies of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Fine Arts of Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan´/Kalisz, Poland, as well as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Modern Languages of the State University of Applied Sciences in Konin, Poland. Her main interests comprise, apart from teacher education, second language acquisition theory and research, language learning strategies, learner autonomy, form-focused instruction, willingness to communicate, and motivation. Her recent publications include Production-Oriented and Comprehension-Based Grammar Teaching in the Foreign Language Classroom (with Mirosław Pawlak, Springer, 2012) and Willingness to Communicate in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (with Mirosław Pawlak, Multilingual Matters, 2017). Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak is assistant to the editor of the journal Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching (www.ssllt.amu. edu.pl). Anna Niz˙egorodcew graduated from the English and psychology departments of the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, Poland. She undertook her PhD at the philosophical faculty of the same university. She is Professor Emerita in Applied Linguistics. She taught for 40 years at the English Department of Jagiellonian University. She was head of the Applied Linguistics section of the English Department and head of the Jagiellonian University Teacher Training College. She has published a number of books and articles in the areas of teaching English, second language acquisition and second and foreign language teacher education. Her present interests cover teaching English to third-age students, teaching English for intercultural communication and international understanding.

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Rebecca L. Oxford’s Lifetime Achievement Award states that her ‘research on learning strategies has changed the way the world teaches languages’. She is Distinguished Scholar-Teacher and Professor Emerita, University of Maryland, where she served as an administrator and award-winning teacher. She currently teaches at the University of Alabama. She and her family are helping take care of a third-age parent, age 93, who is constantly reading and learning. Professor Oxford has presented her research in more than 40 countries, published more than a dozen books, co-edited three book series and eight special issues, and authored approximately 250 articles and chapters. Topics included third-age learning, third-age teacher educators, learning strategies, second language and culture, transformative education, positive psychology and peace. Compassion as a major value threads throughout these topics. Mirosław Pawlak received his doctoral and post-doctoral degrees as well as his full professorship from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. His main areas of interest are SLA theory and research, form-focused instruction, corrective feedback, classroom discourse, learner autonomy, learning strategies, grammar learning strategies, motivation, willingness to communicate and pronunciation teaching. His recent publications include Production-Oriented and Comprehension-Based Grammar Teaching in the Foreign Language Classroom (with Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, Springer, 2012), Error Correction in the Foreign Language Classroom: Reconsidering the Issues (Springer, 2014), Applying Cognitive Grammar in the Foreign Language Classroom: Teaching English Tense and Aspect (with Jakub Bielak, Springer, 2013), Willingness to Communicate in Instructed Second Language Acquisition (with Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, Multilingual Matters, 2017), as well as several edited collections. Mirosław Pawlak is editor of the journals Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching (www.ssllt.amu.edu.pl), Konin Language Studies (http://www.ksj.pwsz.konin.edu.pl/?lang=en) and the book series Second Language Learning and Teaching (http://www.springer. com/series/10129). Simone E. Pfenninger is Assistant Professor at the University of Salzburg. Her principal research areas are multilingualism, psycholinguistics and individual differences (e.g. the age factor) in SLA, especially in regard to quantitative approaches and statistical methods and techniques for language application in education. Recent books include Beyond Age Effects in Instructional L2 Learning: Revisiting the Age Factor (2017, co-authored, Multilingual Matters), The Changing English Language: Psycholinguistic Perspectives (2017, co-edited, Cambridge University Press) and Future Research Directions for Applied Linguistics (2017, co-edited, Multilingual Matters). She is co-editor of the Second Language Acquisition book series for Multilingual Matters.

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Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Institute of English, Opole University (Poland), where she teaches EFL methodology and SLA courses. She specializes in the role of affect in the foreign language learning process (anxiety, motivation and willingness to communicate in L2). Her interests also include special educational needs (developmental dyslexia, autism and AD/HD). She has published two books – The Importance of Being Aware: Advantages of Explicit Grammar Study and Language Anxiety in Secondary Grammar School Students – and numerous papers in Poland and abroad. Anna Pot is a PhD candidate at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Groningen. Her research project centres on the aspects of multilingual ageing, and, more specifically, on how older adult migrants age in an L2 environment, that differs from their mother tongue. Her research touches upon aspects of language use, well-being and healthy ageing. David Singleton is an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and Professor at the University of Pannonia and at the State University of Applied Sciences, Konin. He has served as President of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics, as Secretary General of the International Association of Applied Linguistics and as President of the European Second Language Association. His 200 publications focus mainly on cross-linguistic influence, the lexicon, the age factor in language acquisition, and multilingualism. He is the co-author of Key Topics in Second Language Acquisition and co-editor of the Multilingual Matters SLA book series. In 2015, he received the EUROSLA Distinguished Scholar Award. Magdalena Szyszka received her PhD in Applied Linguistics in 2016. She is an academic teacher and researcher at Opole University, Poland. She has been involved in EFL teaching and teacher training for several years, and her main research interests include language learning strategies, language anxiety and English pronunciation. She has recently published on pronunciation learning strategies, pronunciation teaching and multimedia in EFL learning. Agnieszka Ślęzak-Świat is an Assistant Professor at the University of Silesia, Institute of English in Katowice, Poland, where she completed her PhD on components of strategic competence in advanced language users. She worked as an English language teacher in primary and grammar schools when she first entered the field of neurolinguistics. In her work, she not only performs research but also attempts to translate her findings into terms useful for teachers. She is interested in the neuroanatomy of affect as well as the function of vestibular proprioceptive system in reading comprehension.

Introduction: The Background Danuta Gabrys´-Barker

In a recent novel by a Dutch writer, Hendrik Groen (2014/2016: 5), entitled Little Experiments with Happiness. A Secret Diary of Henrik Groen, Age 83 and ¼, the author says in the opening diary entry dated Tuesday 1 January, 2013: ‘Also this year I am ill-disposed towards the elderly. They all walk slowly with their zimmer-frames, demonstrate their impatience, constantly complain, demand cookies with their teas. All this sighing and grunting. I myself am 83 and ¼’. The novel is a moving story of the elderly living together in a home, in which Groen expresses the comic and the romantic aspects of life. He finds honesty, irony and emotions intertwined in the daily lives of the elderly. In his reflection, he ponders over the changes in a man’s life that occur with age. Challenges are a driving force; in youth they are like climbing Mount Everest, now they are more like climbing out of a chair – a task equally important and equally difficult to perform. He also says: ‘When you are young, you want to grow up quickly. When you are adult and reach your sixties, you strive to be young. And when you are an old dog, you do not want anything anymore’ (Groen, 2014/2016: 151). However, despite the humorous anecdotes, the picture of the place and its inhabitants is pretty grim. Even allowing for the fictitious character of the text, it nevertheless comes quite close to reality. But there are ways out: new opportunities, new people and new challenges. These come with the growing interest in lifelong education, where there is definitely a special place reserved for the elderly. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the topic of seniors who can find a purpose in life by going back in time and becoming learners once again, third-age learners of foreign languages (FL). The chapter starts with a brief discussion of the reasons for studying senior learners, the advantages of lifelong education for seniors, some brief characteristics of this age group as well as presenting an overview of the educational institutions for adults and seniors, the third-age university. It also makes some salient points by referring to the need for improving teacher training programmes with respect to preparing professionally qualified FL instructors, which is in fact a difficult task as we still know very little about what to do due to the limited research in this area. This introductory chapter overviews the studies compiled in this volume, which aim at adding to this (to say the least) incomplete area of research and body of knowledge.

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Third Age Learners of Foreign Languages

The study of adult learning does not have a very long genealogy, as it was only initiated by Malcolm Knowles in the United States in the middle of the 20th century. However, it has become a fast-growing area of research due to ageing populations, especially in the European context. Among others, it is perceived to be an acute problem in Polish society, in which seniors constitute 13% of the Polish population and it is predicted that the number will grow to 17% by 2030 (Jaroszewska, 2013). Thus, numerous institutions have come into being attempting to accommodate seniors in modern society by offering a wide range of educational opportunities, among them thirdage universities.

Why Study Senior Learners? Why should we study seniors as learners in general and as learners of FLs in particular? The reasons are numerous, both on a macro and a micro scale. On a macro scale, as emphasised earlier, societies are ageing, thus people whose professional lives have come to an end and who have reached retirement have to occupy their time in some way. This has given rise to the need to develop various models of lifelong education, combined with the growing focus on learner autonomy in education. Both lifelong education and autonomy have been made possible by the fast-growing development of technology and the availability of resources. The growth of professional, educational and individual mobility across the world has produced the need for making it convenient for travellers and immigrants to communicate in languages not known to them. The present-day third-age generation has great deficits in this domain. Even if, for example, seniors from Central and Eastern Europe know an FL, by definition, it will be Russian – a language not very broadly used beyond this geographical area. English during the communist times was not an available option in the state-run educational system. If we take into consideration one of the ex-communist countries, Poland, Polish seniors are the least privileged citizens who have not only struggled through the post-war period with a neglected FL education but, more recently, they have often not been able to cope with rapid economic changes. There has been a general tendency, at least observable in Poland over the last decade, to place more emphasis on activating senior citizens (Jaroszewska, 2013) and it has also become one of the priorities of the present government to promote third-age education. Now in the time of growing movement across the continents and not only for tourist purposes, with trips catering for seniors becoming very popular in some countries (e.g. Germany), there is a lot of economic immigration. Young and even mature people are emigrating from their mother countries for economic reasons and leaving behind their parents, the elderly. When settled in the new country, they start new families, children are born

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and these children do not always speak the language of their parents. In consequence, grandparents find themselves in the very awkward situation of not being able to communicate with their grandchildren. In this context, and in others that resemble it, the idea of taking up a language course does seem so improbable. Indeed, on this micro-scale, there are plenty of reasons, and not just family ones, for a third-age person to get involved in various forms of lifelong education. It may also become a lifestyle choice and a pleasurable pastime. In his seminal work on the eight ages of a man, Erikson (1959) describes the third age as characterised by dichotomies of intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation and integrity versus despair. Lifelong education offers seniors new opportunities for overcoming a state of isolation, stagnation and despair by offering contact with other seniors (and not only them), involvement in developing one’s knowledge and skills (e.g. language skills) and more than anything else, it can give a new aim to life. Lastly, it is still the case that we know very little about how adults and more precisely seniors learn. Andragogy – the study of adults and gerontology – constitutes a fairly new area of educational research. Although adult education was pioneered by Lindeman (1926) in the previous century with his Journal of Adult Education, published by the American Association of Adult Education from 1926 to 1941, it collapsed after that period. The interest in adult education was revived in the 1970s by Malcolm Knowles and his now apparently obvious assumption that adults and children learn differently. This resulted in an outpouring of research and subsequent challenges to it, since it was largely inconsistent, sometimes anecdotal and neither very well methodologically nor empirically grounded. It was assumed that adult learning is a very complex phenomenon. Merriam (2001) expressed doubts about whether ‘a phenomenon as complex as adult learning will ever be explained by a single theory, model or set of principles’ (in Knowles et al., 2005: 1).

Introducing Adult Learning Principles According to Knowles et al. (2011), there are three sets of variables especially prominent and worth considering in adult education: • Core learning principles, which integrate the key variables for the learning process: the learner’s self-concept, prior experience, readiness to learn, orientation to learning, motivation and need to know. This last aspect relates to adult learners’ need to know why they are learning what they are learning. Jarvis (2004) indicated that this is a fundamental and intrinsic feature of individuals and that it originates during the formation process of the self.

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•

•

Individual and situational differences, which include subject-matter differences (e.g. the level of complexity of the content), situational differences (e.g. location, number of learners in the class, sociocultural influences) and individual differences (e.g. cognitive elements, personality, and background of the learner). Goals and purposes for learning, which help coordinate the effort and direction of the learning process. (Ramírez Gómez, 2016a: 89)

According to Beder (1989), they can have an individual (personal growth), institutional (productivity) or societal (social order) nature. No direct distinction is made in scholarly sources between adult learning and senior learning, as the latter has hardly ever been researched in any systematic way. However, as early as 1926, Lindeman presented the core adult learning principles that we still endorse in our understanding of the processes involved. They relate to the following characteristics of adults as learners: • • • • •

Adults are motivated to learn as they experience needs and interests that learning will satisfy. Adults’ orientation to learning is life centred. Experience is the richest source for adults’ learning. Adults have a deep need to be self-directing. Individual differences among people increase with age.

It is the last characteristic, expressing the view that individual learner differences so vital in learning processes can only increase with age – due to different life histories and learning stories, present-day conditions, different physical and biological determinants of health – that is most critical here. This makes studying the learning processes of seniors especially difficult, posing problems for how to construct a theory of how seniors learn. In his discussion of adult and senior learners, Knowles (1980) expressed the view that in these groups of the mature and the elderly, it is psychological factors of affectivity that will determine how they approach their educational needs and how they realise them. In particular, he believed that they have a low coping potential, lack of self-confidence and that they are therefore more oriented towards failure, having a very weak perception of the possibility of their success. Later on, Knowles et al. (2011) expanded their discussion by focusing on further characteristics of mature and elderly people in their relation to learning. They stated that these learners first of all need to know explicitly why they are learning, what their focus is and how to reach their goals. They have a settled self-concept and in consequence they are capable of being autonomous and self-directing in their educational endeavours. What

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is more, their prior experience of learning and mental models become the resources, thanks to which they should be able to cope with a new learning situation in later life. Transfer of learning understood as the employment of familiar strategies of learning effective in the past and also transfer of training (familiarity with methods of teaching/instruction) contribute significantly to the development of very unique profiles in the case of these learners. What is also not to be neglected is the importance of (fairly) good physical health, in order to be mentally engaged in learning tasks, not only in respect of cognitive effort but also of the purely physical demands of travelling, sitting in a class for long hours, perhaps suffering less than ideal working conditions. Knowles et al. (2011, quoted in Ramírez Gómez, 2016), discuss eight variables significant in teaching adult/senior learners (Table 1). Table 1 Eight variables of the process model Variables

Description

Preparing the learners

To avoid the shock of self-directed learning, implementing a ‘learning-how-to-learn’ process is crucial.

Climate

Creating a supportive climate conducive to learning, wherein self-improvement is approved and rewarded, and goals, expectations and feedback are expressed. Also, experimentation, tolerance to mistakes, respect to individual and cultural differences, control over anxiety levels, emotional states and feelings are also basic elements.

Planning

Participative planning is critical to commitment.

Diagnosis of needs

Defining learning needs from the perspectives of the learner, the organisation and society, in order of priority.

Objective setting

Learners choose objectives and goals depending on what is relevant to them and their needs.

Designing learning plans

This involves selecting problematic areas and a format for learning, defining goals and needs, self-diagnosing and arranging methods and materials.

Learning activities

Training teachers and implementing personnel development policies.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the participants’ responses to the program; the principles, facts and techniques acquired by the participants; observers’ reports concerning elements such as productivity or time-and-motion studies; records of an organisation (e.g. costs, efficiency, frequency of tardiness or absences, quality control rejections).

Source: Ramírez Gómez (2016a) based on Knowles et al. (2011).

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Also, it is for various reasons that these learners get involved in learning again, making them ready to learn as it becomes directly related to their lives. It is also a developmental task, which as such becomes problem oriented and clearly contextualised. It is not only extrinsic value that directs these learners in their educational challenges but also motivation, which is more intrinsic in nature and offers a personal payoff at various levels (e.g. personal fulfilment of a long-hidden ambition to know something, as is the case with learning FLs). From the 1960s to the 1980s, senior education came into life and the studies of Houle (1984) have contributed to studying mature and senior learners by classifying them according to their motivations. By answering the question Why do adults engage in continuing education?, Houle referred to mature and senior learners as those who are either goal-oriented learners, activity-oriented learners or learning-oriented learners. As in other situations, it is also in the context of FL learning that senior learners present themselves as having very diverse profiles, learning strategies and generally different ways of approaching a learning situation. At the same time, there are certain qualities that will determine, to a different degree, the processes involved, their rates and route of progress. Ellis (1994), in his discussion of the age factor in second language (L2) acquisition and FL learning, pointed out the main effects of ageing on language learning abilities: • Sensory acuity

Deterioration of decoding and encoding of sounds

• Neurology

Loss of plasticity, lateralisation and cerebral maturation, difficulties with pronunciation and grammar

• Affective-motivational variables

Appearance of communicative anxiety, identity issues, integration difficulties

• Cognitive factors

Analysis and induction skills

• Input

Meaning negotiation

• Storage of L2 information

Memory problems, focus on long-term memory

Apart from (strong) motivations of various kinds, the changes that occur with age will significantly influence the FL learning processes of adult learners (for discussion of the above see Chapters 2 and 3 in this volume).

Promoting Lifelong Education: The Spread of Third-Age Universities The needs of adult and senior learners are catered for in various forms. One of the first educational institutions that came into being to become the senior learning centre is the third-age university, known in French

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as Universités Du troisieme Age, Tous Age, du Temps Libre, UN13, des Aîné, in English University of Third Age, U3A and in Polish Uniwersytet Trzeciego Wieku. The first third-age university was founded in France by Pierre Vellas in 1973. In 1975, one was opened in Warsaw, Poland, by Halina Szwarc as Studium III Wieku (http://www.worldu3a.org/, www.forumtrzeciegowieku.pl). Although the first U3A appeared in 1973, two decades earlier in the 1950s and 1960s education of seniors took the form of a developed social policy, which from the 1970s onwards focused more on what education has on offer for senior citizens to improve their lives. This improvement of the quality of life of seniors started to be considered both in terms of individual advantages and social outcomes. These advantages can be briefly summarised as: • • • • • • • •

Life activation (becoming active and involved, overcoming stagnation). Use of seniors’ potential in the work market. Historical reasons (to make up for a war-time generation functioning in the post-war period of difficulty, when there was little opportunity to develop and fulfil one’s needs and aspirations). Social environment and contact both with other seniors and young people (overcoming isolation and despair). Contact with and work for the environment. Making contacts with other institutions easier though exposure to modern-world ways of functioning (e.g. development of information technology [IT]). Pastime (to overcome the loss of loved ones, to see the world from a different perspective). Accumulating mental capital to develop an extensive cognitive reserve (an ability to resist ageing and degenerative conditions – greater number of neurons, bigger brain).

The positive effects of education on seniors are seen not only in their cognitive dimension (e.g. learning something new) but also in their affective lives (e.g. finding friends and sharing, developing a sense of purpose). As mentioned earlier, it can develop intimacies and eliminate isolation, develop generativity and eliminate stagnation and additionally can promote integrity and eliminate despair in the possibly lonely and sense-deprived life of a senior. Not coincidentally, the foundation of third-age universities created an invaluable source of contextualised data for researching learning processes in andragogy and gerontology. The third-age universities evolved due to the different emphases of educational and social policies across decades and following different models. The French model is generally based on cooperation with academic centres (universities), whereas the British model values developing autonomy and self-directed learning. In Poland, it is mostly the French model that has

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gained popularity, where a U3A is part of a regional university. University academic staff are involved in its running and offer educational supervision and obligations. In establishing such an institution, one additional factor is usually taken into consideration, i.e. a location that is easily accessible for seniors. Poland is very active in developing its third-age universities. The total number is 354 centres, whereas in one of the most active regions in this respect (Mazowsze), there are 71 (www.forumtrzeciegowieku.pl). Currently, they have evolved and follow various models, but most often they are run by either local universities or regional or town councils. One of the oldest and most prestigious is the U3A in Katowice, affiliated to the University of Silesia. Third-age universities offer a wide range of courses from humanities (including fine arts) to sciences and social sciences. One of the most popular among seniors these days are FL courses. FL instruction, however, is not only offered by U3A but also by language schools, which often fill the gap in this sector of education for seniors. Some of them offer courses tailored for third-age learners. One of them is called New English School in Rzeszów, which advertises its product as: [Our] English course for seniors is a unique course. It offers also slower pace of teaching, focuses on understanding and remembering language material. Additionally, there is no change in ‘lektors’, translation of dialogues and recordings. At the same time it is based on a variety of topics. Relevant for 50+ learners. (www.newenglish.pl)

The value of learning a foreign language in the third age One of the advantages of learning FLs late in life is the process of selfdevelopment. It leads to the improvement of communication skills not only in the language being learnt but is observable in the transfer of these abilities to first language contexts of interaction. Involvement in FL instruction and the efforts put into learning naturally lead to enhancement of memory load, concentration and organisation of information in the brain. These efforts may lead to a better expression of thoughts and feelings since in the case of adult/senior learners the processes of analysis and employment of knowledge result in language awareness, facilitating more precise ways of expressing oneself. What cannot be ignored is that FL learning is additionally, and perhaps more significantly, a form of rehabilitation of lost brain capacity and also of social and affective skills. FL learning has been demonstrated to be an effective form of prevention (or delay) in the onset of some diseases, for example Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, due to brain activation and development in learning processes. Studies of FL learning as a lifelong mental exercise needed to activate multiple languages activates cognitive reserves,

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as was demonstrated by the study of Craig et al. (2010), which looked at bilingual seniors and concluded that it was bilingualism that caused a fiveyear retardation in Alzheimer’s disease for the study subjects. Craig et al. (2010) assumed that the use of multiple languages activated the cognitive reserve of those seniors and thus allowed them to function at the same level as monolinguals, whose disease was at a much lower degenerative level. Another example of a senior learner of an FL was a case study conducted by Zielińska (2015), who showed that an 85-year-old retired scientist who spent all her professional life as a researcher in chemistry, as a senior became an extremely successful language learner due to cognitive reserve activation late in life.

Improving teaching foreign languages to seniors The last decade of the 20th century saw the emergence of critical educational gerontology (CEG) ‘which is built on the critical pedagogical framework (…) CEG conceives older adults as in control of their thinking and learning, and more importantly, as capable of further development (Formosa, 2002)’ (Ramírez Gómez, 2016a: 96). The first principles of CEG were put forward by Glendenning and Battersby (1990) but were also taken up by Formosa (2002, 2011). They state that CEG concerns itself with: • • • •

The relations between ageing, economic conditions, the activity of the state in relation to the educational policy for older adults. Education that liberates, not oppresses. A new narrative of emancipation, empowerment, transformation, social control, hegemonic control, among others. Demonstrating and implementing theory into practice in the learning endeavours of older adults.

With this full awareness of the need for lifelong education in FLs, it is necessary to make sure that the optimal conditions are created to make this process successful for seniors. The major agent in this success is, of course, a well-qualified teacher. Although we do not know much about how seniors learn, still there are things we do know and can consider in the process of the professional preparation of FL teachers (for a fuller discussion, see Chapter 2 in this volume). At present, the programmes of study do not include a module on third-age learners. The diagnosis made by Gabrys´-Barker (2016) in her pilot study on pre-service teachers’ awareness of teaching profiles of seniors, and possible approaches and methods of teaching them, was not very encouraging. It turned out that a module on teaching FLs to senior learners is non-existent in the training programme. Although the trainees are aware of the specificity of teaching an FL to seniors, they admit that they are not able to teach this group of learners. In most cases, they believe that teaching

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this age group has a lot in common with teaching children. It is hard to say where such a belief comes from. Anecdotally, we can suggest that it derives from popular prejudice that seniors become childish and childlike in late adulthood. At the moment, at least a minimum of instruction and training based on what we know should be implemented in teacher training programmes. They should, for example, embrace the issues of: • • • • • •

Knowledge about the physical, mental and psychological conditioning of a senior learner. Knowledge concerning the potential of a senior learner (experience, general knowledge.) Social issues relating to the functioning of seniors in the contemporary world. Methodology of teaching itself based on a senior learner profile. Providing a training in how to facilitate seniors’ experience of learning an FL. Engaging future teachers in their own hands-on experience, i.e. a period of teaching practice with seniors. (Gabrys´-Barker, 2016)

Ramírez Gómez (2016, cited in Ramírez Gómez, 2016a) proposes that critical FL geragogy, (CFLG, pedagogy in the case of older adults) should follow the principles presented in Table 2. Some of the principles in Table 2 are commented on in the chapters of this volume, both from the perspective of teachers (which they already are). Table 2 Principles of CFLG Level/aspect

Principle

Approach

• More than a functional approach due to the resourcefulness and life options of the elderly.

FL lessons should

• be content based; • focus on socially relevant topics/issues; • deal with preconceptions about the third age.

Adaptation levels to the third age on the level of

• • • •

FL instructors/teachers should

• be proactive; • create a coherent language syllabus/curriculum; • use a variety of approaches: both a bottom-up and/or top-down manner.

cognition; psychology; social characteristics; third-age learners’ individual abilities and potential.

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Facilitation of a learning process by

• developing self-awareness of learners (self-recognition); • developing learners’ autonomy: metacognitive and cognitive strategy use.

Preconceptions about third-age learners

• use evidence in relation to assumptions about cognitive and social assumptions concerning older adults (e.g. research results).

Preconceptions about learning/foreign language learning

• identify prior learning experiences of seniors; • see how prior learning affects present experience; • eliminate misconceptions.

Affective dimension of FL learning:

• change negative attitudes of older adults to their own coping potential; • facilitate the development of their positive self-image; • reinforce their perception of new roles in the society; • change the image of older adults in the society.

Source: After Ramírez Gómez (2016), cited in Ramírez Gómez (2016a).

Due to the limited research done in this area, the perceptions used in their FL courses with seniors are largely intuitive (Chapter 10) – and also from the perspective of third-age learners themselves, in the form of expectations they derive from their FL teachers (Chapters 8 and 9).

Research on third-age foreign language learners: New contributions Some sources are available on adult learning in general, for example, Knowles (1980) and Knowles et al. (2005). These are well-known publications with multiple editions; however, none of them focuses specifically on senior learners and the educational issues raised by this age group. Much less (and that fairly recently) has been published on theoretical and applied aspects of the FL development of third-age language users and learners. Searching for sources, one can come across articles in journals such as Cohen and Li (2013) or pedagogically-oriented sources such as Formosa (2002, 2011) and Glendenning (1991). None of these publications, however, focuses specifically on FL learning. The only ones that do are the articles by Craig et al. (2010), Lenet et al. (2011) and Van der Hoeven and de Bot (2012). There are only two book publications on the third-age FL learner. One of them is Jaroszewska (2013); however, this is only published in Polish and is context specific. The other book that came out recently is Ramírez Gómez (2016a). Both of these books offer a fairly extensive description of background knowledge concerning senior learners and thus summarise what we know on the basis of available resources. Both of these volumes present empirical projects and explore their pedagogical implications.

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The value of the present volume lies in the broader perspective it adopts – from the psychological conditioning of seniors and the neurological functioning in this age group to diagnostic descriptions of seniors’ ways of learning (strategies) and the pedagogical implications of these (pedagogical interventions) in a variety of contexts: both institutional and natural (immigration). This volume therefore complements the recently published books of Jaroszewska (2013) and Ramírez Gómez (2016a). Some of the chapters put forward challenging ideas and reject existing ungrounded preconceptions; some of them test the new approaches in the form of interventions and measure their effectiveness. The book consists of two parts. Part 1: Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age, presents contributions that focus on learning processes in the senior population, firstly from a theoretical perspective (Chapters 1–3) and then on a more practical level (the empirical studies presented for example in Chapters 5–7). This part rightly opens with a chapter by Rebecca L. Oxford, ‘A Developmental Perspective on Third-Age Learning’, where the main aim is to provide a framework for studying third-age learners from a developmental psychology perspective focusing on its various aspects: the physical condition of a third-age person, cognition and memory, stereotypes about ageing, affectivity and social issues among others. Its great value lies in offering ideas for future research in the area, and provides an extensive list of references. David Singleton, in his chapter ‘Really Late Learners: Some Research Contexts and Some Practical Hints’, presents a trenchant view of the Critical Period Hypothesis, the most influential of hypotheses in discussions of the age factor in language learning, and goes on to present the conditions of acquiring an FL with respect to a decline in cognitive abilities on the one hand and, on the other, the need to keep an active mind in middle age and the third age, which can be achieved by learning FLs. Importantly, the author points to areas that are decisive for elderly learners to succeed and appeals to those responsible for planning language instruction – methodologists, course planners and teachers themselves – to take these into account. The chapter, ‘The Interactional Challenge: L2 Learning and Use in the Third Age’ by David W. Green, takes a neurological stand in discussing challenges that late adults face in interactional encounters due to age effects on the brain. However, there is hope, as Green believes that these changes are not necessarily permanent, as physical activity or sleep among others ‘may affect the trajectory to proficiency’, and learning an FL itself can contribute to adaptation processes and positive change. It is therefore highly recommended to seniors. The next chapter by Maria Kliesch, Nathalie Giroud, Simone E. Pfenninger and Martin Meyer entitled ‘Research on Second Language Acquisition in Old Adulthood: What We Have and What We Need’ is a thorough review of the knowledge we have about, as the authors put it, ‘the linguistic, socio-affective, neurobiological and cognitive

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underpinnings of the learning process in older people, and how best to approach these phenomena methodologically in future research’, which they illustrate with the results of a longitudinal study aiming at diagnosing the variables conducive to successful language learning in the third age. The chapter is very strong in its methodological aspects and the guidelines it provides for other researchers in terms of study methods. Mirosław Pawlak, Marek Derenowski and Anna Mystkowska-Wiertelak, in the chapter entitled ‘The Use of Indirect Language Learning Strategies by Third Age Learners: Insights from a Questionnaire Study’, focus on the metacognitive, affective and social strategies (labelled by Oxford [2011] as indirect strategies), which were used by older adults studying English as an FL at a third-age university. The findings point to certain pedagogical implications for teaching an FL in this age group. Monika Grotek and Agnieszka Ślęzak-Świat’s ‘Balance and Coordination vs Reading Comprehension in L2 in Late Adulthood’ discusses the issues connected with brain functioning and its disorders in seniors, resulting in motion sickness, as relevant to the performance in reading comprehension tasks in the L2. Also here, the authors suggest that physical activity in the form of a series of physical exercises can alleviate the diagnosed difficulties. Their study, using questionnaires and a standard test evaluating static balance, allowed the authors to determine whether eye movement demonstrates specific patterns in the groups of patients with motion sickness, compared with healthy subjects. The issue of successful ageing is taken up by Ewa Piechurska-Kuciel and Magdalena Szyszka in ‘Compensatory Strategies in Senior Foreign Language Students’. The authors present a model of successful ageing illustrated with data from third-age subjects in a case study of four seniors learning an FL. It focuses directly on the role of compensatory strategies in learning an FL by older adults. The second part of the volume, Part 2: Foreign Language Pedagogy in the Third Age, refers to FL instructors/teachers working with third-age learners. It starts with the text of Monika Grotek ‘Student Needs and Expectations Concerning Foreign Language Teachers in Universities of the Third Age’. In her interesting study, Grotek asked the participants of the English course at the University of Third Age about their preferences concerning FL teachers, which may serve as guidelines for future teachers of this age group. The next text ‘Identifying the Characteristics of Foreign Language Teachers Who Work with Senior Learners’ by Marek Derenowski starts with a claim that ‘(…) older foreign language learners display a set of characteristics that make them unique in their language learning process and classroom behavior’. The author believes it is fundamental to construct a profile of a language teacher who would possess qualities relevant for this teaching context and he draws up such a profile. In her chapter ‘Teaching English to Senior Students in the Eyes of Teacher Trainees’, Anna Niżegorodcew compares pre-service EFL teachers’ beliefs about teaching seniors before and after a pedagogical intervention, i.e. a training course comprising both theoretical aspects of

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teaching a FL in this age group and a practical placement in such a language course. The results show a major change in awareness and attitudes to teaching an FL to older adults. What the author suggests therefore has important implications for teacher training programmes. The last chapter in the volume by Anna Pot, Merel Keijzer, and Kees de Bot entitled ‘Enhancing Language Awareness in Migrants’ Third Age to Promote Well-Being’ moves away from the context of FL instruction in formal settings to discuss the issues of acquisition of an L2 in the natural context of immigration. They diagnose the considerable difficulties that senior immigrants with high levels of illiteracy and low levels of language learning motivation in the Netherlands encounter in trying to reach an adequate level of Dutch to be able to function successfully in their daily lives. It is hypothesised that ‘those methods that employ a mostly implicit, practical and motivational approach are most successful in advancing the language learning process’. The positive effects of small-group teaching, a multisensory approach and making use of the previous learning experiences are also emphasised in this study. This volume will hopefully direct more attention to the need for research in this area and that it will become a source of interest and inspiration for other researchers to pursue this path of investigation both for the good of the field itself and also, importantly, for its practical consequences in applying the proposals and solutions offered by the contributors to this volume in real FL third-age classrooms.

References Beder, H. (1989) Purposes and philosophies of adult education. In S.B. Merriam and P.M. Cunningham (eds) Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education (1st edn; pp. 37–50). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Cohen, A. and Li, P. (2013) Learning Mandarin in later life: Can old dogs learn new tricks? Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies 396 (12), 5–14. Craig, F., Bialystok, E. and Freedman, M. (2010) Delaying the onset of Alzheimer disease. Neurology 75 (16), 1726–1729. Ellis, R. (1994) The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Erikson, E.H. (1959) Identity and the Life Cycle. New York: International Universities Press. Formosa, M. (2002) Critical gerogogy: Developing practical possibilities for critical educational erontology. Education and Ageing 17 (1), 73–85. Formosa, M. (2011) Critical educational gerontology: A third statement of first principles. International Journal of Education and Ageing 2 (1), 317–332. Gabryś-Barker, D. (2016) Foreign Language Instruction to Seniors: Pre-service EFL Teachers’ Perspective. Paper delivered at 28th International Conference on Foreign/ Second Language Acquisition, Szczyrk, May. Glendenning, F. (1991) What is the future of educational gerontology. Ageing and Society 11 (2), 209. http://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X00004013. Glendenning, F. and Battersby, B. (1990) Educational gerontology and education for older adults: A statement of first principles. Australian Journal of Adult and Community Education 30 (1), 38–44.

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Groen, G. (2014/2016) Little Experiments with Happiness. A Secret Diary of Henrik Groen, Age 83 and 1/2. (R. Turczyn, trans.). Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Albatros. Houle, C.O. (1984) Patterns of Learning: New Perspectives on Life-Span Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Jaroszewska, A. (2013) Nauczanie języków obcych seniorów w Polsce: Analiza potrzeb i możliwości w aspekcie międzykulturowym [Teaching Foreign Languages to Seniors in Poland: Analysis of Needs and Possibilities from a Cross-Cultural Perspective]. Kraków: Impuls. Jarvis, P. (2004) Adult Education and Lifelong Learning: Theory and Practice (3rd edn). London/New York: Routledge Falmer. Knowles, M. (1980) The Modern Practice of Adult Education. From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Cambridge Knowles, M., Holton, E. and Swanson, R. (2005) The Adult Learner (6th edn). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Knowles, M., Holton, E. and Swanson, R. (2011) The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development (7th edn). Amsterdam/Boston: Elsevier. Lenet, A., Sanz, C., Lado, B., Howard, J.H. and Howard, D. (2011) Aging, pedagogical conditions, and differential success in SLA: An empirical study. In C. Sanz and R. Leow (eds) Implicit and Explicit Language Learning: Conditions, Processes, and Knowledge in SLA and Bilingualism (pp. 73–84). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Lindeman, E.C. (1926) The Meaning of Adult Education. New York: New Republic. Merriam, S.B. (2001) Andragogy and self-directed learning: Pillars of adult learning theory. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education 89, 3–14. Ramírez Gómez, D. (2016) Critical geragogy and foreign language learning: An exploratory application. Educational Gerontology 42 (2), 136–143. Ramírez Gómez, D. (2016a) Language Teaching and the Older Adult: The Significance of Experience. Bristol: Multilingual Matters (e-book). Van der Hoeven, N. and de Bot, K. (2012) Relearning in the elderly: Age-related effects on the size of savings. Language Learning 62 (1), 42–67. http://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00689.x. Zielińska, A. (2015) The strategy use of a successful fourth-age learner of English. Unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Silesia.

Internet sources www.forumtrzeciegowieku.pl (accessed 23 September 2016). www.newenglish.pl (accessed 23 September 2016). www.worldu3a.org.uk (accessed 23 September 2016).

Part 1 Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age

1 A Developmental Perspective on Third-Age Learning Rebecca L. Oxford

I am sixty years old, and glory is my work.1 Adapted from Mary Oliver Though I am old with wandering… I will … pluck till time and times are done … The golden apples of the sun.2 William Butler Yeats

Introduction Researchers are paying significant attention to lifelong language learners (e.g. De Bot & Makoni, 2005; Gabrysˊ-Barker et al., 2016; Martinez, 2012). The term ‘third-age language learners’, which might seem a little more precise than ‘lifelong language learners’, is now gaining currency as well. In general, the term ‘third agers’ refers to healthy, motivated individuals who are retired, i.e. no longer working full-time. This chapter addresses a topic that is dear to my heart, mind, and aging body: a developmental perspective on third-age language learning. I have repeatedly taught university courses on life-span human development, or developmental psychology. It is exciting to unite my psychological background with my applied linguistics experience when examining third-age language learning. The first section of the chapter introduces ‘third age’ and related concepts. The second section offers research findings about physical, cognitive, emotional, and cultural issues relevant to the third age. Three broad ways to encourage and aid older language learners are the focus of the third section. The fourth section discusses the role of organizations (educational institutions and group living facilities) in teaching languages to third agers and some techniques that could be used. The chapter has a personal postscript containing hopeful ideas and poetry linked to third-age language learning.

Introducing the Third Age This introductory section discusses labels and concepts, age-grading of the third age, gifts of the third age and third age=golden age (?).

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Labels and concepts The concept of ‘third age’ emerged from a hypothesized sequence of three stages that can be summarized by the acronym ‘EER’: education (first age), employment (second age) and retirement (third age) (Moen, 2011).3 The third age, supposedly occurring after full-time work has ended, is sometimes called ‘young-old’ age, as compared to the fourth age, which is called ‘old-old’ age, or flatly ‘old age’. The term ‘third age’ describes relatively healthy ‘young-old’ people who are now retired, while feeling energy, excitement, purpose and well-being. Theorists typically view the third age as a time before any serious disability arises for a given person; the ‘fourth age’, discussed later, includes such a disability (Carr & Komp, 2011). Many view the third age as a life phase. However, the concept of a life phase is an interpretation, a construction, a social status and a cultural field (Carr & Komp, 2011; Gilleard & Higgs, 2011), and thus tied to an array of sociocultural issues. Discussing the third age in a group of people from Berlin, Bali and Birmingham or Tunis, Texarkana and Taipei would necessitate intensively probing into cultural belief systems, socioeconomic statuses, educational levels, genders, religions and other issues. That calls for another book, or at least another chapter. Moen (2011) raised concerns about the conceptual sequence of first– second–third ages, because this sequence is very lockstep and age graded. She called for considering alternative, more flexible life paths rather than hard-and-fast delineations of stages. She enthusiastically called for greater career options for third agers. However, she noted that outmoded politics and policies, risky economies and the loss of community-based safety nets keep many elders from having meaningful career options in their third age.

Age grading of the third age Some scholars try to give the third age a certain number of years, while others state that the third age begins and ends at given ages. These efforts are part of ‘age grading’. For instance, Lawrence-Lightfoot (2009) identified ‘the third chapter’ (roughly equivalent to the third age) as lasting from age 50 to 75, whereas for Smith (2000) the third age is from 70 to 84. Erik Erikson’s (1982) famous model of psychosocial development did not use the term ‘third age’, but the model’s eighth and final stage, identified as starting around 65, involves the crisis of identity versus despair and might include the third age. For several reasons, I personally doubt that chronological age is a good proxy for the concept of the third age. First, individual lives, including schedules for retirement, are very different for various people, making third-age timing difficult to predict for a given person, much less for a professional group or for a culture. Second, some people, like me, retire several times, and the start of the third age might depend on which retirement is counted as ‘real’ and why. Third, scientific advances make

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possible an ever-increasing number of third-age years, so the length of the third age is difficult to anticipate. For these reasons, it is better to consider individual or small-group cases and circumstances than to trust generalized or supposedly universal third-age years.

Gifts of the third age The third age offers many gifts, according to numerous theorists. Lawrence-Lightfoot (2009) described the third chapter (similar to the third age) as filled with passion, risk-taking, and adventure. To attain these gifts, the older individual must perceive abundance in his or her life (even if the person’s material possessions are not abundant), must seek meaning and purpose and must not focus on failure. Lawrence-Lightfoot’s depiction was somewhat similar to the much deeper perspective of de Hennezel (2008), whose intelligent, humorous, emotionally sensitive and valuable book on wellness drew from literature, philosophy, psychology, physiology and spirituality. In her book, de Hennezel stated that wellness during any part of aging, not just early aging, requires maintaining a physically healthy lifestyle, adapting to change, staying confident, learning how to say no and accepting limits with humor. She additionally said that wellness in aging necessitates sharing concerns with those who care, spending peaceful time doing what we desire, loving others and ourselves and continuing to enjoy sensuality. These are big requirements, but de Hennezel emphasized that they also bring joy, comfort and health. Still more profoundly, she noted that elders can change the way that they see aging and even death and can specifically recognize the fecundity of time. Author Victor Hugo, mentioned by de Hennezel, wrote that as his body declined, his mind grew, and therefore, old age brought a blossoming.4

Third age=golden age(?) As noted earlier, Barnes (2011) described the third age as a period of subjective well-being. However, he might have gone much too far when he depicted the third age as ‘the golden age of adulthood’ (Barnes, 2011: 1). I personally never experienced a ‘golden age of childhood’ or any other golden age; in fact, I was thrilled to get a few golden days now and then. Thus, I cannot imagine rolling into a ‘golden age of adulthood’. The third age, despite its many positives, will probably not be experienced as ‘golden’ by all or most retirees. It is a time of great flux, and such a great change is not always experienced positively. Retirement itself can be a shock to certain individuals due to the lower income, reduced structure and loss of professional prestige, even if retired individuals pick up satisfying new work or projects. Also, sooner or later during the third age, many retirees experience new health issues or an exacerbation of existing ones, although they are not disabled.

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Selected Issues of the Third Age: Physical, Cognitive, Emotional and Cultural This section presents selected issues of the third age: physical and cognitive changes, emotions and related factors and cultural stereotypes.

Physical and cognitive changes in the third age This discussion deals with physical issues (visual, auditory and motor) and cognitive issues (memory, learning and verbal knowledge) faced by third agers.

Visual, auditory and motor issues A reduction in vision and hearing, as well as problems from disease and drug interactions, can affect cognitive performance (Sigelman & Rider, 2012: 268), including language learning, but many visual and auditory problems can be treated. Even without disease, a gradual reduction in the efficiency of various physical systems begins in the twenties (Lakatta, 1990), though most people do not think about it until their fifties or sixties. Contrasted with younger adults, many older adults perform certain motor actions more slowly and with less coordination (Lima et al., 1991; Whitbourne, 2008). Elders who stay physically active maintain faster reaction times and greater strength than their more sedentary peers (Hatta et al., 2005). Faster reaction times would assist in target language communication.

Memory, learning and verbal knowledge Older adults know many memory strategies (metamemory). However, compared with younger adults, they often express negative beliefs about their memory skills (Sigelman & Rider, 2012), and this undermines their efforts. On average, older adults learn more slowly and sometimes less well than those who are younger than them (Sigelman & Rider, 2012), but this depends on what they are learning. ‘Verbal [language-related] knowledge shows no decrease throughout mid- and older adulthood and may not decline until we are pushing 90’ (Sigelman & Rider, 2012: 266). If a third ager has highly functional verbal knowledge, then it is easier to learn new things that are verbal, such as a language. Though cognitive information processing often takes longer for third agers, this problem might be balanced by existing verbal knowledge and positive biographical, lifestyle and contextual factors (e.g. greater education, consistent physical activity and age-supportive social practices). In this way, third agers are often able to maintain the basic capacities necessary for language learning. In contrast with third agers, people who have Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, i.e. severe loss of memory and other mental disabilities,

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are not thus protected (Alzheimer’s Association, 2017) and become fourth agers. However, some fourth agers who have a serious physical illness or disability still have cognition that is adequate for language learning.

Emotions and related factors in the third age To understand third agers, it is crucial to grasp the importance of positive and negative emotions, emotional intelligence, savoring and humor.

Positive and negative emotions Some possible positive emotions for third agers are happiness, curiosity, interest, pleasure and joy (Frederickson, 2001, 2003, 2004) and, according to Seligman (2011), ecstasy, comfort and warmth.5 Positive emotions, in Frederickson’s view, broaden the individual’s attention and build innovative thoughts, actions, skills and psychological resources that are useful for the future. This is the ‘broaden-and-build concept’, in which positive emotions trigger spirals of emotional and physical well-being. It is possible to argue that positive emotions, as named above, are very important for language learning.

Potential insights from difficult emotions Positive psychology, mentioned above, emphasizes the usefulness of positive emotions. It also denigrates ‘negative emotions’ (I will call them painful or difficult, not negative) for supposedly narrowing the individual’s response options to merely survival-type behaviors (Frederickson, 2001, 2003, 2004). Painful emotions, such as despair, grief or anger, can indeed reduce the response options of a third ager if these emotions completely overwhelm or suffuse the person, if these emotions are treated as permanent and if the person does not have, or ignores, a social support system. On the other hand, painful emotions can sometimes be a source of self-knowledge when a third ager is learning a new language or working on the crisis of integrity versus despair (Erikson, 1982). Cooper Thompson’s (2016) book stands as a reminder that the difficult emotions of a third ager can, if processed well, offer deep insights that are helpful to language learning.

Emotional intelligence Emotional intelligence can help individuals transform negative emotions to a more positive state of mind (Goleman, 2005). Emotional intelligence includes the ability to perceive, understand and manage emotions in self and others and to use emotions to facilitate cognition (Goleman, 2005; Salovey et al., 2011). Emotional intelligence is powerfully related to emotional regulation (Gkonou & Oxford, 2016; Gross, 2014), i.e. the conscious management of one’s own emotions.

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Savoring Positive psychology offers the concept of savoring, from which third agers can benefit. Savoring means noticing and appreciating the positive aspects of life and using activities to generate positive experiences (Bryant & Veroff, 2007; Lyubomirsky, 2008; Peterson, 2006). Savoring focuses conscious attention on the experience of pleasure (Bryant & Veroff, 2007) of self and others. People can experience past savoring (reminiscence), present savoring or future savoring (anticipation). All forms of savoring would have tremendous effects on third agers. Aspects of savoring include marveling, which regulates awe; giving thanks, which regulates gratitude; basking, which regulates pride; and luxuriating, which regulates physical pleasure (Bryant & Veroff, 2007). Of course, positive emotions, such as contentment or happiness, are linked with savoring.

Humor Humor, a mature defense mechanism (Peterson, 2006), also provides emotional help to an older person. Researchers Sampson and Gross (2012) predicted that positive (good-natured) humor would be more effective than negative (mean-spirited) humor in regulating negative emotions.

Cultural stereotypes of aging Powerful cultural stereotypes of aging influence communities, families and individuals. This discussion presents research of significance to anyone interested in older adults.

A large, empirical, cross-cultural study The empirical study conducted by Löckenhoff et al. (2009) involved 3435 college students, mostly female, in 26 cultures. These students reported their views of older adults’ changes in functioning and rated their cultures’ perspectives on aging. Respondents perceived negativity in societal views of aging, task performance ability, physical attractiveness and new learning (not so different from the stereotypes mentioned by Mortimer and Moen [2016] and Sigelman and Rider [2012]; see above). Paradoxically, respondents also cited increases in wisdom, received respect and knowledge, along with stability in family authority and life satisfaction. Thus, negative stereotypes and positive stereotypes co-existed. Asian participants in the study, compared with Western participants, expressed more positive social views of aging, but ironically, the Asian participants showed less favorable perceptions of changes in wisdom. The authors attributed this difference to possible contrasts between values versus population structure (sociodemographic factors). I wonder how the Löckenhoff et al. results might have differed if (a) the sample had included more males, non-students and people from a wide

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range of ages and socioeconomic levels; (b) the survey translations had been back-translated to confirm accuracy; (c) representation from African and Middle Eastern cultures had occurred; and (d) in-depth qualitative data had been gathered in addition to the existing eight close-ended, quantitative trait ratings. Nevertheless, the results are well worth examining.

Self-esteem and stereotypes Self-esteem is the evaluative aspect of the self-concept, rated on a person’s own high-low scale. Mruk (2006) contended that self-esteem results from the evaluation of competence and worthiness in interaction with the context. Perceptions of high competence and high worthiness lead to high self-esteem. If these evaluations are too high, however, they can generate anti-empathetic attitudes and conflict.6 Sigelman and Rider (2012) summarized relevant studies about older people’s self-esteem. They noted that older adults can maintain self-esteem by comparing themselves socially or physically with other older adults, rather than with younger adults. If third agers apply ageist stereotypes (which are learned as early as childhood in some cultures [Levy, 2003]) to themselves, their self-esteem suffers, but if they attach these stereotypes to other older adults, they feel better about themselves. Older adults might even intentionally choose to compare themselves with worse-off older people.

Early, positive stereotypes of aging and health Levy’s (2003) research shows ‘that activating positive stereotypes of aging before elderly people perform cognitive tasks may boost [older people’s] performance, at least temporarily’ (in Sigelman & Rider, 2012: 366, emphasis added). One fascinating, longitudinal, community-based study (Levy et al., 2002) of 660 individuals found that individuals aged 50 and over with more positive self-perceptions of aging, measured up to 23 years earlier, lived 7.5 years longer than those with less positive selfperceptions of aging, even after covarying for age, gender, socioeconomic status, loneliness and, very interestingly, functional health. In other words, if the effect of health and the other covariates is statistically controlled, positive self-perceptions of aging still significantly influence longevity. However, the person’s will to live mediates longevity.

Early, negative stereotypes of aging and health On the other hand, early negative stereotypes can foreshadow serious health problems later. Levy et al. (2009: 20) found that ‘age stereotypes held earlier in life predict cardiovascular events later in life’. Negative stereotypes include the belief that people who reach the third age are unattractive, elderly, old, senior citizens, sick, weak, frail, dependent, decrepit, forgetful and incompetent (Mortimer & Moen, 2016; Sigelman & Rider, 2012: 163, 365). Old-old people, i.e. fourth agers, encounter these

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stereotypes and much worse. Fourth agers, at least in certain Western cultures, are often unmercifully stereotyped as a ‘black hole’ of disability, misery, pessimism, hopelessness, frailty, marginalization, purposelessness, social undesirability, non-agency and non-productivity (Carr & Komp, 2011; Gilleard & Higgs, 2010). When a third or fourth ager imbibes ageist stereotypes from the culture (or from the community or the family, both of which are influenced by the culture) and accepts them as true, self-stereotyping occurs, which can cause dangerous physical, emotional and cognitive declines. Reducing ageist stereotypes might reduce and even prevent age-related physical and other declines (Levy et al., 2009). Getting rid of debilitating stereotypes is a fundamental step in being able to learn another language or anything else as an older adult. Older language learners must be surrounded by a supportive community that believes they have the capability to learn and are desirable, purposeful, interesting and agentic.

Three Broad Approaches to Encouraging and Aiding Older Language Learners This section outlines three general approaches relevant for encouraging and assisting older adult language learners: sage-ing, mindfulness and the selection, optimization and compensation (SOC) framework. These approaches are highly relevant to third agers but could also be used by fourth agers.

Sage-ing Language learning can contribute to sage-ing. Sage-ing is a ‘late-life … process that enables older people to become spiritually radiant, physically vital, and socially responsible “elders of the tribe”’, who are full of ‘meaning and purpose’ (Schachter-Shalomi & Miller, 1995: 5–6). Sage-ing sounds much like Erikson’s (1982) last-stage crisis resolution, with wisdom as the best possible outcome in the battle between integrity and despair. Sage-ing also seems like one of Vaillant’s (2002) key adult tasks, with, in optimal circumstances, integrity and wisdom coming to the fore and despair receding. I contend that sage-ing could be a process for people in the third age or fourth age, particularly if they are interested in developing language competence.

Mindfulness Older adult language learners can turn to mindfulness to become more centered in the present, thus lowering stress and anxiety, gaining greater spiritual depth and reducing or preventing physical pain and disease

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(Kabat-Zinn, 2013; Tolle, 2004; Williams & Penman, 2012). Eckhart Tolle (2004) wrote The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, which many mindfulness proponents follow. Mindfulness practice started in spirituality and can be done through meditation, visualization, art, music, yoga and breathing exercises. These processes could be taught to older adults and would aid language learning.

The SOC framework: Selection, optimization and compensation The SOC framework helps older people deal effectively with cognitive and/or physical declines (Riedeger et al., 2006, in Sigelman & Rider, 2012: 270). Selection refers to choosing tasks that are most important. Optimization means doing those tasks building on strengths rather than weaknesses. Compensation means finding alternative ways, if necessary, to accomplish a task. This framework could be especially relevant to older people who are learning new languages.

The Role of Organizations in Teaching Languages to Third Agers and Techniques that could be Used The first half of this section sheds light on the role of organizations (educational institutions and group living facilities) where languages can be taught to third agers. The second half concerns techniques and suggestions for these organizations to consider.

Third-age language instruction by organizations Educational institutions Many university-related institutions or universities provide language courses for third agers. Examples are the French original, known as the Université du Troisième Âge, followed by variegated groups including the University of the Third Age (U3A, which is not the same as the Université du Troisième Âge) and the US-born Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). In addition to these well-known institutions, other organizations such as senior centers and community centers (in my country, the USA) offer inexpensive language classes for older adults (Anderson, 2012a).

Group living facilities Language learning is not usually on the official agenda in group facilities where older adults live, but some of these facilities are waking up to the value of language learning for increasing residents’ interest and motivation, building up communicative skills and staving off dementia and Alzheimer’s (LSL Staff, 2016). I will describe what is happening in the USA. In independent living facilities (ILFs), which are designed for healthy,

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active, self-motivated, age 55+ adults (largely third agers), languages are occasionally taught to residents (see Chateau Brickyard, described by Blue Harbor Senior Living, 2017). Languages are sometimes taught at assisted living facilities (ALFs) (LSL Staff, 2016), where residents seem to have the characteristics of third and fourth agers. Like fourth agers, ALF residents often require personal care services for bathing, dressing and medication management (A Place for Mom, 2017b), but like third agers, they are expected to have no severe illnesses or disabilities. At a skilled nursing facility (SNF), or nursing home, residents are fourth agers, who are severely ill or disabled and receive round-the-clock monitoring, medical aid and various therapies (A Place for Mom, 2017a). It is difficult to find language instruction directed only at fourth agers, but sign language and Spanish instruction are taught in an intergenerational, interinstitutional (ILF, ALF, SNF and childcare center), lifelong learning program (National Center for Creative Aging, 2012).

Techniques for teaching languages in educational institutions and group living facilities for older adults Creative instructors in educational institutions (e.g. U3A, OLLI and senior centers) and group living facilities (e.g. ILFs, ALFs and SNFs) should have the goal of teaching a new language to third agers in an entertaining, enlivening, meaningful, multisensory way, keyed to learners’ interests. Here are some techniques and suggestions for addressing the goal.

Differentiation of instruction Many older adult language learners in an educational institution or living facility will want to learn to communicate orally in the target language, but not all will have this desire. Some might prefer reading, listening to songs, watching video or TV news or participating in other activities in the target language. Intensively learning core aspects of the language, such as grammar or vocabulary, is important to some people but not to others. Differentiation of language instruction for teaching third agers (or other learners, for that matter) therefore involves interests and desires. Differentiation also involves adjusting instruction to learners’ multisensory preferences and abilities (e.g. vision, hearing, touch and movement); providing instruction that matches, to some degree, learners’ cognitive levels, cognitive styles and proficiency levels in the language being learned; and adjusting instruction to the current level and types of learning strategy used. As Chamot (2017) also stated, differentiation also includes paying attention to diversity in personality factors, motivation and willingness. It is possible and acceptable to have diverse interest groups within the language class, with the groups doing entirely different activities. Another

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technique is to provide an interesting, multipronged activity for all class members over several days, a week or more, with different members contributing their various talents and interests to various aspects of that activity.

Refreshing ideas for language teaching The language class for older adults could involve well-organized, engaging, non-competitive activities, such as cooperatively reading and discussing simple (but not childish) stories accompanied by photos or pictures. Using magazines and books, participants could share targetculture information in their own language or possibly the target language. One or two energized participants search online and share cultural information with the class. Class members could watch short, subtitled films in the target language or relevant video travelogues. They could create their own photo-adorned family trees with headings in the target language and could communicate through exercises, games and conversations. Class participants could learn to read recipes in the target language, and with that knowledge they could create desserts or a whole dinner for the group, assuming they could obtain access to the kitchen. Drawing from the surrounding community, target-language native speakers from people who have just come back from a trip to a target culture could be invited to visit the class regularly. Class members could create art (drawings, paintings, sculptures, stained glass or jewelry), learn art-related words in the target language, host their own art show with signs and labels in the target language and learn about famous artists from the target culture. Even people experiencing a slight decline might participate in the artwork but get help with target-language signs and labels.

Learning strategies Experts could teach workshops for third agers about how to use language learning strategies and thus become better language learners (Brown, 1991). They could also teach language instructors how to conduct strategy instruction, woven into language teaching (Oxford, 2017). Activities from sage-ing, mindfulness and the SOC process (see earlier) could readily be linked with learning strategies. To me, all of these offer a sense of personal self-understanding, self-regulation, agency, wisdom and well-being.

Postscript: Some Personal Hopes and Dreams I recently turned 70, which surprised me immensely. Age issues aside, I could easily be considered a ‘third ager’, since I have retired from full-time work, am relatively healthy and experience a significant amount of wellbeing about many aspects of life (Barnes, 2011; Moen, 2011). In my case

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the idea of ‘retirement’ is complicated, because I continue to be heavily engaged in scholarly work, though I now do it with a more flexible schedule and without a real salary. Regardless of these nuances, I view myself as a third ager. One of my personal goals as a third ager is to restart my learning of German, a process that stopped when I was 22. Because of my subsequent professional experience teaching language education courses, teaching language courses and researching language learning strategies, I am probably more demanding than many aspiring third-age language learners. I will first try to find a German language teacher at an OLLI site or elsewhere, but it is unclear whether I will encounter a teacher who shares my instructional concepts or will allow me the learning flexibility I need. If I cannot find such a teacher, I will craft my own German learning program, which will include doing extensive independent work (reading, listening and writing and studying grammar and vocabulary) and meeting frequently on Skype to talk with a native German speaker, who will become my ‘tandem partner’. Ideally, this partner will encourage me to speak German concerning topics that I have been studying on my own and that we both find interesting. During each session, I will help my partner practice English in the same way. (I realize that most educated Germans know English rather well, but some nevertheless want to expand their existing English competence.) What do I want to do with the language? I hope to learn to identify and contact online some distant, German-speaking relatives; perhaps write poetry in German; watch some German films without constantly relying on subtitles; and in Germany, meet my tandem partner in person, visit long-lost cousins and see the cities and gravesites of ancestors on my grandfather’s side. Thinking about such activities already sparks my energy. As previously mentioned, verbal knowledge might still be going strong in the third and even the fourth age up until the nineties and possibly beyond (Sigelman & Rider, 2012). Language learning can help third agers (and some fourth agers, too) maintain their cognitive and social faculties to the greatest extent possible. People are often said to live longer if they are cognitively stimulated, socially involved, happy and productive, even if their physical strength is waning. Meaning is crucial in life (Frankl, 1984), and language learning can foster it. Vaillant (2002) emphasized that older adults can experience continuous development until the day of their death. Gandhi (2017) stated, ‘Learn as if you were to live forever’. The poet Dylan Thomas (1951) unambiguously encouraged older adults in these lines: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night, / Old age should burn and rave at close of day; / Rage, rage against the dying of the light’. Thomas might have agreed with me that language learning by third agers (and fourth agers as well) is indeed a way for older adults to keep their own life force burning. It is a means of raging ‘against the dying of the light’ and

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is evidence of not going ‘gentle into that good night’. Language learning helps people be in touch with others and with their own inner being. It is a catalyst for staying fully human, alert, awake and involved as long as possible. Another poet, Mary Oliver (1992), wrote, ‘… What is life but reaching for an answer? / And what is death but a refusal to grow?’ She was writing about life through the story of Magellan, the explorer. Her concept was that life involves reaching out, stretching, growing and exploring. In my view, older adults might have many ways to explore new relationships and new studies, stretch their minds, look inside their hearts and keep alive the essence of the Self until the body finally says no more. Language learning deserves recognition as a prime arena for constantly reaching out and exploring.

Notes (1)

The original poem ‘Work’ by Mary Oliver (2000: 10) says, ‘I am a woman sixty years old, and glory is my work’. I removed the gendered language (woman) so as to include men in the concept. (2) ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’ by W.B. Yeats (1899), from The Wind among the Reeds. (3) Because women and men experience life differently, the EER stages are gendered in multiple ways (for details, see Moen, 2001). Unfortunately, this chapter is too short to explore the topic. (4) Victor Hugo’s idea of blossoming in old age was cited by de Hennezel (2008), who drew it from de Beauvoir (1970), who in turn found it in Hugo’s correspondence. (5) One might question viewing ‘warmth’ as an emotion. (6) See Rubio (2014) for in-depth explanations of other approaches to self-esteem.

References Anderson, J. (2012a) Expanding Horizons: New Languages for the Elderly. Senior Living Blog. A Place for Mom. See http://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/new-languagesfor-the-elderly/ (accessed 10 April 2017). A Place for Mom (2017a) What Are Nursing Homes? See http://www.aplaceformom. com/nursing-homes (accessed 10 April 2017). A Place for Mom (2017b) What Is Assisted Living? See http://www.aplaceformom.com/ assisted-living (accessed 10 April 2017). Barnes, S. (2011) Third Age: Golden Years of Adulthood. San Diego State University Interwork Institute, San Diego, CA. See http://calbooming.sdsu.edu/documents/ TheThirdAge.pdf (accessed 7 November 2016). Blue Harbor Senior Living (2017) Spanish Class at Chateau Brickyard. See https://www. chateaubrickyardseniorliving.com/blog/hablas-espanol-learning-a-new-languageas-a-senior (accessed 10 April 2017). Brown, H.D. (1991) Breaking the Language Barrier: Creating Your Own Pathway to Success. Yarmouth ME: Intercultural Press. Bryant, F. and Veroff, J. (2007) Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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Carr, D.C. and Komp, K. (2011) Gerontology in the Era of the Third Age: Implications and Next Steps. New York: Springer. Chamot, A.U. (2017) Preparing teachers for language learning strategy instruction in diverse classrooms: A program for new teachers. In R.L. Oxford and C.M. Amerstorfer (eds) Language Learning Strategies and Individual Learner Characteristics: Situating Strategy Use in Diverse Contexts. London: Bloomsbury. de Beauvoir, S. (1970) La Vieillesse [The Coming of Age]. Paris: Éditions Gallimard. De Bot, K. and Makoni, S. (2005) Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. de Hennezel, M. (2008) The Warmth of the Heart Prevents Your Body from Rusting: A French Guide for a Long Life, Well-Lived. New York: Penguin. Erikson, E. (1982) The Life Cycle Completed: A Review. New York: Norton. Frankl, V.E. (1984) Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy. (I. Lasch, trans.) Boston, MA: Beacon. Frederickson, B.L. (2001) The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist 56 (3), 218–226. Frederickson, B.L. (2003) The value of positive emotions: The emerging science of positive psychology looks into why it’s good to feel good. American Scientist 91 (4), 330–335. Frederickson, B.L. (2004) The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London (Biological Sciences) 359, 1367–1377. Gabryś-Barker, D., Wojtaszek, A. and Gaƚajda, D. (organizers) (2016) International Conference on Foreign/Second Language Acquisition. Theme: Life-Long Learning: The Age Factor in Second/Foreign Language Acquisition and Learning. Szczyrk, Poland. Gandhi, M. (2017) Mahatma Gandhi Online. See http://www.mahatmagandhionline. com/ (accessed 12 April 2017). Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. (2010) Aging without agency: Theorizing the fourth age. Aging and Mental Health 14 (2), 121–128. doi: 10.1080/13607860903228762. Gilleard, C. and Higgs, P. (2011) The Third Age as a cultural field. In D.C. Carr and K. Komp (eds) Gerontology in the Era of the Third Age: Implications and Next Steps (pp. 33–50). New York: Springer. Gkonou, C. and Oxford, R.L. (2017) Questionnaire: Managing your emotions for language learning (version 1.0). In R.L. Oxford (ed.) Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies: Self-Regulation in Context (pp. 317-333). New York: Routledge. Goleman, D. (2005) Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ (2nd edn). New York: Bantam. Gross, J.J. (2014) Handbook of Emotion Regulation (2nd edn). New York: Guilford. Hatta, A., Nishihara, Y., Kim, S.R., Kaneda, T., Kida, T., Kamijo, K., Sasahara, M. and Hara, S. (2005) Effects of habitual moderate exercise on response processing and cognitive processing in older adults. Japanese Journal of Physiology 555, 29–36. Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013) Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York: Bantam Dell. Lakatta, E.G. (1990) Heart and circulation. In E.L. Schneider and J.W. Rowe (eds) Handbook of the Biology of Aging (3rd edn). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Lawrence-Lightfoot, S. (2009) The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk, and Adventure in the 25 Years after 50. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux. Levy, B. (2003) Mind matters: Cognitive and physical effects of aging self-stereotypes. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 58, 203–211. Levy, B.R., Slade, M.D., Kunkel, S.R. and Kasl, S.V. (2002) Longevity increased by positive self-perceptions of aging. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 83 (2), 261–270. See http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.2.261.

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Levy, B.R., Zonderman, A.B., Slade, M.D. and Ferrucci, L. (2009) Age stereotypes held earlier in life predict cardiovascular events in later life. Psychological Science 20 (3), 296–298. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02298.x. Lima, S.D., Hale, S. and Myerson, J. (1991) How general is general slowing? Evidence from the lexical domain. Psychology and Aging 6, 416–425. Löckenhoff, C.E., De Fruyt, F., Terracciano, A., McCrae, R.R., De Bolle, M., et al. (2009) Perceptions of aging across 26 cultures and their culture-level associates. Psychology of Aging 24 (4), 941–954. doi: 10.1037/a0016901. LSL Staff (2016) Benefits of Learning a New Language as a Senior. Lighthouse Senior Living. See http://www.lighthouseseniorliving.com/2016/03/benefits-of-learninga-new-language-as-a-senior/ (accessed 10 April 2017). Lyubomirsky, S. (2008) The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. New York: Penguin. Martinez, E. (2012) A focus on specific learning and teaching methods for older adult foreign language learners. The International Journal of Aging and Society 2 (4), 103–111. Moen, P. (2001) The gendered lifecourse. In R. Binstock and L. George (eds) Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (pp. 179–196). New York: Kluwer. Moen, P. (2011) A life-course approach to the Third Age. In D.C. Carr and K. Komp (eds) Gerontology in the Era of the Third Age: Implications and Next Steps (pp. 13–32). New York: Springer. Mortimer, J.T. and Moen, P. (2016) The changing social construction of age and the life course: Precarious identity and enactment of ‘early’ and ‘encore’ stages of adulthood. In M.J. Shanahan, J.T. Mortimer and M.K. Johnson (eds) Handbook of the Life Course (Volume 2; pp. 111–129). New York: Springer. Mruk, C.J. (2006) Self-Esteem Research, Theory, and Practice: Toward a Positive Psychology of Self-esteem (3rd edn). New York: Springer. National Center for Creative Aging (2012) Ebenezer Ridges Life-Long Learning Program. See http://www.creativeaging.org/creative-aging-program/6345 (accessed 10 April 2017). Oliver, M. (1992) Magellan. New and Selected Poems (Volume 1; p. 238). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Oliver, M. (2000) Work. The Leaf and the Cloud: A Poem (pp. 9–15). Boston, MA: Da Capo. Oxford, R.L. (2017) Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies: Self-Regulation in Context. New York: Routledge. Peterson, C. (2006) A Primer in Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. Riedeger, M., Li, S. and Lindenberger, U. (2006) Selection, optimization, and compensation as developmental mechanisms of adaptive resource allocation: Review and preview. In J.E. Birren and K.W. Schaie (eds) Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (pp. 289–313). Boston, MA: Elsevier. Rubio, F.D. (2014) Self-esteem and self-concept in foreign language learning. In S. Mercer and M. Williams (eds) Multiple Perspectives on the Self in SLA (pp. 41–58). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Salovey, P., Mayer, J.D., Caruso, D. and Yoo, S.H. (2011) The positive psychology of emotional intelligence. In S.J. Lopez and C.R. Snyder (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology (pp. 237–248). New York: Oxford University Press. Sampson, A.C. and Gross, J.J. (2012) Humour as emotion regulation: The differential consequences of negative versus positive humour. Cognition and Emotion 26 (2), 375–384. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2011.585069. Schachter-Shalomi, Z. and Miller, R.S. (1995) From Age-ing to Sage-ing: A Profound New Vision of Growing Older. New York: Warner. Seligman, M.E.P. (2011) Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. New York: Atria/Simon & Schuster.

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Sigelman, C.K. and Rider, E.A. (2012) Life-Span Human Development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Smith, J. (2000) The Fourth Age: A Period of Psychological Mortality? [Paper]. Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. See http://www.demogr.mpg.de/ Papers/workshops/010730_paper01.pdf (accessed 30 April 2017). Thomas, D. (1951) Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night. Poem. See https://www.poets. org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night (accessed 11 April 2017). Thompson, C. (2016) Losing My Voice and Finding Another. Frankfurt am Main: Brandes & Apsel Verlag. Tolle, E. (2004) The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. Novato, CA: New World Library. Vaillant, G. (2002) Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development. New York: Little, Brown. Whitbourne, S.K. (2008) Adult Development and Aging: Biopsychosocial Perspectives (3rd edn). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Williams, M. and Penman, D. (2012) Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World. New York: Rodale. Yeats, W.B. (1899) The Song of Wandering Aengus. The Wind among the Reeds. Poetry Foundation. See https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/ detail/55687 (accessed 31 December 2016).

2 Really Late Learners: Some Research Contexts and Some Practical Hints David Singleton

Introduction The focus of this chapter is on second language (L2) learning in late adulthood. It begins, however, with a brief general summary of our state of knowledge and ignorance regarding age and language learning in general, including a brief exploration of the controversy surrounding the Critical Period Hypothesis. It then goes on to discuss the central theme of the chapter, the question of the acquisition of additional languages in late adulthood and senescence. The account given of the conditions for such learning is contextualised, on the one hand, with reference to such negative factors as the decline of the acuity of the senses and, on the other, with reference to more promising indications such as those that show that some aspects of learning, given an active mind, continue until death. The final part of the chapter addresses the practical matter of teaching additional languages to learners in late middle age and in the ‘third age’ – what educational planners, managers and teachers need to be attentive to and the areas in which they can expect late language learners to excel.

Age and Language Learning Research findings concerning age-related dimensions of L2 acquisition in informal, naturalistic settings seem to offer broad support for the view that an early start usually confers significant advantages in terms of proficiency attained. Thus, immigrant studies, for example, conducted over several decades, have shown that immigrants with several years’ experience of the language of the host country and whose exposure to the L2 in question began early in childhood eventually tend to outperform those whose exposure began later (see, e.g. Hyltenstam, 1992; Krashen et al., 1979; Oyama, 1976, 1978; Patkowski, 1980; Piske et al., 2002; Snow & Hoefnagel-Höhle, 1978).

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Such findings have been taken by some to support the Critical Period Hypothesis or the maturational constraints approach, which contends that only starting an L2 before a specific critical age offers the possibility of achieving a quality of ultimate attainment which is indistinguishable from that of a native speaker of the relevant language. Large questions arise over the terms of this hypothesis, given, for example, the huge variety of offset points that have been proposed for the offset of the critical/sensitive period in question (Singleton, 2005). As Aram et al. (1997: 85) point out, ‘the end of the critical period for language in humans has proven… difficult to find, with estimates ranging from 1 year of age to adolescence’. There is too some dubiousness concerning the relevance of the statistical tools that have generally been deployed in the relevant research. Alternative, more recent statistical methods (Vanhove, 2013) appear to confirm Birdsong’s (2004, 2006) claim that there is no ‘elbow’, no ‘L-shape’, no sharp ‘bend’ in the rate of age-related L2 decline, of a kind that the Critical Period Hypothesis posits. Moreover, the many late L2 acquirers who actually reach native-like levels of proficiency also give pause for thought in this connection (see e.g. Kinsella & Singleton, 2014; Moyer, 1999; Muñoz & Singleton, 2007). Some recent research (e.g. Granena & Long, 2013; Huang, 2014; Werker & Tees, 2005) has looked at the way in which age may have differential effects at different stages depending on the linguistic domain in question (phonology, lexis, syntax, etc.). This is a kind of revival of the longstanding ‘multiple critical periods hypothesis’ (cf. Singleton, 2005), which had manifold manifestations, and which, like the Critical Period generally, failed to cohere around a consensual position. Interestingly, recent research shies away from absolutism and tends to prefer to talk about optimal periods or sensitive periods. With respect to formal instructional L2 learning environments, research has simply failed to confirm the long-term benefits of an early start in formal situations (Muñoz & Singleton, 2011; Pfenninger & Singleton, 2017; Singleton & Skrzypek, 2013). Even many advocates of the Critical Period have accepted this. For example, Johnson and Newport (1989: 81) conclude ‘that the learning which occurs in the formal language classroom may be unlike the learning which occurs during immersion, such that early instruction does not necessarily have the advantage for ultimate performance that is held by early immersion’. DeKeyser (2003a, 2003b; cf. DeKeyser, 2013) agrees. For him, school-based L2 learning is typically explicit in nature and largely unaffected by maturational constraints. Another dimension of the Critical Period controversy around which there is now a good deal of agreement is directly relevant to older learners. This concerns brain plasticity. Penfield (Penfield & Roberts, 1959), the much-cited forerunner of the Critical Period idea, claimed that the optimal period for language acquisition ends when, at the end of childhood, the brain starts to lose its plasticity. The current consensus among cognitive

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scientists is that the brain remains plastic throughout life, and that the brain is modified by experience at any age (Gutchess, 2014; Ramírez Gómez, 2016; Raz & Lindenberger, 2013; but cf. Kliesch et al., this volume).

What Older Learners Bring to the Learning of Additional Languages In the popular conception of things, however, the view is that older adults suffer from varying degrees of cerebral and cognitive deterioration. This view is borne out by some evidence of a decline in capacity with increasing age for visuospatial calculation and for general learning, although verbal and general knowledge seem to remain stable (Horning & Davis, 2012; Ramírez Gómez, 2016). It has to be noted that many researchers have claimed that healthy elderly people do not uniformly exhibit general cognitive decline and that where such decline occurs it is often a precursor of dementia (Haan et al., 1999; Schaie, 1994). The well-worn cliché of course is that as we get older it is especially our memory that gets worse. In the case of people with dementia, this is, of course, correct and it may be that folk wisdom in this matter is influenced by such cases. In any case, it is certainly true that older people’s own judgments about their memory tend to be neither kind nor reliable (cf. Hertzog & Dunlosky, 1996). In the population at large too, memory delays and failures are very frequently judged more harshly in the elderly than in younger age groups (cf. Erber et al., 1990). The key to the question of ageing and memory has been taken to lie in one particular kind of memory, working memory, which is thought of as a mechanism responsible for the temporary manipulation and maintenance of relevant information during cognitive operations such as language comprehension. Whereas the performance on comfortably paced tests of working memory capacity does not seem to decline much with age, more demanding tasks, in terms of the variety of information to be processed simultaneously, show a marked effect for age (Salthouse & Babcock, 1991; Wingfield et al., 1988). The explanation offered is that ageing is associated not with a cognitive deficit as such, but rather with a slowing down of processing speed – consistent with a slowing down of reactions generally in older adults. It has to be said, though, that the issue of working memory, speed of processing and ageing is still very much under debate; for example, it is argued that ageing is in fact not associated with a decline in working memory capacity as such but that the slowing down of processing has to do with various kinds of ‘retrieval interference’ (McElree & Dyer, 2013). There is consensus around the notion that working memory interacts bidirectionally with information originating from both short-term memory and long-term memory, and is thus an interface between them (Wen, 2016: Chapter 2). It accordingly helps strengthen connections

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between new information and information already stored (see Tomasello, 2005), on the one hand, and between cognitive processes and real-world action, on the other. Working memory is, for example, assumed to be associated with operations involved in the transference of information to long-term memory. In other words, working memory is seen as lying at the very heart of memory-related processing, which seems to imply that older learners who experience working memory problems need to invest much more effort in transferring new information into their longterm memory for future recall. It is worth noting in this connection that memory strategy training has been found to yield memory improvements for older adult L2 learners (Grotek, 2002a, 2002b). Also noteworthy is that recent research and discussion on working memory are leading many to the conclusion that the level of specifically working memory capacity can be raised by training and experience (cf. Singleton, 2017; Tsai et al., 2016). The L2 learning implications of this for the active third ager have still to be explored, especially in light of the lack of clarity surrounding the precise role of working memory in L2 processing in later life (see Wright, 2015). Another challenge faced by older language learners has to do with the psychology of age-related defeatism, a sort of internalised ageism, which often characterises third-age learners (Andrew, 2012; Roumani, 1978; Schleppegrell, 1987). Older learners often seem to believe that the changes experienced by them in the course of ageing will inevitably have a negative impact on their L2 learning capacity and progress. Even before starting an activity, older learners often assume that, despite their efforts, their results will be poor, which obviously has consequences for their engagement in the activity (Ramírez Gómez, 2015, 2016).

Older Adults’ Experience of L2 Learning Over the years, adult educators have commented on their impressions of teaching older learners, and some of the difficulties they seem to face – difficulties that relate to some of the possible impediments that have already been discussed (cf. Cook & Singleton, 2014: 19; Singleton & Ryan, 2004: 214– 215). Brändle (1986), for example, talked about the problems he had observed in his older foreign language learners with auditory imitation and memorising as well as with responding orally. He also made mention of the fact that there are often problems of apprehension and bewilderment in relation to the learning environment – often vastly different from the schoolrooms and campuses of their youth. Brändle also remarked, however, that older adults as students appeared to positively excel in some domains. For example, he commented very favourably on their general command of reading skills, their understanding of grammatical principles and the way in which they coped with lexical learning. Other adult educators have remarked that many older students – whatever their subject matter of choice – return to the classroom with excitement and very high motivation levels (cf. Hillage et al., 2000).

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We can perhaps attribute the positive dimensions that Brändle mentions in regard to later foreign language learning to older adults’ experience of life and of language. It may also relate perhaps to the fact that the kinds of people who typically attend third-age foreign language programmes may come from the kind of educational and working backgrounds that correlate well with cognitive and linguistic performance in later life (cf. Finkel et al., 2009; Schmitter-Edgecombe et al., 2000) (although we must always beware the correlation=causation equation!). The fact is, however, that we need much more research in this area! An area where research is starting to appear on this topic is that of vocabulary learning. Interestingly, vocabulary learning is an area that has long been thought by many to be able to escape the ravages of age. Diller (1971: 29), for example, made the following claim 45 years ago: ‘Vocabulary development continues in a natural, almost unnoticed fashion as long as one lives and is interested in new things’. Again, detailed research is lacking on this issue. Johnstone (2002) also has some thoughts on this matter; he suggests that older learners may have some advantages in this area: … they may be able to plot their new language on to concepts about the world which they already possess from their first language. This can help greatly in vocabulary acquisition … and in making inferences as to meaning. (Johnstone, 2002: 12) He also mentions in this connection that older learners ‘are likely to have acquired a wider range of strategies for learning, e.g. note-taking, use of reference materials, searching for underlying pattern’. Ramírez Gómez (2016) has recently investigated the learning experience of older learners engaged in the use of vocabulary learning strategies. She takes the view that instruction needs to help older learners evaluate their learning process according to how they actually manage it and what they are actually capable of, as opposed to what society believes they are supposed to be able or unable to do. This, she says, will lead to the creation of mechanisms to develop learning strategies that are more beneficial for each individual.

How Older Adults May Benefit from Second Language Learning Besides the question of how good older adults are at additional language learning, there is also the question of how additional language learning is good for them. A not uncommon perception – and indeed motivating factor – among older language learners is that language learning is an ‘antiaging activity’ (Ryan & Dörnyei, 2013: 93). There is some evidence that challenging mental activities help older people maintain their cognitive functions and also reduce the incidence of negative psychological changes

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such as depression (cf. Lövden et al., 2010). Language learning is frequently referred to in this context. For instance, some research suggests that L2 learning delays age-related cognitive decline and fosters brain plasticity (Bak et al., 2014; Bialystok & Craik, 2010; Bialystok et al., 2004; Hakuta, 1987), as well as enhancing memory skills (Lapkin et al., 1990; Ratté, 1968). According to Bialystok and colleagues (e.g. Bialystok et al., 2012), ‘cognitive reserve’ – or brain reserve – is a crucial research area in the context of an aging population and Alzheimer’s disease/dementia; it is hypothesised that bilingualism may be one of the environmental factors that contribute to the maintenance of cognitive functioning in healthy aging and even postpone the onset of symptoms in those suffering from dementia (Bialystok et al., 2012). Other factors include education, occupational status, higher socio-economic class and the continuing involvement in physical, intellectual and social activities (e.g. Bennett et al., 2003; Stern et al., 1994). In a study of more than 200 bilingual and monolingual patients with Alzheimer’s disease (see Craik et al., 2010), bilingual patients reported showing initial symptoms of the disease at about 77.7 years of age – 5.1 years later than the monolingual average of 72.6. Likewise, bilingual patients were diagnosed 4.3 years later than the monolingual patients (80.8 and 76.5 years of age, respectively). There is also some relevant physical evidence: bilingual patients with Alzheimer’s disease have been found to exhibit markedly greater amounts of brain atrophy as compared with monolingual patients in areas traditionally used to distinguish Alzheimer’s disease patients from healthy controls (Schweizer et al., 2012). Yet again, we certainly need more research, more evidence. Currently, we lack, in particular, studies focusing on the effects of L2 learning on older adults who began the relevant language learning process in old age. It can, though, be said that we have plenty of suggestive clues indicating that the L2 learning experience may benefit older individuals from a cognitive perspective.

Teaching Older Learners A very important dimension of learning conditions for older adults is obviously their physical aspect. The age-related decline in sensory acuity has some very practical consequences and implications. … it is particularly important in the case of older adult learners, given their loss of sensory acuity, that lighting be bright, all visual materials easily legible, and all aural input, including the teacher’s own speech, loud and clear. (Singleton & Ryan, 2004: 222) Another issue that arises is the question of whether adult learners should be separated by age group. It is clear that there are usually motivational

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differences between younger and older adult age groups. Younger adults are often looking for some kind of formal qualification and/or require knowledge of an L2 for professional reasons. Older adult learners, in contrast, are generally thought to be attracted to L2 classes … by curiosity, the desire to keep their intellectual faculties alive, social or recreational motives, the wish to be in a position to assist children or grandchildren with their homework, attachment (often based on ethnicity) to a particular language, or an interest in communicating with speakers of the target language – whether in their own community or when travelling abroad. (Singleton & Ryan, 2004: 221) These differences, alongside the differences in sensory acuity and the differences in processing capacity may perhaps be interpreted as arguments for teaching older adults separately. On the other hand, many older people would undoubtedly find the idea of being placed in a class consisting entirely of their age peers unappealing, especially if their motivation for enrolling in the class was, in part, social. In terms of methodology, the picture is really no clearer in regard to older adults than in regard to L2 learners in general. The best one can do, perhaps, is to try to derive from research on older learners the kinds of teaching procedures that might be helpful to them. For example, in view of older adults’ memory challenges, one might expect them to benefit from memory strategy training (cf. earlier discussion). Also in light of the problems that older adult learners have in the auditory sphere, it has been suggested that teachers of such students should perhaps focus on written material (Brändle, 1986: 19). One should bear in mind, however, that, despite their typically less vocational orientation, many older adult students are motivated to learn or refresh their knowledge of an additional language by a very precise goal, a desire to use the language in question in face-toface interactions. Sometimes, this is connected to an inclination towards foreign travel and sometimes to family circumstances (for example, visits from grandchildren who reside in another country and whose stronger language may be different from their own). Such instances in any case obviously require the deployment of oral-aural skills. One final point is worth mentioning in this connection. According to the results of a study conducted by Lenet et al. (2011), older adults are not as tied to mastering L2 grammar via explicit feedback as we may imagine. Lenet et al. found that their older adult participants got to grips with L2 morphosyntax more readily – and more readily than younger adult participants – from exposure without full-blooded explicit explanations. This an intriguing finding, which, if replicated by further studies, would certainly have implications for the approach to be used in teaching additional languages to third-age students.

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Concluding Remarks We began with a few thoughts on what we think we know and what we disagree about regarding age and L2 learning. We briefly explored in the latter connection the controversy surrounding the Critical Period Hypothesis. In terms of what we agree about, we noted that there is a general consensus with regard to the age effect in formal instructional settings (even among Critical Period Hypothesis advocates) that research in relation to this context does not support the ‘earlier is better’ point of view. We went on to discuss what older learners bring to the learning of additional languages. We highlighted in this connection the decline in later years of the acuity of the senses. We also focused on the various views concerning cognitive deterioration in the ‘autumn years’, homing in specifically on memory and quoting a recent suggestion that ageing is, in fact, not associated with a decline in capacity as such, but that the slowing down of processing has to do with various kinds of ‘retrieval interference’. We also noted that memory strategy training seems to offer some hope of improving memory performance in this context. Mention was also made of the very low expectations characterising many older adults’ approach to language learning. We talked about the difficulties that older adult L2 learners face and also some of the areas where they may do very well. Among these latter, vocabulary learning was singled out as an area where research was beginning to make promising discoveries. We also gave some attention to the question of how good L2 learning is for older adult learners, referring to research which seems to suggest that L2 learning may help older people maintain their cognitive functions, brain plasticity and memory. It was acknowledged that some crucial elements of research are not yet at our disposal in this connection but it was claimed that positive speculation in this domain while waiting for the relevant evidence was not entirely groundless. Finally, we took a cursory glance at the teaching dimension of additional languages for older adults: the need to pay attention to learning conditions; the question of whether to separate younger and older adult learners; and the issue of what research can tell us about the teaching procedures may be especially helpful to older learners. We recognised that the methodological approach taken should – as with younger learners – take account of differences among third agers. There may be some generalisations, for example, concerning sensory acuity, that hold good. It should not be assumed, however, that older learners necessarily want to be lumped together with other older learners, or that all older learners will be happy to focus on reading and writing the L2 just because that is what they may excel at!

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Throughout this whole discussion, the leitmotiv has been that we are in need of more research on third-age learning in general and more research that specifically focuses on older adults’ capacity for and benefits from additional language learning.

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Grotek, M. (2002a) Learning a Foreign Language in Late Adulthood – Overcoming Memory Problems. Paper presented at the 15th International Conference on Second/ Foreign Language Learning. Szczyrk, May. Grotek, M. (2002b) Foreign language learning in late adulthood: Memory strategy. Training. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Silesia. Gutchess, A. (2014) Plasticity of the aging brain: New directions in cognitive neuroscience. Science 346 (6209), 579–582. Haan, M., Shemanski, L., Jagust, W., Manolio, T. and Kuller, L. (1999) The role of APOE 4 in modulating effects of other risk factors for cognitive decline in elderly persons. The Journal of the American Medical Association 282, 40–46. Hakuta, K. (1987) The second language learner in the context of the study of language acquisition. In P. Homel, M. Palij and D. Aaronson (eds) Childhood Bilingualism: Aspects of Cognitive, Social and Emotional Development (pp. 31–55). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hertzog, C. and Dunlosky, J. (1996) The aging of practical memory: An overview. In D. Herrmann, C. McEvoy, C. Hertzog, P. Hertel and M. Johnson (eds) Basic and Applied Memory Research: Volume 1: Theory in Context (pp. 337–358). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hillage, J., Uden, T., Aldridge, F. and Eccles, J. (2000) Adult Learning in England: A Review. Brighton: Institute for Employment Studies. Horning, S. and Davis, H.P. (2012) Aging and cognition. In V.S. Ramachandran (ed.) Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (2nd edn; pp. 44–52). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Huang, B.H. (2014) The effects of age on second language grammar and speech production. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 43 (4), 397–420. Hyltenstam, K. (1992) Non-native features of non-native speakers: On the ultimate attainment of childhood L2 learners. In R.J. Harris (ed.) Cognitive Processing in Bilinguals (pp. 351–368). Amsterdam: Elsevier. Johnson, J.S. and Newport, E.L. (1989) Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second language. Cognitive Psychology 21 (1), 60–99. Johnstone, R. (2002) Addressing ‘The Age Factor’: Some Implications for Language Policy. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Kinsella, C. and Singleton, D. (2014) Much more than age. Applied Linguistics 35 (4), 441–462. Krashen, S., Long, M. and Scarcella, R. (1979) Age, rate and eventual attainment in second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly 13 (4), 573–582. Lapkin, S., Swain, M. and Shapson, S. (1990) French immersion research agenda for the 90’s. Canadian Modern Language Review 46 (4), 638–667. Lenet, A., Sanz, C., Lado, B., Howard, J.H. and Howard, D.V. (2011) Aging, pedagogical conditions, and differential success in SLA: An empirical study. In C. Sanz and R.P. Leow (eds) Implicit and Explicit Conditions, Processes and Knowledge in SLA and Bilingualism (pp. 73–84). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. Lövden, M., Bäckman, L., Lindenberger, U., Schaefer, S. and Schmiedek, F. (2010) A theoretical framework for the study of adult cognitive plasticity. Psychological Bulletin 136 (4), 659–676. McElree, B. and Dyer, L. (2013) Beyond capacity: The role of memory processes in building linguistic structure in real time. In M. Sanz, I. Laka and M.K. Tanenhaus (eds) Language Down the Garden Path: The Cognitive and Biological Basis for Linguistic Structures (pp. 229–324). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Moyer, A. (1999) Ultimate attainment in L2 phonology: The critical factors of motivation and instruction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21 (1), 81–208.

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Muñoz, C. and Singleton, D. (2007) Foreign accent in advanced learners: Two successful profiles. The EUROSLA Yearbook 7, 171–190. Muñoz, C. and Singleton, D. (2011) A critical review of age-related research on L2 ultimate attainment. Language Teaching 44 (1), 1–35. Oyama, S. (1976) A sensitive period for the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 5 (3), 261–285. Oyama, S. (1978) The sensitive period and comprehension of speech. Working Papers on Bilingualism 16, 1–17. Patkowski, M.S. (1980) The sensitive period for the acquisition of syntax in a second language. Language Learning 30 (2), 449–472. Penfield, W. and Roberts, L. (1959) Speech and Brain Mechanisms. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pfenninger, S.E. and Singleton, D. (2017) Beyond Age Effects in Instructional L2 Learning: Revisiting the Age Factor. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Piske, T., Flege, J.E., MacKay, I.R.A. and Meador, D. (2002) The production of English vowels by fluent early and late Italian-English bilinguals. Phonetica 59 (1), 49–71. Ramírez Gómez, D. (2015) Self-regulation and experience in foreign language learning: A comprehensive analysis of the older-learner classroom. Unpublished PhD thesis. Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Japan. Ramírez Gómez, D. (2016) Language Teaching and the Older Adult: The Significance of Experience. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Ratté, E.R. (1968) Foreign language and the elementary school language arts program. The French Review 42 (1), 80–85. Raz, N. and Lindenberger, U. (2013) Life-span plasticity of the brain and cognition: From questions to evidence and back. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 37 (9B), 2195–2200. Roumani, J. (1978) Foreign Language Learning for Older Learners: Problems and Approaches. Washington, DC: The ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. Ryan, S. and Dörnyei, Z. (2013) The long-term evolution of language motivation and the L2 self. In A. Berndt (ed.) Fremdsprachen in der Perspektive lebenslangen Lernens (pp. 89–100). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Salthouse, T. and Babcock, T. (1991) Decomposing adult age differences in working memory. Developmental Psychology 27 (5), 763–776. Schaie, K.W. (1994) The course of adult intellectual development. American Psychologist 49 (4), 304–313. Schleppegrell, M. (1987) The Older Language Learner. Washington, DC: The ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. Schmitter-Edgecombe, M., Vesneski, M. and Jones, D. (2000) Aging and word finding: A comparison of discourse and nondiscourse tests. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology 15 (6), 479–493. Schweizer, T.A., Ware, J., Fischer, C.E., Craik, F.I.M. and Bialystok, E. (2012) Bilingualism as a contributor to cognitive reserve: Evidence from brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease. Cortex 48 (8), 991–996. Singleton, D. (2005) The Critical Period Hypothesis: A coat of many colours. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 43 (4), 269–285. Singleton, D. (2017) Language aptitude – Desirable trait or acquirable attribute? Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 7 (1). Singleton, D. and Ryan, L. (2004) Language Acquisition: The Age Factor (2nd edn). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Singleton, D. and Skrzypek, A. (2013) Age and the classroom learning of additional languages. In M. Pawlak (ed.) Classroom-Oriented Research (pp. 3–13). Berlin: Springer.

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Snow, C. and Hoefnagel-Höhle, M. (1978) The critical period for language acquisition: Evidence from second language learning. Child Development 49 (4), 1114–1128. Stern, Y., Gurland, B., Tatemichi, T.K., Tang, M.X., Wilder, D. and Mayeux, R. (1994) Influence of education and occupation on the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. JAMA 271 (13), 1004–1010. Tomasello, M. (2005) Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press. Tsai, N., Au, J. and Jaeggi S.M. (2016) Malleability of working memory and implications for second language acquisition. In G. Granena, D.O. Jackson and Y. Yilmaz (eds) Cognitive Individual Differences in L2 Processing and Acquisition (pp. 69–88). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Vanhove, J. (2013) The critical period hypothesis in second language acquisition: A statistical critique and a reanalysis. PLoS One 8 (7). doi: 1371/journal.pone.0069172. Wen, Z. (2016) Working Memory and Second Language Learning: Towards an Integrated Approach. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Werker, J.F. and Tees, R.C. (2005) Speech perception as a window for understanding plasticity and commitment in language systems of the brain. Developmental Psychobiology 46 (3), 233–251. Wingfield, A., Stine, E., Lahar, C. and Aberdeen, J. (1988) Does the capacity of working memory change with age? Experimental Aging Research 14, 103–107. Wright, C. (2015) Working memory and L2 development across the lifespan: A commentary. In Z. Wen, M. Borges and A. McNeill (eds) Working Memory in Second Language Acquisition and Processing (pp. 285–298). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

3 The Interactional Challenge: L2 Learning and Use in the Third Age David W. Green

We like to talk to one another and are skilled at doing so. Conversational turns between proficient speakers, for instance, couple closely in time within the multimodal context of everyday conversation. Such synchrony strongly suggests that proficient speakers are able to manage the twin demands of understanding the current utterance and planning the next to allow fluent interaction. What of the late learner of a second language (L2)? This chapter discusses the interactional challenge they face. It focuses on the processes of language control required for learning and using an L2. Bottom-up processes of language control, for example, allow learners to produce new constructions and offer plans for speech production. Topdown processes of language control, by contrast, bind new constructions and vocabulary into the language network and are required to control interference from the speaker’s first language. Age affects the regions of the brain involved in representing the vocabulary and constructions of an L2 and the regions involved in controlling their use. Individual differences in these regions will therefore influence trajectories to interactional proficiency. But their capacity is open to change. Exercise, among other factors, can enhance the capacity of these regions. Thus, fitness may affect the trajectory to interactional proficiency. Even more optimistically, learning and using an L2 may itself lead to positive adaptive changes. Tailoring learning to identified individual differences offers the best prospect for the enjoyable learning of an L2 in the third age.

Introduction Language use is a form of communicative action with conversation as the primary and multimodal site for such action. A noticeable feature of conversations between proficient speakers of a language is that the interval between successive turns can be quite short with a modal delay between them of 200 ms – a figure that appears to be relatively constant across 31

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different languages (Levinson, 2016). One implication is that listeners may understand utterances and plan their responses during the turn of the current speaker. Indeed, participants in a conversation can share utterances by switching between the roles of listener and speaker as in the following example from Purver et al. (2006): Daniel: Why don’t you stop mumbling and Marc: Speak proper like? Daniel: speak proper? But how is it that the machinery works so efficiently? We take up this question in the next section (‘Interactional Proficiency’) in order to explore the challenges faced by late learners of an L2. At the heart of the challenge are the cognitive demands of conversation. How do proficient speakers of a language manage the cognitive demands of conversation? Speakers can minimise demands in various ways by exploiting what they know, making use of previous utterances in a conversation and recruiting the services of the listener by look or gesture. All of these possibilities hinge on the incremental nature of speech production and comprehension. Having identified some of the cognitive demands and their management in proficient speakers, we consider the challenges faced by late learners of an L2 in their trajectories to achieving interactional proficiency in their L2. In the section entitled ‘Interactional Challenge for Late Learners of an L2’, we emphasise the nature of the language control demands that ensure the mental representation of new words and constructions and their use in the face of competition from the words and constructions of the first language. The extent to which these demands can be met leads to consideration of individual differences. We explore these differences in the section ‘Individual Differences and the Promise of L2 Learning in the Third Age’. As might be expected, regions in the brain that underlie the processes essential to the representation and use of new vocabulary and constructions show agerelated declines in neural tissue. Individuals differ though in the extent of such age-related declines and such differences may help predict differences in the trajectories of late L2 learners to interactional proficiency in the L2. Interestingly, the integrity of neural tissue can be enhanced even in older individuals. Non-invasive neuroimaging data indicate that certain lifestyle factors such as exercise, and also attention-demanding action video games, can reliably enhance the integrity of neural tissue with a correlating impact on skilled performance. Conversely, other factors such as chronic stress can impair the integrity of neural tissue. Specific research is needed to identify how the integrity of neural tissue relates to language learning in the third age. But, by identifying brain markers relating age-related changes in neural tissue, and relating these to behavioural measures, we suggest that it may be possible to envisage tailored programmes so that third-age learners can reach interactional proficiency and enjoy conversations in their L2.

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We review the arguments presented and consider the current limitations of our understanding in the concluding section.

Interactional Proficiency Speaking, like any other complex sequential action, is guided by a plan that precedes its execution (Lashley, 1951). The production of an utterance plan imposes a cognitive demand. We grant the principle (e.g. MacDonald, 2013) that in conversations the processes of speech production serve to minimise the cognitive demand of generating a speech plan. Incremental (i.e. left to right) utterance plans allow speakers to interleave planning and execution and so permit them to start speaking before utterance planning is complete. Words or constructions that come most readily to mind can be recruited. These may be ones that are most accessible from long-term memory or may be ones that have just been used or ‘primed’ whether by the current speaker or by the addressee in their previous turn. Reuse of words or phrases is also efficient in allowing participants to adopt common referring expressions for the objects and events that are the current topic of conversation. It prompts alignment across linguistic levels (e.g. Pickering & Garrod, 2013). Where a speaker finishes the executable portion of the plan before the next section is ready, they can hold their turn by lengthening words, or fill the pause with an ‘um’ or ‘er’. Alternatively, they can recruit the services of the current listener by utilising the multimodal context of everyday conversations. They can, for instance, gesture to signify the intended referent, in the event they cannot retrieve a word, or point to the intended referent in their shared perceptual world. Languages provide different ways to convey the meaning of an utterance. Such flexibility in the words or constructions that can be used is also helpful in maintaining fluency. But this flexibility comes at a cost. Non-selected alternatives must be rapidly suppressed in order to ensure that selected words are articulated in the correct serial order. Typically, the neural mechanism successfully suppresses any non-selected alternatives in line with a ‘winnertakes-all’ principle – a principle that also applies to non-verbal motor actions (Bohland et al., 2009; Grossberg, 1978; Houghton, 1990). Given that conversational participants are able to synchronise their turns effectively, and even share utterance production, it follows that listeners must incrementally construct a semantic representation aligned to that in the mind of the speaker. From a linguistic point of view, the processes of utterance interpretation must work with incomplete word strings that match the incremental nature of speech production. Interestingly, neuroimaging research suggests that the neural regions involved in speech comprehension overlap with those involved in speech production (Silbert et al., 2014). Such overlap suggests that the processes of production may even help predict upcoming content (Pickering & Garrod, 2007).

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In summary, the conversational synchrony displayed by proficient speakers of a language is sustained by the incremental nature of both speech production and speech comprehension and is underpinned by the reuse of constructions and words that are part of participants’ shared knowledge of the language. Participants in a conversation can also explicitly recruit help from one another and exploit the multimodal nature of the conversational context. Implicit in this characterisation are the processes of language control: top-down processes of control select what is to be said and can guide the interpretation of what is said where there is ambiguity or uncertainty; bottom-up processes of language control can prime expressions to constrain the speech plan. But top-down processes of control are involved here too. After all, what might be primed by a previous stretch of speech may not correspond to how the current speaker wishes to express themselves. We think it preferable therefore to say that top-down processes of language control ‘allow’ the production of primed forms and constructions. Given this sketch of the processes involved in interactional proficiency in proficient speakers, what challenges to such proficiency await the late learner of an L2? We discuss these in the next section.

Interactional Challenge for Late Learners of an L2 In a speaker’s native language, top-down and bottom-up processes of control collaborate to produce and execute an utterance plan based on existing lexical concepts and constructions Bottom-up processes of control elicited by utterances of a conversational partner may also trigger inductive processes to account for unexpected content. These two broad classes of control process play an important role in learning an L2. They operate within the multimodal context of conversational exchange and so allow speakers to gesture and point to referents in the world and recruit, where possible, the language knowledge of a native speaker to repair their utterance. If we track such exchanges over time, we might see reduced reliance on this kind of support associated with dysfluency in speech production combined with an increase in co-speech gestures recruited for expressive purposes. Top-down and bottom-up processes adapt the language network though their functional contribution may change with learning. For example, at an initial stage, top-down processes of language control may predominate. These use information from explicit instruction (or metalinguistic knowledge, Jessner, 2008) to adapt the language network in order to represent novel L2 vocabulary and constructions. Once adapted and used (e.g. to make requests or answer questions in the L2), bottom-up processes of control based on the speech of an L2 speaker may trigger inductive processes to identify the sense of a novel word or the form of a novel construction. Evidently, change in the language network is necessary to allow a speaker to converse, but it is not sufficient. Speakers must also

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be able to control the outputs from the adapted network. In the next part of this section, we consider both the nature of the network changes and the control processes required.

Representational change and bilingual language control Learning new words and constructions in an L2 entails changing the existing network of lexical concepts, lemmas and word forms (Levelt et al., 1999). Language control processes that involve attention and cognitive control must therefore recruit memory. Following Hartsuiker et al. (2004), we can visualise a change in the network such that new items (lemmas and word forms) and constructions are linked to distinct language nodes: one for the native language (L1) and one for the L2. Such links tag each item and construction according to the language (see De Bot & Jaensch [2015] for an alternative view). In the case of syntactic constructions or frames, ‘combinatorial nodes’ capture the slots that need to be filled by lexical items. Where two languages share common constructions (e.g. active or passive forms) then the relevant combinatorial node can be linked to each of the language nodes – effectively capturing the typological proximity of the two languages. For example, in the case of Spanish and English (examples from Hartsuiker et al., 2004), the combinatorial node for the active construction (as in the Spanish: ‘El taxi persigue el camion’ and the English: ‘The taxi chases the truck’) would be linked to a Spanish language node and an English language node. Representing vocabulary, at least where there are common lexical concepts, involves linking a pre-existing lexical concept to a new lemma (to capture its syntactic properties such as the word’s grammatical gender) and linking that lemma, tagged by an L2 language node, in turn to a novel word form. Tagging items and constructions via links to a language node is a form of pattern separation. Pattern separation helps ensure that the retrieval of syntactic constructions and lexical items is context sensitive. Tagging a common construction for use in the L2 allows it to bind with the L2 lexical items and also allows its continued use in the L1 via its link to the L1 language node. Once a given construction (or syntactic pattern) is learned, then the processes of pattern completion are also relevant. In the case of speech production, for instance, retrieval of part of a construction can elicit retrieval of the whole and so allow the incremental construction of the utterance plan. In the case of comprehension, by contrast, pattern completion can trigger predictions about forthcoming content. On this way of thinking, both pattern separation and pattern completion processes contribute to interactional proficiency. As noted earlier, representational change is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for L2 speech production. In terms of interactional proficiency, L1 word forms and constructions are likely to be more accessible

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than those from the L2 at least in the early stages of L2 learning or in a nonimmersed language environment. Their relative accessibility means that they could enter the speech plan unintentionally and disrupt fluency. In order to limit that possibility, use of an L2 requires controlling interference from the dominant L1. How might this be achieved? Conceivably, such interference is minimised by suppressing the entire L1 language network. However, experimental research strongly suggests that L1 representations remain active even when only the L2 is in use (see Kroll et al., 2015 for a review). Joint activation, for example, can lead to increased dysfluency in speech relative to monolingual speakers both for immersed non-native speakers and for L1 attriters immersed in an L2 environment (e.g. Bergman et al., 2015). The intention to speak an L2 (via top-down control) may then bias but not fully suppress the L1 network and so control schemes that emphasise the activation and deactivation of entire languages (e.g. Grosjean, 1998; Muysken, 2000; Williams & Hammarberg, 1998) may not adequately characterise the process of language control. Rather additional, top-down control processes are required that target the output of the language network (Green, 1986, 1998; Green & Abutalebi, 2013). Such control is, in a sense, external to the language network. Under a control scheme of this type, and consistent with the experimental evidence, items and constructions from either language can become active, because they match the intended message to some degree, but activated items and constructions competing to form the speech plan can still be constrained to ones that match the goals of the speaker, subject to the individual’s ability to control interference. The mechanism required is likely to be identical to that which rapidly suppresses alternative, non-selected items, in the speech plans of monolingual speakers. It inhibits such items only once they become active and so implements ‘reactive inhibition’ (Green, 1998). Given that performance on cognitive control tasks is known to decline with age, the interactional challenge for late learners of an L2 combines two kinds of demand: memorial demands to achieve representational change of the language network and control demands to use the adapted network. We explore individual differences that may shape the response to these demands in the next section.

Individual Differences and the Promise of L2 Interactional Proficiency in the Third Age Individual differences are likely to permeate the learning of an L2. Consider the need to perceive and produce novel speech sounds. Most of us struggle to do so but some find it easier than others. In young adults, differences are traceable to an auditory processing region (left Heschl’s

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gyrus) and to the connectivity of this region to other language sensitive regions (e.g. Golestani & Pallier, 2007). Along with other cortical regions, the cerebellum is also involved in the overt articulation of speech sounds (e.g. Durisko & Fiez, 2010; Stoodley & Schmahmann, 2009) and may feature more prominently as the sound patterns become overlearned. Age affects the learning of a new skill. As we age, there are widespread declines in regional grey matter and in the integrity of the white matter tracts that interconnect them (e.g. Colcombe et al., 2003). In addition to affecting the perception and production of novel speech sounds, such age-related declines are likely to exaggerate individual differences across a wide range of the cognitive control and memorial skills required in learning and using an L2. We know of no in-depth studies relating individual variation in the neuroanatomy of the brain to language learning in the third age, but there are data relating markers for age-related declines in the brain to performance on tasks that tap core features of the control and memorial processes important for language learning and use. A study by Hedden et al. (2016) will serve to illustrate. The researchers recorded the behavioural scores of 186 adults aged between 65 and 90 years on tasks that tap processing speed, cognitive control and episodic memory. Based on neuroimaging data from the same participants, Hedden et al. assessed the relationship between a set of brain markers of age-related declines and these behavioural scores. For example, they scored overall white matter integrity and the volume of various structures involved in cognitive control (the putamen and caudate of the basal ganglia) and memory (the hippocampus). In their analyses, Hedden et al. distinguished between the variance in behavioural scores explained by the brain markers taken together (shared variance) and the variance unique to each one. Roughly 50% of the variance in the behavioural scores reflected variance shared among two or more brain markers. In line with their established roles, hippocampal volume explained more variance for the episodic memory tasks whereas basal ganglia volume explained more variance in tasks tapping processing speed and cognitive control. Additionally, white matter integrity was more explanatory in accounting for processing speed and cognitive control. The important point for present purposes is that such research suggests that we might be able to identify brain markers associated with the learning of an L2 in older adults. On the supposition that learning an L2 involves coordination between processes of language control and memory, it would be especially helpful to have markers for age-related declines in regions involved in language control (see Abutalebi & Green, 2007; Green & Abutalebi, 2013) and markers for age-related declines in regions representing new vocabulary and constructions. There are some promising possibilities. Under intense and effortful learning conditions (a translation school for young soldiers) there are changes in the regions involved in representing vocabulary (e.g. the hippocampus) and in the frontal regions of the cortex

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managing interference and articulatory demands (Mårtensson et al., 2012). Interestingly, the right hippocampal volume increased most for those better at interpreting. This result is in line with earlier research identifying hippocampal response (plasticity) in the learning of vocabulary (e.g. Davis & Gaskell, 2009). It also relates more generally to research establishing the role of hippocampal regions in distinguishing memory representations – the process of pattern separation (Hunsaker & Kesner, 2013). Indeed, performance on a non-verbal task (a delayed match to sample test involving confusable novel objects), which tests skill in pattern separation, predicted change in the grey matter structure in the right hippocampal region during a few weeks of novel foreign vocabulary learning in young adults (Bellander et al., 2016). Hippocampal responsiveness then may be a contributor to individual differences in vocabulary learning and such responsiveness may even be indexed by performance on a non-verbal test of pattern separation. With age, there is a decline in hippocampal responsiveness (Driscoll et al., 2003) – a decline that may increase the difficulty of learning a new language. Hippocampal involvement in the episodic learning of new words appears well-established but other regions (anterior temporal and parietal areas) are involved in the slower integration of words into longer-term declarative memory. Sleep acts as a potential mediator (Davis & Gaskell, 2009). All these structures are also subject to age-related declines. Predicting variation in the long-term retention of L2 vocabulary will then reflect the integrity of these substrates. From a practical point of view, a useful behavioural indicator here may in fact be performance on an associative memory task using L1 words (see Bellander et al., 2016). One other result with young adults is worth mentioning because of its bearing on vocabulary learning. We supposed above that bottom-up processes of language control can trigger processes that induce the meaning of a new word associated with a novel word form. It turns out that the efficiency of this process reflects the coupling of the language-sensitive regions in the brain with evolutionarily older regions involved in reward and motivation. Strikingly, prior differences in the connectivity of these regions are predictive of the ease with which young adults learn the meanings of novel words from sentences in their L1 (Ripollés et al., 2014). We should expect such findings to extend to older adults and to the learning of novel words and constructions in the L2. Conceivably though, in the older learner reduced connectivity will affect the motivation to learn such that those with reduced connectivity are less motivated to learn an L2 in the first place or to put the time in to learn it (see also data reported in Bellander et al. [2016]). However, evidence of widespread plasticity in the older brain in response to challenge suggests that we should be wary of presuming that prior differences in connectivity indicate hard constraints on a person’s ability to learn a new language. Rather, isn’t it possible that pleasure in being able to converse in a new language alters such connectivity?

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What of the learning of new syntactic constructions in an L2? Much is unknown about the nature of individual differences in learning the syntax of an L2 even in young adults (see Steinhauer [2014] for a review of the recent studies, and Caffarra et al. [2015] for an analysis of the factors that affect sensitivity to different aspects of L2 syntax). Longitudinal studies of the learning of an L2 are arguably the gold standard if we want to study individual differences in the learning of syntax and we lack these in the context of older adults (see Tanner et al. [2013] for work with young adults). However, as matters stand, constraints on the learning of L2 syntax in young adults seem more likely to reflect the properties of the learner and the contexts of learning rather than a closure of some critical or sensitive period for language acquisition. It is worth noting that the brains of some neurologically normal older people operate with the same efficiency as younger brains and that across the age range from 20 to 70 years there is no evidence of discontinuity (Lindenberger, 2014; see also Sun et al., 2016). The data in the study by Lindenberger came from a working memory task but are there any reasons to expect some discontinuity in the learning of L2 syntactic constructions in older adults? Just one perhaps: later L2 learning occurs in the context of age-related declines in the left hemisphere regions involved in processing syntax. In monolingual speakers these left hemisphere regions show decreases in grey matter and reduced connectivity (Shafto & Tyler, 2014). However, there is preserved sensitivity to syntax. Such perseveration plausibly reflects continued use of the ‘residual’ left hemisphere system rather than the recruitment of a region in the right hemisphere. How is an L2 represented and processed? In young adult bilingual speakers, the bulk of evidence favours the idea that the processing profiles of an L2, together with its neural substrate, show a degree of convergence with those of native L1 speakers of the language (Green, 2003).1 Convergence is necessarily partial with respect to the processing profiles of the native speakers of each language because of the mutual influence of the two languages on one another. Indeed, consistent with the notion that bilinguals also have to manage potential competition with their L1, comprehension in L2 yields increased involvement of regions involved in cognitive control (Weber et al., 2016). Meeting such control demands might be more difficult for older learners especially during speech production. Speech production imposes control demands on the cortical and subcortical regions (e.g. basal ganglia regions) that update, maintain and output a constructed sentence plan (Argyropoulos et al., 2013; Kriete et al., 2013). Speaking an L2 increases demands on these regions and their connections because this network of regions must also bind language-specific word forms to the selected syntactic construction in the face of competition from L1 representations (see also Stocco et al. [2013] for a related view). This challenge is potentially problematic because the regions, and the white matter tracts connecting

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them, suffer age-related declines (Bo et al., 2014; Colcombe et al., 2003). On this basis, we might reasonably infer that use of an L2 will be more effortful and reveal greater dysfluency in older learners. The precise extent of dysfluency will reflect individual variation in agerelated decline. Behavioural measures, such as performance on a non-verbal, flanker interference task (Festman & Münte, 2012), predict inadvertent L1 intrusions in proficient adult bilingual speakers and so may provide a clue to the degree of dysfluency a person may experience in learning an L2. Behavioural tests that target individual differences in reactive inhibition specifically (e.g. Morales et al., 2013) may also prove particularly predictive given that bilingual speakers must also rapidly suppress any non-selected L1 representations. In the absence of longitudinal studies of the learning of an L2 in the third age, we can only assert the claim that individual differences in age-related declines in the integrity and connectivity of brain regions will affect the learning trajectory. But are there factors that can affect age-related declines and so either facilitate or impair the trajectory to L2 interactional proficiency? Yes there are: we consider these next.

Interventions Stress is one factor that affects age-related declines in neural tissue. It affects hippocampal function and induces deficits in declarative memory. When prolonged, stress also affects the network of cortical and subcortical regions involved in cognitive control inducing less flexible behaviour (see Sousa [2016] for a synoptic view). Chronic stress may then be an impediment to the learning and use of an L2 in older adults for whom these regions and their interconnections are already compromised. If that is so, individuals such as refugees from war living in a new culture with an urgent need to learn its language, may be the ones for whom learning an L2 will be most problematic. Although prior anatomical differences, and those compounded by life events, may place constraints on learning, they do not preclude it. Instead, they invite us to consider interventions that can circumvent such constraints. For social and economic reasons, there is considerable interest in interventions that may be neuroprotective of age-related declines. Some of these studies are pertinent here. Long-term aerobic exercise reverses agerelated declines in hippocampal volume in older adults and improves memory for spatial relations (Erickson et al., 2011).2 The precise mechanisms of such an effect are not established but if exercise enhances pattern separation skills then it may also improve the rate of L2 vocabulary learning in older adults including those perhaps suffering from chronic stress. Exercise also affects cognitive control – indeed the effects of exercise interventions on older adults are more marked on tasks with increased demands for cognitive control (e.g. Hillman et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2010). Notably,

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exercise interventions improve performance on the flanker interference task (e.g. Colcombe et al., 2004; Voelcker-Rehage & Nieman, 2013). Further, behavioural improvement is accompanied by more efficient processing in the frontal regions of the brain that resolve conflict. The benefits of exercise are not restricted to aerobic exercise. Coordination training (i.e. exercises involving balance and eye-hand coordination) has also proved effective in improving the control of interference and the efficiency of the brain regions involved (Voelcker-Rehage & Nieman, 2013). Given the data of Festman and Münte (2012, cited above), these studies suggest that aerobic exercise, or coordination training, may limit the experience of between-language interference. Nor is physical exercise the only factor that may reduce age-related declines in brain regions. It seems that playing action video games is also neuroprotective (see Bavelier et al., 2012). It certainly enhances a number of processes (e.g. working memory and sustained attention) in older adults (Anguera et al., 2013) that are relevant to learning an L2. We are not aware of studies that examine the effects of long-term exercise on L2 language learning in adults. Such interventions may prove helpful as a precursor, or concomitant intervention, to the actual learning of an L2 but surely the very act of learning and using an L2 is itself likely to alter age-related declines? It provides (doesn’t it?) precisely the kind of challenge to induce relevant changes. While long-term active use of two languages seems neuroprotective (e.g. Alladi et al., 2013; Bialystok et al., 2007), we lack studies of the potential neuroprotective effects of the learning and use of an L2 later in life. Assuredly, individuals will differ in their ability to respond adaptively (Lövdén et al., 2010), but preliminary behavioural data do indicate adaptive change. A short-term intensive L2 learning course in older adults enhanced their skills in sustained attention (Bak et al., 2016). Taken together with other research which shows that sustained attention is mediated by the coordinated activity of the cortical-subcortical and cerebellar regions (Rosenberg et al., 2016), language learning and use in older adults may exert widespread effects that are neuroprotective. Longitudinal studies are required to test such an expectation.

Tailoring Interventions to Achieve L2 Interactional Proficiency We have considered the challenges faced by late learners of an L2 arising from age-related declines in the language control and language-sensitive regions of the brain. Individuals will vary in their ability to circumvent the different types of challenge. For example, dependent on the language to be learned, perceiving and producing novel speech sounds may prove especially problematic for some. For others, learning and retaining new words may

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be problematic. Ideally then, it would be useful to have indicators of the particular difficulties that individuals may face and design interventions that can support their learning. Neuroimaging data can provide brain markers of decline, but such data are currently too expensive to collect on a grand scale. Refining behavioural tasks to achieve sensitivity to these declines and using these to track changes over the course of L2 learning and use seems the most practical approach. How might the learning process itself be shaped? Exercise (and sleep) may be a component of any programme but the language learning process must itself be shaped. For example, in learning object names is it better to hear the name of the depicted object and repeat it or to see the object and attempt to name it and only then hear the correct name? Consistent with the idea that there are ‘desirable difficulties’ in language learning (Bjork, 1999), experimental research confirms that it is more efficient for a learner to produce the name of a picture and then hear its correct name than to merely repeat its auditorily presented name (Kang et al., 2013). We learn optimally through error correction. A programme tailored to the individual might begin with objects and events that reflect the person’s interests (e.g. soccer, cooking, gardening). The same error-correction procedure may also facilitate the perception and production of novel speech sounds in the first place and cater for individual differences in the difficulty of such perceiving and producing these. For instance, one part of the procedure might involve learners attempting to produce the target speech waveform for the pronunciation of a novel letter combination in the L2. With a device such as a mobile phone, individuals can achieve a desired degree of mastery at their own pace. Ultimately though, how language learning is shaped depends on the goal of the enterprise. We take the goal to be interactional proficiency in the multimodal context of conversation. We leave open ‘quantifying’ interactional proficiency. It may be that conversations that work for the parties involved converge on the modal 200 ms value of the interval between successive turns but it would be useful to capture the intersubjective value of a conversational interaction. In an everyday context, if we can avoid circularity, we might say that interactional proficiency serves to optimise the intersubjective value of the conversation for the parties involved. Regardless of how we might measure interactional proficiency (cf. Hulstijn, 2011), if we take interactional proficiency as the goal, conversational interactions have pride of place. In terms of individual differences, conversations oriented towards the learner’s personal interest provide a starting point on the trajectory to interactional proficiency. It is possible that the technology of virtual worlds, which enables multimodal interactions, may supplement face-to-face interactions with actual speakers, and allow learners to converse on topics of interest to them and gain confidence and experience in turntaking in the L2. In one hypothetical scenario, guided by an error-correction

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approach, learners move from hesitant speech incorporating pointing to objects or events in the depicted world for which they currently lack correct L2 expressions to more proficient conversational exchanges where gestures serve other purposes. In another scenario, emphasising the intersubjective value of the interaction, an older L2 learner may, through reasons of agerelated declines in neural tissue, continue to be hesitant but nonetheless participate in enjoyable L2 conversations with their new friends (or carers) because conversation is a joint effort.

Conclusion Conversation is a key site of language use and we considered what challenges the late learner of an L2 faces to achieve interactional proficiency. The multimodal context of conversation offers opportunities for learners of any age to bootstrap their language by gesture or by interleaving L1 expressions when talking to a bilingual speaker. All learners also face challenges of language control both in order to represent novel words and constructions and to use them. But the challenge of learning an L2 in the third age is compounded by age-related declines in the neural regions and interconnections that meet these representational and control demands. Age-related declines reveal individual variations as indicated by brain markers and by behavioural tests for memory and control. Stress can amplify such decline but aerobic exercise or playing action videos can reverse it. Learning an L2 may also reverse it. Further research is needed to develop sensitive tests that bear on the precise control and memorial demands of learning an L2 in the third age, but individualised learning programmes are feasible. From a research point of view, we need to track changes on these tests as learners become more proficient in order to validate their relevance. L2 learning programmes, tailored to the individual, may be most efficient in aiding late L2 learners achieve interactional proficiency when combined with a language learning virtual world that permits learners to exploit the multimodal contexts of conversation. However, the notion of interactional proficiency itself requires critical exploration. The intersubjective value of a conversational exchange may be the place to start so that we do not rule out exchanges, that although hesitant and dysfluent in certain ways, work for the parties involved.

Notes (1)

Some hold that whereas the acquisition of a native language recruits a network common to motor skills (a procedural network), learning a second language, at least in adults, recruits one subserving the learning of vocabulary, a declarative network (e.g. Ullman, 2001). However, on theoretical grounds it is more reasonable to suppose the recruitment of a common substrate with the native language from the start with a degree of neural convergence to the processing patterns of native

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speakers as proficiency increases (Green, 2003). Consistent with a common substrate, studies of artificial grammar learning in young adults indicate evoked reaction potential profiles in common with the processing of native syntax (e.g. Friederici et al., 2006; Wilson et al., 2011; see also Ding et al., 2016). Studies of proficient adult bilingual speakers also show common patterns of sentence processing as native speakers (e.g. Bowden et al., 2013). The dentate gyrus (a region in the hippocampus) is implicated in pattern separation and this region generates new nerve cells even in adults. In the Erickson et al. (2011) study, exercise also increased a mediator for neurogenesis and so, speculatively, increased fitness may aid vocabulary learning. Alternatively but not exclusively, aerobic exercise may improve angiogenesis.

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Silbert, L.J., Honey, C.J., Simony, E., Poeppel, D. and Hasson, U. (2014) Coupled neural systems underlie the production and comprehension of naturalistic narrative speech. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111, E4687–E4696. Smith, P.J., Blumenthal, J.A., Hoffman, B.M., Cooper, H., Strauman, T.A., Welsh-Bohmer, K., Browndyke, J.N. and Sherwood, A. (2010) Aerobic exercise and neurocognitive performance: A meta-analytic review of randomized controlled trials. Psychosomatic Medicine 72, 239–252. Sousa, N. (2016) The dynamics of the stress neuromatrix. Molecular Psychiatry 21, 302–312. Steinhauer, K. (2014) Event-related potentials (ERPs) in second language research: A brief introduction to the technique, a selected review, and an invitation to reconsider critical periods in L2. Applied Linguistics 35, 393–417. Stocco, A., Yamasaki, B., Natalenko, R. and Prat, C.S. (2014) Bilingual brain training: A neurobiological framework of how bilingual experience improves executive function. International Journal of Bilingualism 18, 67–92. Stoodley, C.J. and Schmahmann, J.D. (2009) Functional topography in the human cerebellum: A meta-analysis of neuroimaging studies. NeuroImage 44, 489–501. Sun, F.W., Stepanovic, M.R., Andreano, J., Barrett, L.F., Touroutoglou, A. and Dickerson, B.C. (2016) Youthful brains in older adults: Preserved neuroanatomy in the default mode and salience networks contributes to youthful memory in superaging. Journal of Neuroscience 36, 9659–9668. Tanner, D., McLaughlin, J., Herschensohn, J. and Osterhout, L. (2013) Individual differences reveal stages of L2 grammatical acquisition: ERP evidence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 16, 367–382. Ullman, M. (2001) The neural basis of lexicon and grammar in first and second language: The declarative/procedural model. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4, 105–122. Voelcker-Rehage, C. and Niemann, C. (2013) Structural and functional brain changes related to different types of physical activity across the life span. Neuroscience Biobehavioral Reviews 37, 2268–2295. Weber, K., Luther, L., Indefrey, P. and Hagoort, P. (2016) Overlap and differences in brain networks underlying the processing of complex sentence structures in second language users compared with native speakers. Brain Connectivity 6, 345–355. Williams, S. and Hammarberg, B. (1998) Language switches in L3 production: Implications for a polyglot speaking mode. Applied Linguistics 19, 295–333. Wilson, S.M., Galantucci, S., Tartaglia, M.C.R.K., Patterson, D.K., Henry, M.L., Ogar, J.M., DeLeon, J., Miller, B.L. and Gorno-Tempini, M.L. (2011) Syntactic processing depends on dorsal language tracts. Neuron 72, 397–403.

4 Research on Second Language Acquisition in Old Adulthood: What We Have and What We Need Maria Kliesch, Nathalie Giroud, Simone E. Pfenninger and Martin Meyer

Introduction It has been widely believed that offering foreign language (FL) education at a young age sets the path to success. An assumption of this particular belief seems to be that younger people learn a FL more effortlessly, more successfully and faster than older adults (see e.g. the idea of children as ‘linguistic sponges’ discussed in Pfenninger & Singleton [2017]). One of the main issues with the ‘catch them young’ notion is the conception of the age factor as the non-plus-ultra predictor of second language (L2) learning outcome at the expense of other determining factors such as the nature of input provision, the quality of teacher education, the type of curriculum, support from the social network, commitment of time and energy, individual differences, learner needs, the importance of maintaining motivation levels and integrating the first language (L1), allocation of resources and generally ensuring appropriate conditions for learning. A growing body of evidence from research in education, psycholinguistics, cognitive science and neurolinguistics challenges conventional views, arguing that even young adult L2 learners can reach native-like L2 proficiency. In a study by Kinsella and Singleton (2014), for instance, 3 out of 20 highly proficient late learners of French (mean age of acquisition: 28.6) performed in the native range on all tested skills, which challenges the idea of a critical period for second language acquisition (SLA). By contrast, research on elderly people who begin the relevant language learning process in old age is still in its infancy (but see Linhart-Wegschaider, 2010; Mackey & Sachs, 2012). When it comes to FL learning and senescence (sometimes referred

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to as FL geragogy), Singleton (this volume) points to two main research questions: (1) How good are older adults at additional language learning? and (2) How good is additional language learning for them? In this chapter, we are going to focus on the former, discuss the possible implications for the latter and, in particular, address the question as to what we measure and how we measure it. As a point of departure, we will present the results of a longitudinal study of German learners (aged 65+) who took part in an intensive English course for beginners. This study constitutes the first to investigate how general cognitive capacities affect the learning outcome of L2 training in older adults, and corroborates previous research arguing that age is only one of many factors to be considered in FL geragogy.

On Old Dogs and New Tricks The question as to whether you can ‘teach an old dog new tricks’ in SLA is particularly timely in light of the early L2 – especially early L2 English – instruction hysteria that is currently sweeping the globe, which has led to an escalation of English language education, an increase in the numbers of children attending formal pre-school educational programs and a worldwide trend to bring forward the starting age of FL instruction. These developments send the message to the general public that language instruction should be started before it is ‘too late’. However, these commonly held beliefs run into empirical obstacles from diverse sources. As Murphy and Evangelou (2016) quite rightly note in their edited collection for the British Council, ‘there is no research carried out in the instructed foreign language learning context that unequivocally demonstrates advantages for younger over older learners’. On the contrary, the ‘earlier=better’ view has been rejected by extensive research, and there is now a consensus that there are very few linguistic and extra-linguistic advantages to an earlier start, either in relation to the rate of learning or in relation to attainment (see e.g. Al-Thubaiti [2010] for Saudi Arabia; García Mayo & García Lecumberri [2003] and Muñoz [2006, 2011] for Catalonia (Spain); Larson-Hall [2008] for Japan; Myles and Mitchell [2012] for Great Britain; Pfenninger [2014a, 2014b, 2016] for Switzerland; Unsworth et al. [2012] for the Netherlands). Researchers have increasingly been seeing age as a very complex factor, a ‘macrovariable’, and most have been calling for dimensions other than maturation to be taken into consideration in this context. Furthermore, as Genesee (2016) cautions, commonly held beliefs about how easily young learners can acquire an L2 do not take into account the complexities of language learning in the context of schooling. In their longitudinal project on earlier vs. later starters of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Switzerland, Pfenninger (2017) and Pfenninger and Singleton (2017) show that school/classroom context and climate,

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motivation, extracurricular exposure to the L2, prior FL knowledge, L1 literacy skills and intensity and type of instruction are all stronger predictors of long-term FL outcome than starting age. The quality of learners’ day-to-day experiences, relations in particular FL classrooms and attitudes to the FL represent an important microlevel that shapes learners’ affective engagement with, and motivation to learn, English and can thus make up for a later start. This is important inasmuch as older learners (60+ years) have often been found to exhibit self-defeating preconceptions regarding their learning abilities, probably influenced by widely held notions regarding old age or, equally important, infelicitous contextual factors. Ramírez Gómez (2016) observed that, fuelled by social stereotypes about the elderly population, many FL instructors believe that older learners’ primary motivations to study an FL are socializing and leisure: ‘This belief may lead these instructors to adopt a rather patronizing attitude toward the learners’ abilities, and to aim at rather undemanding performance goals’. Similarly, Andrew (2012) discusses how the biological processes of decline and decrement concurrent with age have been appropriated as the social view of aging, which has led to both ageist and non-ageist views. In Gómez Bedoya’s (2008) study, in which 251 Japanese learners of Spanish in multi-aged classes were interviewed (40 of whom were older than 60 years), only half of the participants felt that age had a negative effect on their L2 attainment, while the other half reported not noticing any effect at all. Also, the older learners were more motivated and dedicated than the younger learners, and the individual differences discerned pertained to personality traits (e.g. shyness) rather than to age. If participants noted a disadvantage of age, they mostly referred to decreased memory capacities, but even so, none of the participants supported the idea of age-separated learner groups. Thus, older learners do not necessarily want to be lumped together with other older learners (see Singleton, this volume). It needs to be borne in mind, however, that little research has been conducted on individual differences among older learners, and the few existing studies have particularly focused on aptitude/intelligence, field dependency, educational level and working background (see Ramírez Gómez, 2016). We know from cognitive neurosciences that aging entails a number of anatomical and functional changes in the brain that imply a decline in cognitive capacities. To our knowledge, there is only one study (Mackey & Sachs, 2012, see below) that investigates the influence of cognition in FL geragogy. As we will see in the next chapter, however, our understanding of the L2 learning process in older adults should also take into consideration how the brain changes over the lifespan and, in particular, how this can affect an individual’s ability to acquire new knowledge, such as a new language.

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Brain Plasticity and SLA A large number of neuroscientific studies characterize aging by a decrease in cognitive functions, such as working memory, attention and processing speed (Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009; Reuter-Lorenz & Park, 2010). Such age-related cognitive decline has been shown to be preceded by structural changes, such as cortical thinning or the decline of white matter (WM) integrity (Fjell et al., 2009a; Raz, 2005; Salat et al., 2004; Sowell et al., 2003). However, the Scaffolding Theory of Aging and Cognition (Park & ReuterLorenz, 2009) suggests that there may also be compensatory mechanisms that allow for a higher level of cognitive functioning despite structural decline. The theory points to brain compensatory characteristics, such as recruitment of frontal brain regions during difficult tasks, dedifferentiation, neurogenesis and lateralization of functioning (Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009). Furthermore, cognitive capacities not only vary as a function of age and genetics, but are influenced in large part by an individual’s lifestyle and the extent to which intellectually stimulating exercises are included therein (see Stern & Munn [2010] for a review). Experiences like learning, engagement, exercise and cognitive training may positively influence the level of cognitive functioning (Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009). The question of cognition in SLA and senescence is of importance inasmuch as language learning itself is a cognitive process that requires memorization, inhibition of L1, sustained attention in classroom settings, rule learning and application, pattern recognition, metacognition, etc. It is therefore not surprising that older L2 learners experience different degrees of ‘struggle’ during the learning process. Mårtensson et al.’s (2012) study of younger adults found that struggling learners showed a stronger increase of gray matter (GM) in frontal areas compared to more successful learners across a period of three months of intense language study. Increased frontal activation or frontal GM increase may therefore be considered a correlate for the need of more cognitive control during SLA. Given the age-related cognitive decline and cortical thinning over the lifespan in frontal areas (Fjell et al., 2009b), in particular, it is to be expected that this struggle increases with age. But what happens in the long term when adults learn a new language? Importantly, it has been acknowledged for many years now that (language) learning requires dendritic and synaptic plasticity that is known to continue into adulthood (Draganski et al., 2004; Lövdén et al., 2013; Scholz et al., 2009; Uylings, 2006). For example, a functional magnetic resonance imaging study (fMRI) by Wong et al. (2007) trained young adults to discriminate pitch patterns in a FL (Mandarin) to examine the neural basis of this phonetic learning process. They showed that good learners revealed plastic changes in auditory-related cortical areas that reflected competence in speech processing, whereas less successful learners displayed diffuse and more widespread frontal activity, which indicates enhanced cognitive effort

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(Wong et al., 2007). This finding matches very well with the results of the abovementioned study by Mårtensson et al. (2012), in which struggling learners showed a stronger GM increase in frontal rather than auditory areas, meaning that struggling may be related to the stronger involvement of cognitive control as compared to the sole reliance on auditory functions during SLA. Evidence of auditory plasticity has been replicated in the context of Japanese learners, who were taught how to distinguish between the American /r/ and /l/ perceptually. Consistent with the behavioral improvements, the neural sensitivity in auditory areas increased, as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG) (Zhang et al., 2009). Together these two studies provide evidence for substantial neural plasticity in auditory brain areas during L2 learning in adults and for increased auditory sensitivity to formerly undetectable acoustic properties. Thus, one important modality enabling progress in L2 learning in adulthood is the auditory domain. More ecologically valid studies tested young adults before and after a longer and more comprehensive L2 training that stretched over several months, and investigated auditory as well as non-auditory neural plasticity in cognitive-related brain areas after language learning. For instance, Schlegel et al. (2012) followed young adults monthly, assessing WM structural plasticity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) during intensive L2 training of Modern Standard Chinese, and compared them to controls who did not participate in any L2 training. Relative to the controls, participants learning Chinese exhibited higher integrity in language-relevant WM connections between auditory-related and frontal brain regions in the left and right hemisphere as a function of the training (Schlegel et al., 2012). Furthermore, the increase of this integrity in the WM connections was higher for those participants who exhibited a greater development in their L2 grades (Schlegel et al., 2012). Interestingly, a further study investigating GM structural plasticity pointed to a similar connection between the increase in cortical thickness in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the increase in proficiency in SLA, showing that it was independent of the absolute SLA proficiency level (Stein et al., 2012). Such correlations suggest that it is mainly inter-individual changes in L2 proficiency rather than initial or resulting proficiency levels which are reflected in brain plasticity. To complement this, electroencephalogram (EEG) studies have found that effects measured during sentence comprehension became more similar between native speakers and adult L2 learners as a function of proficiency (Dowens et al., 2010; Soskey et al., 2016). Thus, there is conclusive evidence for substantial structural and functional neural plasticity in adulthood as a function of inter-individual trajectories of learning during L2 training. As a consequence, L2 learning has even been proposed as a cognitive training intervention in old adulthood (Antoniou et al., 2013) – a hypothesis that has so far not been investigated systematically.

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However, the strong involvement of auditory functions during SLA may cause several problems for older adults who want to learn an L2. This is due to the high prevalence of age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) in older adults. For example, in European countries, about 30% of men and 20% of women at the age of 70 years have at least mild hearing loss (i.e. 30 dB or more; Roth et al., 2011). This prevalence increases considerably with age, leading to 89.5% of individuals older than 80 years suffering from age-related hearing impairment (Cruickshanks et al., 1998). This implies that performing L2 proficiency tests in the auditory modality may lead to constrained results (see below). Furthermore, if these older adults have to rely more on cognitive control mechanisms during SLA due to their hearing problems, SLA may, on the one hand, be very effortful cognitively but, on the other hand, serve as both auditory as well as cognitive training. So far, the only behavioral study investigating the relationship between SLA in older adults and cognition made use of L2 training based on communicative tasks and interactional feedback (Mackey & Sachs, 2012); its results reveal that participants’ listening span capacities were more predictive of their L2 progress than age. However, as pointed out above, using training and test settings that mainly rely on auditory functions may limit older adults’ use of their full capacity because of age-related hearing loss. Therefore, more ecologically valid studies are required (see Chapter 4). In summary, the neurocognitive aging literature not only indicates a huge variance in SLA in older adults based on inter-individual differences in cognitive functioning, hearing loss and also hearing loss treatment (Giroud et al., under review, 2017), but also emphasizes the learning capability of the plastic brain into old age. What is more, it suggests that learning (e.g. L2 learning) may enhance the scaffolding of the aging brain to support a higher level of cognitive functioning in old age. Thus, SLA may be a strategy in old age to maintain and enhance ‘healthy’ aging. It is therefore of utmost importance to study the predictors for successful SLA in older adults in more detail. In the following, we will present data of a study by our own group, and discuss potential inter-individual differences in cognitive skills that may impact the success of SLA in older adults. Furthermore, we will provide recommendations for future studies investigating this issue.

A Longitudinal Study on L2 Learning in Old Adulthood Aim In order to address the various learner differences in the context of SLA and senescence, we developed and conducted a small longitudinal study involving three-week training of English as an FL for older adults in order to investigate successful language learning in old age. Our focus

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was not so much on determining how L2 learning differs in older adults as compared to younger adults, as on exploring the factors that account for the individual differences between older learners themselves. The reason for this is, as pointed out above, that age is only one of many predictors of an L2 learning outcome, and it cannot explain individual differences that persist in a group of age-matched learners (Gómez Bedoya, 2008; LinhartWegschaider, 2010; Mackey & Sachs, 2012). However, despite converging evidence on neural plasticity in adulthood through training interventions listed in the literature review above, research on FL geragogy in the context of cognitive capacities and neuroplasticity is surprisingly scarce. Therefore, this project ventures into interdisciplinary territory, integrating insights and methods from both linguistics and cognitive neuroscience in order to determine mutual constraints and interests not yet addressed in previous studies. Our research questions enquired (1) whether significant L2 growth could be made by older learners (age 65–75) following a three-week language course, and (2) whether cognitive fitness predicts successful L2 learning, compared to other factors such as age, motivation, time dedicated to self-study, educational background, etc. On the one hand, we know that aging is associated with a decline in cortical thickness and that, as a consequence, younger adults outperform older adults on a number of cognitive skills (see e.g. Fjell & Walhovd [2010] for a review). On the other hand, lifestyle, cognitive activity, genetics and nutrition play a decisive role in how well these capacities are preserved in old age, which creates large effects of inter-individual variability (e.g. Fjell & Walhovd, 2010; Mora, 2013; Wilson et al., 2002). We thus assume that (1) cognitive fitness varies among individuals; (2) working memory plays a decisive role in the L2 learning outcome; and (3) L2 learning is a complex process tapping into a variety of different cognitive skills. Accordingly, we hypothesize that cognitive performance in old age constitutes a major factor explaining the variance in L2 development. In the following, we will briefly present the methodology and a selection of our results, before proceeding to a critical discussion of the instruments used in order to make suggestions for directions for future research.

Methodology Participants For this study, 10 participants between the ages of 65 and 74 were recruited (see Table 4.1). The group size was restricted in order to allow the L2 instructor to monitor all students individually, and provide sufficient opportunities for students’ participation during class. All participants were monolingual German native speakers and reported no or only very rudimentary knowledge of English. Participants were retired by the time they participated in the study, and did not report any neurological or

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Table 4.1 Participant characteristics Participant QP01

Gender

Age

Years in education

Other languages

Female

73

10

Italian (basic), French (basic), English (basic)

QP02

Male

67

8

QP03

Male

68

20

QP04

Female

68

9

QP05

Female

69

10

French (basic)

QP06

Male

65

11

French (very good)

QP07

Male

71

9

QP08

Male

68

9

QP09

Male

68

18

Russian (basic)

QP10

Female

65

13

Russian (basic)

Mean (SD)

None French (basic) Italian (basic), French (basic)

French (good), Italian (good) None

68.20 (2.44) 11.7 (4.11)

psychiatric disorders or learning disabilities, such as dyslexia. Further, we excluded participants who suffered from moderate hearing loss (i.e. puretone thresholds above 40 dB in the better-hearing ear) or worse (see above) and who played an instrument for more than two hours a day.

Experimental procedure Figure 4.1 provides an overview of the overall study procedure. As pre- and post-tests, we administered L2 proficiency tasks and cognitive tests. In order to account for the socio-affective dimension of FL learning in a classroom setting, we also evaluated learning experiences. At either measurement, all tests were pseudo-randomized between individuals and performed in one session. Between the two tests, three weeks of intensive L2 English training took place (see below). In addition, at the end of the study we conducted an EEG experiment. The data of this EEG experiment will be reported elsewhere (Kliesch et al., in prep.).

L2 training Participants took part in an intensive English course for beginners, taught by a qualified English teacher in a setting particularly designed for this study. In total, the training consisted of 60 lessons distributed over the course of three weeks. One lesson per day was dedicated to self-study, so that no additional homework had to be done after the course. In doing so, we controlled for the time that each participant would dedicate to the training. Nevertheless, via questionnaires, we assessed how much additional time the participants spent on studying English between lessons. Over the course of the training, participants practiced the four essential skills

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Part 1: Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age

Figure 4.1 Overview of experimental design

in L2 learning, namely speaking, listening, writing and reading, based on the textbook and workbook Next A1 for German adult learners of English (Hueber Verlag). Our aim was to emulate a learning situation that would be as realistic as possible in terms of how older people would learn a new language in real life.

Language tests To assess participants’ general proficiency in English, three different language tests were administered before the course (at T1) and immediately thereafter (T2): (1) C-Test; (2) Hueber assessment test Next A1; and (3) oral translation test. The C-Test is an established and validated test designed as a language proficiency assessment tool (both L1 and L2), and consists of five randomly chosen texts in which every second word is missing half its letters, as in the following example: (1) The Aran Islands are a group of three islands near the west coast of Ireland. The wea____ on t__ islands i_ mild i_ the win___, but al__ not ve__ warm i_ summer… The C-Test can be completed in 25 minutes and provides a reliable measure of L2 proficiency, as it has been shown to correlate with other measures, such as school grades in language subjects, self-evaluation procedures and other language tests and batteries (Raatz & Klein-Braley, 2002). To improve reliability, we also had participants complete the online assessment test provided by Hueber Verlag, which tests vocabulary, reading as well as digit/

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Table 4.2 Definition of corrected L2 improvement Type of score

Calculation

Maximum score (MS)

=100

Actual improvement (AI)

=T2 score–T1 score

Maximum improvement (MI)

=MS–T1 score

Corrected improvement (CI)

=AI × MS MI

letter listening skills from Levels A1 to A2 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages [CEFR]) based on the textbook’s content. In addition, we asked participants to translate 12 sentences from English into German, one from each unit in the course book, conceding two points per sentence for correctly translated content and form, which yielded one final score for each participant (see Appendix A). This test was added to complement the listening skill tasks of the Hueber test, which only consisted of letter and digit comprehension. By asking participants to translate as much of the sentences as they could rather than asking comprehension questions, we wanted to gain a more accurate understanding of the number of words and forms that were understood. In addition, at the end of each week, participants completed a 10-minute vocabulary test on words that were studied in the respective week in order for us to track their individual progress. The C-Test and Hueber assessment test at T1 correlated with over r>0.80, while the oral translation task correlated with r≥0.60. An exploratory factor analysis indicated that all language tests loaded on the same factor. At T2, all L2 tests correlated with over r≥0.80 so that we calculated proficiency as the means of all three tests. We used this collapsed value as a measure of global L2 proficiency to assess whether or not their L2 skills improved, rather than measuring exactly which skills improved. In order to calculate each participant’s improvement from T1 to T2, we decided to calculate the percentage of the maximum attainable improvement (MI) after T1 (see Table 4.2), rather than merely calculating the difference between T2 and T1.

Cognitive tests In an attempt to explore the influence of various cognitive factors, we tested participants before training on a range of cognitive skills that are known to deteriorate due to age-related cognitive decline and that were shown to either diverge between bilinguals and monolinguals or are involved in L2 learning, language comprehension or production. Wherever there was a verbal and a non-verbal version of a test, we performed both so as to determine whether there was a difference in their effect on L2 learning. In Table 4.3, we list the respective skills tested, their relevance for

Here: The ability to suppress a behavioral or verbal response despite the presence of the stimulus for a response.

The ability to switch/ shift between one task and another.

Immediate recall skills include working memory and short-term memory, and refer to the ability of holding small amounts of verbal or nonverbal information in mind for a short period of time (a few seconds up), ready to be recalled upon request.b

Shifting (switching)

Immediate recall (working memory)

Definition

Inhibition

Skill Inhibition skills are enhanced in early childhood, adulthood and old adulthood in bilinguals as compared to monolinguals.a Bilinguals who frequently switch between languages, such as simultaneous interpreters, seem to exhibit smaller (non-verbal) task-switching costs than monolinguals.a Working memory skills have been shown to be implied in L2 learning, and appear to improve by training simultaneous translation.

Relevance

Table 4.3 Summary of assessed cognitive skills and used tests

(1) Reading Span Task (RST) (2) Digit Span (Tatool-Web) (3) Verbaler Lern- und Merkfähigkeitstest (Sum Dg1-Dg5)

(1) Categorical Shifting Task (Tatool-Web) (2) Figural Shifting Task (Tatool-Web)

(1) Stroop Task (Tatool-Web) (2) Eriksen Flanker Task (Tatool-Web)

Test (1) PC-Test. See Stroop (1935) for original version. (2) PC-Test. See Eriksen and Eriksen (1974) for original version. PC-Test: Participants are asked to classify stimuli according to changing rules, either paying attention to size or animacy (categorical), or to shape or color (figural). (1) See van den Noort et al. (2008) (2) PC-Test: Participants have to memorize a list of two-digit numbers and recall them in correct serial order. The length of each list can vary between 3 and 5 items. (3) See Helmstadter et al. (2001)

Description of test

Bialystok and DePape (2009) Bice and Kroll (2015) Filippi et al. (2012) Linck et al. (2012) Zied et al. (2004) Green and Abutalebi (2013) Linck et al. (2012) Macnamara and Conway (2014) Prior and Gollan (2011) Soveri et al. (2011) Alptekin et al. (2014) Bialystok (2009) Luo et al. (2013) Mackey and Sachs (2012) Macnamara and Conway (2014) Service et al. (2002)

Literature

58 Part 1: Foreign Language Learning in the Third Age

Federmeier et al. (2002) Kemper et al. (2001) Kemper and Sumner (2001) McDowd et al. (2011)

Greenaway et al. (2006) Lamar et al. (2003)

In a recent paper published after the data collection for our study (Wayne et al., 2016), it was shown that the RST does not measure – as assumed to date – working memory skills only, but also episodic visual memory and inhibition, which is why we decided to refrain from implying a concept of pure working memory when referring to the RST. However, for the sake of convenience and due to the close proximity of the concepts of immediate recall and working memory as well as the terminology commonly used in the literature, we will henceforth use ‘working memory’ as a cover term for the short-term/ immediate recall/working memory skills tested here.

See Aschenbrenner et al. (2000)

See Helmstadter et al. (2001)

b

Regensburger Wortflüssigkeits-Test (RWT)

Verbaler Lern- und Merkfähigkeits-test (Dg6)

The bilingual advantage is heavily discussed in current research, and appears to be less conclusive than previously assumed (Duñabeitia & Carreiras, 2015; Paap et al., 2015; Vaughn et al., 2015).

Verbal fluency refers to the rate at which a person can produce words (usually starting with a particular letter or belonging to a specific semantic category, measured in a timeframe of 60 seconds).

(Phonetic) Verbal fluency

Delayed recall is known to decline with age. No study – to our knowledge – has investigated the concept in relation to L2 learning or bilingualism, i.e. exploratory approach. Verbal fl uency is known to decline with age. High verbal fl uency in old age has been shown to correlate with a preserved ability to use context in sentence comprehension predictively.

a

Delayed recall refers to the ability to recall a list of memorized short (verbal) items after a delay period of approximately 25 minutes.

Delayed recall

Research on Second Language Acquisition in Old Adulthood 59

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L2 learning as shown by previous research, and descriptions of the tests we used to assess them.

Individual differences and learner voices In addition to the linguistic and cognitive parameters, we also sought to explore the role of participants’ educational background, IQ, motivation as well as their investment during the course. Educational background was measured through years in education, while IQ was assessed via the KAI (Kurztest für allgemeine Informationspsychologische Basisgrössen), which is used to measure the basic capacity of information processing and biological intelligence (see Lehrl et al., 1991). Learners’ motivation and investment were assessed qualitatively by asking participants at the beginning of each week: (1) (2) (3) (4)

what it is that motivates them to attend the course each day; whether they feel motivated to attend the course; whether they feel obliged to attend the course; whether they think that the course will meet their personal expectations; (5) whether their motivation has dropped since enrolling in the study; (6) whether their progress corresponds with their expectations before the course. In an evaluation session, we enquired: (7) whether they feel that their English skills have improved; (8) how much time they spent on self-learning outside of course lessons; (9) whether they feel more motivated to use English in their daily life; (10) whether they felt highly motivated during the course; (11) whether they feel cognitively fitter than before the course.

Measurements and data analysis We applied non-parametric tests where normal distribution was not evident. In order to increase the reliability of our data despite the low number of samples, we performed exploratory factor analyses to determine whether the language and cognitive tests could be collapsed into fewer factors. To inquire into the relationship between L2 development and other parameters (i.e. cognition, age, IQ, education), we calculated Pearson’s R for parametric data, and Spearman’s Rho for non-parametric data. Learner voices will be reported descriptively from the results of the above questionnaires in an exploratory attempt to determine additional factors that might be worth pursuing in future studies.

Results Our results show that participants improved their English over the course of the training, with a significant average improvement between

Average score in language tests [%]

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Subject

100

1 2

75

3 4 5

50

6 7 25

8 9

0

10 T1

Timepoint

T2

Figure 4.2 Individual language tests results at T1 and T2

T1 and T2 (t(9)=6.33, p