En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

The determinants of industrial location in Spain, 1856-1929

Durant el segle XIX, l'economia espanyola va transitar per les primeres etapes de la industrialització. Aquest procés es va donar en paral·lel a la integració del mercat domèstic de béns i factors, en un moment en què les reformes liberals i la construcció de la xarxa ferroviària, entre d'altres, van generar una important caiguda en els costos detransport. Al mateix temps que es donava aquesta progressiva integració del mercat domèstic espanyol, es van produir canvis significatius en la pauta de localització industrial. D'una banda, hi hagué un augment considerable de la concentració espacial de la indústria des de mitjans de segle XIX i fins a la Guerra Civil, i d¿altra, un increment de l'especialització regional. Ara bé, quines van ser les forces que van generar aquests canvis? Des d¿un punt de vista teòric, el model de Heckscher-Ohlin suggereix que la distribució a l'espai de l¿activitat econòmica ve determinada per l'avantatge comparativa dels territoris en funció de la dotació relativa de factors. Al seu torn, els models de Nova Geografia Econòmica (NEG) mostren l'existència d'una relació en forma de campana entre el procés d'integració econòmica i el grau de concentració geogràfica de l'activitat industrial. Aquest article examina empíricament els determinants de la localització industrial a Espanya entre 1856 i 1929, mitjançant l'estimació d¿un model que combina els elements de tipus Heckscher-Ohlin i els factors apuntats des de la NEG, amb l'objectiu de contrastar la força relativa dels arguments vinculats a aquestes dues interpretacions a l'hora de modular la localització de la indústria a Espanya. L'anàlisi dels resultats obtinguts mostra que tant la dotació de factors com els mecanismes de tipus NEG van ser elements determinants que expliquen la distribució geogràfica de la indústria des del segle XIX, tot i que la seva força relativa va anar variant amb el temps.

Audit report on the City of Van Meter, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2012

Audit report on the City of Van Meter, Iowa for the year ended June 30, 2012