THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS

THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS

Second language acquisition (SLA) is affected by many different factors in its process of acquiring a foreign language. Some of them are considered common to every non-native speaker and they can affect in a different manner each individual. The element that will be analysed in this paper will be the age of onset (AO), a biological factor that is considered a strong predictor of success in SLA. According to Granena (2013), whilst L2 morphology and syntax is often proceeded faster by adolescents or adults through early stages, which is a rate advantage, the expected level of ultimate L2 attainment generally diminishes with the increase of AO. With regard to the age effects, there is less agreement between researchers: variation in the quantity or quality of input to younger and older learners, differences in their affective profiles or cognitive maturity are some of these effects discussed by experts.

One of the most known hypotheses that supporting this is the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH). This theory is used with two different meanings explained by Pallier (2007). The first explanation is based on an empirical hypothesis denoting that humans are more efficient at language learning in the first years of life (it can also be applied to L1 acquisition). Moreover, it is an important predictor of ultimate proficiency, because the older an individual starts to learn a language the smaller the possibilities of reaching a native-like competence this person will have. The second argument stands on the conviction that an age-related decline in neural plasticity is the cause of increasing difficulties in language learning. These two meanings must be distinguished because, according to the first meaning, the reason for not achieving a native-like proficiency can be due to other causes different from irreversible neural plasticity changes, whilst the supporters of the second meaning believe that this loss of plasticity is because of maturational factors.

However, other researchers suggested that it could also be due to the outcome of language acquisition itself. Penfield (1965) advocated that before the child begins to speak, the cortex is blank and nothing is written on it. Over time, this begins to be written and normally not erased. For the author, at the age of ten or twelve connections produced within the cortex have now been established and fixed in the speech of the individual. An alternative theory supported by Pinker (1994) asserted that once the circuitry of language acquisition has been used, it should be removed if it becomes an issue for keeping it. All neural tissue used beyond its point of usefulness is a good starting point for being recycled.  Therefore, both theories had a point in common: once the young learner has acquired the language or languages around him or her, the neural modifications are impossible to reverse.

Pallier (2007) asserts that there have been many studies carried out for the CPH. Some of these studies were performed with animals that required depriving them from some relevant stimulus during a period of time. On the other side, experimentation with humans for the L1 acquisition has not been accomplished for understandable reasons, as it would not be ethical, because it would signify the denial of language exposure for children. Notwithstanding, some studies have been performed with abandoned children who had little language exposure at first, and observations suggested that their language skills were limited even after language instruction. Other human studies performed in this area have been accomplished with groups of deaf people who learned sign language as an L1 at different ages. The results showed that those people who were exposed to sign language in their first years of life had a better control of the language than those later exposed. Eventually, those who later started (in mid-childhood) performed better than those who were exposed first when they were ten or more.

Although it could be asserted that critical neural changes take place during the puberty period, it seems that it can occur much earlier. Studies conducted with deaf children who received cochlear implants (an auditory technological device surgically implanted to stimulate the auditory nerve in order to transmit acoustic information to the central auditory system) displayed that there are beneficial effect of earlier implementation in children when they are already 1 to 3 years old (McConkey Robbins, Burton Koch, Osberger, Zimmerman-Philips & Kishon-Rabin, 2004).

Another domain for collecting data connected to the CPH is SLA. As stated by Snow (1978), there are two types of research designs that can be expected from this sort of research. The first one is by comparing second language acquisition to first language acquisition. The second one involves comparing SLA across a wide age range. Diverse studies have shown that second language acquisition is similar to first language acquisition, with regard to the order in which rules and structures are acquired (Dulay & Burt, 1974), of the learning strategies employed (Cook, 1973) and of the errors made (Taylor, 1975).

Moreover, other studies contemplated by Ervin-Tripp (1974) and Fathman (1975) that used the second strategy displayed that older children (even adults) proceeded faster L2 morphology and syntax. There were even other studies accomplished by Asher & Price (1967) showed a faster listening comprehension by older children. However, rather than showing an agreement in the obtained results, they revealed wide discrepancies in some aspects. For instance, in pronunciation, there were some studies that displayed a better pronunciation in older subjects, whereas others showed a negative effect of age. There were even other studies in which there were found cases where there were older learners without accent in their L2, as well as cases who maintained their native accent.

Although the studies observed so far do not endorse the predictions established by the CPH, for Snow (1978) this hypothesis cannot still be rejected due to the problems that will be explained. The first issue that these studies contained was that they have only looked to a restricted age range. For example, in Fathman’s study the ages were between 6 and 15, in the case of Ervin-Tripp the ages were from 4 to 9, and with respect to the case of Asher and Prise, they only took 8 adults. The second problem they presented was that age differences were not assessed longitudinally, since all the age differences found were given at a random point after the beginning of SLA, rather than having constant differences in the rate of acquisition. Therefore, the only type of study that can provide a general idea of the age differences in rate acquisition or in ultimate achievement is a longitudinal one. In addition to this, a fairly limited range of second language abilities were tested in most studies and the CPH seeks to test different language abilities separately, since the acquisition of each ability may affect differently on brain plasticity. By doing this, contradictory findings could be explained and results would be more accurate.

Another sort of studies concerning the CPH in SLA have been those who have investigated the possible effects of age at immigration. According to Stevens (2006), these researches were made due to the high interest in the possibility of finding critical periods in language learning.  However, the process of learning a language takes some time, thus scholars had to take into consideration the effect of immigrants’ length of residence in the destination country with the purpose of isolating the effects of age at onset of L2 learning. For doing these kinds of studies, researchers took into account three variables, “age at immigration”, “length of residence”, and “age at testing”. Nevertheless, these three variables are linearly interconnected, so investigators had to ignore one or two variables in their respective studies in order to solve this problem.

The results provided by these researches showed for instance that length of residence in the host country hugely affected immigrants’ levels of proficiency in their L2 (at least in the first several years after their arrival to the receiving country). According to researchers, this was due to the fact that there were processes related to senescence and life-cycle stages. Immigrants’ ages at the time observations also took an important role in their investigations. Nonetheless, as they expected before doing researches, the three variables were impossible to consider simultaneously, and unfortunately, there are no easy statistical techniques that can disentangle the linear dependency among them. Chronological age was the variable that was most often omitted in the analysis, because of its difficulty for being followed (Stevens, 2006).

To sum up, it can be asserted that the age of onset has an important role to play in SLA. Moreover, it has also been observed that for learning a language the younger is usually the better. Although research will be better performed in the future, thanks to technology improvements and the correction of previous research errors, in this moment, it cannot be stated the exact age where individuals will not be able to learn a language or acquire a high proficiency language level, but instead of this, we could assert that there is a sensitive period for learning a second language around puberty, which will not be the same afterwards.

REFERENCES

Asher, J., & Price, B. (1967) The learning strategy of the total physical response: some age differences. Child Development, 1219-1227.

Cook, V. J. (1973) The comparison of language development in native children and foreign adults. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 13-28.

Dulay, H., & Burt, M. (1974) Natural sequences in child second language acquisition. Working Papers in Bilingualism, 71-98.

Ervin-Tripp, S. (1974) Is second language learning like the first? TESOL Quarterly, 111-127.

Fathman, A. (1975) The relationship between age and second language productive ability. Language Learning, 245-253.

Granena, G., & Long, M. (2013) Age of onset, length of residence, language aptitude, and ultimate L2 attainment in three linguistic domains. Second Language Research, 29(3), 311-343. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/43103927.

McConkey Robbins, 4., Burton Koch, D., Osberger, M. J., Zimmerman-Philips, S. & Kishon-Rabin, L.(2004). "Effect of age at cochlear implantation on auditory skill development in infants and toddler”. Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, 130, 570-574.

Pallier, C. (2007) Critical periods in language acquisition and language attrition. In Language Attrition: Theoretical Perspectives, 155–168.

Penfield, W. (1965) “Conditioning the uncommitted cortex for Language learning”. Brain, 88,787-798.

Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct. New York, NY: W. Morrow and Co.

Snow, C., & Hoefnagel-Höhle, M. (1978) The Critical Period for Language Acquisition: Evidence from Second Language Learning. Child Development, 1114-1128. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1128751.

Stevens, Gillian. (2006) The Age‐Length‐Onset Problem in Research on Second Language Acquisition Among Immigrants. Language Learning, 671 - 692. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2006.00392.x.

Taylor, B. P. (1975). The use of overgeneralisation and transfer learning strategies by elementary and intermediate students of ESL. Language Learning, 73-107.

Introversion and Extroversion in SLA

Introversion and Extroversion in SLA

The purpose of this essay is the extroversion and introversion in the acquisition of a second language. To begin it must be known what is meant by the extroverted and introverted concept, so it will be discussed some different definitions to contrast and understand them Afterwards, it has been defined the ‘Affective filter hypothesis’ so as to understand the examples that we are going to comment later. Finally to support the extroversion and introversion idea we have collected different examples of studies in which the results reflect the importance of the personality of the participants with respect to their academic performance.

Many people tend to confuse the fact of being an introverted person with shyness. Philip Zimbardo and Bernardo Carducci, psychologists who study shyness, state that introverts refer to those people who have both social skills and self-esteem even though they tend to prefer loneliness instead of being surrounded by a big group of people. In the case of shy people, they lack social skills and self-esteem, what makes it more difficult for them than for the rest of the community, to interact with people they do not know. In fact, they want to socialise but their low or not even present self-esteem makes it difficult to meet new people.

According to Myers (2003), extrovert people are those who prefer to receive stimulation from the outside world. Eysenck (1967) describes extroverts as sociable, expressive, interactive, outgoing, that they act first, and then think about it, they do not like being alone, they prefer being in company all the time; introverts, on the contrary, are described as reserved, quiet, sensitive, they tend to think what they are going to do before acting, and get tired of groups.

Eysenck (1991) continues by saying that extroverts and introverts sometimes show differences in the accuracy and speed of interchange when they speak, particularly performing in an L2. He proposes that extroverts are better than introverts when they have to perform under stress, they are better at lowering their anxiety levels.

According to Matthews (1992), extroverts are more successful in depositing the several spoken inputs they receive than introverts. Eysenck (1981) claims that introverts feel the necessity for more time to recover the information they store in their long term memory. Eysenk (1981) sustains that the contrast between introverts and extroverts memory processing may be caused by the considerable stimuli that introverts perceive. Hence, as introverts are in more tension, difficult for them to tolerate, when they are producing output, their performance lacks eloquence. This incentive provokes the advantage of extroverts who surpass introverts under pressure.

Introverts are inclined to feel that their personality is not good, or that there is something bad with them because extroverts sometimes do not understand their preference to stay alone for some time or their rejection to socialise. This leads to the assumption by introverts that they have to look or act like extroverts so they are not considered to be awkward people. Some extrovert famous people that all of us know are Jim Carrey, Will Smith or Margaret Thatcher, in the opposite we find introvert people as Bill Gates, JK Rowling or Steven Spielberg, and shy people like Lady Gaga.

According to Ni (2012) affective factors are important aspects to take into consideration when dealing with L2 acquisition. These factors include among other aspects: motivation, attitude, self-confidence, anxiety… and, they are ones of the biggest influences in the input and output of the second language. In the cases where they are taken into account by teachers, they are clearly helpful for teachers to improve their own teaching quality and for the students’ integral development in the language.

In the early 1870’s, Dulay and Burt proposed the Affective Filter Hypothesis and explained its influence on the FL learning process. Later, Krashen (1981) would develop and perfect this hypothesis, dividing it into five sub-hypothesis: the Acquisition-learning hypothesis, the Natural order hypothesis; the Monitor hypothesis; the Input hypothesis and the Affective Filter Hypothesis, and this last sub-hypothesis is the one that it is going to be developed in order to explain the extroversion and introversion in students.

Krashen argued that the affective filter is a psychological obstacle that prevents language learners from taking comprehensible input. He asserted that this filter reduces the amount of input that the learner is able to understand, and this is related with the difference between input and intake (being input all the knowledge available for the learner and intake the knowledge internalised by the student) because affective factors determine their proportions. For this reason, negative affective factors or emotions will often be more likely to prevent this internalisation of the language input, and on the contrary, positive emotions will usually be in favour to promote the efficiency of the process.

When language learners have, for instance, a higher motivation, much self-confidence, and lower levels of anxiety, they will have low affective filters and thus, they will receive and take more input. On the other hand, learners with lower motivation, little self-confidence, and a higher level of anxiety will have high affective filters and therefore, they will obtain little input. This theory shows that emotional factors strongly affect learners in the form they acquire a language and that attempts should be made in order to have lower affective filters and the students feel less stressed and confident in a comfortable learning atmosphere.

Historically, two main reasons have been given to show the importance of focusing on the affective filter in education. According to Arnold (2002), the first main reason is that if teachers focus their attention on affective aspects, it could lead to a more effective language learning and secondly, he asserts that it could also contribute to the whole-person development, which is beyond of just teaching a language, because it also influences student’s personality. And this is the moment when it can be seen its influence in extroverted and introverted students, being extroverted students the ones that have lower affective filters and introverted students the ones that have higher affective filter.

Carrell, Prince and Astika (1996) did research on the relationship between them and their academic performance during a semester with a group of 76 students. The results of the MBTI come from some tests of vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, and grammar. Thus, they saw that the students were divided into introverts and extroverts almost equally. It is important to know that just a little relationship was found between E-I and their performance in the tests. The authors gave two reasons to explain the weak relationship between personality and the measure of language performance. The first reason is that the maturity and the cognitive levels of the students are not indicated with their personality, being related to the effectiveness of the students at the time of applying the cognitive resources. The second reason is that personality is not such a reliable indicator in the relationships between language learning variables as a more reliable indicator like language aptitude.

Wakamoto (2000) analyses the relationship between introverts and extroverts with respect to language acquisition in a study with 254 Japanese university women specialised in English. He employed the MBTI and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) to see what Language Learning Strategies (LLS) the students used. His objective with this study was to demonstrate the importance of introversion and extroversion in learning English within Japanese secondary classrooms. Wakamoto said that groups of 40 students per teacher it is difficult to identify the individual learner differences (ID) and LLS. Wakamoto finds a relationship between some strategies and extroversion: “functional practice strategies” focused on the real use of language and not the form,and “social-affective strategies” with extraverted students’’, the self-control of the affective domain. About introverted students, he found no correlation with the LLS.

With regard to how students receive input, an Indonesian research by Hasan and Yulianti (2018) analyses the differences between extroversion and introversion in receptive skills, particularly reading. In the study, 95 secondary school students were examined and, all them were eleventh-grade students and have been studying English for four years. Additionally, they categorised the students into highly, average or poorly introverted. So as to classify the students into different categories, they used the method suggested by Carter (2005). Nevertheless, the majority of well-known methods were designed in relation to Western cultures, which are very different to Asian cultures. Hasan and Yulianti seemed to be aware of this cultural aspect and modified Carter’s questionnaire in order to adapt it to Indonesian culture. Moreover, in order to make the reading test as valid and reliable as possible, they selected a multiple choice activity to evaluate their reading comprehension. The mean score of highly introverted students was 77’41% whereas poorly introverted students’ mean score was 36’67%. Furthermore, the Serial Correlation Coefficient (r) was calculated (r=0.88) and showed that the higher the introversion, the higher the score for reading comprehension (Hasan and Yulianti 2018, 226-227). The result of this study can be connected with the superiority of logical thinking that introverted people have. Indeed, they usually overuse their cognitive resources so that they have slower but deeper processing capacities.

Taking into consideration oral production, Thorne (1987) observed the impact between extroverts and introverts in the conversation style. Her research was based on 52 women who took the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator), which is a self-help assessment test which helps people gain insights about how they work and learn. It is a framework for relationship-building, developing positivism, and achieving excellence) distinguishing between extroverts and introverts groups: 26 E, 26 I. These groups formed pairs to talk and have conversations about them in order to know each other (somehow). Thus, three different types of couples were created: similar pairs were made up of introverts with introverts (I/I), or extroverts with extroverts (E/E). The third group consisted of introverts and extroverts pairs (I/E). The intention of the investigation was that all the participants arrive at the same session for not to know or interact each other before. The pairs were organised so that each member had a conversation with a similar and different partner. They are analysed and compared with each other, resulting in 52 conversations: (13 E/E,13 I/I ,and 26 I/E). As a result, extrovert couples treated many different topics and found more in common between each other during the conversation, being more positive and broad. However, the topics that were discussed in the conversations between introverts were serious, focusing on their problems. It is hard to establish a good conversation when one person is optimistic and the other is serious or pessimist.

Years later, a research conducted in the University College London by Dewaele and Furnham (2000) studied the extent to which introversion and extroversion have an effect on spontaneous oral production. The subjects of the study were 25 Flemish students between 18 and 21 years old who were studying French as a foreign language for 6-8 years. In order to measure the degree of introversion/extroversion, researchers used the Eysenck Personality Inventory. The participants were recorded talking about everyday topics for 10 min and then, the errors were analysed and classified according to different variables in both informal and formal situations as it can be seen in (Dewaele and Furnham 2000, Table.1). The results illustrated that extroverted students were better at implicit speech style and speech rates, which result in a more fluent speech. On the other hand, introverted students showed a high proportion of ‘er’, which demonstrates hesitation, particularly in formal situations. Moreover, the results illustrated that introverted students used a wider range of lexicon in formal situations and, their tendency to use longer and complex utterances even in an informal situation. The lexical richness can be explained, as the researchers point out, due to ‘the introverts’ better long term memory where the mental lexicon is stored’ (Dewaele and Furnham 2000, 361). Moreover, Dewaele and Furnham suggest that the use of complex utterances in informal situations is a reflection of the cognitive efforts introverts make when they are not under pressure. However, when they are stressed, i.e. during formal situations, introverts have ‘less cognitive resources at their disposal, their utterances become shorter, their speech is less fluent and there are more unintended pauses’ (Dewaele and Furnham 2000, 362). That is the reason why they conclude in their study that the aspects that affect introverted people in a negative way are the formality of the situation and the interpersonal stress (Dewaele and Furnham, 2000, 362).

A more recent research by Cheng, Jiang and Mu (2015) analyses the differences in speaking between introverted and extroverted students. In fact, 117 students were tested between 18 and 21 years old who were studying English for at least 7 years. In order to have more reliable and valid data when measuring personality, the researchers opted to take into consideration both an adaptation of the Eysenck Personality Scale to Chinese culture and a self-report questionnaire. So as to test their proficiency in spoken production, researchers chose the CET format to measure their level of English. The researchers found interesting the fact that all introverted students considered their personality not to be an advantage for L2 oral production whereas 31% extroverted students found themselves in an advantageous position (Cheng et al. 2015, 583). However, the results they obtained do not correspond to their expectations because Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient is -0.002, which demonstrates that the correlation between L2 oral production and personality is not significant (Cheng et al. 2015, 584). That is the reason why, these researchers claim that ‘the possible explanation is that the subjects chosen for the study, who are all English majors, are strongly motivated to study oral English well. And motivation propels them to find appropriate ways to improve their oral English’ (Cheng et al. 2015, 584). Therefore, they regard motivation as a relevant factor for L2 acquisition to overcome the difficulties of learners’ personalities.

Robson (1994) conducted a study with female university students in Japan, measuring their personalities with the Japan-specific Yatabe/Guilford Personality Inventory and comparing with the TOEFL scores. Robson also used voluntary participation in recorded oral English classes, which were analysed. Thus he discovered that extroverted students who showed active social relationships were much more likely to participate in oral English classes than introverted students.

As it has been demonstrated, it is important that learners realise their abilities and their skills when acquiring a language. Being an introvert or an extrovert should not be an aspect to worry about. If learners work on improving their ‘weaknesses’, they will be able to develop language skills regardless of their personalities. Indeed, the most important aspect is motivation. If their motivation is low, they will not make enough effort in order to be successful in their objective. In addition, it can be said that extroverts have more advantages than introverts when it comes to second language acquisition. Their social skills and abilities to control the pressure and anxiety when they practice the L2 makes it easier to process the input they receive and to produce a decent and smooth output. Obviously, it is clear that the affective filter plays a major role when people are learning a second language. It depends on their self-esteem, for instance, when they are learning a language. If students have low self-esteem they would try to avoid practicing or using the L2 in order to not feel they are not making a fool of themselves.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Altunel, V. (2015) The impact of extroversion and introversion on language learning in an input-based EFL setting, University of Kansas. 

Arnold, J. (2000) Affect in Language Learning. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 

Cheng, Y., Jiang, Y. and Mu, Z. (2015) ‘A Survey Study: The Correlation between Introversion/Extroversion and Oral English Learning Outcome’, Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(3), 581-587. 

Dewaele, JM. and Furnham, A. (2000) ‘Personality and Speech Production: A Pilot Study of Second Language Learners’, Personality and Individual Differences, 28(2), 355-365. 

Eysenck, H. J. (1967) The biological basis of personality (Vol. 689): Transaction publishers. 

Eysenck, M. W. (1979) ‘Anxiety, learning, and memory: A reconceptualisation’, Journal of research in personality, pp. 363-385. 

Eysenck, M. W. (1981) ‘Learning, memory and personality’, In: H. Eysenck, ed. A Model for Personality. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 169-209. 

Eysenck, H. J. (1991) Manual of the Eysenck personality scales (EPS Adult): London: Hodder & Stoughton. 

Hasan, S. and Yulianti, N. (2018) ‘Introversion Personality and Students’ Reading Comprehension’, Indonesian Journal of Integrated English Language Teaching, 4(2), 218-229. 

Krashen, S. (1981) Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 

Matthews, G. (1992) ‘Extraversion’, In D. M. J. P. A. Smith (Ed.), Handbook of Human.

Performance: State and Trait (Vol. 3, pp. 367-396). London: Academic Press. 

Mudore, C.F. (2002). Are you an introvert?, Scholastic Inc, Stamford. 

Myers, I. (2003). MBTI manual: a guide to the development and use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (3rd ed.). Mountain View, California: CPP. 

Ni, H. (2012) ‘The effects of affective factors in SLA and pedagogical implications’, Theory & Practice in Language Studies, 2(7). 

Robson, G.L. (1994) Relationships between personality, anxiety, proficiency and participation (Doctoral dissertation). Temple University Japan. (UM I No.9512864). 

Thorne,A. (1987) ‘The press of personality: A study of conversations between introverts and extraverts’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(4), 718-726. 

Venugopalan, M. (2000). The relationship between extroversion/introversion and university -level ESL language proficiency, University of Kansas. 

Wakamoto,N.(2000) ‘Language learning strategy and personality variables: Focusing on extroversión and introversion’, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 38(1), 71-81.

The Norman Conquest and the Subjection of English

The Norman Conquest and the Subjection of English, 1066-1200.

If the Norman Conquest hadn’t succeeded in 1066, English language would have probably followed the same course as the other Germanic languages: retaining more inflections, preserving its own vocabulary, following the same word formation and incorporating words from other languages less freely. Particularly, it would have lacked all the French words that today make English what it seems, almost as much a Romance as a Germanic language.

This is the reason why it must be explained the origin of Normandy. Normandy is a district in the northern coast of France directly across from England. In 912 the right of the Northmen to occupy this part of France was recognized and Rollo was recognised as the first king of Normandy.

Thanks to the adaptability of the Scandinavian to the ideas and customs of those among whom they came to live, the Normans soon absorbed the most important elements of French civilization. In the military aspect, they added French tactics to their own impetuous courage, and they soon had one of the best armies, in Europe. They took important features of Frankish law, including the idea of the jury, making one of the best legal systems at that time. They accepted Christianity and began the construction of the famous Norman cathedrals that are still marvels to the modern architect. But most important of all, they soon gave up their own language and learned French.

For some years before the Norman Conquest, the relations between England and Normandy were close. In 1002 Æthelred had married a Norman wife and, when driven into exile by the Danes, took refuge with his brother-in-law, the duke of Normandy, and this is why his son Edward was brought up in France. After all this, when in 1042 the Danish line died out and Edward was restored to the throne, he brought with him some of his Norman friends, enriched them, and gave them important places in the government. A strong French atmosphere pervaded the English court. In January 1066, Edward died childless and left England without a successor and finally, Harold was elected king.

His election was challenged by William, the duke of Normandy, he was a second cousin to the late king. Although this relationship did not give him any right of inheritance to the English throne, he had the expectation of becoming Edward’s successor, because Edward had assured him that he should succeed him, and only by force could William hope to obtain the crown.

In September he landed on the south coast of England, with a formidable force. His landing was unopposed. Harold was occupied in the north of England meeting an invasion by the king of Norway.  It was just after his victory that William lands. The news was expected, but the English were not fully prepared for it. Moreover, William’s departure had been delayed, and with the coming of the harvest season many of those whom Harold had assembled a few months before, in anticipation of an attack, had been sent home. He drew up his forces on a broad hill at Senlac and awaited William’s attack. Thanks to Harold’s advantageous position and their great defence they were still resisting in the afternoon. Due to the fact William could not drive them off, he determined to try to lure them off and ordered a feigned retreat. The English fell into the trap and the French won at night. Although William had won the battle of Hastings and eliminated his rival, he had not yet attained the English crown. It was only after he had burnt and pillaged the southeast of England that the citizens of London decided that further resistance would be useless. William was crowned king of England the same year.

William’s possession was a matter of conquest. He introduced a new nobility, giving important positions to William’s Norman followers and persecuting traitors (there was severity with revolts). Norman upper class was gradually introduced into all important positions in the church. The English abbots were replaced more slowly. The lower class came into England with William’s army. Many of them doubtless remained in the island and they increased their number throughout the rest of the eleventh century and the whole of the next. William also built castles and a considerable number of merchants and craftsmen arrived.

Whatever the actual number of Normans settled in England, it is clear that the members of the new ruling class were sufficiently predominant to continue to use their own language, they knew no English and making no effort to do so as a matter of policy. For 200 years, French remained the language of upper classes in England, and this was creating a social distinction, between upper and lower classes.

The most important factor in the continued use of French by the English upper class was the close connection between England and the continent: the kings of England were likewise dukes of Normandy. To the end of his life, William felt more closely attached to his dukedom than to England. And it is not surprising that the attention of the English was focused upon affairs in France.  For instance, except for Henry I, no English king until Edward IV sought a wife in England. This is why it was easy to see how continentally minded English royalty was and how natural a thing would seem the continued use of French at the English court.

There is no reason to think that the preference that the governing class in England showed for French was anything more than a natural result of circumstances, the newcomers weren’t hostile to the English language. It is true that English was now an uncultivated tongue, but there is evidence of mutual respect and peaceful cooperation. It was only that the attitude of the king and the upper classes toward the English language was of simply indifference. They did not cultivate English, because their activities in England did not necessitate it and their constant concern with continental affairs made French for them more useful.

Literature played a more important part in the lives of the leisure class. And a considerable part of French literature was being produced in England from the beginning of the 12th century. William’s daughter, for example, was a patron of poets, and his son Henry I was at least married successively to two queens who supported poets. The court was the centre of much literary activity.

In the years following the Norman Conquest, the defeat and the political and social hardships were gradually forgotten. People accepted the new order a fact and adjusted themselves to it... The fusion of Normans and English was rapid, but not more rapid than national interest and the intercourse of everyday life would normally bring about.

The Reestablishment t of English, 1200-1500.

As long as England held its continental territory and its nobility united to the continent, there were still reasons to keep French as the language of the governing classes. Nevertheless, in the year 1200 things changed because England lost part of its territory, and there was a revival of the English language, moving gradually French into a lower position.

Apart from this reason, several events in the 13th century promoted a more negative vision of the French language. The first one was that the French invasion of Normandy in 1204 mad the English nobility and king lose economic interests with the continent. Furthermore, in the same year, a decree by the French king offered the possibility to choose between keeping their possessions either in England or in France. Thus, the nobles that kept their possessions in England were English and the ones that kept their possessions in France were French, causing at the same time a loss of interest of the French language.

The second reason was that England experienced a period of French emigration to France during the decades of the 1230s and 1240s (in the reigns of King John and Richard III), who was not well received by France. And this emigration produced ironically in England, a national feeling against the French people that remained in the country and to their language as well.

In the 13th century, French was only used for social customs, business and administrative conventions, whilst English substituted French as the language of upper classes. The French language was even treated as a foreign language (for the beginning of the 15th century, every child of England spoke as his or her mother tongue)

In the 14th century, even the more conservative institutions, as universities or churches, gave support to English. Other institutions, such as the court, despite the fact that they still read and wrote in French, they spoke in English, thanks to the Parliament that in October 1362, established English as the language of the court: for plead, defend, judge…

In addition to this, the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) also contributed to the view of French as the language of the enemy. The Black Death was also an important event that influenced in the use of the English language, due to the fact that it killed a big part of the lower class, and they were more economically important due to their rise of wages.

In the 15th century, the ability to speak French was exceptional and not many cultivated people knew it, and this was gradually reflected in the writing. By the middle of the century, all letters and records of towns were written in English, even in the Parliament they started to write in English. 

In the literary aspect, religious books of the 12th and 13th century were commonly found and in the following centuries, literature topics turn to more secular ones, as for instance, romances. One of the most important authors who wrote in English in the 14th century was Chaucer with his “Canterbury Tales”, Langland and Wycliffe. 

ENGLISH LAW

The reason why French became the spoken language of English law is difficult to answer. The date when the first literary texts of law were written in French is known and how earlier law treatises in Latin were translated into the same language as well. But it is quite difficult to determine when French became the tongue used regularly in English courts. Traditionally, it has been thought that the use of French in England for all purposes was a direct result of the Norman Conquest, and that it became the ordinary language of upper classes, so it was considered that Englishmen spoke French in courts because they spoke it everywhere else. As far as it is known, no attempt has ever tried to explain why the people as a whole adopted English as the national tongue and the lawyers alone continued using French. Only a few writers changed this opinion traditionally based on a very slight historical basis and that lacked the support of any direct evidence from any first class source. It is, in fact, the contrary, the French language did not drive out English just after the conquest as a generally used tongue in courts, until long after the conquest. Perhaps not until the time of Edward I, the period at which it began to affect English legal literature.

References

Woodbine, George E. “The Language of English Law.” Speculum, vol. 18, no. 4, 1943, pp. 395–436, www.jstor.org/stable/2853661?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents, 10.2307/2853661. Accessed 24 Apr. 2019.

Baugh, A. C., & Cable, T. (1993). A history of the English language. Routledge.

Robin Hood and James Bond

1º y 2ºBACH

Robin Hood and James Bond 007 🔫

Do we still have in our real world any character like them? Tell me about someone who may be similar either to Robin Hood or James Bond.

What do you know about Robin Hood? 

Here is a listening exercise from 6 Minute English (BBC Learning English) to discover this character, but if you want to have further details about him and the city of Nottingham watch the video Module 9 / 8b from the programme of That's English!

Here's another interesting listening exercise about James Bond 007 

>>>Licence to kiss from (BBC Learning English).