Ringvorlesung «Sprache – école – society»

While research on instructed second language (L2) acquisition in healthy older adults has recently begun to gain traction, the mechanisms of third age additional language learning have rarely been investigated. In particular, there have been calls for more research employing dynamic methods capable of revealing how significant peaks and dips in L2 development emerge in more mature L2 learners in relation to cognitive functioning/decline and socio-affective variables such as L2 motivation and wellbeing. What is more, the hypothesis that L2 acquisition has the potential to be an “anti-aging activity” (Ryan & Dörnyei, 2013, 93), being a cognitively challenging activity that seems in specific circumstances to promote neural plasticity and to foster social interaction and individual mobility (e.g. Antoniou, Gunasekera & Wong, 2013), warrants further research to fully understand its implications and underlying mechanisms.

Drawing on my own and others’ research on healthy older adults who become bilingual later in life, I offer a critical review of empirical and theoretical results concerning our understanding of language learning later in life. I argue that a better understanding of the nature of age and ageing will facilitate sensitivity to intervention analysis and help refine and tailor future meditation-based interventions in the third age.

• Referentin: Prof. Dr. Simone E. Pfenninger, Universität Zürich
• Diskutant: Prof. Dr. Dieter Bitterli, PH Luzern