The role of the L1 knowledge in the acquisition of the L2 knowledge

What is it about?

In the article, I propose a new model, which approaches the age effects on second language acquisition from a mental mechanism perspective. I argue that there is a mental mechanism in the mind of an individual, which functions as a defense mechanism to preserve the L1 knowledge. I name this proposed mental mechanism as system preservation device and argue that it is responsible for the decreasing abilities in second language acquisition from birth to adolescence and adulthood. Thus, the stronger the L1 knowledge gets, the weaker the acquisition of L2.

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Why is it important?

The notion of system preservation may add further insight into concepts such as critical period, maturational constraints, fossilization, crosslinguistic influence and bilingual advantages for learning additional languages.