ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on the age groups between preschool years to around the beginning of secondary schooling. It examines that process of acquisition and effectiveness of instruction appears to be mediated by age of child learners. In fact, most Child instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) experimental studies involve the quantification of linguistic growth and change, which can only be done over an extended period of time. The chapter discusses findings relevant to these age effects and how these have influenced theory development and methodology of Child SLA research. It overviews the issues by drawing on age differences in route of acquisition according to exposure, accuracy orders, cross-linguistic influence, developmental sequences, and so on. The positive impact of child interaction on L2 learning has been accounted for by assistance gained from peers. One of the commonalities between Child ISLA and adult ISLA is the way in which attention is used to explain learning process and to facilitate L2 development in classroom.
