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Article published In:
Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 9:1/2 (2020) ► pp.97–108

Methodological concerns and their solutions in third-age language learning studies

ORCID logo | University of Groningen
| University of Groningen
| University of Groningen
With the average life expectancy in especially developed countries steadily increasing, healthy ageing is prioritised on the research agenda. Various studies have looked into bilingualism as a possible anti-ageing tool to delay the onset of symptoms of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, with as perhaps the most promising recent line of work intervention studies that introduce bilingual experiences to seniors in the form of foreign language courses meant to induce a protective effect on cognitive decline. Unfortunately, the scant studies available have not found convincing results, most likely due to several pitfalls in their designs, one of the most important being that method of instruction is rarely specified or controlled for. In this paper, we identify methodological concerns that need to be addressed when conducting experimental work related to third-age language learning, resulting in a research agenda for third-age language learning studies.
Keywords: healthy ageing, critical foreign language gerontology, seniors, third-age language learning, English as a foreign language (EFL), implicit/explicit language teaching, cognition
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Life-long learning
  • 3.Problems in third-age language learning studies
  • 4.Improving further research
  • 5.Future directions
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 16 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dujal.19036.van
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