Claims

Permutation tests show early-starting immersion and non-immersion learners are indistinguishable from the earliest learners, while later starters learn significantly more slowly

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? Immersion learners with exposure ages of 2, 5, and 8 years were not significantly different from simultaneous bilinguals, while later learners were significantly lower. → Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018 q2 i? Non-immersion learners with exposure ages 5-11 were indistinguishable from the earliest non-immersion learners, whereas later learners learned significantly more slowly. → Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018 (2)

Evidence

Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018

Hartshorne Joshua K., Tenenbaum Joshua B., Pinker Steven. (2018). A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers. Cognition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559801/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Permutation analysis (1000 permutations) of learning trajectories against years of experience for immersion learners. Early exposure ages "ps > 0.31" versus later learners "ps < 0.01", as printed.

"These analyses revealed that the performance curves for immersion learners with average exposure ages of 2, 5, and 8 years were not significantly different from those of simultaneous bilinguals (exposure age = 0; ps > 0.31), while the curves for later learners were significantly lower (ps < 0.01)."

Hartshorne Joshua K. 2018 (2)

Hartshorne Joshua K., Tenenbaum Joshua B., Pinker Steven. (2018). A critical period for second language acquisition: Evidence from 2/3 million English speakers. Cognition. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6559801/

q2 · i? · associational · r2

Same permutation analysis for non-immersion learners. Exposure ages 5-11 "indistinguishable from our earliest non-immersion learners (4 years; ps > 0.31)", later learners "ps < 0.01".

"Similarly, non-immersion learners with ages of exposure of 5–11 years were indistinguishable from our earliest non-immersion learners (4 years; ps > 0.31), whereas later learners learned significantly more slowly (ps < 0.01)."

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id permutation-early-starters-indistinguishable-later-slower
title Permutation tests show early-starting immersion and non-immersion learners are indistinguishable from the earliest learners, while later starters learn significantly more slowly
description Permutation tests show early-starting immersion and non-immersion learners are indistinguishable from the earliest learners, while later starters learn significantly more slowly
status review
evidence_strength moderate
newest_evidence 2018
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-17
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — hartshorne-joshua-k-2018, hartshorne-joshua-k-2018-2

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