The development of English speech patterns of a 7-year-old Polish-speaking child

The silent period hypothesis was investigated by examining the speech development of AO, a Polish-speaking child, who emigrated to the U.S. at age 7 years, 5 months, and placed in the second grade of a rural Missouri school district in which there was no instruction of English as a second-language. AO was observed for 6 years, 8 months, in order to study the development of his English speech patterns. During this interval, recordings were made of five sentences produced by AO at five different age points and with recordings from a control group of native and nonnative speakers were rated by native American speakers. AO's accent showed a gradual decline during the first year of residence, receiving a rating of near-native speech. By age 14 years, 6 months, he was rated as having native speech performance. Observations of his language, social, and school development indicated that AO remained essentially silent during the first 6 months, using two- and three-word sentences only when necessary, that his social development was normal, and that his school achievement was not impeded by his placement in the grade level appropriate for his age. The conclusion was reached that AO's silent period experience contributed significantly to his development of English speech patterns.