Age Effects on Self-Perceived Communication Competence and Language Choice among Adult Multilinguals

The aim of this investigation is to examine the age effects on self-perceived communication competence and language choice among adult multilinguals. The variables of this study is age of acquisition (AOA), self-perceived communicative competence in speaking, comprehending, reading and writing; language choice for emotional speech in different situations; and language choice for mental calculation and inner speech. For the purpose of this study, the researcher selected 30 multilingual adults who were at the age of 25 to 35. They knew English, Persian and Armenia Language. For collecting data, an online questionnaire was employed. This questionnaire was written by Delwaele and Pavlenko, (2001). The results of this study showed very strong AoA effects on most of the dependent variables in the L2 and L3 of participants. These effects were not significant and they don’t have bad effect in their L4. The findings are discussed in relation to the current understanding of the research on age effects in second language acquisition. This study may be useful for language teachers, bilingual and multilingual and those who interest psychology and linguistics studies

Keywords:

adult multilinguals , age effects , language choice , self-perceived communication competence