Age Effects on Learning German Pronunciation Based on Data from Iranian Students

The present study is based on the hypothesis of the critical period that considers complete language learning impossible after a certain age. Two groups of Iranian students who have learned German language at different ages are studied. The pronunciation of them during the rehearsal of the three German texts was evaluated by five native German evaluators. The goal was finding native speaker was among the two groups. According to many studies, it might be possible for early learner (under 12) to attain a native accent. Given that most of the students of the first group grew up in a German language context from birth, it was expected that some of them would be identified as native speakers. The question was raised whether among the adult learners a nativelike German pronunciation is found? Not only did any of the second-group students fail to be identified as native speakers, but in the first group, no one could be recognized by the raters as native speakers in all three texts.