Читать книгу New Perspectives on Older Language Learners - Miriam Neigert - Страница 12

The biological dimension of age and ageing – also referred to as senescence – is about how our body or physiological system ages. The ageing process of our bodies is dependent on our genetic disposition, our behaviour (e.g. diet and exercise), and to some extent also our environment (e.g. exposure to sun or chemicals). The physiological functions subject to change represent the so-called biomarkers and help to indicate the biological ageing process. These factors make our biological ageing a fairly unpredictable process: while one person needs a hearing aid at age 50, another person’s ears function very well until they are 75 (Rowland 2012: 167). Thus, this dimension alone is not very useful for describing the young-old learners in my study, as it is hardly possible to universally define biomarkers that would negatively impact their language learning process.

Neugarten in her definition above describes the young-old as relatively healthy and active (see also Bromley 1990: 45). The word ‘relatively’ again shows how difficult it is to draw a clear picture of this age group. What, for example, would the word ‘relatively’ entail for the young-old learners in my study? A broad definition of relatively healthy in the domain of foreign language learning would include language learners still independent enough to be able or to be enabled to undertake language learning away from their homes.1 Generally this would also mean that sensory impairments – visual and auditory – as well as cognitive impairment (even though specific language classes for participants with a mild dementia exist) have not progressed to a state making it too hard for young-old learners to achieve their language learning goals. Additionally, with constantly improving medical treatment and intervention programmes (e.g. improved hearing aids or laser treatment) the biological dimension has become less of a characteristic effectively differentiating the young-old from, for example, the middle-aged or old-old with regard to language learning (Phillips et al. 2010: 15f.). Again, we see how this age dimension presents us with more vagueness or problems when trying to find a working definition of the young-old.