Accentual intonation is achieved, as the name suggests, by stressing a particular word in a sentence. The speaker can change the meaning substantially simply by using his voice. For example, look at the difference in meaning between “I have plans to leave” and “I have plans to leave”. The first sentence suggests that the speaker wants to leave some plans / documents behind, whereas the second refers to him planning to quit his …show more content…
The Critical Age is considered to be especially true of phonology. This has huge implications for learning and teaching as it raises such questions as, “At what age should I start learning a language?” or, perhaps more pertinent for our line of business, “Can I start learning a language now as an adult? If I can’t learn it properly because of the Critical Age Hypothesis, what’s the point?” The Critical Age Hypothesis does not state that you cannot learn the language, just simply that you will not acquire native-like proficiency in it.
The key implication, then, is for goal setting. Since it is clear that native-like proficiency may be unlikely and since, in any case, the majority of English is spoken as a lingua franca,