Critical essay response of week 4

Critical essay response of week 4
Lytton, E7F
In the contemporary world, English as a lingua franca is popular in many areas of Asia. Taking Thailand for example, these is no consensus whether the Thai government should promote the critical period (between one and four) language learning yet. In his article ‘Seizing the Moment’ (2004), Robert Andrews argues passionately that English education should begin in critical period in Thailand. Dr. Surintra Sujitjon contends that adopting critical period language should be reconsidered by the Thailand government. This critical response will examines two arguments from both articles, analyse their logical, evidence, possible bias and tone in order to reach a conclusion about which one is more credible and persuasive.
Andrews first argument is that critical period is the best time for people learning a new language while Sujitjon opposes that there are potential detrimental influence can be found in critical period language learning. Logically, it seems that at first, the argument of Andrews is reasonable. However, according to “A child learning...without difficulty, without stress, without any of the self-consciousness...”, it is an over-simplification. Comparing with Andrews, Sujitjon are more logical, though she marginalises Japan at the end. With regard to evidence, Andrews does not give enough evidence and reference why critical period is “the most receptive” time and “the self-consciousness...inhibit...”, which obviously makes his argument weak. In contrast, the evidence provided by Andrews is more convincing because the quotation that he incites is also from SEAFLC thereby making Andrews has a contradiction of his own organisation; nevertheless, it would had been more credible if he had give more reference of “Mizugune’s research” such as how many students were surveyed in this reach and how heavy these “unforeseen negative consequences” are. In term of tone and bias, Andrews is too positive that he uses “without” three times. He wants to use this repetition to make people choose his college or the government adopt his suggestion. He is biased can be indicated due to his status Vice-President of the South-East Asian Federation; however, the language of Sujitjon is too negative such as “overloading”, “interfere”, “limit” and “stranger”. According “...follow Japan’s lead...our own language as second-class”, he is patriotism and aims to give people appeal of fear thereby stopping the government reformable policy. She is a local people and her article were posted in local newspaper decides she is prejudice.