The Dark Side of Motivation by Sakui and Cowie, N. (2011); the Role of Age in Second Language Acquisition by Dong and Ren, H. (2013): A Critical Review

Motivation and age play crucial roles in second language acquisition. These two factors were the mainspring of many studies pertaining second language acquisition and learning. The aim of this paper was to find out how motivation and the role of age are perceived by the teachers. Two pivotal papers of eminent scholars were selected for this critical investigation. The review of the first paper revealed that even though there are situations where motivation is missing it can be developed and improved by confident teachers in the fields of both second language acquisition and second language learning. Concerning the role of age, on the other hand, the researchers of the other study, in accordance with many recent studies, emphasized that age has a significant impact on language learning and as the learner advances in age his/her ability declines. But, in contrast to this claim, there are many students in my country who start to learn English at 18 to 20 years of age and, as a language lecturer, I have found that they reach a very advanced level even though English in my country is considered to be a foreign language and within the expanding circle.