Language Acquisition And Learning Of Linguistics

Second language acquisition has long been the focus of linguists and researchers in the teaching field. It highlights the process and theories of acquiring second languages among learners. Second language acquisition seeks to understand the development of second language acquisition among second language learners. Mastering the knowledge of second language acquisition helps teachers to successfully provide effective teaching for students. Undeniably, knowledge on second language acquisition is very much related to effective teaching of second languages. Many linguists and teacher educators believe that all language teachers should be equipped with knowledge of second language acquisition to help them teach effectively. Additionally, most teacher training programmers have incorporated second language acquisition as a compulsory course to make sure that all future language teachers are well-equipped with enough knowledge to teach in classroom.

Why is this question ambiguous and why is it interesting to note that this question is ambiguous?

Every human being holds a set of inherent behaviors that enables them to thrive and evolve over time. Be it, anger, jealousy, or closing your eyes when exposed to extreme brightness, one of the most unique human instincts is language. Language is the system in which humans can communicate amongst each other, an incredible phenomenon, and yet for many years psychologists and scientists have yet to come up with one set theory as to how we acquire the languages we have. There are two fundamentally different theories on language acquisition that I will be presenting, the first by linguist Noam Chomsky and the second by psychologist B.F Skinner.

Observing T over the past five weeks, and the three observations that I have documented, provided many patterns that I have noticed when it comes to T and how he interacts with not only his peers, but also the materials in the classroom. T often plays with and uses material that can essentially be open-ended and up to his interpretation. T’s play is critical in his language acquisition, with him being only two years old. “However, the knowledge that forms the foundation for reading and writing is built throughout early childhood through play, language, and literacy experiences.” (Pinell & Fountas, 2011,p.21). T’s main source of talk occurs while he is engaged in play by himself or with other children. T also chooses when to talk and when to

Why is this question ambiguous and why is it interesting to note that this question is ambiguous?

Gadsden County has a very committed ESOL program. Gadsden County has created an ELL program that is comparable to non-ELL students, with the focus on acquiring English and mastering academic success. A Home Langue Survey is sent home to all students to identify all possible needs for language assistance. Once a child has been identified for needing extra language assistance, an English Language Proficiency assessment is give to get a proper level of language acquisition. Gadsden County ensures that all teachers and administrators are properly trained to teach the ELL students and competent of understanding cultural differences. The Gadsden county ELL program takes every opportunity to ensure that language translations are available for parents and students and give necessary resources to ensure success.

Students in the pre-emergent stage of language acquisition have a vocabulary base of approximately 500 receptive words (Hong, 2008, p. 61). However, these students may be experiencing the “silence period” or parrot others thought they produce limited language output. Therefore, the read aloud strategy, a method of reading a book audibly either as a class or in small groups provides English Language Learners the opportunity to hear English spoken in a clear slow manner while participating in a classroom activity (Grand Canyon University School of Education website, n.d., expression 2). By reading aloud, the teacher provides a model of proficient reading and a means to provide content for ELLS who cannot yet read at the level of the text (Levine, Lukens, & Smallwood, 2013, p. 94) Also reading aloud “builds students background knowledge and develops academic vocabulary along” with proper enunciation which is vital for this stage of English development (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2013, p. 76).

Numerous theories try to explain the process of language acquisition. These theories fall into one of two camps. The environmentalist (or connectionist) theory of language acquisition asserts that language is acquired through environmental factors (Halvaei et al. 811). Theorists in this camp believe that a child learns language by gaining information from the outside world and then forming associations between words and objects. The nativist (or rationalist) approach, on the other hand, asserts that it is innate factors that determine language acquisition. Noam Chomsky, often described as “the father of modern linguistics”, falls into this camp as he believes that speech is the result of hidden rules of language that are hidden somewhere in the brain (Rahmani and Abdolmanafi 2111). Steven Pinker, a colleague of Chomsky, is a renowned psychologist, cognitive scientist and linguist who discusses his own theories on language acquisition in his book Words and Rules.

As teachers is it pressingly important that they should have a strong knowledge and understanding of language and how to develop it for their students as language needs to be developed for themselves but also the knowledge that it can be different for all.

It is a well-known fact that all children acquire language the same way, regardless of what the language in question is. For example, we can create an analogy by comparing the process of acquiring a language to learning how to play a new game. If one wishes to play a new game he must first go over some basic rules, which in our case would be: understanding sounds, words and sentences and how they can be combined into meaningful structures. Since language can be considered a highly complex game there are many rules which are divided into levels that depend on each other. Therefore, to understand some higher principles of language one must first acquire all of the lower ones that support them. Observing how a child acquires a language

Utaboopia is a recently discovered planet with many humans inhabiting the place. Just like any other humans, Utaboopians have their language for communication purposes. It was necessary to learn the Utaboopia language and how to communicate with them. However, the Utaboopians do not have any taboo language in their culture. For the humans living on planet earth, they have some limitations structured by a particular culture on words that are publicly considered vile in what is known as taboo language or taboo words. Therefore, since there is no such thing as taboo words in the language of Utaboopia, here is a description of the taboo language and how it operates in the planet

Language acquisition is the study of how language is learned. There are two different ways to study language acquisition: by observing and describing. There is a clear difference in the way that adults and children speak. "Children do not perfect their native pronunciation for several years, but they establish crucial phonological patterns in the early months that serve them for life" (Herschensohn 29). Phonology is the study of the sound patterns that occur within languages. By studying phonology, you can pinpoint patterns within speech to understand the processes a child uses when speaking.

Language acquisition is the study of how humans acquire a set of semantic, syntactic, morphological and phonological categories and rules that underlie their ability to speak and understand the language to which they are exposed. (Parker and Riley, 2005)

Throughout my life I have encountered and worked with adults that come from different native backgrounds. Many of them come to America in search of better opportunities. As a result, they come with their first language mastered and now they must learn a second language. America continues to be the destination of immigrants around the world. Millions will continue coming here even by risking their lives. This paper is very important, as an educator I will consistently meet families and students learning English. It will also help me further understand difficulties L2 learners face allowing me to tackle these problems with

* In the educational field, the teaching learning cycle is a model used in contemporary teaching in both school and adult educational settings. Rothery (1996 in Derewianka & Jones 2012, pg 43) who originally developed the model used this to aim at disadvantaged children for teaching literacy and writing in the KLA (Key learning areas) who were from socially disadvantaged areas. Over time the model has been phased across other areas of the English language such as listening, speaking, reading as well as writing. The key involvement of the teacher also known as ‘expert other’ in the teaching learning cycle is guiding the learner to understand key concepts in academic literacy through use of scaffolding strategies to transform students