Language And Second Language Acquisition

Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are learned. The avenue of socialization is crucial in learning a second language. When natural conversations occur with native and non-native speakers, a natural

In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.

Judie Haynes’ article, “Stages of Second Language Acquisition”, clearly states five stages that a new learner of English may go through. In Haynes’ theory, there are five stages in total, and they are pre-production, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. According to Haynes, new learners of English acquire language by going through the same stages. However, how much time each student spends at a particular stage may be different. Despite the different time length, the stages of people acquiring new language are worth discussing.

Since, the second language is an additional language after we acquire the first language, the L2 learning process can be influenced by the L1 learning process This essay will demonstrate the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 acquisition by discussing various theories. Then, draw a conclusion based on the evidence provided and my own experience.

Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are

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.

The first area of difference between first (L1) and second (L2) language learning is input – specifically the quality and quantity of input. It is the idea of the "connectionist model that implies... (that the) language learning process depends on the input frequency and regularity" (5).. It is here where one finds the greatest difference between L1 and L2 acquisition. The quantity of exposure to a target language a child gets is immense compared to the amount an adult receives. A child hears the language all day everyday, whereas an adult learner may only hear the target language in the classroom – which could be as little as three hours a week. Even if one looks at an adult in a total submersion situation the quantity is still less because the amount of one on one interaction that a child gets for example with a parent or other caregiver is still much greater then the adult is receiving.

Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided

The language acquisition talks about how all humans learn a fully developed language when they are all toddlers. The reason why they learn that language is because of the social group the toddlers were raised in. For example, a toddler raised in Mexico will learn to speak Spanish. The language acquisition device starts to shut down as we grow older. It is a lot harder for a teenager to learn a different language than it is for a younger child. The language acquisition

Recent phonetic work on second language (L2) acquisition has focused on the influence of the native language (L1) on L2 learning by providing phonetic interpretations of non-native production and perception. Researchers have suggested that the weight of a feature used in L2, but not in L1, may create difficulties for L2 learners. A classic example of this problem is the difficulty that Japanese listeners experience in distinguishing English /r/ and /l/ phonemes, which are both mapped to the Japanese /l/ (McClelland et al., 1999). Several studies have also investigated whether native speakers of a tone language have an advantage over natisve speakers of a non-tone language in discriminating or acquiring tones from a tone language with which they have no prior experience. For example, Gottfried and Suiter (1997) found that adult native English speakers were less successful in learning lexical tones to signal phonological contrast, as this feature is not used in English, than they were in learning vowel quality in Mandarin. Also, Chinese speakers outperformed English speakers in their ability to distinguish two Thai tones both before and after training (Wayland & Guion, 2004). In addition, Peng et al. (2010) investigated the influence of different tone inventories (Mandarin vs. Cantonese) as well as tone language vs. non-tone language experience (German vs. Chinese) on the categorical perception of pitch contours in Mandarin syllables and non-speech contexts (e.g., pure tone).

* 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

Learning second language or foreign language provides great benefits. It helps the child to get aware of many different cultures and enjoy economic opportunities. Teachers must be aware of how children acquire second language. Unfortunately, Teachers, sometimes have miraculous expectations on children about second language learning. That is because there are some myths and misconceptions about second language learning. It is explained by Barry McLaughlin in his article, “Myths and misconceptions about second language learning: what every teacher needs to unlearn.” He describes how children would be harmed if teachers has unrealistic expectations of the process of second language learning and he says that those intuitive assumption will effect on children other academic skills and knowledge. In his words “As any adult who has tried to learn another language can verify, second language learning can be a frustrating experience. This is no less the case for children, although there is a widespread belief that children are facile second language learners.” Teachers still have to communicate with the children by using their primary language in the school while teaching the second language, if they do not do so, because of non-communication children’s grades may be lowered and may lead to children feel embarrassed. It seems that some teachers and parents in Saudi Arabia strongly believe in those myths and misconceptions that a child is a better learner of foreign language, and

Abstract: In second language acquisition, age factors has always been the study focus and one of the most controversial issues of linguistics. Based on the Brain Plasticity Theory and the Critical Period Hypothesis, the purpose is to prove such a hypothesis that the younger the leaner who begins to learn an second language,the greater the probability that he or she will achieve a native-like command of it.

Stephen Krashen is an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in the theories of language acquisition and its development. His ideas have been for a long time “a source of ideas for research in second language acquisition” (Lightbown & Spada, 2006, p.38). In the early 1970s, he proposed the Monitor Model theory of second language acquisition, which is consists of five main hypotheses: the acquisition-learning hypotheses, the monitor hypotheses, the input hypotheses, the natural order hypotheses and the affective filter hypotheses. Krashen’s theory is considered to be “One of the most controversial theoretical perspectives in SLA in the last quarter of the twentieth century” (Brown, 2000, p.277). Despite Krashen’s success to make acquiring

All these reasons result in social interaction between speakers of different language, which helps predict language contact may result in multilingualism. It is estimated that over half of all countries are multilingual. An example of a multilingual society is Switzerland with three main languages: French, German and Italian and each language is dominant area of its own. John Edwards believes that everyone is bilingual, even if someone can only speak or understand, he believes that you have “some ‘command’ of a foreign tongue” therefore there is no clear monolingual country. Therefore multilingualism is useful in showing how the social interaction between people of different languages help us predict the linguistic results of language contact as it is an example of what happens when multiple languages exist and interact in the same country.