Language Nguage And The Role Of The Second Language Acquisition

Many popular theories of second language acquisition have been analyzed throughout history. The socialization of L2 learners, their present emotional state that is present at time of acquisition, as well as the comprehensible input and output with the use of scaffolding play a major role in second language acquisition. Let us also not forget the importance of written expression as well as reading comprehension with these L2 learners. Each play a role in language development. However, I believe that in acquiring a language, one must use a variety of techniques that work together to create a balance within the learning environment. Furthermore, all L2 learners learn differently and so a variety of resources will need to be used based on the ability of each student. There are many theories that have been developed by highly qualified experts in the field on linguistics. However, I will address those areas that I agree with as I present my personal theories on second language acquisition.

By many researchers, it has been hypothesized that language could be acquired only within a critical period, which is from early infancy to puberty. If this is true, this should be extended to second language acquisition as well, and, if so, young children should be better at acquiring the second language than adults, and younger children should reach higher levels of proficiency in the second language. If this prediction is true, it would importantly demonstrate that children should be exposed to language with rich vocabulary and grammar within the critical period, and foreign language exposure at school should take place in early grades in order to maximize their opportunity to learn the language effectively. However, the motivation and the purpose of learning the target language may differ depending on the individuals and those factors can limit or expand the exposure to the target language. In this paper, I would like to discuss the correlation between the age that bilingual individuals are exposed to the second language as well as their motivation, purpose, and value of learning the second language. I would like to suggest that regardless of the age that individuals are exposed to the second language, if one values the importance of learning the second language and maximize their exposure to the targeted language, they can reach to the native level of proficiency in that language.

Babies are not born talking, they learn language, starting immediately from birth. How does this process take place? When do children master the skills needed for using language successfully? What stages do they go through as they learn to understand and talk? Do the languages they learn affect the way they think? This edition of Eve Clark's highly successful textbook focuses on children's acquisition of a first language, the stages of development they go through, and how they use language as they learn. It reports on recent findings in each area covered, includes a completely new chapter on the acquisition of two languages and shows how speech to children differs by social class. Skilfully integrating actual data with coverage of current theories and debates, it is an essential guide to studying language acquisition for those working in linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.

To elaborate on this hypothesis, Brown (2000) argues that …the CAH claims that the principal barrier to second language acquisition is that the interference of the first language system with the second language system, and that a scientific, structural analysis of the two languages in question would yield a taxonomy of linguistic contrast between them which in turn would enable the linguist to predict the difficulties a learner

There has been much research conducted in the field of second language acquisition relating to the age factor, and it seems that the link between the two has been altered over time. To understand how and why this shift has occurred, it will be helpful to look at some of the older theories that hypothesise the idea of a critical period in which a second language is acquired, and compare this notion to more recent studies that provide a basis for the conclusion that age is not necessarily a critical factor in successful second language learning and that the idea that ‘younger = better’ is not absolute.

The great debate in theories of child language acquisition involves the initial stage of language learning. This is also called the nature versus nurture debate, where some theorists argue that children naturally acquire linguistic skills from simple exposure to language. Others claim that it requires more deliberate teaching and education; it is not a merely natural phenomenon. In addition to the main stages of language acquisition, I hope to offer summaries of the key debates in the scholarly field and also some interesting elaborations on the main points of this essay. The stages of child language acquisition are three, but before we look in depth at the stages of language acquisition, consider the key movements in the field of study.

The story of Genie, the alias of a feral child, became an impelling topic of research for scientists, psychologists, and linguists. With careful observation of the new-found human subject, Genie became a significant channel to gain further knowledge of linguistic development. Genie and other similar cases have triggered questions concerning a typical child’s language acquisition development. Is there a time limit that children should be exposed to a language or a window of opportunity for children learning language acquisition? The purpose of this study is to thoroughly examine comparisons gathered by researchers to determine whether learning language acquisition is native or environmental. Researchers explore whether children are prone to learning language acquisition as they develop or if learning language acquisition can be taught at any age of a child’s development. This allows us to construct a generalized idea and/or explanation.

Second language acquisition is a process whereby people learn an additional language on top of their native ones. Learning a second language can be functional to oneself especially when communicating with a person whom you do not have a common language with. In acquiring the second language, there will be difficulties that one might face as compared to acquiring the first language, which makes it harder to acquire. Our mother tongue is easier to learn as we would have been brought up by our parents or grandparents that speak the language. Learning a second language can be difficult as we are not brought up for that language and would not know the basis of it. Some factors that makes it hard is the age of the learner, experience, the cognitive

Through the linguistic lenses, Stephen Kristen created an article based on second language acquisition theories on how humans develop an additional language and/or languages. Several hypotheses that exist on this topic, but one of them is relevant to how a second language is acquired. The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis broadly emphasises two different languages can be acquired: 1) acquire the language, 2) learn the language (Krashen, p. 1). This article states that language acquisition “…subconsciously. While it is happening, we are not aware that it is happening. We think we are having a conversation, reading a book, watching a movie. Of course, we are, but at the same time, we might be acquiring language.” (Krashen, p. 1).

With the rise of globalisation, English has become the Lingua Franca as a tool to communicate among people from different countries in numerous situations and areas (Nikolov & Djigunovic, 2006, p.234). Therefore, people in various countries are closely connected economically, politically and culturally and many people are required to acquire a foreign language. As a result, there have been many researches and evidence on whether age has a great impact on second language acquisition. This essay will illustrate neurological, phonological and affective factors and the Critical Period Hypothesis as evidence that children have advantages in second language acquisition. In contrast, cognitive theories will be stated to illustrate how adult learners have advantages in many second learning strategies (Comrie & Corbett, 2009, p.12). Thirdly, it will suggest two second language acquisition methods inspired by children?s first language learning, which are Total physical Response and Natural Approach, because despite their limitations, they contain useful lessons from children?s first language acquisition such as raising interest and lowering learners? stress. Finally, this essay will assert that considering neurological, phonological and affective evidence and witnessing children?s natural and effortless language acquisition, overall children surpass adults in second language acquisition. Therefore, it is wise to elect useful factors from

Many researchers have hypothesized that language could be acquired only within a critical period, which is from early infancy to puberty. If this is true, this should be extended to second language acquisition as well, and, if so, young children should be better at acquiring the second language than adults, and the individuals who started to learn the second language in their early childhood should reach higher levels of proficiency in the second language compare to those who started to learn the language in their adulthood. If this prediction is true, it would importantly demonstrate that children should be exposed to language with rich vocabulary and grammar within the critical period, and foreign language exposure at school should take place in early grades in order to maximize their opportunity to learn the language effectively. However, the self-motivation and the value of learning the language may differ depending on the individuals and those factors can limit or expand the exposure to the target language. In this paper, I would like to discuss the correlation between the age that bilingual individuals are exposed to the second language as well as their motivation, and the value of learning the second language. I would like to suggest that regardless of the age that individuals are exposed to the second language, if one values the importance of learning the target language and maximize their exposure to it, they can reach to the native level of proficiency in that language.

For over sixty years scientists and linguists have been doing the researches about the second language acquisition and bilingualism among children. It has been discovered that second language acquisition is a parallel of the first language acquisition but also there are a lot of differences.

There are various factors that affect how proficient the child becomes in the second language, two primary factors are the amount of exposure as well as the quality of the second language (Genesse, Paradis, & Crago, 2011, p.131). Additionally, success in dual language development is determined by linguistic factors, psychological factors, as well as social factors that will be further discussed in terms of Abel’s second language acquisition process.

The subtlety of language acquisition has been the most fundamental question in the study of linguistics and human development. From Bow-wow Theory to Yo-He-Ho Theory, the major theories on language origins and learnability emerged at mid-20th century and has been heavily debated ever since. Among them, the idea of universal grammar in which is usually credited to linguist Noam Chomsky, remains the most notable and controversial theory over time. He introduced and developed the t heory from 1950s to 1970s as he proposed and championed linguistic nativism in language acquisition. Chomsky supports that language mastery involves knowledge of linguistic rules and conventions, which he later named that as ‘cognizance’. He believes that

First language acquisition is the first words that the child speaks or says and it’s the process by which the child learn, speaks and write, and it is the initial stages of language development in humans infants, children begin learning their language since they’re babies with uncorrected grammar until many years they will be able to learn the language with a perfect grammar after going to school and have some support with their family, on the psychology side, Many of psychologist have a different point of view in the first language acquisition and every psychologist have a different theory about the language acquisition. And some of the theorists says that the language is acquired while the other theorists said that the language is learnt, so every psychologist have a theory about the language acquisition, and in my essay I will be talking about the first language acquisition for the child, and if the language is learnt or acquired and more of things I will be talking about.