Reasons For First Language Acquisition

in the first language, and it is the language that children begin to construct their knowledge and form meaningful communicative relationships” (p. 1). According to Karen Ford (2017), “Parents are also instrumental in supporting early language development” (p. 3) in the ELL student. With that being said, successful early childhood programs build upon the knowledge the young learners bring from home. Children come to literacy learning with varying knowledge; henceforth, the pathway to literacy is developmental. It’s the educator’s responsibility to assess and start where that child is developmentally and build on `prior experiences and knowledge. Educators must know their students as individuals, including their interest, their attitudes about reading, and their school and home experiences to provide robust classroom instruction with learning opportunity to meet individual needs.

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.

Acquisition of an L2 (second language), has always been an important issue in the field of linguistics, and its relationship with an L1 (First language) is what concerns Vivian Cook in the chapter called “The relationship between first and second language learning revisited”.

Behaviourists believe that learning a language is no different from learning anything else. It becomes a habit by the stimulus-response-reinforcement-repetition process (Cook, 2001). The behaviourists also claim that we learn by imitation and by association (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). However, psycholinguists argue that imitation is not enough because it is not only the mechanical repetition but also natural exposure that children acquire language (Cook, 2001).

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

Krashen & Terrell (1995) explore five hypotheses of second language acquisition theory in their chapter. These hypotheses include, “the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the input hypothesis, and the affective filter hypothesis” (Krashen & Terrell, 1995). The concepts outlined in this chapter provide a foundation of the process that English language learners (ELLs) are developing through. However, like all theory, it is up to myself as the classroom teacher, to translate this theoretical into a working

The Error Analysis in Second Language Acquisition was recognized and named as “The significance of learner errors” by Corder and his colleagues. Further Corder delineated that it has two objectives: one is theoretical and the other is applied. The theoretical objective serves to explain what and how a learner learns when he studies a second language. The applied objective serves to enable the learner to learn more efficiently by exploiting our knowledge of his dialect for pedagogical purposes (Corder, 1974:122).

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.

Language is very important for every human being. It helps us to communicate with each other also to be able to read, write and understand what we see in the books, television and streets. Language is a system, which helps the humans to operate and communicate similar to the need for operating system that helps the processor to make the hardware and the software work, likewise our need for the language, which helps us to improve our brain that makes us learn and recognize. Fortunately, we have the ability to learn foreign languages because it is important for our brain and for our society. My goal in this paper is to prove the importance of learning a second language from many perspectives. Also, I have chosen this topic because it is one of the things that have not disadvantages at all.

What is First Language Acquisition? First Language Acquisition studies how children acquire their native language. Up to this day, there are many theories that theorist came up with to explain how children acquire their language. The main theories that people believe for how children acquire language are Innateness Hypothesis, Imitation Theory, Reinforcement Theory, Active Construction of a Grammar Theory and last but not least, Social Interaction Theory. These theories have many similar characteristics as well as many differences.

According to Houmanfar, Hayes, and Herbst (2005), the first and second languages are interrelated and the history of the first language is a participatory factor in the acquisition of the second language (L2) and its maintenance. The Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis indicates that the structure and shape of the L1 of an individual are different from those the L2 that could create errors in speaking, reading and writing (Dulay et al., 1982). Similarities and differences between L1 and L2 acquisition will be outlined in terms of various theories.

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

It goes without question that the degree of involvement and kind of relationship developed between a parent and a child is of great influence and may benefit the child’s cognitive and behavioral development. The kind of parent-child rapport obtained can also hinder these developments if the relationship fails to fulfill the common day-to-day necessities of a child while he or she goes through developmental changes. After much deliberation, reading and research it is to no surprise that the kind of relationship established between a parent and a child serves as the foundation as well as the building blocks for children to grow into well rounded, successful adults. Factors such as amount of income, degree of involvement, play time, parent

In this globalized world, learning an extra language other than their native languages is almost essential for every individual. Although the United States is one of the most diverse countries in the world, the need to promote a national language is widely held in the country as requisite for the promotion of a national identity, a President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C, Terrence Wiley states (Wiley, 2014). However, English is not considered as an official language, which creates an opportunity for the citizens and immigrants to not only study English, but also inherit their mother tongues and learn other foreign languages as well, particularly during the secondary education. Additionally, “globalization in the economy and politics have profound consequences for language policies in education” (Wiley, 2014). High schools in the United States value diversity in language classes and support students learning more than one language to foster better communication with people around the world.

classroom. It’s not until recent years that general education teachers realize that ELL students do not learn the same way as their native speaking English classmates because of their lack of English proficiency. (Brown, 2003) One of the factors that affect how ELLs learn is age and there are also several factors such as gender, L1 literacy, social context, and personality. In this term paper I will discuss how age and personality affect second language acquisition and the factors can be used in the language classroom to facilitate second language acquisition.