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.
Nowadays young – English Ecuadorian students are highly benefited from English; therefore, the importance to bear in mind the effect that written communication has got on English language learning process. In the same order, it is vital to address code mixing as the reason why students use Spanglish which is mixing words in their native language- Spanish and the target language English. It draws attention to the fact that learners create new words and even sentences with a blended version of Spanish and English. Therefore, this essay focuses on the review of selected authors who explain relevant aspects of Spanglish when learning English as a second language. The resources reviewed show the history of Spanglish, causes of Spanglish, consequences of Spanglish, examples of wrong morphological constructions
Learning a new language has many benefits; career advancement, bridging communication gaps, and strengthening life skills. “What theory implies, quite simply, is that language acquisition, first or second, occurs when comprehension of real messages occurs, and when the acquire is not ‘on the defensive’” wrote Steven D. Krashner (1981)
Language carries the beauty and persona of our thought process and the study of Linguistics helps us develop insights, appreciate and analyze many aspects of this powerful medium of expression. My fascination with Second Language Acquisition (SLA) began with the course ‘Language Acquisition and Learning’ that I took while I was in the 4th year of my undergraduate program at the University of Dhaka. In that course, for the first time, I was introduced to various theories and hypotheses about how people acquire a second language, such as Stephen Krashen’s five main hypotheses on language acquisition (the acquisition-learning hypothesis, the monitor hypothesis, the natural order hypothesis, the input hypothesis, and the affective filter hypothesis), Larry Selinker’s Interlanguage theory, John Schumann’s Acculturation model, and Howard Giles’s Accommodation theory. These theories helped me realize the robustness and richness of SLA research and made a permanent impression on my mind about this field. Besides SLA, I was also acquainted with Psycholinguistics through this course. I have learned about several theories of first language acquisition, e.g. the Behaviorist theory, the Innatist theory, the Cognitive theory, and the Maturational theory. It is worth mentioning here that this course really helped me set my dream to become an academic as well as a researcher in the field of language acquisition and learning.
As Zentella has studied within these three families, she finds an assortment of variation, even in individuals that come from the same family. The author argues that children coming from similar backstories range differently in their expertise in the language of their immigrated parents and the standard language of their residency. She concludes that because each family’s outlook on learning a second language and each individual’s preference challenges one another, one’s ability to learn a second language varies as well; there is no solid explanation as to why some people from the same background are more advanced in Spanish rather than English, and vice versa. Most people would not have taken into account of all the different contributions that this author describes, including gender, social preference, location, and personal beliefs. The common person would assume that acquiring a second language is possible for these families because they are surrounded by it, and that they would be able to maintain both their primary and secondary language. However, the author does analyze the contrasting opinion through observing the differences found in her study. She finds that the development of each person greatly varies to where each has different learning abilities and preferences. Where they live, whom they are in contact with, gender, and even their own personal behavior affects their unique growth. Since all have varying opinions, their decisions and values are placed accordingly to their own desire; in conclusion, these are all major factors in how people’s language skills
There are many factors which can aid language development, particularly through writing (Watts et al., 2013). Jones and Coffey (2013) identified that writing should be developed procedurally through copying, initially at word level- to learn spellings and develop familiarisation with vocabulary and individual letters. Before then progressing to phrase-level and on to sentences. It is thought that through copying the children are beginning to memorise the vocabulary and can help them to engrain key sentence structures, as they pay close attention to the individual words and spellings. Macaro (2006) has also identified that copy-writing is often used as a way of remembering spellings for new target vocabulary. Hurrell (1999) criticises the motion of copy-writing: as it gives the children too many things to focus on.
We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.
To understand children’s language learning we have to go beyond language classrooms. Regarding the child as a language learner we have
It is a well-known fact that children acquire language through their environment. From the time of birth, they are exposed to many different phonetics which allow them to shape words and form language. As parents and families utilize specific words as symbols for different concepts and ideas, children learn that they must use these to communicate their desires. This is evident in everyday life, for example those born in different parts of the world, who grow up hearing a predominant language, grow up speaking that language with all of the same particular nuances, slangs and variations that are present. Therefore, Amy Tan’s claim that “the language spoken in the family, especially in the immigrant families, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child,” is definitely viable.
Dual language learners are children learning two or more languages at the same time, as well as those learning a second language while continuing to develop their first (or home) language (Dual language learning, 2008). The number of children being raised in bilingual homes is large and growing, however the mechanism of language development in children from bilingual homes is not well described or understood (Hoff et al., 2011). A large body of research has refuted the opinion that dual language input may confuse children, and other research indicates that children exposed to two languages can distinguish those languages from infancy, learn two phonological systems, two vocabularies and two grammars (Kova´cs & Mehler, 2009a; Petitto,
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
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
Why should people nowadays see languages as a big prize? A person speaks more languages have more opportunities are skewed to him because he benefits the profit comparing to a person who speaks only one standard language. It is time for globalization and its effects on children for speaking other languages as a must. In two articles “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” by Richard Rodriguez and “Whose Voice Is It Anyway?” by Victor Villanueva, the two authors both expressed their opinions on native language and how the assimilation impacts a child. However, Rodriguez believed that the assimilation was beneficial for him as he had grown up in the English-speaking world and he disliked bilingual education which created many controversy.
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.