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The Language Acquisition Process Is Disparate Between First Language And Foreign Language

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Introduction The language acquisition process is disparate between first language and foreign language. In this essay, we are going to investigate how they are different from each other on several aspects: phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics. 1. Phonology: Educators and pronunciation model Firstly, there is a difference in educators in first language learning and foreign language learning. First language learners acquire a pronunciation by imitating simple vowels and surrounding sounds and words from their parents when they were infants. According to Jean B.G. (1989), infants have inherent universal characteristics(Brown,1973 cited by Jean, 1989: 3-4). They produce one-word long sound that is easy to pronounce with concrete …show more content…

Infants aged at 9.5 month-old are capable to learn brand new vocal forms such as canonical syllables from the responds from their mother to the babbling(Goldstein MH, Schwade JA, 2008 cited by David J.L. and Amy M. H., 2011 :1431). Compare with the foreign language learners, majority of them learn the pronunciation from their school teachers in a classroom environment, which is organised by formal educational institutions. They started with learning the basic vowels, consonants and the position of its pronunciation. Anton (1990) and several writers stated that there is a new teaching method advocated by young educators recently of learning a foreign language in songs, musical and rhythmical mnemonic devices in a classroom may facilitate foreign language learning(Anton, 1990; Felix, 1989; Murphey, 1992; Spicher & Sweeney, 2007 cited by Ludke, K., Ferreira, F. and Overy, K. 2013:41). Another argument is made by Parker(2000) saying the 'quasi-musical ' is which nonnative speakers based on to understand speech(Parker,2000 cited by Ludke, K., Ferreira, F. and Overy, K. 2013:41) . A study took place in a classroom with children indicated the correlation of practice a foreign language with melody has a positive impact on learning vocabularies in foreign language(Medina, 1993; Murphey,1990 cited by Ludke, K., Ferreira, F. and Overy, K. 2013:41). Secondly, first language speakers learn their language from parents and the surrounding environment, which means

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