The Natural Approach

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

The process by which language is learnt or acquired differs by theory, specifically two alternate perspectives display the basis of nature and nurture. The first theory to be discussed stems off the basis of nurture, the behaviourist theory. This theory draws upon the concept of nature, suggesting behaviour is learnt through experience and reinforced by rewards (Fellows & Oakley, 2014). This perspective states children learn from and imitate their surroundings and they are rewarded by responses and the success of their communication, this is an exemplar of acquisition

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.

First, children¡¯s acquisition of language is an innate mechanism that enables a child to analyze language and extract the basic rules of grammar, granted by Chomsky. It basically states that humans are born with a language acquisition device that, the ability to learn a language rapidly as children. However, there is one important controversy in language acquisition concerns how we acquire language; since Chomsky fails to adequately explain individual differences. From the behaviorists¡¯ perspectives, the language is learned like other learned behaviors. It is learned through operant

Language acquiring, in terms of I-language, corresponds to the change of a subject's mind/brain state. To know the language L is for the subject's (H's) mind/brain, initially to be in a state So, to be set to a certain state SL. (4) One task of the brain sciences will be to explain what it is about H's brain (in particular, its language faculty) that corresponds to H's knowing L.

Therefore, from the behaviourist approach, language acquisition can be seen as a stimulus-response process. Children learn language by immitation and analogy. The roles of imitation, repetition, reinforcement, and motivation are essential in learning the language. The First Language Acquisition is thus the result of nature which based on practicing.

Krashen and Terrell (1983) authored the book “The Natural Approach” in which they identified the following five stages through which ELLs progress when learning English as a second language: preproduction, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advance fluency. Mora-Flores (2011) indicates that the way in which ELLs’ language development is monitored and labeled varies across the country. The most important aspect is the teachers’ understanding of what students bring to the classroom in terms of language since this allows teachers to build toward the following level in the student

First thing’s first. What is language acquisition? Well the term refers to the process humans take to develop and attain a form of communication.

Children’s acquisition of language has long been considered one of the uniquely defining characteristics of human behaviour. Even today, it is widely thought that children acquire their native language from the imitation of their parents, caregivers or the people in their daily environment. In this essay I will go through what the typical stages of language acquisition in children are, I will explain and show examples of cognitive disabilities and other difficulties in acquiring language, show the theories that explore how language is acquired and see if these theories account for children who are not cognitively impaired but who still do not acquire language.

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

Chomsky (Steinberg 2011) views language as an innate ability children carry; this views centers the idea that the process of acquiring language is rooted in organized cognitive structures, and these traits are considered fundamentally biological. Chomsky (Steinberg 2011) states that each child has the potential to learn language with a lan-guage acquisition device (LAD). The LAD contains linguistic universals, one being the ability to speak a universal amount of utterances which Chomsky labels this knowledge as linguistic crea-tivity (Steinberg 2011). It also provides for the ability to learn the complexities of a language rapidly and uniformly. Chomsky, and other research has provided a wealth of knowledge to ex-plain language development, but it has its limitations. Whether language is hard wired or a learned experience, we know language has universal components that are shared among many languages and are a part of language development. This paper will try take a point of view that encompasses both of these perceptive. The model that best suits this idea is the interactionist

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

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.

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.

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)