What is Second Language Acquisition? Is it different from Second Language Learning? The answer is absolutely not. Both are the same. Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Learning, or L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second language acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying the process. The field of second language acquisition is a sub discipline of applied linguistics, but also receives research attention from a variety of other disciplines such as psychology and education. A central theme in Second Language Acquisition research is that of interlanguage, the idea that the language that learners use is not simply the result of differences between the languages that they already know and the language that they are learning, but that it is a complete language system in its own right, with its own systematic rules. This thing gradually develops as learners are exposed to the targeted language. The order in which learners acquire features of their new language stays remarkably constant, even for learners with different native languages, and regardless of whether they have had language instruction. However, languages that learners already know can have a significant influence on the process of learning a new one. This influence is known as language transfer. There are many factors which influence second language acquisition. Factors that influences SLA
Likewise, Pinker (1994) postulates a similar perspective to the “creative aspect of a language” theory proposed by Chomsky stating that children are biologically predisposed to acquire a language. From an innate perspective, Pinker affirms that children are gifted with a sixth sense called “speech perception”. Through this sense, they are able to distinguish the phonemes of a language, thus strengthening their linguistic system. At last, he alleges that up to the age of six a kid has an assured language acquisition process. Still, the child could manage to obtain satisfactory results all the way to puberty.
According to psycholinguists: Li, Aike, and Brechtje, language acquisition " is a subconscious process; language acquirers are usually not aware of the facts that they are learning a new language, but are aware only that they arse
Aside from the biological implications in relation to SLA there are other factors which have a positive correlation to learning English at an early age. The younger a child is the more used to making mistakes they are and the less embarrassed they become when making them. Young child learners “are likely to be less ‘language anxious’ than many older learners and hence may be more able to absorb language rather than block it out” (Johnstone, 2002) When a parent or school decides to expose their child or student to a second language they need to consider how the language will be introduced.
Learning a second language has become really important as the years pass because of the necessity of being communicated, and Chilean people are aware of this. Some years ago, the Education minister Joaquin Lavin announced that the new Chile’s goal is to be a bilingual country within the next 20 years. Since that declaration, many projects have started in order to develop Chilean student’s English skills, which are listening, writing, reading and speaking. The last skill mentioned is the one in which our problem is focused on. In Chile, many students have problems when they talk in English since the mother tongue interferes in the target language.
Students who know more than one language have increased test scores, do better in math and reading, and have a better understanding on their first language. Others may argue that learning a new language will hinder learning because it is taxing on the students. While learning a new language is very difficult it makes students think harder; it pushes them to try something different which they then carry over to their other classes. Overall the benefits of learning a new language far outweigh the consequences.
It is important to have an understanding of what language is, what learning is as well as what teaching is. Knowledge of how a student learned their native language can provide guidance on how the students’ will acquire their second language. Krashen and Terrell state that there is a “difference between learning and acquisition of language”. Learning is knowing about the language and is a formal knowledge process. The learner is conscious that the language is being taught.
The input-based aspects of proficiency are related to the quality and quantity of L2’s input from the environment. Cummins (1991) further argues that the differences between the two dimensions may not be apparent at the beginning, but over time the influences of each dimension will become more apparent on the individual. This is in line with Biber (1986). Biber applies one of the distinctions concerning the difference between individual and environmental influence in acquiring language proficiency to the problem of how the first language influences the development
Shirahata (2006) cited Selinker (1972) as naming that linguistic system that L2 learners use and is different from their L1 and a target language as “Interlanguage”. He claimed that L2 learners have different linguistic systems of Interlanguage respectively and furthermore it has dynamic features and even the same L2 learners get to have different systems depending on their developmental stage and learning process. Interestingly, it was found from an analysis of interlanguage that some consistent errors exist in a linguistic system of language use of L2 learners and that L2 learners acquire L2 through a similar process even if their L1 is different, although it is possible to be somewhat different. As we mentioned in section 2.3, it was reported that L2 acquisition has a predictable acquisition order in morphology and syntax in common with L1 acquisition. In this way, from 1970s to 1980s, it had been gradually clear that L2 learners have possibility to acquire L2, using systematically some language systems on the basis of input of L2 that they
The students will develop pride in themselves and their heritage. Thus, the psychological and cognitive aspects involved in learning of two or more languages in an educational setting, the challenges of linguistic planning and the translation of information across languages is what we shall discuss elaborately in subsequent sections. I shall attempt to provide on the one hand an overview of L1 learning, and on the other hand some ways in which this relates to L2 learning in a
The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education 59 unlimited data. The child is acquiring many things at the same time. Hence, first language acquisition is a mental psychological process which is natural, spontaneous and unconcious. Second language learning: The term learning on the other hand is a conscious process which results from an explicit instruction about errors against the L2 rule system. A second language is learnt later on in life.
Learning occurs in many ways and no two learners learn the same way. Different people possess different learning styles; they prefer some certain methods of learning over other ones, mostly while even not being aware of this fact. Ellis (1986) says "variability in language-learner language is the result of not only contextual factors, but of individual differences in the way learners learn an L2 and the way they use their L2 knowledge. It is probably accurate to say that no two learners learn an L2 in exactly the same way" (p. 10).
Spanish is the predominant spoken language among non-English speakers. There are currently more than 180 different languages groups represented among the students in America’ schools. Nearly and mostly all newcomers are likely to have difficulties adjusting to their new environment. The continuous growth of the ELL population requires teachers to have the capacity to serve diverse classrooms. As teachers, we face multiple challenges: teaching content-area curriculum, while at the same time supporting students’ English-language development.
The previous two decades have seen expanding interest in the utilization of tasks in second language instruction method and second language acquisition (SLA) research. Taking into account Tavakoli and Foster (2011), there are three fundamental reasons why task based examination has turned to be the significant area of empirical research for over 20 years. First, research throws light on the announcement that task performance in itself induces inter- language change by making learners to attend to and hold information about the target language as they use it (Ellis, 2001). From this angle, exploring SLA via task performance is interesting for its own sake and is not necessarily directed toward pedagogic applications. Second, and more pedagogically,
The change of paradigm from a traditional second language acquisition (henceforth SLA) perspective to multilingualism has contributed enormously to developing the field of multilingual research. However, findings derived from research on third language acquisition (henceforth TLA) and multilingual education has not been applied in the classroom setting. However, teacher training programmes devoted to deal with the multilingual factor in current language pedagogies have been absent in Europe (De Angelis, 2011) and have been dominated by the English-only policy (Otwinoswka, 2017). For this reason, teachers may have preconceived ideas about various issues in third language (henceforth L3) learning and teaching, especially in multilingual contexts.
Research Questions From the literature review, it was established that there were several factors affecting language learning and acquisition. More specifically, it was revealed that factors such as exposure at an early age, motivation, attitudes, incentives and educational system can influence language acquisition. However, most of the research were conducted in the west and were focused on students as subjects to the study and foreigners working in the country where they need to learn the language to lengthen their range of employment opportunity.