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1st language vs 2nd language acquisition
1. Introduction 2. Differences between L1 and L2 a) Age b) Speed c) Corrections d) Depth of knowledge e) Success 3. Conclusion 4. References 1st language vs. 2nd language acquisition (15) In our everyday lives, the origin of our ability to communicate is usually not taken into consideration. Now, if we closely analyze the ability for a person to learn a language to total fluency without a conscious effort, we realize that there is so much mystery involved in it. Some studies try to give some explanation such as how someone?s first language is normally considered to be the dominant language, but it has been also analyzed by many researches that the first language it isn?t always necessarily the dominant one due to the fact that it is considered to be the language that a person feels more comfortable with. For example a Canadian census defines first language for its purposes as "the first language learned in childhood and still spoken", recognizing that for some, the earliest language may be lost, a process known as language attrition. This can happen when young children move, with or without their family because of immigration or international adoption, to a new language environment . Some of the analysis and answers will be discussed in this research article. Differences First language is considered to be the mother tongue, a language learned as a child. It is said that a child naturally acquires the first language. Second language is considered to be a language learned after the first one and also considered as an auxiliary language. Commonly adults don?t get to learn the second language in a natural way. The first difference between them is the age that a person learned the language. According to the linguistic Eric Lenneberg, a person uses a second language consciously acquired after puberty. In most cases, he considers that people never get to achieve the same level of fluency and comprehension in their second language as in their first one. Another study done by Hyltenstam (1992) has associated views when he states that around the age of six or seven seemed to be a cut-off point for bilingual and after that age a learner could get near native-like but still consisting of few actual errors. Here we can see how important it is the age of a person to mark the differences between the two language systems. Taking in consideration a number of cases where some learners acquired the a native like language learned as a second language during adulthood, which proves that the given statements about the believed age necessary to acquire a native like language is not sometimes that way. Another marked difference is the speed. Some learners will take a longer process no matter how much effort it is put into it. This makes it sometimes impossible to become fully fluent native-like speaker although with practice fluency could be achieved. Corrections fall into this category as well because the difference in the learning and teaching system it is pretty much obvious. For example: when a child learns the first language normally does not respond to systematic corrections when in the other hand a learner acquiring a second language is more aware of the need of corrections and taking into account the controversies of the different teaching and correction methods used in various differing schools of thought. More than a difference, I can say that the depth of knowledge for both languages is kind of similar because they really make the learner aware that there is more to know beyond the information received on the language. This allows a learner to give proper usage to the language structure obtained to create sentences, phrase and questions. The last difference between the two systems really depends on the success that each one of them achieved during the acquisition of the language. Based on the research done, the first language it is inevitable because it?s a natural learning method. The second language is not a guaranteed thing but not impossible when using a successful method. Also depends on the learner?s desire and the goals set to obtain the wished results but keeping in mind that it is not this way in all the cases because sometimes it?s rarely successful due to many reasons. Some adults tend to have the goals set and clear, but it is just too difficult for them to achieve it if there are some other negative emotions involved such as fears, insecurity, shyness, etc. In conclusion, because of so many varying factors, both of the processes and outcomes of first language acquisition and adult second language acquisition are extremely different, and are only connected by a common goal. REFERENCES ? http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web2/mtucker.html ? http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katzsym/clark-b.pdf ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language ? http://www.csun.edu/~galasso/lang1.htm
1. Introduction 2. Differences between L1 and L2 a) Age b) Speed c) Corrections d) Depth of knowledge e) Success 3. Conclusion 4. References 1st language vs. 2nd language acquisition (15) In our everyday lives, the origin of our ability to communicate is usually not taken into consideration. Now, if we closely analyze the ability for a person to learn a language to total fluency without a conscious effort, we realize that there is so much mystery involved in it. Some studies try to give some explanation such as how someone?s first language is normally considered to be the dominant language, but it has been also analyzed by many researches that the first language it isn?t always necessarily the dominant one due to the fact that it is considered to be the language that a person feels more comfortable with. For example a Canadian census defines first language for its purposes as "the first language learned in childhood and still spoken", recognizing that for some, the earliest language may be lost, a process known as language attrition. This can happen when young children move, with or without their family because of immigration or international adoption, to a new language environment . Some of the analysis and answers will be discussed in this research article. Differences First language is considered to be the mother tongue, a language learned as a child. It is said that a child naturally acquires the first language. Second language is considered to be a language learned after the first one and also considered as an auxiliary language. Commonly adults don?t get to learn the second language in a natural way. The first difference between them is the age that a person learned the language. According to the linguistic Eric Lenneberg, a person uses a second language consciously acquired after puberty. In most cases, he considers that people never get to achieve the same level of fluency and comprehension in their second language as in their first one. Another study done by Hyltenstam (1992) has associated views when he states that around the age of six or seven seemed to be a cut-off point for bilingual and after that age a learner could get near native-like but still consisting of few actual errors. Here we can see how important it is the age of a person to mark the differences between the two language systems. Taking in consideration a number of cases where some learners acquired the a native like language learned as a second language during adulthood, which proves that the given statements about the believed age necessary to acquire a native like language is not sometimes that way. Another marked difference is the speed. Some learners will take a longer process no matter how much effort it is put into it. This makes it sometimes impossible to become fully fluent native-like speaker although with practice fluency could be achieved. Corrections fall into this category as well because the difference in the learning and teaching system it is pretty much obvious. For example: when a child learns the first language normally does not respond to systematic corrections when in the other hand a learner acquiring a second language is more aware of the need of corrections and taking into account the controversies of the different teaching and correction methods used in various differing schools of thought. More than a difference, I can say that the depth of knowledge for both languages is kind of similar because they really make the learner aware that there is more to know beyond the information received on the language. This allows a learner to give proper usage to the language structure obtained to create sentences, phrase and questions. The last difference between the two systems really depends on the success that each one of them achieved during the acquisition of the language. Based on the research done, the first language it is inevitable because it?s a natural learning method. The second language is not a guaranteed thing but not impossible when using a successful method. Also depends on the learner?s desire and the goals set to obtain the wished results but keeping in mind that it is not this way in all the cases because sometimes it?s rarely successful due to many reasons. Some adults tend to have the goals set and clear, but it is just too difficult for them to achieve it if there are some other negative emotions involved such as fears, insecurity, shyness, etc. In conclusion, because of so many varying factors, both of the processes and outcomes of first language acquisition and adult second language acquisition are extremely different, and are only connected by a common goal. REFERENCES ? http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f03/web2/mtucker.html ? http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu/pubs/katzsym/clark-b.pdf ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language ? http://www.csun.edu/~galasso/lang1.htm
