First Language And Second Language Acquisition Essay

Language is a main aspect of human being. This is distinguishing human from other creatures. It plays a vital role in daily communication. Especially, in a real situations. Without language we cannot express our thoughts and feelings. Whether in a spoken way “asking about something, greeting friends or telling a stories” or in written way “reading a menu, traffic`s guide or even reading a newspaper”. But when we have learned the language? Infants are not born talking. That is meaning that language is not an inborn gen that children must born with. So how they acquire their first language? How do babies express their feelings like hungry, thirsty or even like and dislike? How do babies can differentiate between their mama`s voice and other`s

First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning: Applied linguistics is the attempt to put the insights resulting from lingusic reseach to practical uses. These include first and second language teaching (Such as: lexicography, translation….etc). Our focus of linguistic application is the field of language teaching which focuses in turn on the learner and the language learning process. How is this language which is the object of study of the linguist being learnt? We have to investigate what happens in the mind of human beings through mental processes to learn a language. In this respect, two phenomena have been distinguished Krashen (1987) when he talked about: first language acquisition and second language learning First language acquisition: The term acquistion is ued to reffer to subconscious learning which is not influenced by explicit instruction about the L2 system or about errors against the L2 rule system. It takes place in a natural environment. Language data is not arranged as in a language teaching situation. The infant is exposd to an The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education – July 2015 Volume 5, Issue 3 www.tojned.net Copyright © 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. The individual already functions with a language system. S/he already possesses a verbal behaviour. Learning in this case is conscious. The data is arranged by syllabus designers. The learner is not exposed to unlimited data like the infant. It takes place under formal instruction. Th learner is not necessarily young. In other words, for first langauge acquisiton