Comparing and contrasting first language acquisition
People have
all observed that is easy for children to acquire the first language, but when children
have to learn a second language especially that is related in education area is
difficult for them or sometimes failure. H. H. Stern indicated some methods for
teaching the second language to children that are based in the first language
acquisition; the first steps that children do to acquire their first language,
but in this case to acquire the second one are that they first learn listening
and speaking repeating words over and over at the same time teachers must do
mimics depending of the words that children say to make them know what each
word means, children imitate anything they listen or watch; then after children
learn listening and speaking processes they learn reading and writing processes,
but teachers have to show them letters to distinguish the sound of each one,
then short words to make their learning easier; after children learn all the
four processes (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), when they are
advanced is necessary that teachers teach them English grammar so they will
know the structure of many sentences, and children could speak well.
Types of comparison and contrast
Most of the
comparisons are related with the first language learning in children, and the
second language learning in adults, in this topic there are three comparison
that are referred to by type: (1) first and second language acquisition in
children, holding age constant, one is manipulating the language variable, and
that children exhibit vast cognitive, affective and physical differences; (2)
second language acquisition in children and adults, holding second language
constant, one is manipulating the differences between children and adults, for
obvious reasons, the most fruitful in yielding analogies for adult second
language classroom instruction; (3) first language acquisition in children and
second language acquisition in adults, this comparison both variables are being
manipulated and such comparisons are difficult to make because of the enormous
cognitive, affective, and physical differences between children and adults.
The critical period hypothesis
The critical
period hypothesis claims that there is such a biological timetable. Initially,
the notion of a critical period was connected only to first language
acquisition. The classic argument is that critical point for second language
acquisition occurs around puberty, beyond which people seem to be relatively
incapable of acquiring a native like accent to the second language. We will
look at neurological and psychomotor considerations first, and these will then
be followed by an examination of cognitive, affective, and linguistic
consideration.
Neurological considerations
One of the
most interesting areas of inquiry in second language acquisition has been the
study of the function of the brain in the process of acquisition.
Lateralization is the key of answering such a question; the left hemisphere
controls the intellectual, logical, and analytic functions while the right
hemisphere controls the emotional and social functions, language functions
appear to be controlled mainly in the left hemisphere. Obler notes that in
second language learning there is significant right hemisphere participation
and that this participation is particularly active during the early stages of
learning the second language. Genesee
also found support for right for right-hemisphere involvement in the form of
complex language processing as opposed to early language acquisition, and
concluded that there may be greater right hemisphere involvement in language
processing in bilinguals who acquire their second language late relative to
their first language and in bilinguals who learn it in informal contexts.
Psychomotor considerations
Children who
acquire a second language after the age of 5 may have a physical advantage in
that phonetic control of a second language is physically possible yet that
mysterious plasticity is still present. It is no wonder that children acquire
authentic pronunciation involves the control of so many muscles. It is
important to remember in all these considerations that pronunciations of a
language is not by any means the sole criterion for acquisition, nor is it
really the most important one. We all know people who have less than perfect
pronunciation but who also have magnificent and fluent control of a second
language, control that can even exceed that of many native speakers.
Cognitive considerations
Jean Piaget
outlines the course of intellectual development in a child through various
stages: the sensorimotor stage from ages 0 to 2, the preoperational stage from
ages 2 to 7, and the operational stage from ages 7 to 16, with a crucial change
from the concrete operational stage to the formal operational stage around the
age 11. The most critical stage for a consideration of first and second
language acquisition appears to occur, in Piaget’s outline, at puberty. Ausubel
hinted at the relevance of such a connection in noting that adults learning a
second language could profit from certain grammatical explanations and
deductive thinking that obviously would be pointless for a child. Piaget
defined equilibration as a progressive interior organization of knowledge in a
stepwise fashion, and is related to the concept of equilibrium, that is,
cognition develops as a process of moving from states of doubt and uncertainly
to stages of resolution and certainty and then back to further doubt, that is,
in time, also resolved.
Affective considerations
The affective
domain includes many factors: empathy, self-esteem, extroversion, inhibition,
imitation, anxiety, and attitudes. Most of children are totally egocentric. As
children grow older they become more aware of themselves, more self-conscious
as they seek both to define and understand their self-identity. Alexander
Guiora proposed that the language ego is the identity that a person develops in
reference to the language that he or she speaks; and he suggested that the
language ego may account for the difficulties that adults have in learning a
second language.
Linguistic considerations
It is clear
that children learning two languages simultaneously acquire them by the use of
similar strategies. They are, in essence, learning two first languages, and the
key to success in the distinguishing separate contexts for the two languages.
Children generally do not have problems with mixing up languages, regardless of
the separateness of contexts for use of the languages. In some cases the
acquisition of both languages in bilingual children is slightly slower than the
normal schedule for first language acquisition.
Bibliography:
Principles of
Language Learning and Teaching
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