Teach English in Yanzhuang Zhen - Rizhao Shi

The spontaneous acquisition of language is thought to start with the child listening to their mother’s voice in the womb. While the child may-not distinctly hear the words, it will become accustomed to the rhythm of the mother’s voice. In a study where mothers read either The Cat in the Hat or The King the Mice and the Cheese to the unborn child in the last 6 weeks of pregnancy. In two days after birth when the child was read the story it was read in the womb it found that story more soothing compared to the other story when read by the mother. In fact, even that story was preferred when read by someone other than the mother (O’Grady). Following a lot of gurgling and practice through trial and error the result is a recognisable first word. The child moves through telegraphic sentences of two and three words (e.g. Mum see, or Dad go,etc) to increasing complexity. In this process of sentence formation the child may copy longer adult phrases but mostly they become responsible for how words are grammatically arranged. For example, a child might correctly say feet only to later on say foots. The progress here is that the child has made plurals by adding an S, the exceptions are learned later (Linguisticsociety FAQ). The process is more than just imitation. A child constructs their own version of a language it is not just a scaled-down version of adult language. The child’s language constitutes an independent system of its own rather than being a defective version of the adult system (Cook). If it is doubted follow this exchange reproduced by Brown: Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits? Child: Yes. Adult: What did you say she did? Child: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. Adult: Did you say she held them tightly? Child: No, she holded them loosely. No amount of indirect modelling of the correct form of the irregular past tense could persuade this child to alter her production. Her comprehension of the adult's past tense form, of course, was perfect. Up to the age of six children rapidly learn vocabulary adding between ten and twenty new words a day reaching a vocabulary of 14000 words. How this is achieved relies on two simple strategies. If an adult is pointing at a sheep and says sheep the child will assume the adult is naming the animal (object) and not the colour or texture or anything else. Secondly, the child can guess what adults are taking about because they normally look at what they are referring to (O’Grady). First language acquisition (FLA) is a natural process that occurs, as a consequence of birth driven by the need to communicate. Second language acquisition (SLA) occurs through learning, from instruction over a long time. Continuous effort is required by the learner. While research in both FLA and SLA continue and theories gain and lose support. There is no single approach to SLA and FLA but anyone involved in the teaching of a second language should be aware of the differences and similarities Most likely SLA will not occur until there is full competence in the first language. As observed earlier in FLA children start with telegraphic speech. In SLA more complex multi word sentences will be attempted early, all be it supported with instruction. In FLA there is no motivation issue, it has to happen. While the process appears effortless, the child is continuously practicing and becoming proficient. Motivation is a key issue in SLA if a person does not want to learn a second language it just won’t happen. SLA may be imposed on the individual by attendance at school. If the SLA process is enjoyable a good level of proficiency can be attained. If a person has better economic prospects, this acts as a strong driver for people to learn a second language. Whether the child is extrovert or introverted FLA still occurs. Confidence and having an outgoing personality help when learning a second language. Adults and older children may have to overcome their fear of losing face in SLA, to make progress and much of how an individual deals with this depends on character. An advantage for both adults and children in SLA is that they may have the facility to read and write. Being able to write things down helps make an impression on the memory (writing in a different alphabet like Greek, Arabic or the Roman is beyond the scope of this discussion). It is recognised that reading materials in a second language will help to increase vocabulary. As understanding in a second language increases listening to conversations and knowing the subject and context, it is possible to guess the meaning of words and this will multiply the vocabulary too. The first language is a most important part of a person’s cultural identity, however a second language is not necessarily that important in a person’s cultural identity, but it may help in the understanding of a different culture. There is an assumption that puberty is the cut off age for easily learning a second language. It is argued that the brain starts to order functions between the left and right hemispheres and that makes learning a new language more difficult. While questions about precisely how language is lateralized in the brain are interesting indeed, a more crucial question for second language researchers has centred on when lateralization takes place, and whether or not that lateralization process affects language acquisition (Brown). There is still a lot to learn about FLA and SLA but this about sums it up: We can rejoice in our defeats because we know that it is the very elusiveness of the phenomenon of SLA that makes the quest for answers so exciting. Our field of Inquiry is no simple, unidimensional reality. It is "slippery" in every way (Brown).   References Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning And Teaching. White Plains, NY.: Addison Wesley Longman. Cook, V. http://www.viviancook.uk/Writings/Papers/L1&L21979;.htm linguisticsociety faq: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/ -how-do-we-learn-language O’Grady, W:- How children learn language—what every parent should know https://linguistlist.org/pubs/cupmag/pdf/O'grady article.pdf