First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning

First Language Acquisition versus Second Language Learning

Above you can find a diagram I made about the differences and similarities about first language acquisition and second language learning. In my research, I was surprised by how different the two are and how truly fortunate I am to be born with English as my first acquired language. To learn that Second Language learners will, truly, never reach the point of competence of first language acquisition is quite surprising. Even those who are bilingual will still have one language more dominant than the other. I’m curious to see if this changes in the oncoming years as second language learning and children being taught two languages at a young age becomes more and more common.

In my personal experience, I think I am a clear example of the differences between FLA and SLL. As a child, I spoke only English but upon entering school I was enrolled into a French immersion program. From ages 5 to 13 all of my schooling was in French. When I entered high school, they did not have a French immersion program so I only had one class per day in French. And then, I entered university and chose to only study French as an occasional elective. I am a clear representation of the difference in conscious effort. I did not study consciously for many years and this led to a clear depletion in my French language skills. Also, I struggled with French grammar due to interference from my first language. For example, French does not use the auxiliary do which made question formation very difficult for me. I believe if I’d had more SLL in the form of Krashen’s ‘Comprehensible Input’ rather than mostly grammar and vocabulary exercises I would have a greater understanding of the language. As Krashen stated, “we acquire language when we understand what people tell us, not how they say it, but what they say.”

This is clearly evident in teaching as well. In my classroom, I have experienced a lack of comprehensible input in many students. Students will repeat questions over and over again even when a point has been explained multiple times and this is not because they do not remember what I am saying but rather they do not understand the overall meaning. As I continue to interact with my students over the course of my 12 week class, I see and completely agree with Krashen that ‘the input hypothesis’ is also true which states that we can only acquire language in one way – understanding messages. This comprehensible input becomes easier as the students interact with native speakers, their speaking and other skills begin to emerge as a result of building competence.

Additional Resources:
https://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/22469/1/First_Language_Acquisition_Vs_Second_Language_Learning.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqDt2isALig

References

CELT Athens. (2011, May 30). Stephen Krashen and Language Acquisition Part 1 of 2 [Youtube video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/vh6Hy6El86Q

CELT Athens. (2011, May 30). Stephen Krashen and Language Acquisition Part 2 of 2 [Youtube video]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ak3UrGCj71s

Hickey, R. (n.d.). First and second language acquisition: A brief comparison. Retrieved from https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/FLA_SLA_brief_comparison.pdf

Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis. Issues and Implications. The Input Hypothesis, pp. 79-85. Harlow: Longman Group UK. Retrieved from https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/hf/iln/LING4140/h08/The%20Input%20Hypothesis.pdf

Thaine, C. (2010). Second Language Acquisition (SLA). In Teacher training essentials. Workshops for professional development, pp. 87-89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.