An Introduction to the Second Language Acquisition

1. Introduction
Language is the method of expressing ideas and emotions in the form of signs and symbols.
These signs and symbols are used to encode and decode the information. There are many
languages spoken in the world. The first language learned by a baby is his or her mother
tongue. It is the language, which he or she listens to from his or her birth. Any other
language learned or acquired is known as the second language. Second language
acquisition, or SLA, has two meanings. In a general sense it is a term to describe learning a
second language. More specifically, it is the name of the theory of the process by which we
acquire - or pick up - a second language. This is mainly a subconscious process which
happens while we focus on communication. It can be compared with second language
learning, which describes how formal language education helps us learn language through
more conscious processes. Implications for the language classroom include the ideas that
the teacher can create contexts for communication which facilitate acquisition, that there is
a natural order of acquisition of language, that there are affective filters which inhibit
acquisition, especially for adults, and that comprehensible input is very important.

1.1. Second language acquisition

The definition of second language acquisition and learning is learning and acquisition of a
second language once the mother tongue or first language acquisition is established. It
is the systematic study of how people learn a language other than their mother tongue.
Second language acquisition or SLA is the process of learning other languages in addition
to the native language. For instance, a child who speaks Hindi as the mother tongue starts
learning English when he starts going to school. English is learned by the process of
second language acquisition. In fact, a young child can learn a second language faster
than an adult can learn the same language.

1.2. Second Language Learning

Language learning refers to the formal learning of a language in the classroom. On the
other hand, language acquisition means acquiring the language with little or no formal
training or learning. If you go to a foreign land where people speak a different language
from your native language, you need to acquire that foreign language. It can be done with
little formal learning of the language through your everyday interaction with the native
peoples in the marketplace, work place, parks or anywhere else. This is true for learning
spoken language.

1.3. First language acquisition

It seems that children all over the world go through similar stages of language learning
behaviors. They use similar constructions in order to express similar meanings, and make
the same kinds of errors. These stages can be summarized as follows:
An important characteristic of child language is that it is rule-governed, even if initially
the rules children create do not correspond to adult ones. Children commonly produce
forms such as sheeps or breads which they never heard before and therefore not imitating.

2. Language Acquisition and Language Learning

Learners acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are unaware of
grammatical rules. This happens especially when they acquire their first language. They repeat
what is said to them and get a feel for what is and what is not correct. In order to acquire a
language, they need a source of natural communication, which is usually the mother, the father,
or the caregiver.
Language learning, on the other hand, is the result of direct instruction in the rules of
language. Language learning is not an age-appropriate activity for very young children as
learning presupposes that learners have a conscious knowledge of the new language and can
talk about that knowledge. They usually have a basic knowledge of the grammar.

Acquisition:
 unconscious process
 does not presuppose teaching
 the child controls the pace
Learning:
 intentional process
 presupposes teaching
 the teacher controls the pace

One needs to approach the comparison of first and second

language acquisition by first considering the differences
between children and adults.

Four possible categories to compare, defined by age and type of acquisition are presented
as follows:

Cell A1 is of an abnormal situation. There have been few instances of an adult acquiring a
first language. The C1-A2 comparisons are difficult to make because of the enormous
cognitive, affective, and physical differences between children and adults. The C1-C2
hold age constant, while the C2-A2 hold second language constant.

3. Critical Period Hypothesis

The Critical Period Hypothesis is the ability to acquire language biologically linked
to age. This hypothesis claims that there is a period of growth, from early childhood to
adolescence, in which full native competence is possible when learning a language. The
hypothesis was grounded in research which showed that people who lost their linguistic
capabilities, for example as a result of an accident, were able to regain them totally before
puberty (about the age of twelve) but were unable to do so afterwards. There is
considerable evidence to support the claim that L2 learners who begin learning as adults
are unable to achieve native-speaker competence in either grammar or pronunciation.
Derived from biology, this concept was presented by Penfield and Roberts in 1959 and
refined by Lenneberg in 1967. Lenneberg contended that the LAD needed to take place
between age two and puberty: a period he believed to correspond with the lateralisation
process of the brain. The lateralisation process of the brain is it a complex and ongoing
procedure that refers to the tendency for some cognitive processes to be more dominant in
one hemisphere than the other. According to Lenneberg this idea was concerned with the
implicit “automatic acquisition” in immersion contexts and does not stop the possibility
of learning a foreign language after adolescence, but with a lot more effort and typically
less achievement. Lenneberg likewise expressed that the development of language is a
result of brain maturation: equipotential hemispheres at birth, language gradually
becoming lateralized in the left hemisphere.

4. Lateralization
There is evidence in neurological research that as the human brain matures, certain
functions are assigned, or ‘lateralized’, to the left hemisphere of the brain, and certain
other functions to the right hemisphere. Intellectual, logical, and analytic functions appear
to be largely located in the left hemisphere, while the right hemisphere controls functions
related to emotional and social needs. Lenneberg (1967) suggested that lateralization is a
slow process that begins around the age of two and is completed around puberty.

4. History of Second Language Theories and Approach

4.1. Behavioristic approach (1900s -1950s):
In the 1950s and 1960s, in the behaviorist view, language learning is seen as the
formation of habits, based on the notions of stimulus and response. The response people
give to stimuli in their environment will be reinforced if desired outcome is obtained.
Through repeated reinforcement, a certain stimulus will elicit the same response time and
again, which will then become a habit. When learning a second language, we already
have a set of well-established responses in our mother tongue. The L2 learning process
therefore involves replacing those habits by a set of new ones. The complication is that
the old L1 habits interfere with this process, either helping or inhibiting it. If the
structures in the L2 are similar to those of the L1, learning will take place easily. If,
however, structures are realized differently in the L1 and the L2, then learning will be
difficult. From a teaching point of view, the implications of this approach were twofold.
First, language learning would take place by imitating and repeating the same structures
time after time (it was strongly believed that practice makes perfect). Second, teachers
need to focus their teaching on areas of L1 and L2 difference. Researchers also embarked
on the task of comparing pairs of languages in order to pinpoint areas of differences. This
was termed Contrastive Analysis (CA).

Behaviorist leaning theory

Theories of habit formation were theories of learning in general. A habit was formed
when a particular stimulus became regularly linked with a particular response. These
theories were applied to language learning. In L1 acquisition children were said to master
their mother tongue by imitating utterances produced by adults and having their efforts at
using language either rewarded or corrected. It was also believed that SLA could proceed
in a similar way. Imitation and reinforcement were the means by which the learner
identified the stimulus-response association that constituted the habits of the L2. L2
learning was most successful when the task was broken into a number of
stimulus-response links, which could be systematically practiced and mastered one at a
time.

Criticisms: The creativity of language- children do not learn and reproduce a large set of
sentences, but they create new sentences that they have never learned before. This is only
possible because they internalize rules rather than strings of words. (e.g. Mummy goed; it
breaked.)

Why the L2 learner made errors:

Old habits get in the way of learning new habits. The notion of interference has a central
place in behaviorist account of SLA. Where the first and second language share a
meaning but express it in different ways, an error is likely to arise in the L2 because the
learner will transfer the realization device form his first language into the second.
Transfer will be positive when the first and second language habits are the same. Thus
differences between the first and second language create learning difficulty which results
in errors. By comparing the learner’s native language with the target language, differences
could be identified and used to predict areas of potential error.

References
Alderson J.C. (1999). Exploding myths: Does the number of hours per week matter? Paper
presented at the 9th IATEFL-Hungary Conference in Györ. [online]. Retrieved from
http://www.examsreform.hu/Media/konyvPart2/Chapter%2017.pdf
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in development: Language, literacy, and cognition.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Bongaerts, T., Planken, B., & Schils, E. (1995). Can late starters attain a native accent in
foreign language: A test of the Critical Period Hypothesis. In D. Singleton and Z.
Lengyel (eds) The Age Factor in Second Language Acquisition. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters.
Brown, H. D. (2002). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, NY:
Longman.
Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of language learning and teaching. White Plains, NY:
Pearson.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Djigunovic, J. M. (2012). Attitudes and Motivation in Early Foreign Language Learning.
Centre for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 2(3), 55-74. Retrieved from
www.cepsj.si/pdfs/cepsj_2_3/cepsj_2_3_pp55_mihaljevic djigunovic.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. Harlow, England: Longman.
Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. Modern
Language Journal , 78(3), 273-284. Retrieved from
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~jkeller/EDP5217/Library/Curiosity%20&%20Attention/Attention/
Dornyei(1994)%20Foreign%20Language%20Classroom.pdf
Engin, A. O. (2009). Second language learning success and motivation. Social Behaviour and
Personality, 37(8), 1035-1045. Retrieved from
Ervin-Tripp, S. M. (1974). Is second language learning like the first? Tesol Quarterly, 8(2),
111-27.
Espinosa, L. M. (2008). Challenging common myths about young English language learners.
Foundation for Child Development. Retrieved from http://fcd-us.org
Foreign Language. (2013). In The Collins Dictionary. Retrieved from
http://www.collinsdictionary.com
Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second-language
learning. Rowley, Mass: Newbury House Publishers.
Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes
and motivation. London: E. Arnold.
Gardner, R. C. (2000). Correlation, causation, motivation and second language acquisition.
Canadian Psychology, 41, 1-24. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.136.
Gardner, R. C. (2007). Motivation and second language acquisition. Porta Linguarum.
Krashen S., Long, M. and Scarcella, R. (1979) Age, rate and eventual attainment in second
language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly 13, 573–82 Reprinted in S. Krashen, R.,
Scarcella and M. Long (eds) (1982) Child-Adult Differences in Second Language
Acquisition, Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Krashen, S. D., & Terrell, T. D. (1983). The Natural approach: Language acquisition in the
classroom. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience, 5(11), 831-843. Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v5/n1
Kuhl, P. K., Stevens, E., Hayashi, A., Deguchi, T., Kiritani, S., & Iverson, P. (2006).
Larson-Hall, J. (2008). Weighing the benefits of studying a foreign language at a younger
starting age in a minimal input situation. Second Language Research, 24(1), 35-63.
Munoz C. (2006). The effects of age on foreign language learning: The BAF Project. In C.
Munoz (ed.),Age and the rate of foreign language learning. Clevedon: Multilingual
Matters, 1-40.
Munoz, C. (2010). On how age affects foreign language learning. Advances in Research on
Language Acquisition and Teaching, 39-49. Retrieved from
http://www.enl.auth.gr/gala/14th/Papers/Invited%20Speakers/Munoz.pdf
Nikolov, M., & Djigunovic, J. M. (2006). Recent research on age, second language
acquisition and early foreign language learning. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,
26, 234-260.
Oller, J. W., & Nagato, N. (1974). The long-term effect of FLES: an experiment. Modern
Language Journal, 58, 15-19.
Pandey, V. C. (2005). Intelligence and motivation. Delhi: Isha Books.
Seright, L. (1985). Age and aural comprehension achievement in francophone adults learning
English.
Tesol Quarterly, 19(3), 455-473. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2307.