CHAPTER 4: LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION AND
LANGUAGE LEARNING
Here starts the
lesson!
WHAT IS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?
First language acquisition refers to the way children learn their native language. Second
language acquisition refers to the learning of language or languages besides the
native language.

For children learning their native language, linguistic competence develops in stages,
from babbling to one word to two word, then telegraphic speech. Babbling is now
considered the earliest form of language acquisition because infants will produce
sounds based on what language input they receive. One word sentences (holophrastic
speech) are generally monosyllabic in consonant vowel clusters.

During two word stage, there are no syntactic
or morphological markers, no inflections
for plural or past tense, and pronouns are rare,
but the intonation contour extends over the
whole utterance. Telegraphic speech lacks
function words and only carries the open class
content words, so that the sentences sound
like
a telegram.
WHAT IS LANGUAGE LEARNING?
Language learning is the teaching about a
language (its use, its speaker, its structure),
with the hope that the student will learn
enough
to actually be able to speak the target
language. Language acquisition, in its current
sense, tries to expose the student to the
target language in meaningful ways so that
he or she acquires the language’s structure
through actual use.
 THE THREE THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

Language learning follows from the official  IMITATION

language model, whereas Native American
languages are taught as foreign language  REINFORCEMENT
in their own native community. This helps
to commodity the heritage language;  ANALOGY
makes studying it an artificial exercise;
and occupies the time, money, and effort
of the population that could be better
spent in doing language acquisition and
achieving real results of the revitalization
of their heritage language.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND
LANGUAGE LEARNING?

Some people use the term of language acquisition for all the phases that lead to
language fluency, including learning to read and write. Others use the term of
language learning even for babies and very young, pre-school children. But there
is a fundamental difference between these two terms.

Children acquire language through a subconscious process during which they are
unaware of grammatical rules. This happens especially when they
acquire their first language(s). They repeat what is said to them and get a feel for
what is and what is not correct.
They will repeat what they hear, try out
sound chains made of phonemes until they
make sense (i.e. others will understand
their meaning), and they will use them
purposefully in their communication. Some
distinguish infant language acquisition as
defining the process of acquiring the first
language(s) from second language
acquisition, which takes place "later" and in
addition to speech, includes also reading
and writing.
Language acquisition refers to the process
whereby
an individual learns to understand, speak and
interpret signs, sign, read, and/or write. Language
acquisition crucially involves change over time
towards a state of language knowledge and use
that
is more extended expressed in "language
development", a term usually reserved for
children's
language learning process in early childhood, that
is, under age of 6 (Brooks and
Kempe 2014). – Annick De Houwer, 2019 (in
print)
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.

FIVE STAGES OF
LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION
They usually have a basic knowledge of the
grammar. When we learn a language we have
a deductive approach to the intonations,
phonology, morphology, syntax of the target
language. This happens when we start being
schooled in this language, when we learn to
read and write. Reading and writing is not
intuitive. We need to learn that signs (letters
and letter combinations) represent a sound,
and that their combination, have a meaning
that conveys our thoughts. We learn that there
are rules for each language, concerning the
position of the words in a sentence, that
intonation can vary and change the meaning
of a word and a sentence, that one word can
have many different meanings, depending on
the context.
During early infancy, language processing during acquisition occurs in many areas of
the brain.

There are many areas of the brain involved
in language acquisition and learning, and in
the understanding and articulation of
languages. The two main areas are though
the Broca’s area, which is situated in the
left frontal cortex, and is the word
production center of the brain, responsible
to the production of the patterns in vocal
and sign language, and the Wernicke’s
area, in the left temporal cortex, which is
the word recognition center, that is
primarily involved in language
comprehension.
Roughly said, the Broca’s area is the one
actively involved in language acquisition
processes, whereas the Wernicke’s area is
active in the language learning process.
This is where the understanding speech
takes place. The connection with both areas
with multiple other areas of the brain, like the
Angular Gyrus where assembling of
information takes place, and that helps to
understand words and concepts , the
Supramarginal Gyrus, which is involved with
language perception and processing, and
the Primary Auditory Cortex, where auditory
signals are recognized, memorized and
may result in a response.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION VS LANGUAGE
LEARNING
According to linguists, there is an important
distinction between language acquisition
and language learning. As you may well
have noticed, children acquire their mother
tongue through interaction with their
parents and the environment that
surrounds them.
Their need to communicate paves the way
for language acquisition to take place. As
experts suggest, there is an innate
capacity in every human being to acquire
language.
By the time a child is five years old, s/he can
express ideas clearly and almost perfectly
from the point of view of language and
grammar. Although parents never sit with
children to explain to them the workings of the
language, their utterances show a superb
command of intricate rules and patterns that
would drive an adult crazy if s/he tried to
memorize them and use them
accurately.
The emphasis is on the text of the
communication and not on the form. Young
students who are in the process of acquiring a
second language get plenty of “on the job”
practice. They readily acquire the language to
communicate with classmates.
In short, we see this tendency in which second
The very same courses that promise you
language teachers are quite aware of the
language independence and the ability to
importance of communication in young learners
communicate upon completion of the
and their inability to memorize rules
courses do NOT offer you a single chance
consciously (although they will definitely
to engage in meaningful conversations.
acquire them through a hands-on approach
How many times have you bought or read
just as they did with their mother tongue).
about “the ultimate language course on
Unfortunately, when it comes to adult students,
CD” in which the learner simply has to sit
a quick look at the current methodologies and
in front of a computer to listen to and
language courses available clearly shows that
repeat words and phrases time and again.
communication is set aside, neglected or
That is not communication. That is the way
even disregarded. In almost all cases, courses
you train a parrot! The animal will definitely learn
revolve around grammar, patterns,
and repeat a few phrases and amuse
repetitions, drillings and rote memorization
you and your friends, but it will never ever be
without even a human interlocutor to interact
able to communicate effectively.
with.
In some other scenarios, in which there is a teacher, the work done in class is mostly
grammatically oriented: tenses, rules, multiple choice exercises and so on and so forth.
Is this similar to the way in which a child “acquires a language?” Definitely not. No
wonder
why so many people fail in acquiring a second language naturally. Simply because
whatever they are doing is highly unnatural and devoid of meaning to them. This is the
field of language learning.

Language learning as seen today is not communicative. It is the result of direct

instruction in the rules of language. And it certainly is not an age-appropriate activity for
your young learners as it is not for adults either. In language learning, students have
conscious knowledge of the new language and can talk about that knowledge.

They can fill in the blanks on a grammar
page. Research has shown, however, that
knowing grammar rules does not necessarily
result in good speaking or writing. A
student who has memorized the rules of the
language may be able to succeed on a
standardized test of English language but
may not be able to speak or write correctly.
As teachers, it is our duty to make sure that our
students “acquire” rather than “learn” the
language. The old dichotomy of acquisition vs
learning needs to be scientifically proved as
nobody knows where the bounds between
acquisition and learning are. Assuming
acquisition is the right model to follow in FL
teaching would create an immense void in
language accuracy and vice versa in regard to
learning which would create specialists in
language rules with no communicative
competence.
THANK
YOU !!