1. What’s The First Language?

A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial language, or L1) is the language (s) a person has learned from birth or within the critical periode, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity.

In some countries, the terms native language or mother tongue refer to the language of one’s ethnic group rather than one’s first language. Sometimes, there can be more than one native or mother tongue, (for example: when the child’s parents speak different languages). Those children are usually called multilingual.

A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through speaking, writing, or signing) or passively (through listening, reading, or perceiving).

Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, it’s so called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed.

In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the concept of a “native speaker”. According to a view widely held by linguistics, a native speaker of a given language has in some respectsa level of skill which a second (or subsequent) language learner can hardly reliably accomplish.

A. What’s SLA?

Second Language Acquisition (SLA) refers both to the study of individuals and groups who are learning a language subsequent to learning their first one as young children, and to the process of learning that language.

In short, SLA is the process of learning other languages in addition to the native speaker. 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.

Though most scholars use the term “language learning” and “language acquisition” interchangeably, actually these terms differ. Language learning refers to the formal learning of language in the classroom. On the other hand, language acquisition means acquiring the language with little or no formal training or learning.

L2 The additional language is called a “second language” (L2), even though it may actually be the third, fourth, or tenth to be acquired.

TL It is also commonly called a target language (TL), which refers to any language that is the aim or goal of learning.

More detail of the TL Target Languge (TL) is the language learners

are studying, and also the individual items of language that they want to learn, or the teacher wants them to learn.

Example: The teacher first presents the target language, learners practise it, and then there’s a production staage where the target language is used in a free activity.

In the classroom

-> Lessons aims may be based around target language, e.g, “Learners will be able to understand the difference between “ I didn’t need to, and “I needn’t have”

FL is acquired during early chilhood; normally beginning before the age of about three years and those, they are learned as part of growing up among people who speak them.

Acquisition of more than one language during early chilhood is called simultaneous multilingualism.

2. What’s a Second Language?

Sometimes it is necessary for us to make further distinctions according to the function the L2 will serve in our lives.

These differences may determine the specific areas of vocabulary knowledge we need.

The following are distinctions commonly made in the literature:

A second language is typically an official or societally dominant language needed for education, employment, and other basic purposes. It is often acquired by minority group members or immigrants who speak another language natively.

A foreign language is one not widely used in the learners’ immediate social context which might be used for future travel or other cross-cultural communication situations.

A Library language is one which functions primarily as a tool for further learning through reading, e.g books and journals.

An Auxiliary language is one which learners need to know for some official functions in their immediate political setting, or will need to purposes of wider communication.

Other restricted or highly specialized functions for “second languages are designated language for specific purposes, e.g French for Hotel Management. One such prominent area is English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

3. Frameworks of SLA

Study of SLA can be categorized as primarily based on linguistic, psychological, and social frameworks. We should keep in mind that there are extensive interrelationships among them.

a. Linguistic

There have been foci (plural of focus) for the study of SLA from linguistic perspective since 1960: Internal and external.

Internal Focus The first linguistic framework with an internal focus is Transformational Generative Grammar (Chomsky 1957, 1965). The apperance of this work revolutionized linguistic theory and had profound effect on the study of both first and second languages.

This framework was followed by the Principles and Parameters Model and the Minimalist Program, also formulated by Chomsky.

External FocusThe most important linguistic frameworks contributing to an external focus on SLA are categorized within Functionalism.

Approaches based on functional frameworks have dominated European study of SLA and are widely followed elsewhere in the world.

b. PsychologicalThere’re three foci in the study of SLA from a psychological perspective: languages and the brain, learning processes, and learner differences (individual differences).

1.Languages and the brain

The location and representation of the language in the brain has been interest to biologist and psychologist since the nineteenth century. Lenneberg (1967) generated great interest when he argued that there is a critical period for language acquisition which has neurological basis, and much age-related research on SLA is essentially grounded in this framework.

2. Learning processesThe focus on learning processes has been haevily influenced by computer-based Information Processing (IP) models of learning.Process ability is a more recently developed framework which extends IP concepts of learning and applies them to teaching second languages.Connectionism is another cognitive framework for the focus on learning processes.

3. Learner differences (individual differences)

The focus on learner differences in SLA has been most concerned with the question of why some learners are more successful than others. It arises in part from the humanistic framework within psychology, which has a long history in that discipline, but has significantly influenced second language teaching and SLA.

c. SocialThere are two foci for the study of SLA from this perspective microsocial and macrososial.

1.Micro Sosial FocusThe concern within the microsocial focus relate to language acquisition and use in immediate social contexts of production, interpretation, and interaction. The frameworks provided by Variation Theory and Accomodation Theory.

2. Macrosocial focusThe concerns of the macrosocial focus relate language acquisition and use to broader ecological context, including cultural, political, and educational settings.The Ethnography of Communication framework extends the notion of what is being acquired in SLA.The frameworks provided by Acculturation Theory and Socisl Psychology offer broader understandings of how such factors as identity, status, and values affect the outcomes of SLA.