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First language

First language: It is a person’s Mother tongueor a language acquired first. First language is also

known as L1.

In a multilingual communities first language may refer to the language the child is more comfortable using. This is because in such a society child can shift between one language to another.

First language

. First language is distinguishable from second language in term of usage (a language other than one’s mother-tongue used for a special purpose, e.g. for education, government).

Second Language

• A second language is a language which in not a native language in a country but which is widely used as a medium of communication.

• For example it is used in education and government, and usually used along side another language or languages. Like English in Fiji, Nigeria and Singapore.

Second Language

• We can distinguish five function for which English characteristically serve as medium when it is a second language:-

I. Instrumental for formal education.II.Regulative for government administration and

laws courts.III.Communicative for interpersonal

communication between individuals speaking different native language.

Second Language

IV. Occupational both internationally and internationally for commerce and science and technology.

V. Creative for non technical writing, such as fictions and political work.

Second Language

• However, the term second language would still be used to describe a native language in a country as learnt by people living there who have another first language.

• For example English in the UK would be called the second language of immigrants and people whose first language is Welsh.

A native language

A native language is a language which have been acquired naturally during childhood, because it is spoken in the family or it is the language of the country he or she lives in.

It is the language about which a speaker will have the most reliable intuitions, and whose judgements about the way the language is used can therefore be trusted.

A non-native language

• A non- native variety is the language variety of non native speaker. The people who have acquire language as their second language.

• For example the non native English of Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, and many common wealth countries.

Primary Language

• A primary language is the one most often spoken. A language which a person use most frequently in his or her daily life, although it may not be the person mother tongue

• A secondary language would be any other language you spoke, or if more than two languages are involved the one most next often spoken after the primary language.

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Stronger and Weaker Language

• Stronger language and weaker language occur in a bilingual or multilingual children.

• Bilingual (adj./n.)The general sense of this term is a person who can speak two languages.

• A balanced bilingual is someone whose command of both languages is equivalent. But not all children have this skill

Stronger and Weaker Language

• Bilingual children often show signs of dominance in a language. The main effect of dominance which can change, sometimes quite quickly is that one language become stronger language and the other one become weaker language.

Stronger and Weaker Language

• The stronger language develops to a greater extent than the weaker one (more sounds are isolated, more words are acquired, more grammatical rules are inferred) and it has a tendency to influence the weaker language.

• The stronger language influence the weaker language in term of grammar, vocabulary or even meaning. There is a language mix

ASANTENI KWA KUNISIKILIZA