Running Head: Different Perspectives of Language Acquisition 1

Different Perspectives of Language Acquisition

Juan A. Rosales

Universidad Católica de la Santísima Concepción

Different Perspectives of Language Acquisition 2

Abstract

The following essay is intended to express the main ideas of different authors about language. The main

ideas and concepts of three documents are going to be mentioned, emphasizing important aspects of language in

general.

The first document is called “First and Second Language Learning”. The first language learning process

is where the children, unconsciously, interact with their families expressing their immediate needs and receive

minimal feedback. On the other hand, according to Krashen (2003) the second language learning process

usually occurs in adultness where the learner learns consciously and formally. In addition, they learn to satisfy

present or future needs, and follow rules.

The second document it is called “Second language Acquisition and Second Language Learning”.

Researchers declare that someone who is acquiring a second language is prone to be influenced by his first

language. Newmark (1966) called this “interference”, and occurs when the knowledge about the second

language is little.

The third document has two parts. The first one is called “First Language Acquisition” which has the

following main idea: “humans are born with innate cognitive abilities, and learning is the result of the child

acting on the environment” (p. 2). Rice (2002) pointed out that children’s abilities and motivations must be

considered in order to make an acceptable model of language development (p. 4). Other perspectives focus on

the environment and suggest that children need to interact and adapt their speech to the context and recipients.

The second part is called “Written and Second Language Acquisition” where researchers claim that

“written Language is a secondary representation of Language that the brain is not prepared to acquire” (p. 24).

Therefore reading is rather learned than acquired.

Different Perspectives of Language Acquisition 3

In conclusion the four documents complement each other expressing that language is part of our nature;

nevertheless, not all the abilities related to it are innate in everyone because we are all different from each other.

Abstract

Firstly, I want to make reference to the “Second language acquisition and Second language learning”

document where Krashen talks about the effects of the first language on the Second Language acquisition. He

claims that this influence seems to be “strongest in complex word order and in word-for-word translations or

phrases”. Duskova (1969) supports that idea based on a study with Czech “postgraduate students”. In my

personal opinion that has been an issue for a long time here in Chile. The confusion about the order of noun and

adjective is the clearest example. That is why I strongly agree with this idea. I can support that based on my

personal experience. Since I was a child I have had ability in relation to the English language. I always got

positive results in my English tests, so usually my classmates, family and friends asked me how was that

possible. I always asked them back which aspect they did not understand, and they used to tell me that English

was similar to Spanish but the words in English were written the other way around. In addition, in the present

time my latest experiences as a teacher make me a witness of that issue.

Secondly, I want to talk about the “Affective filter Hypothesis” which appears in “Written and Second

Language Acquisition”. Here it is mentioned how the learner’s cognitive skills are affected by emotions. It says

that “boredom and anxiety are affective factors that can serve as a kind of filter to block out incoming

messages”. I agree with this idea because it explains why some students can understand lessons while other

cannot. I believe that teacher has a great responsibility in this because the different learning styles determine the

activities, but sometimes they are not the appropriate for the specific kind of learner; therefore, results are

unsatisfactory. In addition, teacher has to consider the social status and personal life of the students because that

will help him to understand their attitude and behavior.

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Finally, I must say that in general all the documents coincided with my previews thoughts. There were

some aspects of which I was not aware of, so I could complement my perspective in terms of knowledge. As an

English teacher I think is essential to know the most possible about the aspects of language mentioned in the

documents because that will be useful for me not only at the moment of preparing my lessons, but also in future

when I want to help my children with something related to Language.

Different Perspectives of Language Acquisition 5

REFERENCES

Cook, V. (3ed). (2011). Second language learning and language teaching. Retrieved from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Writings/Papers/L1&L21979.htm

Freeman, D., & Freeman, Y. (2004). Essential linguistics What you need to know to teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics,

Grammar. Heinemann press.

Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning.

California: University of Southern California.