Language Acquisition vs language learning

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Language Acquisition vs language learning


Julio Foppoli argues that as teachers, it is

our duty to make sure that our

students "acquire" rather than "learn" the

language.

According to linguists (i.e. scientists who

engage in the scientific study of human

language) 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. This suggests that it is through exposure to the language and meaningful communication that a first language is acquired, without the need of systematic studies of any

kind. When it comes to second language

learning in children, you will notice that

this happens almost identically to their first language acquisition. And even teachers focus more on the

communicative aspect of the language

rather than on just rules and patterns for

the children to repeat and memorize. In order to acquire language, the learner needs a source of natural communication.



What is second level acquisition(SLA) in linguistics ?


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.

Example
A learner studying in an English-speaking country may have more success due to the language they acquire in their part-time job than with the language they learn in their class.

In the classroom
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.


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