CONCEPTIONS OF FIRST AND

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

BY: HUAMANÍ CRUZ; JACQUELINE ANDREA

Every single person communicates through language. As it is known, language is

a system of conventional spoken or written symbols. And there are concerns
focusing on this subject, for example, how people acquire their mother tongue
as well as a second language. Here are some conceptions of first and second
language. The authors who talk about first and second language acquisition are
Krashen (cited in Ipek), Haynes (cited in Garibaldi), Gogolin (2012), Fasold & Connor-
Linton (2013), and Hickey (n. d.).
Krashen distinguishes acquisition from learning a language. He says that
acquisition refers to the mother tongue. Acquisition of the first language
involves the subconscious process of gaining a native language through the use
of communication. On the other hand, learning a second language is a conscious
process through formal instruction. Learning a second language includes
gaining knowledge about grammar rules and vocabulary. Krashen mentions that
the role of a monitor is relevant because what a child learns of a language can
be used to check what he/ she produces. Also, Krashen believes that the
acquisition of the rules of language is natural and predictable. Moreover,
Krashen postulates that language acquisition is given through comprehensible
input, for example, hand gestures, tone changings, or illustrations. Finally,
Krashen suggests that motivation, self-confidence, and anxiety are necessary
in second language acquisition.
Besides, Haynes considers that second language acquisition is a process that
occurs in five stages: preproduction, early production, speech emergence,
intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. The first stage consists of building
up 500 words without speaking the language but more echoing the language. On
the second stage language learners construct words in short phrases and have
around 1000 words memorized. During the third stage, the learner is able to
speak short sentences and simple phrases. At this point, learners should be able
to engage in conversation and ask simple questions. Learners also will be able to
understand short stories with illustrations. Then learners form longer and
more complex sentences and have a vocabulary of 6000 words in intermediate
fluency. Finally, advanced fluency refers to the proficiency in second language
acquisition.
Gogolin mentions that first language acquisition is the development of the
mother tongue and all children are born with every necessary condition for
acquiring language. Children develop linguistic units and gain familiarity with
facial play, gestures and body language, connotations of expressions, and
phrases. Gogolin adds that the closest environment as the family is important for
language development. This author also agrees that the first language is
essential to learn a second language.
Furthermore, Fasold & Connor-Linton defines first language acquisition as a
complicated and relatively rapid process that has three stages: first sounds,
first words, morphological and syntactic development. The first sound made by
all infants is crying, but it is not an intentional attempt to communicate. From the
second to fifth month, infants engaged in cooing. Coos are vowel-like sounds
which are signs of pleasure and playfulness. Between four and six months
infants make vowel or consonant-vowel sounds such as ouw-ouw or ma-ma.
Infants’ tongues tend to be relatively large, and as a result, these sounds will be
palatals and labial. Infants develop speech perception (this includes the ability to
segment the speech stream into meaningful units and to distinguish between
similar sounding vowels) during the first year of life. Then the first words mark
the beginning of holophrastic stage in which infants tend to use single words to
communicate. Words at this stage tend to be concrete objects which are central
to everyday experiences and interactions. Around age two, children use phrases
which are two words, this means a subject and verb. Then children make first
sentences. This development involves the formation of internal rules., regarding
to their mother tongue. Children also acquire morphological and syntactic skills.
When it comes to second language acquisition, Fasold & Connor-Linton mention
that there are six areas that have an impact. These areas are first language, age,
gender, working memory, motivation, and context. Fist language influence the
development of the second language because learners often consciously
transfer or employ their knowledge about the first language in their attempts
to communicate in the second language. Also, younger learners appear to have
an advantage in second languages’ phonology. Nevertheless, people who start
learning a language after puberty can achieve mastery of the second language.
Gender plays a key role in second language learning since it has been found that
females tend to use more language learning strategies than males. Besides,
learners’ working memory capacities affect their ability to learn vocabulary and
grammatical rules, reading ability, and listening proficiency of a second
language. Moreover, motivated language learners, who are willing to devote more
time and energy to achieving fluency in the target language, are more
successful. Also, second language learning occurs in different contexts such as
an immersion program, during study abroad, in a university classroom, and so on.