What are the main steps that the child should follow to acquire his first

language?
1. Pre-Talking
This stage takes place from birth to around six months of age. During this
time, the child does not speak but is beginning to understand short words and
phrases that are central to their needs and interests.

2. Babbling
The babbling phase occurs from around six to eight months old. In this phase,
the infant begins to “babble” and makes noises and syllables that are not yet
words. Physically, teeth begin to appear and the muscles in the mouth required
for speech begin to develop.?

3. Holophrastic
The holophrastic stage is significantly longer, occurring between nine and
eighteen months old. During this phase, the infant begins to learn and speak
single words. In the beginning, these words are strongly centered around basic
needs and interests as well as names or identifiers like “mama” and “dada.”

4. Two-Word
This stage takes place from eighteen to twenty-four months old. Once children
have developed single-word speech, they begin to pair groups of words
together into mini-sentences and phrases like “I want” or “give me.”

5. Telegraphic
The telegraphic stage takes place from two to three years old. Over time,
children begin to expand their two-word phrases into short sentences. They
also begin to utilize lexical morphemes to make the words they use fit the
sentence. For example, they understand to use the plural form of “boys”
instead of “boy” when referring to a group of boys.

6. Multiword
Past the age of three, most children fall into the multiword stage. In this final
stage of language acquisition, children now learn to use functional morphemes
to change the meaning of the words they use. Examples include the words but,
in, the, and that.

What are the main steps that the adult should follow to learn the second
language?
1. Pre-Production

For ELLs, the pre-production stage or “silent period” occurs during the first
six months of exposure to the language. During this stage, students have no
spoken English skills. They have minimal comprehension and listening skills
and often utilize gestures like nodding, pointing, and drawing to explain
themselves. This stage is somewhat comparable to the pre-talking and
babbling stages of first language acquisition.

2. Early Production
Around six to twelve months after ELLs are regularly exposed to English, they
will begin to use one- and two-word English phrases. Depending on age,
immersion, and the specific student, this stage can occur much sooner or take
longer. This is why it’s important to see the stages of language acquisition for
ELLs as guidelines, not a hard and fast set of benchmarks for students to
follow precisely.

At this point, the ELL has absorbed thousands of words and has gained limited
comprehension of the key words they hear most and that are most important to
them. As their comprehension increases, students begin to speak more and will
likely use only present tense nouns – a grammatical trademark of this phase.

3. Speech Emergence

After one to three years of exposure to English, ELLs have developed

significant comprehension and can read, write, and understand simple
sentences. They will continue to make new grammatical and pronunciation
errors and will still struggle with homophones, jokes, and cultural slang in
conversation.

4. Fluency

Fluency can occur as early as three years but may take upwards of ten years or
a lifetime depending on various factors. However, most students eventually
reach fluency or near-fluency with ongoing education. Students will also
progress through a spectrum of fluency, from beginning to advanced.
 At this stage, they have excellent comprehension, speech, and writing skills.
They may still struggle with pronunciation depending on the age of their initial
exposure to English. However, it’s important to keep in mind that difficulty
with pronunciation does not equate to a lack of language comprehension.

What are the types of SL learners?

1- Interference: A negative transfer that occurs when previously learned

languages disrupt new language learning. The most common interference
comes from the L1. With the complete difference between both Arabic and
English language in many aspects, Arabic speaking learners of English as
a foreign language find many serious difficulties in acquiring the skills
required to master English. The reasons behind those difficulties vary
among interference of native language, inadequate teaching methods or
personal difficulties. However, one of the most problematic issues that
make it more difficult for Arabic speaking learners of English language is
the interference of the native language. Given the fact that Arabic language
is morphologically richer than English language, Arabic syntax is
completely different in many aspects, phonological rules in Arabic
language has different functions than in English and are different from
English language, learning English by Arabic speaking learners would
encounter serious difficulties. Interference of the native language occur
when a foreign language learner use his/her native language as a reference
for using the target language.

The two examples given below are sentences written by an Arabic speaking learner of
English language. Those examples illustrate that Arabic speaking learner made a
literal translation from Arabic into English which indicates that there has been
interference from Arabic in the choice of the preposition.

We were interested with it (in)

I like to pick roses with many colors (Of)

2- Language transfer: refers to the transfer of the learner’s L1, including
linguistic and cultural aspects, to his/her organizing the L2 data, learners’
interlanguage systems are greatly influenced by them. When the
characteristics of the L1expressions the learner refers to are the same as or
similar to those of the L2expressions, the transfer is positive, that is, the
transfer facilitates the learning of TL; otherwise, the transfer becomes an
interlingual interference, namely, negative transfer .Negative language
transfer is an important factor of causing learners’ errors, including
linguistic and pragmatic ones, though not the sole factor leading to
interlanguage. Linguistic transfer would most probably occur when L1 and
L2 share a meaning but express it in a different or slightly different way.
For example: Chinese expression and English expression “...because...”and
“...so...”. They have the same meaning, but they cannot be used in the
same way, for the reason that in English“...because...” and “...so...” could
not be placed together in one sentence. Culturally unacceptable. Positive
transfer refers to the similarity between the target language and mother
tongue can promote the learning of second language, accelerating the
development sequence of certain inter-language. It can help learner master
some linguistic items for the second language. This process of language
similarities promoting SLA is called positive transfer. For
example, Japanese and Chinese are similar in written form; French and
English are similar in grammar system and written form.

Negative transfer (or interference) occurs when differences between the two
languages' structures lead to systematic errors in the learning of the second
language or to fossilization.

3- Fossilization: is a phenomenon in second-language acquisition where a

person simply becomes unable to learn the new language beyond what
they've already learned. They may be able to pick up some new
vocabulary, but will never be able to fully grasp the grammar, syntax, and
colloquial use of the language. Selinker (1972) believed that some
language rules in the learner's IL are transferred from his/her L1. The
 errors in the use of L2 result mainly from L1, and the difference between
L1 and the L2 is the reason for the occurrence of errors. That's why
the transfer of L1 rules can lead to fossilization. For example, the sound /p/
does not exist in the Arabic sound system which makes it difficult for Arab
speakers to pronounce words like computer /kəmˈpjuːtə/.

It is a process ( in second language learning) which sometimes occurs in which

incorrect linguistic features become a permanent part of the way a person speaks or
writes a language Aspects of pronunciation, vocabulary usage, and grammar may
become fixed or fossilized in second language learning.

4- interlanguage : According to Richard et al (1996) interlanguage is one of

the kinds of language that can be produced by second language learners in
the process of acquiring or learning a new language.

According to Selinker (2009) the term of interlanguage who referred to as second

language systemic knowledge independent of first language and second language.
according to Selinker (2012) interlanguage is that linguistic/cognitive space that exists
between the native language and the language that one is learning. Interlanguages are
non-native languages which are created and spoken whenever there is language
contact.

5- Intralanguage: refers to variations or differences within a single language.

These variations can occur at different levels such as
pronunciation(accent), vocabulary (lexicon), grammar (syntax), and
spelling. Intralanguage variations are often associated with factors like
geographical regions, social classes, age groups, and professional groups
among others. For example, the English language spoken in the United
States (American English) and the United Kingdom (British English)
exhibit intralanguage variations in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, and
spelling. Intralanguage, or intralingual, refers to phenomena that occur
within a single language, often pertaining to variations and adaptations.
This term is used in both linguistics and translation studies. It involves
processes that are monolingual, meaning they occur within the same
language, such as adapting a text to a different form or style within the
same language. For instance, intralanguage translation might involve
adapting a complex scientific text into simpler language for a general
audience, while still remaining in the same language. Intralanguage can
also refer to issues related to culture, dialects, and learning concerning one
specific language.
6- Interference: is the errors that can be traced back to the first language,
while the learners use the second language (Lott, as cited in Bhela, 1999,
 p. 22). A learner has difficulties in second language such as phonology,
vocabulary and grammar due to the interference of habits from L1 and L2
(Beardsmore, 1982).

Interference refers to the influence of one language (or variety) on another in the
speech of bilinguals who use both languages.
"Those instances of deviation from the norms of either language which occur
in the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one
language, i.e. as a result of language contact, will be referred to as
INTERFERENCE phenomena." (Weinreich 1953:1)
Interference can take place at all levels of the linguistic system, i.e.
in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and the lexicon.
7- Competence : is simply defined as the one’s ability established by
knowledge and experiences to reach their purpose. In the psychology
dictionary, Colman (2009) defined the competence as the capacity, skills,
or the ability in doing something correctly and effectively. In line with
Colman, Beams (2008) defined the competences as the quality of ability
caused by the qualification and the ability in doing a task. Richards &
Rodgers (2003) defined the competences as the description of essential
skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors required for effective
performance of a real-world task or activity. So, the competence is the
useful ability includes skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors acquired
by the students in doing the real-world task or activity in the real life in
form of social networking.
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