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First Language Vs Second Language

First, a first language is acquired naturally from birth through exposure to parents communicating, while a second language is usually learned later, such as through schooling. Second, a first language is less complex to learn as it is acquired effortlessly from birth, while a second language requires active study of grammar rules. Third, the learning process for a first language involves listening to parents, while a second language can be learned in classrooms or abroad through immersion.

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Dervin Lasagas
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188 views20 pages

First Language Vs Second Language

First, a first language is acquired naturally from birth through exposure to parents communicating, while a second language is usually learned later, such as through schooling. Second, a first language is less complex to learn as it is acquired effortlessly from birth, while a second language requires active study of grammar rules. Third, the learning process for a first language involves listening to parents, while a second language can be learned in classrooms or abroad through immersion.

Uploaded by

Dervin Lasagas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Firstlanguage is a language that one

acquires from birth and a second


language is a non-native language
usually learned at a later stage.

In a nutshell, native languages are


regarded as first languages whereas
non-native languages are referred to
as second languages. This article looks
into the difference between the first
and second language.
What is a first language?

A first language is a language that


babies acquire from birth until about 7
or 8 years old. They can keep learning
the language even after those years to
master all the idiomatic expressions,
sentence structures, and many more
areas.
Kids learn the language naturally and
effortlessly by listening to their parents
communicating with it to them, or even
listen to other kids conversing with it.

There are babies born out of parents with


different linguistic backgrounds. If, for
example, a dad is French and a mom
Spanish, the baby might be exposed to
those languages at the same time. In that
case the baby is said to have two first
languages. They can master both
languages as they grow acquiring it.
First language is often assigned the
letter L2 by linguistic professionals. But
because kids acquire it naturally does
not mean they should not learn it.

Their learning can be reinforced in the


classroom to emphasize the knowledge
of grammar rules, idiomatic
expressions, metaphors, syntax, and
many more concepts.
What is a second language?

A second language is a language usually


learned at a later stage. It is a non-
native language. There is no limit of
second languages that one can learn.
One can acquire many languages often
abbreviated as L2, L3, and L4… A second
language is non-native, and it is
challenging to be fluent in it. Those who
are proficient in a second language are
often referred to as “near-native”
speakers.
A second language can be any
language as long as it is not a mother
tongue or native tongue.

The process of learning this is active


and demands lots of efforts to
familiarize yourself with grammar
rules, sentence structure,
pronunciation, vocabulary and many
more concepts.
In countries where English is not a
native language, for instance, school
kids are often taught English as a
compulsory second language so they
can integrate with others in the
corporate world.
Differences between First Language
and Second Language

Second language is a language learned


at a later stage after a mother tongue.
First language, on the other hand, is a
language acquired by babies naturally
from their parents. They can have
double first languages as a result of
parents emanating from varying
linguistic backgrounds.
Complexity

A first language is not complex because it


is acquired naturally and effortlessly. One
masters grammar rules from an early
age. Although it may be learned further
in the classroom for mastery purposes, a
first language is less complex.
A second language is, however, a
complex language because it seems as a
foreign language where one has to start
from scratch acquiring basic concepts.
Learning Process

A first language is learned from birth


by listening to parents conversing with
it. A second language, on the other
hand, is often learned in the
classrooms, online tutorials, listening
to others speak in a different linguistic
environment or foreign country. There
are many ways through which a second
language can be learned.
First Language Vs. Second Language
First Language Second Language
Language acquired from Language usually learned
birth by actively listening at a later stage after a
to parents communicating mother tongue.
with you.

Native language, mother Non-native language, non-


tongue, native tongue native tongue

It is complex, babies learn It is learned actively by


it effortlessly studying grammar rules
and many concepts

It is abbreviated as L1 It is abbreviated as L2
Rod Ellis (1984) covers the idea of
developmental sequences in detail and
outlines three developmental stages:
the silent period, formulaic speech, and
structural and semantic simplification.

Children acquiring their first language


go through a period of listening to the
language they are exposed to.
During this period the child tries to
discover what language is. In the case
of second language acquisition,
learners opt for a silent period when
immediate production is not required
from them.
Silent period

The fact that there is a silent period in


both first and second language learners
(when given the opportunity) is widely
accepted.
However, there is disagreement on
what contribution the silent period has
in second language acquisition.
The second developmental stage is
termed formulaic speech. Formulaic
speech is defined as expressions which
are learnt as unanalysable wholes and
employed on particular occasions
(Lyons, 1968, cited in Ellis, 1994).
Krashen (1982) suggests that these
expressions can have the form of
routines (whole utterances learned as
memorized chunks - e.g. I don't
know.), patterns (partially unanalyzed
utterances with one or more slots -
e.g. Can I have a ____?),
and Ellis (1994) suggests that these
expressions can consist of entire scripts
such as greetings. The literature points
out that formulaic speech is not only
present in both first and second
language acquisition but also present in
the speech of adult native speakers.
In the third stage the first and second
language learners apply structural and
semantic simplifications to their
language.

Structural simplifications take the form


of omitting grammatical functors (e.g.
articles, auxiliary verbs) and semantic
simplifications take the form of
omitting content words (e. g. nouns,
verbs).
There are two suggested reasons why
such simplifications occur.

The first reason is that learners may


not have yet acquired the necessary
linguistic forms.

The second reason is that they are


unable to access linguistic forms during
production.
These three stages show us that L1
and L2 learners go through similar
stages of development with the
exception that L2 learners are urged to
skip the silent period.

However, learners do not only show a


pattern in developmental sequences,
but also in the order in which they
acquire certain grammatical
morphemes.

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