Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

18
Learning English as a second language
Acquiring a FIRST LANGUAGE (mother tongue)
1. Children first produce single words.
2. Then they learn to combine words into phrases.
3. In due course they learn to combine phrases into sentences.
This process is driven by the urge to communicate, which is part of each child’s biological inheritance.
Developmental orders in acquiring a FIRST LANGUAGE
The acquisition of a first language is marked by regular developmental orders. These are familiar to
parents and teachers. In the case of English, for example, the following stages may be observed as pupils
learn to form wh-questions correctly:
What Mama singing?
wh-WORD + NOUN (PHRASE) + MAIN VERB
What Mama is singing?
wh-WORD + NOUN (PHRASE) + AUXILIARY + MAIN VERB
What is Mama singing?
wh-WORD + AUXILIARY + NOUN (PHRASE) + MAIN VERB
Success and failure in FIRST LANGUAGE acquisition
All normally endowed children learn to speak the language of their environment.
Depending on the environment in which they live, children will differ in their early experience, and
this will be reflected, in particular, in the words they know.
There are no failures in first language acquisition as the acquisition of speech. All normally endowed
children become native speakers of their first language.
Learning to read and write is a conscious and intentional process. For most children it is part of
schooling, and is subject to all the factors that determine success or failure in education generally.
What about a SECOND LANGUAGE?
There are many differences between second and first language acquisition, including the following:
Unless it begins in early childhood, second language acquisition is not part of the learner’s primary
cognitive development.
The later second language acquisition begins, the more it is influenced by motivational factors.
The developmental orders that we see in a
child’s acquisition of the mother tongue also
occur in second language acquisition.
The errors to which they give rise should be
handled carefully. It is important not to
interfere constantly with a child’s efforts to
communicate.
All normally endowed children learn their
mother tongue successfully.
Motivation can affect second language
learning. This is not generally an issue with very
young children but could be a problem for
children in the senior primary school.