Nature of Language

The Nature of Language a). What is Language? Language is a system for communicating. Written languages use symbols (that is, characters) to build words. The entire set of words is the language's vocabulary. The ways in which the words can be meaningfully combined is defined by the language's syntax and grammar. The actual meaning of words and combinations of words is defined by the language's semantics. In computer science, human languages are known as natural languages. Unfortunately, computers are not sophisticated enough to understand natural languages. As a result, we must communicate with computers using special computer languages. There are many different classes of computer languages, including machine languages, programming languages, and fourthgeneration languages. b). Animal versus Human Communication Systems of communication are not unique to human beings. Other animal species communicate in a variety of ways. One way is by sound: a bird may communicate by a call that a territory is his and should not be encroached upon. Another means of animal communication is by odor: an ant releases a chemical when it dies, and other ants then carry it away to the compost heap. A third means of communication is body movement, for example used by honeybees to convey the location of food sources. Although primates use all three methods of communication: sound, odor, and body movement, sound is the method of primary interest since it is our own primary means of communication. A topic of persistent debate in linguistic anthropology is whether human communication (verbal and nonverbal) is similar to nonhuman primate communication, such as seen in apes and monkeys. Linguistics and primatologists have searched for a common thread running through the communication systems of humans and nonhuman primates. Certain scholars argue that our language capabilities are not unique and point to various aspects of non-human primate communication as evidence. Other scientists remain unconvinced. Today there continues to be a significant amount of debate concerning this area of linguistic anthropology. Communication can be defined to include both signals and symbols. Signals are sounds or gestures that have a natural or selfevident meaning [example of someone crying (=emotion), laughing (=emotion), animal cries (=indicating fear, food, or hunt). In this regard, we can consider that most animal communication is genetically determined and includes hoots, grunts, or screams that are meant to mean only one thing and are used every time in the same situation. So there is only one way to express one thing and it never changes. Animal communication tends to consist primarily of signals. In contrast, human communication is dependent on both signals and symbols. Symbols are sounds or gestures that have meaning for a group of people-it is the cultural tradition that gives it meaning (e.g. green light=go; teaching a child letters (see Faces of Culture video). Symbols have to be learned and are not instinctive; the meanings are arbitrary. Some of the debate regarding human versus primate communication stems from observations by scientists in the field. For example, scientists who have observed vervet monkeys in the wild consider at least three of their alarm calls to be symbolic because each of them means a different kind of predator- eagles, pythons, leopards-monkeys react differently to each call. Interestingly, infant vervets often make the "eagle" warning call when they see any flying bird and learn the appropriate call as they grow up. This is similar to human infants who often first apply the word "dada" to all adult males, gradually learning to restrict it one person. It is possible, therefore, to consider such calls as symbolic. So-if monkeys and apes appear to use symbols as least some of the time, how can we distinguish human communication? For one thing, all human languages emply a much larger set of symbols. Another and perhaps more important difference is that other primate's vocal systems tend to be closed (different calls are not often combined to produce new, meaningful utterances). In contrast, human languages are open systems (capable of sending messages that have never been sent before and the ability to combine symbols in an infinite variety of ways for an infinite variety of meanings). The following exercises are designed to help you think about the similarities and differences between humans and nonhuman primates in terms of the way we all communicate. Exercise Major Questions: 1. What characteristics or properties of communication are common to all humans of the world? 2. Are these characteristics found among nonhuman primates as well? 3. What are the underlying causes that result in similarities or differences between systems of human and animal communication? Many animal and even plant species communicate with each other. Humans are not unique in this capability. However, human language is unique in being a symbolic communication system that is learned instead of biologically inherited. Symbols are sounds or things which have meaning given to them by the users. Originally, the meaning is arbitrarily assigned. For instance, the English word "dog" does not in any way physically resemble the animal it stands for. All symbols have a material form but the meaning can not be discovered by mere sensory examination of their forms. They are abstractions. A word is one or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by a language. The symbolic meaning of words can be so powerful that people are willing to risk their lives for them or take the lives of others. For instance, words such

as "queer" and "nigger" have symbolic meaning that is highly charged emotionally in America today for many people. They are much more than just a sequence of sounds to us. A major advantage of human language being a learned symbolic communication system is that it is infinitely flexible. Meanings can be changed and new symbols created. This is evidenced by the fact that new words are invented daily and the meaning of old ones change. For example, the English word "nice" now generally means pleasing, agreeable, polite, and kind. In the15th century it meant foolish, wanton, lascivious, and even wicked. Languages evolve in response to changing historical and social conditions. Some language transformations typically occur in a generation or less. For instance, the slang words used by your parents were very likely different from those that you use today. You also probably are familiar with many technical terms, such as "text messaging" and "high definition TV", that were not in general use even a decade ago. Sign Language Over the last few centuries, deaf people have developed sign languages that are complex visual-gestural forms of communicating with each other. Since they are effective communication systems with standardised rules, they also must be considered languages in their own right even though they are not spoken. Pidgin and Creole A pidgin is a simplified, makeshift language that develops to fulfill the communication needs of people who have no language in common but who need to occasionally interact for commercial and other reasons. Pidgins combine a limited amount of the vocabulary and grammar of the different languages. People who use pidgin languages also speak their own native language. Over the last several centuries, dozens of pidgin languages developed as Europeans expanded out into the rest of the world for colonisation and trade. The most well known ones are Pidgin English in New Guinea, Cameroon and Nigeria. However, several forms of Pidgin English and Pidgin French also developed in West Africa and the Caribbean. There have been pidgins developed by non-European cultures as well, including the Zulus in South Africa, the Malays in Southeast Asia, the Arabs in North Africa, and several American Indian societies. The most well known pidgin developed by American Indians is Chinook, which was used on the Northwest Coast of North America. At times, a pidgin language becomes the mother tongue of a population. When that happens, it is called a Creole language. As pidgins change into creoles over several generations, their vocabularies enlarge. In the small island nation of Haiti, a FrenchAfrican pidgin became the creole language. It is still spoken there by the majority of the population as their principle or only language. The same thing happened among some of the peoples of Papua New Guinea , the Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, and Sierra Leone in West Africa, where different versions of Pidgin English became creoles. Similarly, on the outer banks of Georgia and South Carolina in the United States, isolated former African slaves made another version of Pidgin English into a creole known as Gullah or Geechee . Creoles also developed in Louisiana, Jamaica, and the Netherlands Antilles. It is common for creole speakers to also speak another "standard" language as well. In Haiti, for instance, the more educated and affluent people also speak French among themselves. Their creole language is used on the street in dealing with poor Haitians. The Gullah speakers of Georgia and South Carolina speak English when dealing with outsiders. Which language is spoken depends on the social situation. This same phenomenon is often found in societies with different dialects of the same language. People may quickly switch back and forth between dialects, depending on the person they are talking to at the time. This pattern is referred to as diglossia r "code switching." The African American situational use of standard and Black English is a prime example. Black English is usually reserved for talking with other African Americans. North American reporters and announcers on national television programs are often diglossic. They must learn to speak with a Midwestern, European American dialect regardless of the region or social class they came from originally. We become so accustomed to this that it is usually a shocking surprise to hear them speak in their own dialects. Typically, the dialects of a society are ranked relative to each other in terms of social status. In the London area of England, the upper class speak "public school" English, while the lower class often use a Cockney dialect. Because of the stigma against the latter, upwardly mobile Cockneys in the business world may take language lessons to acquire the "public school" speech patterns.

How do we learn our first language? 1. The behaviorist perspective: Say what I say Behaviorism was a theory of learning that was very influential in the 1940s and 1950s, especially in the United States. With regard to language learning, the best-known proponent of this psychological theory was B. F.

Skinner. Traditional behaviorists hypothesized that when children imitated the language produced by those around them, their attempts to reproduce what they heard received 'positive reinforcement'. This could take the form of praise or just successful communication. Thus encouraged by their environment, children would continue to imitate and practice these sounds and patterns until they formed 'habits' of correct language use. According to this view, the quality and quantity of the language the child hears, as well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by others in the environment, would shape the child's language behavior. This theory gives great importance to the environment as the source of everything the child needs to learn. (Lightbown & Spada, 2009) The innatist perspective: It's all in your mind The Generative or Nativist approach assumes that children are able to acquire language because they are born with innate rules or principles related to structures of human languages (Chomsky, de Villiers, Lenneberg, Wexler, Yang, as cited in Owens, 2012). Generativists assume that it is impossible for children to learn linguistic knowledge from the environment given that the input children hear is limited and full of errors and incomplete information (Chomsky, 1965a, 1965b). Even with these limitations, children are still able to acquire the linguistic knowledge quickly because of the guidance of innate linguistic hypotheses. Something innate or inborn guides a childs learning. Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential figures in linguistics, and his ideas about how language is acquired and how it is stored in the mind sparked a revolution in many aspects of linguistics and psychology, including the study of language acquisition. A central part of his thinking is that all human languages are fundamentally innate and that the same universal principles underlie all of them. In his 1959 review of B. F. Skinner's book, (Verbal behavior), Chomsky challenged the behaviorist explanation for language acquisition. He argued that children are biologically programmed for language and that language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological functions develop. For example, every child will learn to walk as long as adequate nourishment and reasonable freedom of movement are provided. The child does not have to be taught. Most children learn to walk at about the same age, and walking is essentially the same in all normal human beings. For Chomsky, language acquisition is very similar. The environment makes on a basic contribution, in this case, the availability of people who speak to the child. The child, or rather, the child's biological endowment, will do the rest. 3. Interactionist/developmental perspectives: Learning from inside and out

In contrast to the Generative approach is the Constructionist or Empiricist approach, which argues that children learn linguistic knowledge from the environmental input to which they are exposed (Christiansen & Charter, Goldberg, MacWhinney, Reali & Christiansen, Tomasello, as cited in Owens, 2012). Cognitive and developmental psychologists argue that the innatists place too much emphasis on the 'final state' (the competence of adult native speakers) and not

enough on the developmental aspects of language acquisition. In their view, language acquisition is but one example of the human child's remarkable ability to learn from experience, and they see no need to assume that there are specific brain structures devoted to language acquisition. They hypothesize that what children need to know is essentially available in the language they are exposed to as they hear it used in thousands of hours of interactions with the people and objects around them. Developmental psychologists and psycholinguists have focused on the interplay between the innate learning ability of children and the environment in which they develop. These researchers attribute considerably more importance to the environment than the innatists do even though they also recognize a powerful learning mechanism in the human brain. They see language acquisition as similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds of skill and knowledge, rather than as something that is different from and largely independent of the child's experience and cognitive development. (Lightbown & Spada, 2009)

4.

Connectionism

Another recent view of language acquisition comes from CONNECTIONISM. Connectionists differ sharply from the Chomskyan innatists because they hypothesize that language acquisition does not require a separate 'module of the mind but can be explained in terms of learning in general. Furthermore, connectionists argue that what children need to know is essentially available to them in the language they are exposed to. Some of the research has involved computer simulations in which language samples are provided as input to a fairly simple program. The goal is to show that the computer program can 'learn' certain things if it is exposed to them enough. The program can even generalize beyond what it has actually been exposed to and make the same kinds of creative 'mistakes' that children make, such as putting a regular -ed ending on an irregular verb, for example, eated.

What are the stages a child learn the same language? The basic requirements for language acquisition: 1 - Exposure It is the first basic requirement for language acquisition. If we take a child born of Moroccan parents and put him in another social environment, such as Italy, he will speak the language spoken there (i.e. Italian) not Moroccan Arabic. This is called cultural transmission, not genetic transmission. If the child were not exposed to a human language, the language faculty (that is the ability to acquire language) with which he is born, cannot be activated. 2 - Physical Fitness

There is no language output if language faculty was not activated. This leads us to say that language acquisition requires both the auditory and the acoustic input. 3 - The Critical Age The critical age, called Puberty, occurs in the area where language is. Language acquisition has to be activated before this age. If the language faculty is not activated on time that is before this age language acquisition will certainly fail.

Stages of L 1st Acquisition: 1 - Pre- Linguistic Period: a. Cooing

Children learn to recognize the distinctive sounds, the phonemes of the language they hear from birth long before they are able to pronounce them. Infants can distinguish between /p/ and /b/ at three or four months (in an experiment with /ba/ played vs. /pa/, a two month infant showed awareness of the change). But children do not learn how to use these sounds until much later-- around the second year or later--as shown by the experiment with /pok/ and /bok/. Between six and eight weeks the first cooing sounds are produced, generally when the baby is in a settled state. These sounds develop alongside crying, gradually becoming more frequent and more varied, as the child responds to the mothers smiles and speech. They are quieter, lower pitched, and more musical than crying, usually consisting of a short, vowel-like sound preceded by a consonant-like sound made towards the back of the mouth many have nasal quality.

b.

Vocal play:

During cooing stage there is a great deal of lip movement and tongue thrusting, which it is thought may be a form of imitation. This leads between twenty and thirty weeks, to vocal play. The sounds of vocal play are much steadier and longer than those of cooing. Most segments last over one second, and consist of consonant + vowel-like sequences that are frequently repeated. They are usually at a high pitch level, and involve wide glides from high to low. (Crystal)

c.

Babbling stage:

Children around the sixth to the ninth month begin to differentiate between the sounds and select the sounds that exist in their environment. This stage is essential to proper language acquisition because it familiarizes children with the sounds of their voices, allowing them to gain control over their vocalizations, and it is characterized by indiscriminate utterance of speech sounds. This stage is essential

to proper language acquisition because it familiarizes children with the sounds of their voices, allowing them to gain control over their vocalizations. The fact that all children (including the congenitally deaf) go through a babbling stage, regardless of language and culture, and make very similar kinds of sounds at this time suggests that humans are biologically predisposed to go through this phase. (Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, & Harnish, 1997) Babbling is a smaller set of sounds is used with greater frequency and stability, to produce the [bababa] and other sequences known as reduplicated babbling. (Crystal, 2007) Reduplicative babbling in child language acquisition During the period 6 to 11 months after birth, all typically developing infants go through a stage of reduplicated or canonical babbling (Stark 198, Oller, 1980 as cited in Wikipedia). Canonical babbling is characterized by repetition of identical or nearly identical consonant-vowel combinations, such as 'nanana' or 'didididi'. It appears as a progression of language development as infants experiment with their vocal apparatus and home in on the sounds used in their native language. Canonical/reduplicated babbling also appears at a time when general rhythmic behavior, such as rhythmic hand movements and rhythmic kicking, appear. Canonical babbling is distinguished from earlier syllabic and vocal play, which has less structure.

During babbling stage, the brain seems to be controlling the development of babbling and early speech in a similar way, so that a set of well-practiced sounds is available for use at time when children become intellectually capable of using sound for the communication of meaning. (Crystal, 2007)

The linguistic period: a. One word (holophrastic) stage.

At some point in the late part of the first year of life or the early part of the second year, the child begins using recognizable words of the native language. These words are usually the names of familiar people, animals, and objects in the childs environment (mama, dada, kitty, doggie, ball, bottle, cup) and words indicating certain actions and demands (More, No). In this stage a certain child might use the word (doggie) to refer not just to dogs but to all common animals in the environment (overextension). In contrast, a child might use the word (doggie) to refer not to all dogs but only to certain specific dogs (underextension).(Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, & Harnish, 1997) A particular sound often used in a childs environment (such as in the name of a sibling or a pet) can cause that sound to be used much earlier than it otherwise

might. Some children have favorite sounds, which they introduce into many words, whether the sound is in the adult version or not. Others avoid sounds for example, persistently dropping certain consonants at the ends of words. Several studies showed the way children change the sounds of the language when they attempt to use them: They tend to replace fricative consonants by stops: see [ti:] They tend to replace velar consonants by alveolar ones: gone [don] They avoid consonant clusters: sky [kaI] They tend to omit consonants at the ends of words: hat [ha] They often drop unstressed syllables: banana [nana] (Crystal, 2007)

Overextension Vs underextension:

During one word stage another phenomenon usually occurs which is overextension or underextension. A certain child might use the word doggie to refer not just to dogs but to all common animals in the environment (overextension). In contrast, a child might use the word doggie to refer not to all dogs (all animals that could properly be referred to by the word doggie) but only to certain specific dogs (underextension).(Akmajian, Demers, Farmer, & Harnish, 1997) Deaf babies whose parents use sign language begin making their first word/gestures around eight months. This stage is characterized by the production of actual speech signs. Often the words are simplified: "du" for duck, "ba" for bottle. When the child has acquired about 50 words he develops regular pronunciation patterns. b. The Two-Word Utterances:

This stage is around 18-24 months; babies begin to use "mini-sentences" with simple semantic relations. They produce two- word utterances which can show different combination of word order. In this stage, the words lack morphological and syntactic markers but we can notice that there is a word order. And it is the beginning of real communication, and may resemble early proto-languages, such as give milk as a request for a drink and daddy home to observe that the father has returned. During second year, as simple sentences develop, a wider range of attitudes is expressed, and prosody begins to signal differences in emphasis. At this point, it becomes possible to distinguish such general sentences as Daddygone from the contrastive Daddy gone (not someone else). Generally in this stage, children who are asked to repeat sentences may simply leave out the determiners, modals and verbal auxiliaries, verbal inflections, etc., and often pronouns as well. The same pattern can be seen in their own spontaneous utterances.

c.

Telegraphic Stage:

Telegraphic stage or early multiword stage (better multi-morpheme), "Telegraphic" sentence structures of lexical rather than functional or grammatical morphemes appear. It nearly starts from the second year of babies birth. And they quickly progress to real grammar in short sentences, correctly placing words in proper order as in mommy call doggie - though this is not entirely correct, it shows an understanding of English sentence structure, the word forms are beginning to vary, inflectional morphemes begin to appear, and the use of simple prepositions become apparent. The child pronunciation is closer to the adult one.

Later development:

All children, no matter how rapid or how pedestrian their rate of acquisition, proceed systematically through the same learning stages for any particular linguistic structure.

Similarities & Differences of 1st and 2nd language Researchers have carried out numerous studies to understand the nature of first and second language acquisition. These studies have revealed that both first and second language learners follow a pattern of development, which is mainly followed despite exceptions. 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. a. 1. Developmental Sequences Silent Period:

Both first and second language learners pass through a similar initial stage, the silent period. 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. In general, however, many second language learners - especially classroom learners- are urged to speak. 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. While Krashen (1982) argues that it builds competence in the learner via listening, Gibbons (1985, cited in Ellis, 1994) argues that it is a stage of incomprehension.

2.

Speech Formulaic

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. 3. Structural and Semantic Simplification

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. b. Acquisition Order

Wells (1986b, in Ellis, 1994) proposes inter-learner variables affecting the order of acquisition as sex, intelligence, social background, rate of learning, and experience of linguistic interaction. Furthermore, McLaughlin (1987) claims that evidence from research shows that the learner's first language has an effect on acquisitional sequences which either slows their development or modifies it. He adds that, considerable individual variation in how learners acquire a second language, such as different learning, performance, and communication strategies, obscure the acquisitional sequences for certain constructions. Lightbown and Spada (2006) review studies which have proposed that the acquisition of question words (what, where, who, why, when, and how), show a great similarity in first and second language acquisition. Based on the morpheme studies in L2 acquisition, Krashen (1982) put forward the Natural Order Hypothesis which he developed to account for second language acquisition. He claimed that we acquire the rules of language in a predictable order. This acquisition order is not determined by simplicity or the order of rules taught in the class. The above arguments show that there seems to exist an order of acquisition in both first and second language acquisition. c. Linguistic Universals and Markedness

The findings show that unmarked features are learned earlier and easier than marked rules in both the first and the second language while unmarked forms require

more time and effort by the learner. d. Overgeneralization

In both first and second language acquisition, learners may overgeneralize vocabulary or rules, using them in contexts broader than those in which they should be used. For example a child may say goed instead of saying went for past of go, and same thing may happen in second language acquisition an adult may say holded instead of held for past of hold. e. Input

Krashen (1982) argues that the input a first language learner receives is simple and comprehensible at the beginning and is getting slightly more complicated. With this argument, he supports his next argument that input should be slightly above the level of the language learner. Only in doing so can the second language learner move forward. He argues that the second language learner should be exposed to the target language as much as possible and that the lack of comprehensible input will cause the language learner to be held up in his development (Ellis, 1994; McLaughlin, 1987). The Interactionist Approach to first language acquisition holds that one to one interaction gives the child access to language which is adjusted to his or her level of comprehension, therefore, interaction is seen as crucial and impersonal sources of language (such as TV and radio) are seen as insufficient. Consequently, verbal interaction is seen to be crucial for language leaning since it helps to make the facts of the second language salient to the learner. Similarly, intersectional modifications which take place in the conversations between native and non-native speakers are seen as necessary to make input comprehensible for the second language learner (Lightbown & Spada, 2006; Ellis, 1994). f. Behavioristic Views of Language Acquisition

The similarity between L1 and L2 acquisition is seen in the Behavioristic Approach originally which tries to explain learning in general. The famous psychologist Pavlov tried to explain learning in terms of conditioning and habit formation. Following Pavlov, B. F. Skinner tried to explain language learning in terms of operant conditioning. This view sees language as a behavior to be taught. A small part of the foreign language acts as a stimulus to which the learner responds (e.g. by repetition). When the learner is 100 % successful, the teacher reinforces by praise or approval. Consequently, the likelihood of the behavior is increased. However, if the learner responds inappropriately then the behavior is punished and the likelihood of this behavior to occur is decreased (Brown, 1994). In other words, children imitate a piece of language they hear and if they receive positive reinforcement they continue to imitate and practice that piece of language which then turns into a 'habit' (Williams & Burden, 1997). However, L1 and L2 learners form and repeat sentences they have not heard of

before. Therefore, this approach fails to account for the creative language use of L1 and L2 learners. g. Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

We can say that zone of proximal development is shared in first and second language acquisition; for example,when children come across a problem they cannot solve themselves they turn to others for help. Thus, collaboration with another person is important for a child to learn. Otherwise, development would not be possible. Learning collaboratively with others precedes and shapes development. A good example for this process is said to be the development of literacy (Gallaway & Richards, 1994; Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). Vygotsky (1982, cited in Daniels, 1996) asserts that through using language children take part in the intellectual life of the community. In order to negotiate meaning, collaboration between the child and the members of the community is required. Considering language education, instruction creates the zone of proximal development, stimulating a series of inner developmental processes (Daniels, 1996; Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). According to the ZPD, assistant performance and collaboration are crucial for learning and development. The teachers assistance and students collaboration with their teacher and their peers is inevitable for L2 development. The teachers most important classroom work is to provide fo r the social interaction within the community of learners such that the learners may move from what they know to what they dont yet know (Hawkins, 2001, p. 375).

Differences of first and second language acquisition On the surface one would look at child first language acquisition and adult second language acquisition and see similarities. In each case the learner first learns how to make basic sounds, then words, phrases and sentences; and as this learning continues the sentences become more and more complex. However, when one looks at the outcomes of these two types of acquisition, the differences are dramatic. The child's ability to communicate in the target language far surpasses that of the adult. In this paper differences in these two processes that most always produce such different outcomes will be explored. a. Input

The first area of difference between first (L1) and second (L2) language learning is input specifically the quality and quantity of input. It is the idea of the "connectionist model that implies... (that the) language learning process depends on the input frequency and regularity". It is here where one finds the greatest difference between L1 and L2 acquisition. The quantity of exposure to a target language a child gets is immense compared to the amount an adult receives. A child hears the language all day every day, whereas an adult learner may only hear the target language in the classroom which could be as little as three hours a week. Even if one looks at an

adult in a total submersion situation the quantity is still less because the amount of one on one interaction that a child gets for example with a parent or other caregiver is still much greater than the adult is receiving.

b.

Age

The next great and obvious difference between L1 and L2 learning is age. A large part of this train of thought is the idea of a "critical period, or the "time after which successful language learning cannot take place". This time is usually aligned with puberty. This change is significant, "because virtually every learner undergoes significant physical, cognitive, and emotional changes during puberty. There are three main physical changes one undergoes in regards to language acquisition. The first is the presence of muscular plasticity. A child's plasticity goes away at about the age of five. After this age it is very hard for a learner to fully master pronunciation of a second language. The second change is one's memorization capabilities. It is fairly well known that as a person grows older their ability to hold large amount of information reaches its peak fairly early in life, and then begins to decrease. This is seen most dominantly with very old individuals. The third physical change that occurs is more related to neurology. "As a child matures into adulthood, the left hemisphere (which controls the analytical and intellectual functions) becomes more dominant than the right side (which controls the emotional functions)." The one advantage adults seem to have over children is their cognitive ability. Adults are better able to benefit from learning about structure and grammar. Unfortunately this slight advantage in ability does not help adult second language acquisition in general. In fact this ability almost hinders them in that they analyze too much. Specifically, they cannot leave behind what they know about their first language, which leads to a tendency to overanalyze and to second guess what they are learning. The final area that puberty changes is within the emotional, or affective, realm. Motivation is much affected by emotional change. A child's motivation is simple. In order to communicate and to be a part of family and society the child must master the target language. This motivation is quite weighty, especially when compared to the motivation that adults have, or rather, must find. Adult motivations usually fall into one of two categories: "integrative motivation (which encourages a learner to acquire the new language in order to become closer to and/or identify themselves with the speakers of the target language) or instrumental motivation (which encourages a learner to acquire proficiency for such practical purposes as becoming a translator, doing further research, and aiming for promotion in their career)". Either one of these types of motivation must be prevalent for successful acquisition to take place. c. Egocentricity

The final change that takes place, and changes language learning has to do with egocentricity. Children are naturally egocentric. While learning their language they

are not afraid to make mistakes, and in general, they do not feel abashed when they are corrected. Also, their thoughts usually do not surpass their language ability. Adults, on the other hand usually suffer form a fairly large amount of language learning anxiety. Adults often "feel frustrated or threatened in the struggle of learning a different language". Mistakes are seen more as failures then as opportunities for growth. "The adult learner may also feel greatly frustrated, for being only able to express their highly complex ideas at a discourse level of an elementary school pupil". These new emotions leave an adult learner in a slightly helpless position, unable to regain the egocentricity of their childhood, which is just on more hindrance in a line of many.

d.

Experience with another language

In the process of learning a second language, a learner experiences something different from his mother tongue. The first language has no experience with another language, while the learner of the second language has already learnt one language in his child hood. In the second language, he finds different vocabulary; grammar structures and so on are totally different from his mother tongue. e. Process of learning

Learning of the first language is a natural process. A person learns his mother tongue in a natural way. There is the strongest social compulsion for the child, to pick up his mother tongue. For the second language learner, the compulsion may not be strong and the class rooms activities helping him to learn may be artificial graded and selected items are exposed. f. Time limit

In first language acquisition one has a choice of time that means the learner decided his time that when to learn. Nobody can force him because it happens in society whereas second language learner has to keep in the mind in the mind the time of teacher. And he is forced by his teachers to learn. So, first language learner learns by his own language learner has to keep in mind the time given by the expert. In first language acquisition, children spend several years listening to language, babbling, and using telegraphic speech before they can form sentences. In second language acquisition in older learners, learning is more rapid and people are able to form sentences within a shorter period of time.