The Second Language Learning with the Native Language

The world of communication becomes wider and wider day by day, and
nowadays English is considered as a global language. This is the main reason of
why many people learning English as a second language. Unlike the people who use
English as a mother language, most of the people in the world learn English as a
second language. The former type of people learned English naturally, and they use
English fluently although they do not know about the exact grammar structures.
However, the latter types are not. To learn other languages after they acquired their
mother language, second-language learners should connect their rules of native
language to foreign languages. Therefore, sometimes they make mistakes like
wrong orthographies, grammatical errors, and so on. The main point is that the
native language affects significantly to learn the second language by these three
reasons, grammars, pronunciations, and culture.
First language structures can interfere to grammar structures of the second
language. According to Stephen D. Krashen, first-language-influenced errors clearly
happen in second language performance (64). About the grammar structures, the
native language structures are included to the second language structures while
people learning the foreign language. Krashen also said that First language
influence appears to be strongest in complex word order and in word-for-word
translations of phrases. (65) This refers that foreign language learners usually use
word-for-word translation to understand complicated sentences. For instance, word
order of Korean is Subject Object Verb, but word order of English is usually
Subject Verb Object.

1. . (Korean)
2. He goes to school. (English)
1. He school go. (Korean grammarEnglish letters)
2. . (English grammarKorean letters)
These sentences show differences of word order between Korean and English.
Because of this, not only Koreans but other countries people who are studying
second languages, which are have different grammar rules, tend to apply their
familiar sentence form to the foreign language. For this reason, second-language
learners sometimes make sentences seems awkward. In <TESOL Quarterly>, there
is an example of the child who uses Spanish as the mother language. First
language interference would yield certain types of errors directly traceable to the
structure of the native language. For example, a native Spanish-speaking child
should tend to say, He have/has hunger (El tiene hambre), according to this
approach. (Heidi C. Dulay and Marina K, 130) This also means that the foreign
language learners tend to translate sentences one-by-one with their own grammars.
Pronunciation also affects learning the second languages because the kinds
of pronunciation are very various. Some pronunciations are even too hard to
pronounce or not exist in their native language system, so people try to find any
pronunciations in their native language, which are can substitute unfamiliar foreign
pronunciation. Fromkin mentioned about it in <An Introduction to Language (10 th
edition)> that French people pronounce English word this or that as zis and zat
because there are no th sound in French. (2) Similarly, Japanese people also
substitute some English pronunciation with their native pronunciations. They have
just flat sounds, which are combinations that some English consonants (k, s, t, n, h,

m, y, r, w) added before a vowel o, so they are represented like ka or nu, etc.

Thus, the sounds of Japanese are quite limited, and they cant completely substitute
English pronunciations. For instance, when they pronounce the English word
coffee, they say it like koh-hie because in Japanese there are no adequate
sounds to represent f pronunciation in English. Like this examples, the variety of
pronunciation compels some people to create new words different from the original
second language words.
Finally, the background of language, culture has influence on acquiring
foreign languages. Language and culture cannot be separated because cultures of
nations influence to their languages. C. Kramsh explained that Language is the
principal means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of
communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways. (3) Hence,
there are some elements affect to the second language learning; the idioms and the
style of speech. Idioms, such as dropped the ball, are known that the most difficult
to understand or translate, and it is because they created in their unique culture and
does not contain literal meanings. There is a report of experiment shows the
relationship between culture and idioms; () advanced learners of a second
language whose first language is closely related to the second can use their
knowledge of idioms in their first language to comprehend and produce idioms in the
second. (Suzanne, 8) In other words, people who live in similar culture understood
and translated idioms more easily, so we can say that the similarity of two cultures
can be directly connected to the comprehension of metaphorical sentences. The way
of communication is also different by the culture. The way of speech is also
connected to learning second language, and it affects to apply the second language

as speaking or writing. Richard E. Nisbett mentioned about the point of

understanding; Westerners focus on the speaker so they teach their children to
express their idea directly and clearly, but Asians focus on the listener and they tell
children that say something considering listeners emotions. (60-61) Therefore, the
Western people give a speech in a linear way but Asian people are not. Asian people
who learn English have the tendency that conveying their listener-focused thinking
with English words, so sometimes their performance with English seems ambiguous
and unclear. These two cases are about how culture influences to the way of
learning and using the second language.
In conclusion, there are three points of how the native language affects to the
second language, and they are grammar structures, language sounds, and
differences of background culture. People who study other languages say that some
languages were very easy to learn but some were very difficult. There might be other
various factors that have a power to determine the way of learning the foreign
languages except these three reasons because there are many kinds of unique
languages. If you are suffering to learning English or other second language, it will
be helpful to you to check the different features between your native language and
your learning language.

References
Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language
Learning. University of southern California: 1981. Print.
Fromkin, Victoria, et al. An Introduction to Language 10th edition.
WADSWORTH CENGAGE Learning: 2014. Print.
Dulay, Heidi C, Burt, Marina. Errors and Strategies in Language Acquisition*
TESOL Quarterly June 2014: 129-136. Format.
Kramsch, Claire. Language and Culture. Oxford University Press: 1998.
Print.
Suzanne, Irujo. Don't Put Your Leg in Your Mouth: Transfer in the Acquisition
of Idioms in a Second Language. The Boston University: 1984. Print.
Nisbett, Richard. The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners
Think Differently...and Why. Simon and Schuster: 2010. Print.