The Second Language Acquisition

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During childhood, language acquisition is a natural consequence of prolonged exposure to a language. A spoken language need not be formally taught to a child in order to be learned. (By contrast, written language must always be taught.) Any small child will acquire native fluency in any language if exposed to it on a consistent basis in a social setting. A child will naturally acquire native fluency in more than one language under these circumstances. In the overwhelming majority of individuals, however, this natural ability to acquire spoken language without deliberate effort begins to diminish sharply at about the age of puberty (12-14 years of age). Teenagers exposed to a new language after this age will acquire it with definite…show more content…
Second-language acquisition (often abbreviated to SLA) also refers to the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. iii. Stages on acquiring English Language Researchers define language acquisition into two categories: first-language acquisition and second-language acquisition. First-language acquisition is a universal process regardless of home language. Babies listen to the sounds around them, begin to imitate them, and eventually start producing words. Second-language acquisition assumes knowledge in a first language and encompasses the process an individual goes through as he or she learns the elements of a new language, such as vocabulary, phonological components, grammatical structures, and writing systems. Pre-production: This is also called "the silent period," when the student takes in the new language which in this case is English, but does not speak it. This period often lasts six weeks or longer, depending on the individual. Early production: The individual begins to speak using short words and sentences, but the emphasis is still on listening and absorbing the new language. There will be many errors in the early production…show more content…
Challenges a learner will undergo when learning English The challenges for English language learners (ELL) are especially difficult, involving both educational and technical issues, including: 1. Historically low ELL performance and slow improvement. Most tests show that ELL students’ school performance is far below that of other students, oftentimes 20 to 30 percentage points, and usually shows little improvement across many years. 2. Measurement accuracy. CRESST research shows that the language demands of tests negatively influence accurate measurement of ELL performance. For the ELL student, tests measure both achievement and language ability. 3. Instability of the ELL student subgroup. The goal of redesignating high- performing ELL students as language-proficient students causes ELL high achievers to exit the ELL subgroup. The consequence is downward pressure on ELL test scores worsened by the addition of new ELL students, who are typically low achieving. 4. Factors outside of a school’s control. CRESST research shows substantial non-school effects on student learning even within ELL subgroups. Schools are therefore unable to control all factors related to student
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