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Universal Grammar and First Language Acquisition

Children acquire language through a biologically programmed universal grammar, allowing them to learn the rules of their native language without formal instruction. In contrast, second language learning is not biologically driven and does not follow the same unconscious process of first language acquisition. L2 learners must consciously learn rules and often retain foreign accents or fossilize in their language development, whereas acquiring an L1 is an essential, innate part of cognitive development in childhood.

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542 views13 pages

Universal Grammar and First Language Acquisition

Children acquire language through a biologically programmed universal grammar, allowing them to learn the rules of their native language without formal instruction. In contrast, second language learning is not biologically driven and does not follow the same unconscious process of first language acquisition. L2 learners must consciously learn rules and often retain foreign accents or fossilize in their language development, whereas acquiring an L1 is an essential, innate part of cognitive development in childhood.

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misterash
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR AND FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

(DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION)


prepared by :

Ain fatihah Adam Ariff Ahmad Zulfaqqar Ashrafuqal Ahmad

INTRODUCTION
The concept of universal grammar has been traced to the observation of Roger Bacon, a 13th-century Franciscan friar and philosopher, that all languages are built upon a common grammar. The expression was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s by Noam Chomsky and other linguists.

By his reasoning, children learn their native languages using this hardwired grammar as a support structure. Even so, the child must still be taught the specific features of his or her language through social interaction.

UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
In linguistics, the theory of universal grammar holds that there are certain basic structural rules that govern language that all humans know without having to learn them. This is one way to explain how humans acquire language if the brain is already primed to understand certain sentence structures, it explains how children can understand and speak sentences that they've never heard before.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans speak, no nonhuman animal does. Babies are not born talking, they learn language, starting immediately from birth. The brain changes after birth, and these maturational changes may govern the onset, rate, and adult decline of language acquisition capacity. General changes in the child's information processing abilities (attention, memory, shortterm buffers for acoustic input and articulatory output) could leave their mark as well.

Learning a first language is something every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be human, it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received so much attention.

L1 ACQUISITION
L1 acquisition is genetically triggered at the most critical stage of the child's cognitive development. The 'engine' of language its syntactic system is 'informationally encapsulated' which means that children are not even aware of developing a complex, rulegoverned, hierarchical system. Most L1 speakers do not even realise this is what they are using. The L1 is typically acquired at the crucial period of cognitive development; pre-puberty, when L1 and other crucial lifeskills are also acquired or learned.

L1 ACQUISITION
Children never resist L1 acquisition, any more than they resist learning to walk. Given even minimal 'input' during critical pre-pubescent development, all humans acquire the L1 of the society or social group they are born into as a natural and essential part of their lives. Even brain-damaged and/or retarded children usually acquire the full grammatical code of the language of their society or social group. In short, L1 acquisition is an essential, biologicallydriven process. It is part of every individual's evolutionary history and development in the most critical stage of that individual's acquisition of essential life-skills.

L2 LEARNING
L2 learning is not genetically triggered in any way unless the child grows up bi-lingually (in which case, it is not really L2 learning at all). The syntax of the L2 is not acquired unconsciously , or at least not in the way L1 syntax is acquired. Few L2 learners develop the same degree of unconscious, rule-governed insight into and use of the L2 which they demonstrate with the L1.

The L2 is not learned as part of the learner's general cognitive development. It is not an essential life-skill in the same way that the L1 is.

L2 LEARNING
There is often great conscious or unconscious resistance to L2 learning. Many highly intelligent individuals with impressive learning skills often have great problems learning an L2. Many L2 learners 'fossilise' at some stage, so that even if they use the L2 regularly, and are constantly exposed to input in it, they fail to develop full grammatical or 'generative' competence. L2 learning is not a biologically-driven process. It is not an essential aspect of an individual's general development. especially when the L2 is simply another subject on an already overloaded school curriculum or something that has to be undertaken by people with busy lives and heavy work-loads.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

CONCLUSIONS
The childs language is a system in its own right rather than being a small fragment of the adult system The learning of a first language has many sides and is not simply a matter of learning syntax and vocabulary The use of the first language goes hand in hand with the childs needs and interests Wherever there is a relationship between cognition and language development, language depends on cognition

CONCLUSIONS
The childs use and learning of language is partly determined by mental capacity There are particular stages of development through which all children progress, even if the rate of progression varies The child learns to adapt its language use to particular situations Adults adapt their speech in systematic ways when talking to children

REFERENCES
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/L1% 20and%20L2.htm http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4 materials/ChildLangAcquisition.htm http://www.tedpower.co.uk/esl0412.html Cook, V.J. 1969. The analogy between first and second language learning. IRAL VII/3, 207-216 ,on-line version Cook, V.J. 1973. The comparison of language development in native children and foreign adults. IRAL XI/1, 13-28, online version

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