Chapter

1 First Language vs Second Language Acquisition

Lesson 4

Introduction

Language is the most significant aspect which makes us different from all other
species. Accordingly, language acquisition is the most impressive aspect of human
development both in psychological and cognitive perspective. However, all the normal
human beings acquire the language they first encounter as children. Then they might learn
multiple languages but those languages will always be different from the first language they
acquired by being exposed to. So, it is evident that there are a lot of differences between the
first language and the second language of a person.

What I Need to Know

1. Define first and second language acquisition.

2. Compare and contrast first and second language acquisition using a graphic
organizer.

What’s New
Let’s Talk About It!

1. How many languages do you speak?

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2. What is your first language? Second? Third?
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What Is It

Difference between a First Language & a Second Language

 A first language is the mother tongue or native language of a person while a

second language is a language a person learns in order to communicate with the
native speaker of that language.
 The first language is like an instinct which is triggered by birth and developed with
the experience of being exposed to it. A second language is a personal choice of a
person.
 There is no other alternative to a first language. A person cannot decide his/her first
language. It comes to him/her as an inheritance/legacy/birthright. On the other
hand, a second language is always fixed by the person. There are many alternatives
to a second language. A person/community can choose a second language among
other languages.
 The acquiring process of the first language is very rapid while the learning process
of the second language can vary from language to language and from person to
person, but can never be as rapid as the first language acquisition.
 The first language is ‘acquired’ and the second language is ‘learned’. The difference
between these two words describes the qualities of the two languages. ‘Acquire’

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means “to come into possession or ownership of” which indicates that the first
language is like a dynamic and abstract property which comes into possession of a
person. On the other hand, ‘learn’ means “to gain knowledge or skill by study,
instruction, or experience” which indicates that there is nothing passive in second
language learning.
 A first language is completely acquired with 100% proficiency within 6 years from
the birth. However, a second language can never be learned as efficiently as a first
language; though good competence can be achieved in the second language, the
process is slow.
 The first language acquisition is always natural and there is no need for instruction
in acquiring it. But a second language learning is not natural and it needs continuous
guidance and instruction.
 The first language acquisition begins with telegraphic speech. The term 'telegraphic
speech' deriving from the word ‘telegram’ was coined by Roger Brown, an American
psycholinguist, in 1963. It refers to the two-word a child can utter when s/he is 18
to 24 months of age. Examples of telegraphic speech: Mom see, Dad go, No ball,
Daddy walk, Mommy milk, etc. On the other hand, the second language acquisition
begins with a full sentence. A child cannot start learning the second language
without being fully efficient in the first language.
 The first language is a natural part of a person’s everyday life. But the second
language is a new aspect of the person’s life if s/he chooses it to be.
 The first language does not require any conscious effort; the acquisition process of
the first language is subconscious. The second language requires constant conscious
effort so that the learners can internalize the structures of the second language.

Some factors of difference for the first language and the second language.

Age:

It is the most important factor that makes a second language totally different from the first
language. Children of the age of 6 who have already acquired full proficiency in their first
language are most capable of learning a second language. Adults usually find it difficult to
learn a new language when they become too accustomed to their first/native language.

Personality:

A child’s personality does not usually make that much of difference in the acquisition of the
first language. But it makes a huge difference in the learning process of the second
language. In the second language learning process, the learners with an introvert
personality usually make slow progress than the learners with an extrovert personality.

Culture:

The first language is one of the most important factors of a person’s culture. But a second
language is not that important in anyone’s culture. However, the second language has some
effects on the culture of a person but not significant enough to be counted as an element of
that culture.

Motivation:

It is an important factor for the second language learning. A learner with good motivation
to learn a second language is likely to learn that language faster. But the acquisition of the
first language does not require any motivation because it is a natural phenomenon. The
first language is acquired subconsciously and there is no need for motivation to acquire it.

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Mother Tongue:

The first language is the mother tongue of a person. The second language learning depends
a lot on the structures of the first language. If the structure of the first language is similar to
the second language, it will be easy and fast for the learners to internalize it. For instance,
an English native speaker will find Dutch easier to learn than Hindi as a second language.

A first language and a second language both have their effects on each other. However, as
we have learned that the first language is natural and has a solid base in a person’s
intellectual and psychological development, the first language is not affected by the second
language as much as the second language is affected by the first language. Finally, we can
say that the relationship and the differences between a first and a second language are
complex but constant.    

First and second language acquisition: A brief comparison

First language acquisition Second language acquisition
An instinct, triggered by birth A personal choice, required motivation
Very rapid Varies, but never as quick as FLA
Complete Never as good as a native speaker, though
good competence can be achieved
Natural (no instruction) Natural or guided (for synthetic languages
grammatical instruction is required

Note the following facts concerning first and second language acquisition:
1. The level of competence acquired with SLA (second language acquisition) depends
not so much on the time spent learning a language as the time at which one begins.
2. In general linguists maintain that a first language is acquired, i.e. that knowledge is
stored unconsciously, and that a second language is learned, i.e. that knowledge is
gained by conscious study of the second language’s structure. However, this
distinction is not watertight and SLA can involve acquisition to a certain degree. FLA
(first language acquisition) does not, however, learned as no instruction is required.
Remember that you know your first language before you start school.
3. There is a critical period, that of puberty, around 12 or 13 years of age, after which it
is difficult, if not impossible to acquire a second language with the same degree of
competence as the first language. The decline in ability to acquire a second language
may also be connected with the lateralization of the brain just before puberty, i.e.
with the fixing of functions in one or other of the two halves of the brain. The decline
in acquisition ability after lateralization/puberty is a widespread phenomenon and
affects other activities such as sports, playing music, etc.
4. Because SLA is very largely conscious it is dependent on factors such as motivation
and personality. This does not apply to FLA which is triggered by birth, i.e. it is an
instinct in the biological sense of the word. Remember that no-one ever refuses to
acquire one’s first language and that no-one dislikes one’s own first language.
Because FLA is an instinct there is no choice involved, contrast this with a second
language.
5. Note that something which is acquired does not require conscious decisions when
activated. However, if you have learned something, like the rule of chess then you
must think consciously about how to move the pieces. An unconscious activity, apart
from language, acquired in childhood would, for instance, be the ability to ride a
bicycle.
6. Your first language is acquired without too much input from your surroundings.
Furthermore, this input does not have to be ordered: children make sense of what
they hear and create the order needed to stored knowledge of their first language

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themselves. It is not necessary to speak to young children in a babyish way: children
do not end up speaking like this anyway.
7. First language acquisition is not dependent on intelligence or special ability for
languages. Everyone acquires their native language fully and properly. What is true,
of course, is that some people have a greater stylistic range and larger vocabulary in
their native language, but that is not connected with first language acquisition. You
learn style in school when you learn how to write the standard of your language and
you learn specialized words consciously after childhood.
8. First language acquisition is connected to cognitive development with the latter
preceding the former somewhat. With the second language (acquired after puberty)
you have all the cognitive structures necessary to deal with the language.
9. You cannot forget your first language, although it may become inactive if you spend
many years speaking just a second language. Backsliding, reverting to a lower level
of competence, making mistakes you know mistakes, are features of second
language acquisition only.
10. There are certain phases in first language acquisition: one-word, two-word and
multi-word stages. Furthermore, in early childhood children make maximally
simpler generalizations about language, e.g. that all verbs are weak. After a while
they correct themselves (when they just hear the adult forms). Once they have
acquired the latter they remember them.
11. In FLA children make errors, systematic ill-formed structures based on the level of
acquisition on which they happen to be. In post-puberty SLA individuals make
mistakes which are often random and erratic, though a degree of regularity can be
recognized here. With SLA there can be interference from the first language, i.e.
structures from L1 are carried over into L2 where they do not occur natively.
Interference obviously does not occur in FLA.
12. FLA children build up competence, the internalized knowledge of one’s native
language, from the performance of others, i.e. by accepting spoken input from those
people surrounding them. The parents are obviously important here, but siblings
and playmates can play an equally important role if they are present.
13. In the strict sense bilinguals are those individuals who have acquired two languages
simultaneously in early childhood. Normally, one of these languages will be
dominant, but the degree of competence in the non-dominant language is still very
high and far exceeds that of a second language learned after puberty.

What’s More

A. Pick one line/idea which you totally agree or disagree with. Please support
your answer.
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B. Journal Writing
Talk about your new learning/discoveries. Given the learning you have, what
will you do differently as a would-be teacher? (You may use a separate sheet)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
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_________________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
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What I Can Do

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A. Compare and contrast first language acquisition from second language
learning using a graphic organizer.

References:
https://www.basic-concept.com/c/difference-between-first-language-second-language

https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/FLA_SLA_brief_comparison.pdf
http://psychology.iresearchnet.com/developmental-psychology/education-and-
learning/competence-versus-performance/

Some articles (for additional reading):

Competence versus Performance

How do we know that students have learned a language?  We can assess students using
formative and summative assessments but how do we know that students will actually be
able to use their language in real-life, authentic situations?  In short, how do we know that
our students are competent in the target language?  One way to judge this competency is
through students’ performance.  However, how do we know that this performance is an
accurate measure of what students actually know?  In this section we will examine these
questions further by looking at competence versus performance.

What is the difference between competence and performance?

Chomsky separates competence and performance; he describes  'competence' as an

idealized capacity that is located as a psychological or mental property or function and
‘performance’ as the production of actual utterances.   In short, competence involves
“knowing” the language and performance involves “doing” something with the language.
The difficulty with this construct is that it is very difficult to assess competence without
assessing performance.  

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Why is it important to make a distinction between competence and performance?

Noting the distinction

between competence and
performance is useful
primarily because it allows
those studying a language to
differentiate between a
speech error and not
knowing something about the
language. To understand this
distinction, it is helpful to
think about a time when
you've made some sort of
error in your speech. For
example, let's say you are a
native speaker of English and
utter the following:

We swimmed in the ocean this

weekend.

Is this error due to

competence or
performance? It is most likely
that as a native speaker you
are aware how to conjugate
irregular verbs in the past
but your performance has let
you down this time.  
Linguists use the distinction
between competence and performance to illustrate the intuitive difference between
accidentally saying swimmed and the fact that a child or non-proficient speaker of English
may not know that the past tense of swim is swam and say swimmed consistently.

How do competence and performance apply to the language classroom?

As we have learned, competence and performance involve “knowing” and “doing”. In the
recent past, many language instruction programs have focused more on the “knowing”
(competence) part of learning a language wherein words and sentences are presented and
practiced in a way to best help learners internalize the forms.  The assumption here is that
once the learners have ‘learned’ the information they will be able to use it through reading,
writing, listening and speaking.   The disadvantage of this approach is that the learners are
unable to use the language in a natural way.  Having been trained to learn the language
through “knowing”, learners have difficulty reversing this training and actually “doing”
something with the language.   In brief, it is difficult to assess whether the learners’
insufficient proficiency is due to limitations of competency or a lack of performance.

In order to focus learners more on the “doing” part of learning, which allows a more
accurate measure of learners’ language proficiency, a more communicative approach to
teaching can be used.  This type of approach concentrates on getting learners to do things
with the language.  If we think of B-SLIM we can see that this relates to the Getting It and
Using It stages of the model.  By encouraging students to eventually “learn through the
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language” as opposed to strictly learning the language there is a more balanced focus on
both competence and performance.

Competence Versus Performance

The concept of competence versus performance is fundamental to the study of language.

This distinction recognizes that the “mistakes” people make when speaking (performance)
may not accurately reflect what they actually know (competence). We all have made “slips
of the tongue,” where we substitute a word or sound for another or use a different
grammatical form than intended, with sometimes humorous results. For example, you
might say you need to go “shake a tower” instead of “take a shower,” ask someone to be
“pacific” rather than be “specific,” or accuse someone of telling a “lack of pies” rather than
“pack of lies.” Performance errors can also be found in comprehension, such as mishearing
“just a position” for “juxtaposition.”

These kinds of mistakes do not mean that we have an inaccurate knowledge of language.
Rather, a variety of conditions, both internal to the individual (i.e., memory limitations or
fatigue) and external (i.e., distractions or interruptions) can cause a difference between
what people know about their language and how they apply that knowledge in real
situations.

Noam Chomsky defined competence as the underlying knowledge each speaker-hearer has
about the language of his or her community. As such, competence is an ideal, which
presupposes a “completely homogeneous speech-community.” It is hypothesized as a
psychological or mental property or function and therefore cannot be directly observed. In
contrast, performance refers to an actual communicative act of speaking or hearing. In this
distinction, performance is  an  incomplete  and  inaccurate  demonstration  of what an
individual knows about his or her language.

The competence-performance distinction is an important one in linguistics. One of the

major goals of linguistic research is to discover how children develop language. Another is
to understand how language functions within the human brain. One difficulty in conducting
these types of language research is that actual speech contains errors. In 1965, Noam
Chomsky argued that the focus of linguistic theory must be on the underlying language
system (competence), not the act of speaking (performance). While performance errors
may illuminate how language is perceived and organized in the brain, the goal of a theory
of language is not a description of what people  actually say. Rather, it is to describe the
cognitive mechanism by which humans can produce an infinite number of sentences, many
of which they have never heard, from a finite number of words and grammatical structures.
Therefore, it is crucial to differentiate between competence and performance.

Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance has undergone some

criticism, such as for the emphasis on grammar in his definition of competence.
Subsequently, Dell Hymes and others have introduced the concept of “communicative
competence,” which refers to an individual’s knowledge of how to use language
appropriately in different social and communicative contexts. The focus on language use
has emerged in recent years in a variety of areas, including language socialization research.
This type of study examines how children from different backgrounds are socialized to use
language in culturally appropriate ways and how they develop understanding of the social
organization and  worldview  of  their  cultural  group  through  the development of their
community’s language.

The distinction between competence and performance remains important to many areas of
study (i.e., artificial intelligence and second language acquisition) and is widely applied.
Nonetheless, as with the theory of language for which this distinction was originally

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proposed, many questions and controversies remain. Yet, for many, this is a useful heuristic
device that allows us to consider and explain how in terms of our language abilities, as in
many other areas of human cognition, we may know more than we can demonstrate
through our actions in daily life.