COMPARING FIRST AND SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Language acquisition refers to learning various components. They include basic sounds, tones prosodic structure, which refers to stress in pronunciation of words and intonation, whether rising or falling, vocabulary, morpho-syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Acquisition of a language depends on the ability of the person involved. For instance, a child can learn any language that they are exposed to. At a tender age, they are able to get in touch with the sound system of their language. In this regard, knowledge of phonology and prosody plays a major role. Later as they grow, they get to acquire morpho-syntax, especially at the age of five to seven years of age. In a close sight, the observation is that a younger learner can outperform older learners in the long run when it comes to second language acquisition (Piller, 2001).
In regard to Joseph Conrad, a well-known British author, acquisition of a second language is complex than the first language. In his study, Conrad argues that first language acquisition refers to the learning of the primary language, simply mother tongue in other words. Further, it is revealed that the acquisition of a second language takes more time as compared to the first language. Simply, a kid begins to speak his/her first language at a tender age (Silverstein, 1998). This depends entirely on the surrounding environment, that is the mother of the kid, father, and other kids within his/her range. The child easily learns the basics that is sounds, their pronunciation since they are born with an indigenous capacity for learning human language. As he/she grows up word stress and intonation begin to follow their suit. Joseph Conrad was raised speaking Polish and French languages. Learning the second language that is English as he joined the British Marine forces started when he was a twenty-year-old man. It was a little bit hard for him to learn his second language. It took him a lot of time to learn the basics. The advantage of acquisition of a second at a further age is that one gets a strong accent in his/her second language (Silverstein, 1998).
Second, language acquisition is greatly comprised of learning more than one language. This brings into context the reasoning of Joseph Conrad. It is hard for a child to learn two languages co-currently. In various, researches, it has been shown that when children are exposed to two languages concurrently, they get confused, and acquisition of those languages becomes difficult. At this stage, only acquisition of one language occurs. This is because of distinct word patterns. In normal case, the child may lose even both the two languages and develop another language out of nowhere. The brain of a kid is apt at learning one thing at a time. It simply appears that some of the domains are complex/harder to master in life than others. Accent and grammar lead in complexity, while vocabularies are on the better side (Maryns & Blommaert. n.d).
The other reference refers to Chomsky (UG). He explains that Second Language Acquisition is different from First Language Acquisition because it does not reflect all domains. He further explains that the role played by experience is big. The brain just becomes so apt at handling First Language, and it ignores the details of a second language. The dependency of Second Language Acquisition lies on the age of the individual when SLA takes place. An explanation on this could be given due to the fact that the child has not fully developed his/her first language, and thus acquiring a second language becomes easy for the child. It also depends on various linguistic domains like phonetics, morpho-syntax, vocabulary, and pragmatics (Erades, 2003). Second Language Acquisition is concerned with more than one language. Numerous patterns make it hard for one to notice what really happens. They include different types of bilingualism, natural acquisition, and classroom learning. Application of linguistics finds its way in this case study. This includes language teaching-on formal educational settings such as primary schools, high schools and universities, translation, and speech therapy.
In close comparison to these two people, the acquisition of the first language is different from the acquisition of a second language. It is quite evident that all this depends on age; most likely children are the main characters found in this context. As such, research has indicated that many factors affect the acquisition of the first and second language, and age takes center stage in most cases. Children at a tender age have been seen to acquire the second language more easily than an adult when exposed to a second language.
References
Erades, D., (2003). The participation of the second language and second dialect speakers in the legal system, ‘Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23:113-33.
Maryns, K. & J. Blommaert. (n.d). Pretextuality and Pretextual gaps: On de/refining linguistic inequality, ‘Pragmatics 12/1:11-30
Piller, I. (2001). ‘Naturalization language testing and its basis in ideologies of national identity and citizenship, ‘The International Journal of Bilingualism 5/3:259-77
Silverstein, M., (1998). ‘Contemporary transformations of local linguistic communities, ‘Annual Review of Anthropology.27:401-26