UNIT 12. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN L1 AND L2 LEARNING

UNIT 12

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN L1 AND L2 LEARNING

In the differences between L1 an L2 learning I have learn some new things, as already known L1 is the first language the a person acquire or also called mother tongue and L2 is the second language learnt or target language. There are differences in age, the motivation, the context and ways of learning.

The age is one of the most important aspect to take into account when learning a second language, from my own learning experience and teaching experience I may say that the younger the learner is the better he or she learn. Hence, the L1 learning starts from the very beginning, when the person is a baby and lasts into adolescence for some kind of language and language skills and babies learn language at the same time as their cognitive skills develop. Meanwhile the L2 learning which occurs in the classroom starts in the primary education and continues till adulthood and as they are mature people their cognitive skills are already develop.

Accordingly, L1 learners feel more motivated than L2 learners as they need to communicate. For example when my little American cousin, she is 3 years old, she knows almost no Spanish but once she was thirsty, so she knew her environment was about Spanish so she said ¨Puede drink agua¨ here clearly we can see that the necessity of communication made the kid talk using both languages but mostly the one she was exposed to. 

Whereas L2 motivation goes by the expectations they have about things, for example in an English class with students of 17-21 years old and one of the students who does not like English and almost never participate has the necessity to go to the restroom, so he for sure is going to ask in English ¨May I go to the restroom?¨ so it shows that in L2 learning the past experiences usually motivate students to use the target language. 

Finally, the context and the ways of learning between the L1 and L2 vary in some aspects. L1 learning is by exposure in which exists the learning of chunks. The interaction is very spontaneous and is among his or her family. On the contrary L2 learning occurs in a classroom with controlled practice activities which are most focus n the form of language in a more abstract way.

Video presentation http://www.powershow.com/view/1ffdd9-MzA2Z/SECOND_LANGUAGE_ACQUISITION_powerpoint_ppt_presentation

Extra useful material:

1. Pinker, S. Language acquisition. [on line].  Technical Report NIH grant HD 18381 and NSF grant BNS 91-09766.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MIT Press.  Retrieved October 3, 2009, from: http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html.

 

2. Society for Research in Child Development (2009, September 21). Children Under Three Can't Learn Action Words From TV -- Unless An Adult Helps. ScienceDaily [on line]. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from:http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/09/090915100947.htm.


3. Schütz, R. (2007, July 2). Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition. [Review of the book Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning by Stephen Krashen].  Retrieved October 4,2009, from http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html.