What is Language Acquisition
Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. - Stephen Krashen
The Essential Issue About Language Acquisition
Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. - Stephen Krashen
Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability develops in a human. First language acquisition concerns the development of language in children, while second language acquisition focuses on language development in adults as well.
[Retrieved on 6 June 2008 from: Language Acquisition, <http:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition>. Copyright 16 May 2008. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia].
Language Acquisition Controversies
In the field of language acquisition we sometimes have questions and there are no common agreements about the answers. They are called controversies.
There are five basic SLA controversies as well as topics for future investigation:
1. Infant language acquisition / first language acquisition. How are infants able to learn language? One line of debate is between two points of view: that of psychological nativism, i.e., the language ability is somehow "hardwired" in the human brain, and that of the "tabula rasa" or Blank slate, i.e., language is acquired due to brain's interaction with environment. Another formulation of this controversy is "Nature versus nurture".
2. Is the human ability to use syntax based on innate mental structures or is syntactic speech the function of intelligence and interaction with other humans? The question is tightly related with the two major problems: language emergence and language acquisition.
3. The language acquisition device: How localized is language in the brain? Is there a particular area in the brain responsible for the development of language abilities, or is language not localized in the brain, or is it only partially localized?
4. What fundamental reasons explain why ultimate attainment in second language acquisition is typically some way short of the native speaker's ability, with learners varying widely in performance?
5. Animals and language: How much language (e.g. syntax) can animals be taught to use?
An overall issue: Can we design ethical psycholinguistic experiments to answer the questions above?
[Retrieved on 5 June 2008 from: Unsolved Problems in Linguistics, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsolved_problems_in_linguistics>. Copyright 3 March 2008. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia].
Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition
Stephen Krashen distinguishes five key hypotheses about second language acquisition:
1. The Acquisition-Learning Distinction
2. The Natural Order Hypothesis
3. The Monitor Hypothesis
4. The Input Hypothesis
5. The Affective Filter Hypothesis
The above five hypotheses of second language acquisition can be summarized in the following way:
acquisition is more important than learning.
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