Does A Second Language In Early Life Affect a Native Language?

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Recommended: Theories of language acquisition and their influence in early childhood

Language acquisition is the process whereby children acquire the capacity to identify and comprehend a language either native or a second language. Most children learn a language through observation and listening and from there, they learn to copy what they hear and pronounce it. Many children learn to speak through sounds and vocabulary by imitating what the people around them, speak. Children are exposed to a language and this exposure helps them to be able to interact with the rest of the people. Children are not taught a language but they acquire it from the people around them at a tender age. Second language in early life affects the native language, both negatively and positively.
The development of a second language has become very popular all over the world today. Many people are growing up with appropriate resources in order to acquire a second language and this can be seen with increasing numbers of bilingual speakers. Second language acquisition is the study of how foreign languages are acquired by different people. The process one develops a second language is very similar to the process of acquiring the first language. Children acquire their native language at a very early age in their development. Just like they do acquire their first language at an early age, children can also develop their second languages at a very tender age. Second language acquisition in early life affects the native language positively and negatively.
The question of the best age to learn a second language has aroused many people’s curiosity with doubts on when to start teaching children a second language. However, it is believed that young children are the best in second language learning. Young children are not only taught the second lang...

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Marinova-Todd, S.F., Marshall, D.B. and Snow, C.E. (2000). Three Misconceptions About age and L2 Learning. TESOL Quarterly 34, 1: 9-34.
Brown, Douglas H. (2000). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (Fourth Edition).
New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Wagner, D, Spratt, J. and Ezzaki, A. (1989). Does learning to read in a second language always put the child at a disadvantage? Some counterevidence from morocco. 10(01), 31-48. Retrieved from http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2744712 Kuhl, P. (2004). Early language acquisition: cracking the speech code. doi: 10.1038/nrn1533Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v5/n11/abs/nrn1533.html
Kuhl, P (2010). Brain mechanisms in early language acquisition. 67(05), 713-727. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627310006811

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