Second Language Acquisition in Childhood

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Children acquire their native language, which fall within a wide range of languages, at a very early stage of development. During development, a child begins to show signs of verbal communication, usually starting out as cooing, babbling, recognizable words, and later two or more word sentences. This occurrence is also seen in the development of second languages. Second language acquisition is the study of how second languages are typically developed. The process of acquiring our native language is very similar and influential to the development of a second language. The development of a second language has become increasingly popular throughout the world. Today more people are growing up with appropriate resources to acquire a second language, which can be seen from the vast numbers of bilingual individuals.

As previously stated, “Second language acquisition is the study of how an additional language is developed within a child’s life” (Gass & Selinker, 2008). According to researchers David and Wei (2008) “evidence seems to suggest that bilingual children’s language development is by and large the same as that of monolingual children”(p.599), meaning these children go through the same process beginning with babbling, followed by one-word sentences and progressing towards a more develop multiword stage. They way in which a child develops his/her first language becomes a guide for the development of a second language. Children may use their language skills acquired during L1 (first language) learning to help them obtain foreign languages. Research has shown that “both L1 and L2 are tools that serve complementary and sometimes overlapping functions” (Kohnert, 2008). Whether to use first language verse second language m...

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... Acquisition vs. Learning of a Second Language: English Negation. Philologica Jassyensia, 5(2), 89-94. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

David, A., & Wei, L. (2008). Individual differences in the lexical development of French-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11(5), 598-618. doi:10.2167/beb478.0

Gass, S. M., & Selinker, L. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Google Books. Retrieved April 14, 2011, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fhnbMj597-4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=second

Kayser, H. (2004). Biliteracy and Second-Language Learners. The ASHA Leader. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.asha.org/Publication

Kohnert, K. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: Success Factors in Sequential Bilingualism. The ASHA Leader. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from http://www.asha.org/Publication

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