Language acquisition Essay

Contemporary researchers, who are interested in the language teaching, ELT publishing, second language acquisition and the theory of language in general while referring the process of a mother tongue influence on a foreign language teaching, usually apply the terms: ‘Language Interference’, ‘Cross-Linguistic Influence’, or ‘Transfer’. All of the terms imply that the language produced by foreign learners is that all the languages of the world have similarities which make a foreign language more familiar to a learner. Thus, while learning a foreign language students try to look for similarities with their mother tongue. These similarities in many cases depend on individual perceptions and in this way can be deceptive. Modern scientists suggest that the idea that the language produced by foreign learners can never be pure, it is unavoidably influenced by learners’ mother tongue. Sometimes mother tongue affects learning a foreign language so much, that the foreign language becomes distorted. So, the foreign language learnt should be better termed an ‘inter-language’ and, as Nicholls, D points out in the article What is learner English? , â€Å"it [the foreign language learnt] will always be a blend of the foreign language and the mother tongue. † (Nicholls 2002). As it was already mentioned above, the similarities found between a mother tongue and the foreign language a hindrance and a help, causing positive and negative transfer. (Nicholls 2002). Positive transfer is found in correct ‘guesses’, and the prompts, which help a learner to get the things right. Though positive transfer is a rich area of study, it is not in the scope of the study of the paper. Further the paper will discuss the negative transfer or the language interference that causes the learner errors in the process of a foreign language acquisition. In the sphere of contemporary education, the English language produced by learners is referred as ‘learner English’. An opposing term to ‘learner English’ is ‘Non-learner English’, the meaning of those is closely connected with the notions: ‘Standard English’ and ‘correct variant of English’. So, following the ideas of scientists, the English produced by learners will always be ‘foreign’. In order to make the further research more clear, it is necessary to define the main terms of the theory. First of all, the theory of language interference operates with the notions: first language and foreign language. Walters K. and Brody M. in their article What’s language got to do with it? define first language as the first language acquired by a person since his/her birth or childhood. If a person learns two or more languages in his/her infancy, then the person is considered to have two or more first languages. (Walters and Brody 2005) In this way, the term ‘First Language’ is very close to the terms ‘Native Language’ and ‘Mother Tongue’. However, the notion of mother tongue presupposes that the person learns the languages from infancy in the home. (Walters and Brody 2005) All in all, native language, as well mother tongue, and first language are learnt by a child mostly unconsciously and involuntary. A child may learn his/her mother tongue even if no special attempts at teaching are made. Also, the first language serves as a spoken medium of communication and â€Å"is largely achieved from random exposure. † (Encyclopedia Britannica 2004). In contrast to the first language, foreign language is taught purposefully. It is not necessarily acquired in one’s childhood or in one’s home. Walters K. and Brody M. write about a foreign language: it is â€Å"learned or used by a person for limited and/or specific purposes such as business transactions or reading. A foreign language is not learned with the in-tent of using it extensively in daily life. † (Walters and Brody 2005) So, another difference is found out. The first language is used in a person’s everyday life, whereas the spheres of usage of a foreign language are limited by place and by time. In other words, students speak or think in a foreign language during their lessons and at their classroom. When the lesson of a foreign language is over, students naturally go back to their mother tongue. This feature, certainly, gives more advantages to students’ mother tongue and encourages them to use their native language in a wider range, more ‘extensively’. The last not only fosters better development of a mother tongue in comparison with that of a foreign language, but also it puts the mother tongue in a dominating position over the foreign language. However, the notion of foreign language should not be confused with the notion of second language.