Have you ever wondered how
you learned to speak your
native language?
We can speak the language
perfectly well, with grammatically
perfect utterances and appropriate
and accurate vocabulary for
every possible situation or
context in our lives.
Obviously, we can infer,
our parents had something
to do with this. After all,
we speak their same language.
However, I guess it will
be very hard for you to recall
when it was that your parents
grabbed a grammar book and
a glossary of specific terms
for every possible aspect
of your life and forced you
to study until you had a perfect
mastery of your native tongue
It goes without saying that
remembering such an event
will be impossible as no one
has ever acquired a native
tongue that way. For starters,
babies and even young children
are unable to memorize rules.
However, by the age of 6
they can produce almost perfectly
sentences and talk with amazing
accuracy about most aspects
that are relevant to their
lives, respecting all or almost
all the grammar rules of the
language! How come?!
The evidence is not conclusive
but all of it suggests that
language is an innate capacity
of human beings which is acquired
during a critical period between
ages 2-8.
In other words, human beings
have an innate predisposition
towards language acquisition
This natural way of "picking
up the language" without
effort or formal systematic
studies of any kind is called
"first language acquisition."
In our next article, we will
learn about Second Language
Acquisition, something essential
for language learners to know
if they want to acquire a
second language effectively.
By Julio Foppoli
Teacher of English as a Second
Language,
Teacher of Spanish as a Second
Language,
Creator and owner of http://www.esaudio.net,
an online educational website
with a technological edge,
specialized in the teaching
of Spanish as second language
via audio-conference to native
speakers of English from all
over the world.
