Teach English in Xicheng Qu [incl. XuAnwǔ Qu] - Beijing

1st language vs 2nd language acquisition It?s no secret that humans learn their first language much faster than their second language. Even when exposed to two languages at a young age, the language that is prevalent in the country a person is living in will develop at a much faster rate than the other language and sometimes the second language isn?t picked up at all. ?We have all observed children acquiring their first language easily and well, yet the learning of second language, particularly in an education setting, often meets with great difficulty and sometimes failure? ("Comparing And Contrasting First And Second Language Acquisition", n.d.). First Language Acquisition Learning a first language almost goes without effort for a child. The parents introduce the language to the child through listening skills and the child picks up on the language quickly. Using the language every day is very important for the language to blossom to its full potential. These children eventually enter the school system where they are taught the grammar of their language apart from the working grammar that they have unknowingly picked up from their parents beforehand. The parents actually have very little to do with the child?s grammar capabilities ??parents provide very little in the way of language instruction to the child?contrary to what might be believed, parents do not teach their children to speak. Most parents wouldn?t even have the means in which to explain language overtly to a child even if they wanted). In fact, parents spend the majority of time correcting falsehoods (those little white lies) rather than correcting erroneous grammars? (Galasso, 2003). The learning process is almost effortless and in the end, most people are glad they have learned their own language compared to other languages as demonstrated by Shiori Saito (personal communication, December 12, 2011) ?Im glad to know japanese as my first language (because) there are so many subtle differences in choosing wording to describe one thing.? Second Language Acquisition Learning a second language is much more difficult unless the language is picked up from a young age. There are many examples of this being the case ?I could say English is easy for me because I?ve learned since I was very young. But if I am to start it now I might say differently, just how I am trying to learn German? (Molly W Srichamroen, personal communication, December 11, 2011). ?It was hard to brush up my hearing skill at first. It still is hard for me to understand what British (people) say.? (Shiori Saito, personal communication, December 12, 2011). This shows that starting from a young age on a second language has huge benefits compared to learning another language in school or through a private tutor. There are cases where one language allows for another language to be understood more quickly ?Having already learned thai it had helped me immensely in learning Mandarin. Even though Mandarin was a new language for me most of the basics like pronunciation and grammar were already familiar to me.? (Dnai Panya, personal communication, December 11, 2011). Tying learning a language to a different field of study can also allow a learner to more readily understand the language they are learning ?japanese feels very natural to me because it seems very mathematical. Every sentence is just a set of simple pieces that you add together. The only real placement rule from what I can tell is that the verb generally goes at the end of the sentence. I love that.? (Morgan Jeffrey, personal communication, December 12, 2011). Learning a second language in school is no easy task, even if the learner has had prior experience with the language. In the classroom a student will have access to the language via the teacher, however outside of the classroom he or she has no real way of practicing that new language aside from doing homework or talking to fellow classmates. There is a saying that ?steel sharpens steel? so every effort must be made to have the teacher convey the knowledge and the students then build upon what was learned between each other. Motivation plays a key role in the learning process, if a student can become highly motivated then their second language will become easier and easier to learn. Conclusion Learning a first language is mostly effortless to the point where most people forget how they learned it. Learning a second language is much more difficult unless a student has been learning that language from a very young age. Knowing a similar language to the second language and tying learning a language to another field of study also helps improve the learning experience. In the end it all comes down to how motivated one is to learn the language.