Language: Are you acquiring it or learning it?

Language: Are you acquiring it or learning it?

By Jennifer Castillo Solis

teacherjenn17@yahoo.com 

Language learning unites people

         According to linguists there is an important distinction between language learning and language acquisition. This contrast can make the difference between truly capturing a language and ending a conversation in a fit of frustration.

            When we think of children acquiring a mother tongue we often do not think of children having to sit down and memorize complicated grammar rules. Children do not engage in drills, repetition and long exhaustive techniques to learn. Children acquire their language through their interaction with their parents, family members and environment. Their need to communicate and connect with others permits the innate ability to learn a language and flourish in the process. For this reason it is key, that parents and family members expose children to a second or third language because in this time period children can acquire a second language. Acquiring implies that they have an innate “instinct” to absorb the language. This however is not new as shown from a February 1996 “Newsweek” article stated "A child taught a second language after the age of 10 or so is unlikely ever to speak it like a native." Now that language acquisition has been explained, there is the other side of the coin which is language learning.

Language learning may not be “child’s play” for adults. Teenagers and adults experience language learning, language learning for this population is a direct result of memorization of grammar, pronunciation rules and other tidbits in the language. Teenagers and adults may come close to being native in a second language however they may not have the dominion of the language, if they had learned it as a child. Tenses, rules, repetition, drills are the norm for adults. Is that how children learn? Not even close. Where children speak thinking in communicating, adults speak thinking in using correct grammar and form. Language learning and language acquisition are like night and day.

            When it’s all said and done, the important thing is to be able to communicate and interact in another language. Regardless, if the learner was fortunate enough to learn a language as a child or began learning as an adult, the important thing is learning. Part of learning a language is the journey involved in it and having a good time in the process, as one unknown author stated, “English is a funny language; that explains why we park our car on the driveway and drive our car on the parkway.”