The Inconspicuous Relationships between Language Acquisition and Learning

Kumar V. Heymonth heymonthkumar1999@gmail.com

KSR College of Education, India

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International.

Commonly, the first language of a person must be acquired and the second language of a person may be acquired or learnt based on the environment in which the individual lives. The language acquisition and language learning have similarities as well as differences based on the geographical area in which the language is used. For example, native language of a person may be the second language of another person. It has its own characteristics in the processes, attitudes, and values of the linguistic environment. Pritz Hutabarat stated,

Krashen classifies the nature of language mastery into two main activities; acquiring and learning. The main differences between the two processes lays in the intentional factor for learning a language. Acquiring refers to unintentional activities of learning a language as observe in the first language acquisition. Learning, on the other hand, refers to intentional effort of acquiring a language, could be a second or foreign language which commonly occurs in a language classroom. (Hutabarat, 162)

This shows the significant difference between the two processes of getting any language. It must be understood clearly before entering into the research. According to Imran Hussain, “Stephen Krashen’s Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis has the view that language can be assimilated, grasped and operated through two modules. i.e. language acquisition that is unconscious and language learning that is the cognizant process” (Hussain 3).

Language acquisition means the process of getting the language through acquisition. i.e. experiences which are mostly informal. Based on various researches and their results, infants start to imitate the actions and gestures of their parents as well as elders at first. Gradually, they begin to acquire the language during the age of two or three years old. So, language acquisition is a natural process and it is an outcome of socialisation process which nurtures individuals by the language of the family and the society.

Listening is the most prominent language acquisition activity that provides linguistic experiences to gyrus through the ears. According to Fernandes Arung, “When humans communicate using the language, in the meantime, they are studying and also acquiring the language they hear and use” (Arung 1). This shows the influence of listening in language acquisition process.

He stated, “Language proficiency is really determined by three factors of phased process approach, namely Subconscious Acquisition, Conscious Acquisition, and Learning” (Arung 7). It is possible to acquire a language subconsciously as well as consciously, because language passes through the ears and it stores in the subconscious memory. It is practical in the life of construction workers who have not formal education, but they acquire the language and speak it fluently as well as the native speaker of the language.

Language acquisition requires a natural setting to improve the language of people. Those who live in a language-using-environment can acquire the language at the best, nearly to the level of native speaker of the language. It focuses on listening and speaking rather than reading and writing. Arung explained, “Some theorists said that in obtaining any language, children tend to acquire language more than adults do” (Arung 2). Children have the ability to focus on listening and speaking before they train themselves for reading and writing. It increases their power of language acquisition. Many researches prove that children can easily acquire five languages before the age of eight if they have necessary language listening and speaking environment.

Through proper acquisition practices, any person can switch from one language to another language easily with or without conscious efforts. According to Aladdin Assaiqeli, “Bilingual acquisition or the acquisition of two languages simultaneously or sequentially is a marvel that concerns linguists, language teachers, and parents who speak two different languages or who can provide a bilingual environment for the child since birth” (Assaiqeli 35).

Movie is the most common tool for language acquisition. A person can acquire the language of the movie along with culture, norms, and rituals of the geographical area in the movie. From children to old aged people, everyone watches movies and listen songs which make them to acquire the language easily and indirectly. Nowadays, Indians are watching Korean dramas, movies, and songs. For instance, While You Were Sleeping (2017) – Korean series, Parasite (2019) - Korean movie, BTS: Bangtan Boys (2013)– Korean songs, etc., All of them increase the listening of Korean language and the knowledge of Korean culture. By listening to them, Indians get to understand that “Amma” is a word that is common in Korean and Tamil language with the meaning “Mother”.

Games in PC as well as mobile phones are the tools for language acquisition. Yolanda A.Rankin, Rachel Gold, and Bruce Gooch said, “Role-playing fantasy games motivate players, creating a virtual world as the context for foreign language students to concentrate on accurate and coherent use of the target language to communicate intent and to assist with completing game tasks” (Rankin & Gold & Gooch 3). This shows that games provide more opportunities to acquire the language.

People engage in mobile or PC games with intention to play and win the levels in them. They read, listen, and see the characters in the game to complete the challenges. According to Yolanda A.Rankin, Rachel Gold, and Bruce Gooch, “The target language is spoken by virtual characters, providing foreign students the opportunity to hear the accents and intonation specific to that language. Moreover, text is displayed on the screen, giving visual cues to determine context of meaning and language content as well as identification of second language vocabulary. Thus, language becomes a necessary artifact of successful gameplay” (Rankin & Gold & Gooch 3).

Social networks can cause language acquisition. They act as a tool to convey the ideas by transmitting language and culture. For example, an Indian sends messages to an American through social media and he uses dictionary to understand the messages of the American. This provides social connection to know about the present scenario of the geographical area where the target language is used as the native language.

Language learning means the process of getting the language through learning. i.e. activities which are mostly formal. Hosni M. El-Dali states, “Learning is a cognitive process, because it is thought to involve internal representations that regulate and guide performance. In the case of language acquisition, these representations are based on the language system and include procedures for selecting appropriate vocabulary, grammatical rules, and pragmatic conventions governing language use” (El-Dali 1499).

Schools, colleges and universities are the places which follow the concept of language learning. Language learning focuses on reading and writing rather than listening and speaking. It teaches the conscious learning of linguistic structures and grammar of any language which is native or foreign language. For example, School curriculum has Tamil as Part I subject and English as Part II subject in Tamil Nadu. Students must write and pass the examinations to prove their proficiency in the languages.

Parlindungan Pardede states, “During-reading activities, in which the teacher guides and monitors the interaction between the reader and the text. One important skill teacher can impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, to summarize information and record their reactions and opinions” (Pardede 7). This shows the role of teacher in classroom for making students to learn a language.

According to Eva Alcon, “With regard to the nature of language, discourse analysis and communicative language teaching share a consensus about the importance of communication. From this perspective, describing language in use, in naturally occurring contexts, has been applied to the different levels of linguistic analysis and this has helped to identify the linguistic content of communicative language teaching (Alcon 177). This shows the importance of language teaching in classrooms.

Classroom education is the most common tool for making people to learn languages. Students are studying languages as different subjects and engage in classroom activities to get pass marks in education. They follow drilling and practice of grammar to develop their fluency. Based on some researches, this process takes more time to master the language than language acquisition process. According to Jenny X. Montano-Gonzalez, “One of the most recognized researches on learning strategies was conducted by O’Malley and Chamot in 1990. Their writing documented a model called Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) that was conducted in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) settings” (Montano 480).

He said, “Earlier research has shown that this historical approach emerged two centuries ago with the purpose of teaching Greek and Latin, whose instruction viewed language learning as a mental discipline. This teacher-centered approach is mainly focused on teaching L2 grammar structures” (Montano 481). This is the common classroom practice for teaching languages. He added, “Research reveals several strategies that learners can choose when they are learning a second language. In general, drills, rote memorization, dialogue memorization, repetition, and kinetics are learning strategies associated with the grammatical approach” (Montano 481).

Jenny X. Montano-Gonzalez told, “Cognitive strategies include manipulation, mental and physical of the material to be learned. Such strategies are known as resources in the hands, which can be applied for learning a second language through resourcing, repetition, grouping, deduction, imagery, auditory representation, elaboration, transfer, keyword method, inferencing, note taking, and summarizing (Montano 482). Metacognitive strategies help students to take control in their language learning process. Social or affective strategies make students to learn the language through interaction with peers.

In conclusion, there is an inconspicuous relationship between language acquisition and language learning. People do not learn the first language. They acquire it firstly. Then, they make themselves to learn the first language through formal mode of education. For example, People who have Telugu as their mother tongue in Tamil Nadu can speak in Telugu, but they cannot read or write in Telugu. Similarly, People who have Tamil as their mother tongue in Tamil Nadu can speak in Tamil, but they cannot read or write in Tamil without formal education in Tamil language. This proves that language acquisition is the primary part of humans’ language development. Language learning always goes behind the language acquisition.

After people acquire the language better, they must start learning the language through formal education system or they may permanently lose the ability to completely understand the language. It is previously mentioned that language acquisition means listening and speaking, and language learning means reading and writing. Simply, Fernandes Arung said, “Acquisition is happened accidentally, naturally, and multiple times while learning is planned, unnatural, multiple times” (Arung 9).

Those who acquire the language and skip the learning process may speak the language, but they cannot read or write anything in the language. Those who learn the language and skip the acquisition process may read and write in the language, but they cannot speak the language fluently. To develop a competence in any language, a person must have LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) skills in the right order. Hence, it is the first inconspicuous relationship between language acquisition and language learning.

A person can develop his second or third language well when he has equal experiences in language acquisition and learning. On the other hand of this research, it is proved that there are different languages with various tools for language learning and acquisition, but they focus on the common theories of language development irrespective of their languages. So, this is the second inconspicuous relationship between language acquisition and language learning