FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (PSYCHOLINGUISTICS) - Semester 7

FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

            Krashen regards 'communication' as the main function of language. The focus is on teaching communicative abilities. The superiority of 'meaning' is emphasized. They stress the importance of vocabulary and view language as a vehicle for 'communicating meanings' and 'messages'. According to Krashen, 'acquisition' can take place only when people comprehend messages in the TL.  In Krashen's view, acquisition is the natural assimilation of language rules by using language for communication.

            A first language (also native language, mother tongue, arterial language, or L1) is the language(s) a person has learned from birth^[1] or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity. In some countries, the terms native language or mother tongue refer to the language of one's ethnic group rather than one's first language.^[2] Children brought up speaking more than one language can have more than one native language, and be bilingual. (1. Bloomfield, Leonard. Language. 2."K*The Native Speaker: Myth and Reality By Alan Davies)

            Sometimes the term mother tongue or mother language is used for the language that a person learned as a child at home (usually from their parents). Children growing up in bilingual homes can, according to this definition, have more than one mother tongue or native language. Some claim that "the origin of the term mother tongue harks back to the notion that linguistic skills of a child are honed by the mother and therefore the language spoken by the mother would be the primary language that the child would learn." her tongue or native language.

            The first language of a child is part of their personal, social and cultural identity.^[7] Another impact of the first language is that it brings about the reflection and learning of successful social patterns of acting and speaking.^{[8]  (}7. Terri Hirst: The Importance of Maintaining a Childs First Language. 8. http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/mandarin.pdf)

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