First Language Acquisition
We have had discussion about acquisition. As we knew, its verb acquire, and it means to gain something by your own efforts, abilities or behaviours. Two key words in this definition are gain and own efforts. In addition, in my opinion, language acquisition is the process that humans acquire to comprehend language and to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. In fact, it is one of the important human traits, because people use their language for interaction. The professor asked one question ‘do children try when they learn first language?’. It was very thoughtful question. We read briefly about it in our previous courses. Maybe the question can be how language is acquired by children or are they try or not?! For answering this question, I would like to categorise all responses into two groups: The members of first group such as ms.Mohsenniya and Abedini have the same idea. The said “children try to listen to, pay attention to and understand other's words and make some voices. Because they want to speak. Languages need to be learned. According to researches, a child was put in a place alone for a period of time. Then, they understood that she cannot speak. I think it is not something that there is naturally in children's mind or brain, and all things depend on their environment and people around of them. They also said “there are some children that their families are Iranian, but they were born in another country. So their families speak to them Persian but their environment is totally different especially its language. Now, what will happen to these children?! They learn both languages harder and longer than children that face just one language, and when they become older, they start to ask some questions about some words that they do not know. So they try to learn and this effort is shown in their body language. In my opinion, if there is no effort, there is no learning. When parents start to talk with their children, children open their eyes and pay attention to their actions and words carefully. Because they are recording and trying to copy them and little by little they express them. We have lots of sayings about this issue likeعَلَيْكُمْ بِالْجِدِّ وَ الِاجْتِهَادِ وَ التَّأَهُّبِ وَ الِاسْتِعْدَاد بر شما باد به تلاش و سخت کوشی و مهیا شدن و آماده شدن The members of second group such as ms.Babayi and mr. Pourramezan have the same idea but different from the first group. They said “when a baby is born, he or she makes some voices that are produced without efforts and these voices are the same in all countries. For example, Arabian children can say the letters that Arabian adults cannot. When these children get older, they cannot say them anymore like their adults. Why?! Because of their environment and their families. So children have these features in their mind naturally.” Another explanation was “when a person is in the river and he is drowning, he is moving his hands intentionally. Because it is the only choice of him, and it is true for a child. Children are put in the learning environment. Families surround them. So they have to learn and information goes into their mind intentionally.” I got it and transferring information and language is done in this way. But this effort happens in children's mind like a process machine and we cannot see. We as adults try to learn second language but we are not as successful as children. Why?! According to Stephen Krashen's view, there is the distinction between learning and acquisition. The teacher's mistake is trying to teach languages in the same way they teach other lessons. Actually learners should acquire second languages in the same way children learn their first. So our efforts are different from our children. Another factor is comprehension. In Krashen's view, learners must do understandable listening and reading material. We acquire languages when we understand messages. The emphasis should be on meaningful interactions and not on form and grammar. For example, when parents speak to their children, if their children say something in the wrong grammar, they do not correct them and they say “yes, you are right.” There is an another question here: “why should we learn and know early language in teaching English?!” Because we would like to grow and develop, and for development it is helped from its sister disciplines that it makes it more complicated. According to an important breakthrough in teaching English, there is a developmental stage for learning each part of grammar that the learners should follow them.