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Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition
1. Introduction
Various theories are put forward to describe first language (L1) acquisition and second language (L2) acquisition. In order to understand the nature of L1 and L2 language acquisition, various aspects were examined, compared, and contrasted. Results from these comparisons and contrasts have valuable implications for language teachers which can help them to design their syllabuses, teaching processes and classroom activities. These results also enable the language teacher to understand his/her students’ learning processes (Ipek, 2009).
In first language acquisition children are acquiring knowledge about the world at the same time that they are acquiring language. Second language learners bring knowledge of the world to the task of learning new ways to talk about the world. First language learners receive hours of naturalistic exposure to language from caregivers who scaffold their development (Bowerman, 1973). Exposure to the target language for second language learners varies, both in quantity and in quality, depending upon whether the learner is a child in a multilingual family, a pupil in a classroom, an immigrant at a workplace, a spouse in a new country or a student in a foreign university, etc. 2 . Stages of first language (L1) acquisition
The following is the summary of what (O'Grady, Dobrovolsky and Katamba, 1996) proposed about first language stages.
Babbling (Prelinguistic): 6-8 months, basic sound production, a range of sounds are produced One word production: 9-18 months, one word is used to convey wants and emotions Two word production: 18-24 months, simple sentences.

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Multi-word stage (Telegraphic): 24-30 months, lacks grammar, but is producing multi-word sentences . Later multi-word stage (Language stage): 30+ months, grammar emerges, sentences are longer and complex. 3. Stages of second language (L2) acquisition
Pre-production: the silent stage. The student has some basic understanding of concepts but does not produce many, if any words. Use of a lot of visuals and physical and gesturing activities to relay comprehension is helpful.
Early production: Student produces a few words, vocabulary is limited, but can use one and two word responses. Student needs many opportunities for listening and using the target words in context.
Speech Emergence: Student begins to produce short sentences and responses and should begin to read. Vocabulary is expanding.
Intermediate Fluency: Student can produce longer more complex sentences, making fewer errors. Student is gaining in academic language and vocabulary.
Advanced Fluency: Student has control of language and makes few errors, comprehending academic language. Vocabulary is extensive (Krashen, 1981). 4. First Language (L1) Acquisition First language acquisition begins when children are infants and they begin to babble. As they continue to grow the babbling turns into one word meaningful utterances brought about by the world directly around the child. Further progressing with interacting with his/her environment with two and then multiple word sentences (Owens, 2010). Children learn the sounds and the rules of language through listening, repetition and imitation of those around them.

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With trial and error, they lengthen their thoughts and ideas based on the reaction/reinforcement from those around them in order to satisfy a want, need or expressing of emotion. Early language occurs with interaction with others and the environment around the child. Children listen and imitate those around them attempting to find meaning in their “words” and received positive and negative reinforcement for their efforts (O'Grady, Dobrovolsky & Katamba, 1996). 5. Second Language (L2) Acquisition In second language acquisition Similar to L1 acquisition, the child usually begins with a silent period and as he/she gradually gains confidence and experience with the target language, he/she will attempt single words, gradually expanding and forming short sentences. ELL students learn sounds and the system of rules through modeling of sounds along with meaningful experiences to help retain the new information. Students use learned responses, memorized chunks of information to respond (Mayberry & Lock, 2003). Learning from continued modeling from others and attempting to imitate or repeat the language as modeled. L2 acquisition is best prompted by a very visual environment, i.e., pictures and people. An environment without pressure to produce language and a student is given good models to observe and learn from. L2 students should be given ample opportunities to watch, listen, imitate, role play, draw and participate in activities that do not force a student to produce until ready
6. Differences in input Differences between input for L1 and L2 learners are quite numerous and concern both quantity and quality. It is the idea of the "connectionist model that implies that the language learning process depends on the input frequency and regularity. The quantity of exposure to a target language a child gets is immense compared to the amount an adult receives. A child hears the language all day every day, whereas an adult learner may only hear the target language in the

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classroom – which could be as little as few hours in each day. Even if one looks at an adult in a total submersion situation the quantity is still less because the amount of one on one interaction that a child gets for example with a parent or other caregiver is still much greater than the adult is receiving (Mayberry & Lock, 2003). Even if some L2 learners may receive as much input as L1 learners, the quality is very different, given that it does not directly address the learner’s communicative goals and intentions. Hatch (1978), for example, compares interactions between L1 learners and adults with interactions between L2 learners and adults, and finds that in the second type of interaction exchanges are initiated overwhelmingly by the native speaker adult, and thus challenge the L2 learner with identification of the topic. This is very different from child-mother dyads in which most topics are child-initiated.
7. Early lexical development Children’s early lexical development is relatively slow in the beginning. In general, first words are acquired by the end of the first year of life and, over the course of several months, the pace at which new words enter the toddler’s repertoire is slow, but steady until the size of the lexicon reaches about 50 items (Steinberg,1997). Subsequently, for most children, a lexical spurt is observed. L1 learners are acquiring words and knowledge about the world simultaneously, the links between words and the world for L2 learners are largely a function of the age of the learner. L2 earners can associate the language learners can potentially take two paths. On the one hand L2 lnew word directly to the intended referent just as one would in L1 learning. And on the other Lightbown and Spada hand, L2 learners can establish translation equivalents between L1 and L2. L2 learners simply treat a word in their second language, argues that in early stages adult (2006)

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in their first language. Thus, it has been argued that dog , as another way of sayingchien such as the lexicon in early L2 acquisition has no separate conceptual structure. 8. Implications and Suggestions It is not possible to draw one-to-one conclusions about the parallels between first and second foreign language acquisition. However, language teachers can make informed and cautious inferences and translate them into classroom practices in second/foreign language teaching. The stages of first language acquisition and the acquisition processes children follow have a lot to say to foreign language teachers: ) with almost no 'real' speech babbling stage eChildren listen for a long while (i.e. th 1. words. As an first sounds and then --production and then after a while, they begin to produceimplication of this, foreign language learners should not be expected nor pressured to speak before they feel ready. This is not to say that no speaking practice should be done at the hers should be patient and tolerant on elementary stages, but rather it implies that language teacthe part of the students when they ask them to produce language. One thing that can be done at to teach the students a good deal of vocabulary nse, espototal physical r beginner level is to userough physical movements directed by the imperatives used by the and fixed expressions th 2009).(Ipek, teacher
babies learn are all related to objects and actions in their close surroundings. first words The 2. y They all have concrete referents, and infants are repeatedly exposed to these words, both orall and visually (actually they frequently touch, bite, smell, and even taste (!) these objects) . Foreign language teachers should also provide their students with (Lightbown and Spada, 2006) e acquisition process. Using realia, a lot of referents (realia, visuals, demos, etc.) to facilitate th

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pictures and all sorts of visuals, a great number of words can be taught in an effective way. is a very important element in FLA. The Baby talk (also called 'motherese', or 'caregiver talk') 3. , a slow and intonation features of baby talk, namely, a higher pitch than usual, an exaggeratedsimple sentences including special baby clear speech with frequent repetitions, short anddin, a high proportion of questions, stress on key words -vocabulary like doggy, kitty, and dind by foreign language teachers in ) can all be modele(Lightbown and Spada, 2006 paraphrase andlanguage classrooms to promote the understanding of their students (with the exception of the 'baby words').
that the frequency of occurrence of a linguistic item in the speech of stated Steinberg (1997) 4. ngly strong predictor of the order of emergence of that item in their mothers was an overwhelmichildren's speech. In relation to this finding, foreign language teachers might select the he vocabulary items that their learners most need and form a list of words to be acquired first. Tnext step, then, would be to prepare teaching materials in which the students will be exposed to those vocabulary items frequently. tantly exposed to massive amounts of language in their very first years and Children are cons 5. this has a crucial role in FLA. Foreign and second language learners, similarly, should be ies 'surrounded' with language input. One important point here is that the language input babreceive is simplified and adjusted to their level with baby talk. Thus, language teachers should not think that their only task is to provide input, but also bear in mind that they should make that ) and adjusted to the level of ed in Krashen's Monitor Theory, 1987(as stat comprehensible input the students.

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Parents almost never correct their children's grammar mistakes. When they correct them, 5. those corrected are the pragmatic errors, which may cause socially inappropriate linguistic mment on grammatical errors made by very young children, being behavior. Parents rarely coWith the same Ipek, 2009).ord choice (more likely to correct lapses in politeness or wrong wanalogy, teachers are advised by some language teaching methods (like the Natural Approach) to ct grammar mistakes and provide the students with language input which will in the long negle .run lead to the elimination of those errors
9. Conclusion
L1 and L2 acquisition are quite complicated processes. To understand these processes will enable the language teacher to be more sensitive to the factors involved. While L1 and L2 acquisition reveal some similarities, they also show differences. The teacher should understand that the phenomena in L1 and L2 acquisition are interacting, none of them being solely explanatory. So, teachers should not base their teaching on just a single claim or factor involved in language acquisition. They should rather understand, analyze, synthesize and even criticize before trying to implement any of the suggestions made for teaching.
It is also important to note that research as tried to make a distinction between “learning” and “acquisition”. Especially in L2 education, the terms “learning” and “acquisition” are very often used interchangeably.

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References Bowerman, M. (1973). Early syntactic development: A cross linguistic study with social reference to Finnish. USA: Cambridge University Press. Hatch, E. (1978). Discourse analysis and second language acquisition. Second Language Acquisition. Rowley: Newbury House. Ipek, H. (2009). Comparing and Contrasting First and Second Language Acquisition:
Implications for Language Teachers. English Language Teaching. 2(2), 155-163
Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition and second language learning. University of southern California. Krashen, S. (1987). Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved 20 April, 2013 from http://aces.ir/attachments/22d1286622494- communicative-approach-stephen-crashen.pdf Lightbown, P. M., & N. Spada. (2006). How languages are learned (3rd ed.). China: Oxford University Press. Mayberry, R. & Lock, E. (2003). Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition: Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesist. Elsevier Science (USA). 369 – 384 doi: 10.1016/S0093-934X(03)00137-8 O'Grady, W. & Dobrovolsky, M. & Katamba, F. (1996). Contemporary Linguistics: An introduction. Harlow: Longman. Owens, R. E. (2010). Language development: an introduction. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Steinberg, D. D. (1997). An introduction to psycholinguistics. USA: Longman. Wissam Ali Askar – 20123360 ELT – Language Acquisition