Ciao! Konichiwa! Welcome back to Adventures in Language. I'm your guide, Caitlin. In this video, we're going to make a packing list of sorts.
Before we get too deep into the world of second language acquisition, we need to make sure we have our essentials. So today I'm going to share with you nine terms and concepts that you need to start your journey. Now, you might find that some of these terms are not new to you, but the way linguists use them might be. So actually, we're doing a bit of language learning in this video. Very meta, right?
Okay, are you ready? Let's get started. Our very first term is, well, second language acquisition.
Second language acquisition is a scientific field that focuses on the learning and teaching of second language. and subsequent languages. It's a subfield of linguistics, which is the scientific study of language.
Second language acquisition is kind of a mouthful, so people usually just call it SLA for short, and you'll definitely hear me doing that throughout this series. Now, here's something to look out for. Second language acquisition can also refer to the process of learning a second language. This meaning is synonymous with second language learning.
We'll come back to that. You can usually tell whether someone is talking about the field or the learning process from context. For example, if someone says, second language acquisition research can inform practices in language classrooms, that's the field of study. On the other hand, if someone says, second language acquisition takes more effort than first language acquisition, that's the process. Got it?
You'll also see a distinction between the two meanings in writing. Second language acquisition, the field, is capitalized, and as I mentioned earlier, is usually abbreviated as SLA. Second language acquisition, the process, is lowercase, and it's usually abbreviated as L2 acquisition. So in this case, the L is for language, the 2 is for second, L2. So keep an eye out for that when you're reading about language learning.
Okay. So now we've defined second language acquisition in two ways, no less. But you might be wondering, what is a second language?
Well, before we get to second languages, let's start with first languages. And that brings us to our second term, first language. A first language, or L1, is any language learned very early in life. This is usually from birth or really even before that in the womb, but certainly during the first few years of life, usually up until maybe around age four.
You might also hear the terms native language or mother tongue to refer to a first language. While a first language does not necessarily have to be spoken by a child's mother, it's one that a child hears from a parent, close relative, or caregiver. Really, someone that they often hear speaking from a very young age. Many people around the world have multiple first languages.
We tend to think of these people as bilinguals, but that's actually a complicated term that we'll come back to in a bit. Okay, so for our third term, Let's circle back to second language. In SLA research, a second language, or L2, is any additional language that's learned after the first language. Now, this may seem a little strange because this means that a second language could be the second language that an individual is learning, but it could also be their third, fourth, fifth, or even fifteenth language.
Second languages might also be referred to as foreign languages, or target languages, or even world languages in a classroom setting. If a person has two first languages, the next language they learn would also be considered a second language, even though it's technically their third. Things get even trickier when you think about young children who learn one language from birth and another from, say, age two.
Are these both first languages? Is one an early second language? If this all seems very confusing, well, it kind of is. But don't worry. it would probably be impossible to categorize all the nuanced differences in the timing of language learning for different people.
So to keep it simple, a first language is a language learned in infancy and very early childhood. And a second language is any language learned after a first language. But just be aware that you may encounter some gray areas.
For term number four, let's talk about that A in SLA, acquisition. is the process of developing a skill, which in the case of SLA is language ability. To put it simply, acquisition is learning. However, in the early days of SLA, many researchers considered acquisition and learning to be two different processes.
Early attempts to distinguish between these two terms have largely been disregarded, but you may still encounter literature that upholds the distinction. So it's important to know that a historical distinction exists, but today these terms can be treated synonymously. All right, so now we've covered SLA and its component parts. For term number five, let's talk about people. People who are learning or acquiring second languages are referred to as Well, second language learners.
The truth is that second language learning is in many cases a lifelong process. And even people who have been learning a second language for many years may still consider themselves learners. You may also hear these individuals referred to as users, speakers, writers, signers. This kind of terminology places less of an emphasis on acquiring a language and more on actually doing something with it. So.
Second language learners are people who are learning second languages. But how do second language learners learn? Terms number six and seven deal with two crucial ingredients in the language learning process, input and output. Input is the target language that a learner is exposed to, either through listening, reading, or viewing for sign languages.
Output is the target language that a learner produces through speaking, writing, or signing. The idea that a learner would need some exposure to target language input is probably fairly intuitive, right? How can you learn a language if you don't have any examples to draw on? And so learners need rich, plentiful second language input, ideally from a variety of speakers and contexts.
However, research shows that input isn't really enough when it comes to second language development. Learners really need to be pushed to produce language. That's the output part. which serves as important practice with the language and helps learners develop beyond understanding meaning to grasping complex grammatical concepts.
All of that input and output practice helps learners to improve their language proficiency, which brings us to the eighth term on our list. Proficiency is an individual's level of ability in a language. It's usually measured on a scale with values on the low end like beginner, novice, or low, and values in the high end, like advanced or high or the coveted native like.
Many second language learners find themselves stuck in the very large middle ground of intermediate proficiency, often referred to as the intermediate plateau. Proficiency levels can also be different for different language skills. So for example, you might have advanced reading proficiency in a language, but intermediate speaking proficiency. It's important to know about proficiency because you're very likely to come across it when learning about SLA. Just know that it's actually notoriously difficult to define and measure.
Our ninth and final term is bilingual. I promised you we'd come back to it, and here we are. Most people would agree that someone who learns two languages from birth and speaks both of those languages fluently is a bilingual. But what about if you started learning your second language as an adult? What if you're still learning that second language?
When can you call yourself a bilingual? These are excellent questions, but they don't really have decisive scientific answers. In some ways, you have to decide how to best describe yourself.
Most linguistics researchers today would agree that bilingualism is a spectrum, including anyone who speaks two or more languages. SLA and bilingualism are two distinct fields of study with different origins and central ideas. SLA research focuses more on the process of learning additional languages and the challenges associated with that, whereas bilingualism research focuses more on living with multiple languages. But they're highly interrelated.
It's not uncommon to see academic journals, books, courses, and even university departments with the name SLA and bilingualism. Sometimes the same individual might be referred to as a second language learner or maybe a late bilingual, depending on the focus of a research study. Well... there you have it, your top nine essential terms to get you started on your second language acquisition journey.
We defined second language acquisition in two ways and then broke down its component parts by clarifying the differences between first and second languages and the synonymity of acquisition and learning. We talked about learners and the input and output that is so crucial to developing second language proficiency. Finally, We covered the nuanced relationships between SLA and one of its most closely related fields, bilingualism. I hope you feel prepared to embark on your next SLA adventure.
If you want some help remembering the terms that we covered today, check out the link in the description for a link to printable flashcards that you can use to study these terms on the go. We also created a version that's compatible with online flashcard tools like Quizlet, if that's your preferred study method. If you want to stay in the loop on all of our amazing videos about languages and linguistics, hit the subscribe button.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Ciao!