Unit 12 - Differences between L1 and L2 learning

What are the differences between L1 and l2 learning?

When we learn our first language (L1) we are likely to learn it in a different context and in different ways from when we learn a second language (L2). We are also likely to be a different age.

	L1 learning	L2 learning (in the classroom)
Age	-Learning starts when the learner is a baby, continues through the early years of childhood, and lasts intro adolescence for some kinds of language and language skills, e.g. academic writing (writing for school or university). -Babies learn language at the same time as their cognitive skills (the mental process involved in thinking, understanding or learning) develop. -Learners are motivated to learn language as they need to communicate.	-Usually starts in primary school and/or secondary school. It may also start or continue in adulthood. -Primary learners are still developing many of their cognitive skills. -Secondary school learners have already developed many of their cognitive skills by the time they start learning a foreign language. Their attitudes towards learning and learning the foreign language may or may not be mature (fully developed). -Adult learners have fully developed cognitive skills. They are likely to show maturity in their attitudes to language learning. -Adult and some secondary learners may already have expectations (beliefs that something will or should happen) about how languages should be learnt, may have past experience of learning a foreign language, and may or may not be fully motivated to learn the language.
Context and ways of learning	-By exposure to and picking up language, hearing the language around him/her all the time. -By learning a lot of language in chunks. -By wanting and needing to communicate, i.e. with strong motivation. -Through interaction with family. -By talking about things present in their surroundings, and by doing things. -By listening to and taking in language for many months before using it (silent period). -By playing and experimenting with new language. -By having lots of opportunities to experiment with language. -By getting lots of praise and encouragement for using the language. -By hearing simplified speech. -By rarely being corrected. Instead people often reformulate what the child has said.	-Sometimes through exposure but often by being taught specific language items. -Often by focusing on structures and individual words. -With strong, little or no motivation to communicate. -Through interaction with a teacher and sometimes with classmates. -Often by talking about life outside the classroom. -Often by needing to produce language soon after it has been taught. -Often by using language in controlled practice activities and being corrected. Sometimes by playing and experimenting with new language. -The learner is not exposed to the L2 very much – often no more than about three hours per week. -Teachers vary in the amount of praise or encouragement they give learners. -The learner may receive little individual attention from the teacher, and not interact much. -Teachers usually simplify the language they use. -Teachers often correct learners. Learners are often to produce correct language. They may or may not be given opportunities to make mistakes and experiment.

Reference:

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2012). The TKT Teaching Knowledge Test Course Modules 1,2 and 3 (Vol. Second edition). United Kingdom: Cambridge English.