Page 50 - E-Modul Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris SD

a. Children’s second language acquisition

The phenomenon of mother tongue acquisition is interesting for
linguists, psychologists, neuropsychologists and even neurophysiologists.

Furthermore, it is connected with natural bilingualism which occurs when a
child learns, in a natural way, the second language. The process of the

second language acquisition in natural conditions is quite similar to the first

language acquisition or even identical. The only difference between those
two is the fact that the second language is assimilated later and is based on

experience and knowledge of the first one and, as a result, the whole process
happens faster and more effectively (Brzeziński 1987: 18).

Chomsky(1964) claimed “… it is a common observation that a
young child of immigrant parents may learn a second language in the street,

with amazing rapidity, and that this speech may be completely fluent and

correct to the last allophone, while the subtleties that become second nature
to the child may elude his parents despite motivation and continued

practice” (BrzeziÅ„ski 1987: 8).
The first international meeting connected with children’s acquisition

and its use in teaching foreign languages took place in Hamburg in 1961.
Participant tried to find out if it is right to introduce foreign languages in the

primary schools, if it is true that children learn better than teenagers and

adults and which techniques are supposed to be used in teaching them. After
four years, the second meeting took place and the first answers were given.

During many decades, lots of contrary opinions developed. As early as

1967, Corder points out: “It still remains to be shown that the process of
learning second language is of fundamentally different nature from the

process of primary acquisition”. On the other hand, in 1972, Moulton
stresses that in teaching a foreign language to young children it is possible

to adopt some methods and intuition procedures, used by a child during
mother tongue acquisition, and weave them into learning of the foreign

language (Brzeziński 1987: 8).

b. Factors of efficient language learning

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