Can you Learn Spanish the Way Children Acquire their First Language?

An approach to understanding the differences between learning and acquiring a language.

Learning a second language the way a child acquires their first language certainly sounds overly attractive when somebody has decided for sure that they want to learn a new language and eventually become bilingual. There are even hundreds, or thousands, of language schools and programs that sell the idea of how possible it is to learn the language of their choice exactly the same way in which a newborn baby starts their journey of becoming a new language user of whichever language they will be immersed or daily exposed in many different ways as they grow up, but is this even possible? What is the truth behind this wonderful promise that has survived for a long time until our present years? Let's talk about what years of research made by language experts and scholars in the field of Applied Linguistics for Language Learning and Teaching have to say about this.

First of all, it is essential for future language learners to understand that babies (“children” from now on) do not learn their first language, they acquire it, and there is a huge difference between the concepts and definitions of learning and acquisition.

On one hand, acquiring refers to the process of naturally developing skills that lead to success in a particular area of knowledge. Basically, understanding how to do something or start doing something unconsciously. On the other hand, the concept of learning refers to the opposite, the process of getting knowledge on how to do something and what it requires for achieving success in it, but not in an unconscious manner but consciously and receiving some sort of instruction.

If you are reading this article, and you want to start learning a new language soon, chances are that you are no longer a baby or a child, and it is not surprising to deduce that the way the child's brain and the adult's brain work and function is totally different even before I start explaining in this this article, so there is no comparison, although the notion of the concepts of learning a new language and acquiring it have been a constant debate over the years, and it is likely to remain so for a long time. Will future language specialists ever come to an agreement? As a language specialist myself, I find this question to be fascinating, but unfortunately, the answer to it is still a mystery.

The role of the brain in learning a language and how this complex organ works in language acquisition.

Long story short (and trying to keep this as easily digestible as possible for anybody who is interested in reading this article), language specialists and experts in Neurolinguistics, which is the science that focuses on studying the connection between how both the brain and the use of language interact with all the aspects that are involved in the art of communication, have found evidence that confirms that the processes of acquiring our mother tongue (same as first language) during our first years of life and learning a second language occur in two different parts of the brain: the Broca's area and the Wernicke area.

Located in the left hemisphere of the human brain, the Broca's area is responsible for word and speech production. This is the area that is actively involved in the processes related to acquisition.

On the other side of the brain, we can find the Wernicke's area, which is the primarily activated spot when the learning processes are taking place in the gray matter.

Although it is important to understand that it is impossible for either of these two areas to remain inactive when both the acquisition of a person's first language and the learning process of a foreign or second language are taking place, it is highly relevant to attach importance to distinguishing between the Broca's area as the protagonist in acquisition, and the Wernicke's area as the protagonist in learning. This is the first reason that should be taken into consideration to stop insisting that it is possible for an adult to learn a second language the way children do for as good as it sounds. Let's think about this for a moment: if it has been known for years that children and adults are physically and mentally different, how can a grown-up expect to acquire a second language as if they were a newborn who does not even have a linguistic referent? We will talk about this concept in future articles.

Of course, it is also important to recognize the involvement of other areas of the brain in both processes, such as the angular gyrus, the supramarginal gyrus, and the primary auditory cortex, but it can already be understood that Broca's area and Wernicke's area are the main terms that language specialists will refer to when distinguishing between acquisition and learning.

Acquiring a first language is not the same as using acquisition strategies in the process of learning a new language.

Due to the lack of scientific evidence in second language acquisition theories and their vast amount of contradictory definitions of what language acquisition is when it comes to the concept of learning a language, we can say that the advocates of “second language acquisition” are observably unreliable compared to the academics who have enough scientific evidence to show how impossible it is to even to think about acquiring a language that is not our native language. However, although language acquisition theories reject anything that is not “natural”, “implicit” or “inductive”, highly effective teaching strategies that have been long used in the classroom to help students learn a second language successfully are flexible enough to integrate proven learning techniques that resemble to the natural process of acquiring a first language (now, let's note that resembling is not the same as being the same or identical). These learning techniques are commonly known as acquisition strategies. So, what do we mean when we talk about acquisition strategies? The description of it appears below.

Whereas the concept of language acquisition, as explained above, refers to the natural process of “learning” our first language without having to receive any type of instruction in order to become a proficient user of it, an acquisition strategy is a technique or approach that aims to expose learners to the language of their choice in natural contexts in order to improve their experience of learning a second language. Acquisition strategies are used as complementary resources in language teaching with the main aim of reinforcing knowledge and facilitating the development of the linguistic skills that language teachers need to develop in their classes. Some examples of these strategies are presented below.

1. Immersion.

   
   

   Contrary to the misconception of many people who have no professional expertise in language teaching misinform, immersion does not refer to becoming naturally proficient in a second language thanks to the principles of acquisition. What it does refer to is the recognition of the importance of being constantly exposed to the target language in order to practice each and every topic covered in class in real-life situations, so that students can reinforce their knowledge and complement the development of their language skills more effectively through communicative practices such as using the language in authentic conversations with native speakers. If students do not live in a country where the language that they are learning is spoken, teachers can create artificial immersion environments in the classroom.

   
   

2. Enhancing communication skills based on real-life tasks.

   
   

   When learning a language, students need to develop at least the four language skills of comprehension and production: listening, reading, speaking and writing. The activities and dynamics used to develop and reinforce these skills must include topics related to the contexts in which the students will use the target language. For example, going to a restaurant, making a reservation in a hotel, going to the mall, going to the hospital and asking for help when they get lost in a place that they don't know well.

   
   

3. Developing language awareness.

   
   

   Language awareness refers to knowing how we use words and phrases (sentences) to properly formulate meaningful ideas that are comprehensible to the receiver of a message in a communicative context.

   
   

4. Understanding the importance of both active and passive listening.

   
   

   On one hand, active listening refers to paying close attention when listening to something in order to explicitly understand what is being said. On the other hand, passive listening refers to being exposed to auditory resources without focusing on their message. This second concept basically refers to creating an environment in which careful listening is not our primary task (for example, cleaning the house while listening to a podcast). Although many people think that only active listening is important, both passive and active listening are important and essential when learning a language.

   
   

If you are learning a second language, and your teacher incorporates at least three of the previous techniques into the program, there is a good chance that you are on the right track.

Other facts that must be taken into consideration when learning a second language.

Besides all the explanations that have been previously provided to justify why it is not possible to acquire a second language, we can consider some additional points to reinforce this justification as it is shown below.

1. Stephen Krashen, the developer of the second language acquisition theory, has no way of proving that his theory actually works, so language experts emphasize that his model for understanding how people learn a second language is not really a theory but a hypothesis.

   
   

2. According to the Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, “Krashen's views have been strongly criticized for being unstable and vague”. The only concept of his hypothesis that stands out and is taken seriously into consideration is the importance of comprehensible input in second language acquisition.

   
   

3. The “acquisition of a second language” posits that nothing beyond input is necessary to learn a language, and since the process of acquisition is strictly natural, intuitive and without any type of instruction, acquiring a new language should be a process that students would have to do on their own, so why would there be a reason for them to have a teacher whose job is to teach (or instruct)? It does not make sense at all. Actually, acquiring a second language with the instruction of a teacher is not a reasonable concept taking into consideration the principles of Krashen's hypothesis, so teachers who insist on the possibility of “learning a language the way children do” basically contradict themselves due to the lack of knowledge in the topic. Let's think about it for a moment, as it was previously suggested, if children “learn” their first language naturally or without any type of instruction because this is the main principle of acquisition, why would you need a teacher to do the same with a new language?

   
   

4. If nothing beyond input were necessary to become a proficient user of a second language, people who move to another country where their first language is not spoken would naturally become bilingual overtime, and unfortunately, it is known that it does not work like that.

   
   

5. After being familiar with the second-language acquisition hypothesis, you can easily understand that it suggests that students would not produce any speaking in the target language during the first one or two years of exposure to the language because when we acquire our first language, we only receive input for at least a year before we start producing words only. Honestly, it is extremely weird to find a person who is patient enough to invest from one to two years in only being exposed to the second language of their interest until they start producing functional meaning and not only words or expressions that they can use every now and then, which is not the same as being bilingual.

   
   

There is much more that could be said about this fascinating topic, but this article is already long enough, and it is important to keep it as understandable as possible without talking about technicisms that would only confuse the readers, which is not by all means the objective.

In conclusion, there is enough proof to demonstrate that the processes of acquiring and learning refer to two different things, and there is absolutely not a logical reason to even think about learning a second language the way in which we acquired our first language. Let's not forget that we are no longer children, our brains have changed over the years, and unlike it happens when we are new borns, we already speak a language, which means that there is a very specific linguistic system deposited in our brains that will obviously interfere in the understanding or not of any language that we decide to start learning.

If you would like to know more about the linguistic aspects that take place in the process of teaching and learning a second language, I invite you to follow my social media, where you will find more articles like this.

Also, remember that you can learn Spanish with me. Please, don't hesitate to contact me. It will be a pleasure to join you in this life-changing journey that is more than worth it.

Aram Ortiz.

B.A. in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language.

Major in Applied Linguistics for Language Teaching.

+52 (322) 122-4008 | spanish.oneonone.pv@gmail.com

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