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TESL 0100 Unit 4: Language Acquisition



Language Acquisition

            “We all acquire language in exactly the same way.” This is an outrageous claim by Stephen Krashen [1]on his Language Acquisition interview.  Indeed it is but I agree that it is true. As a child, we learn by listening and mimicking, based on our daily conversation.  We acquire language by watching and listening to someone speaks and subconsciously collecting words and understanding what is being said. When you watch children play using little people toys, what do they do?  They role play based on what happens around them.  They play going to the doctor, church, shopping, eating, cooking and everything that they can act based on daily activities. That’s when you can see language acquisition happen. 

            “Immigrant children don’t speak right away when they arrive.  It takes several months of silence as they naturally acquire language.  They naturally pile up language input, they observe, they listen consciously and acquire language speech. When they start to speak, it’s not the beginning of their language acquisition; it’s the result of the comprehensible input they gathered through several months of silence.” This is apparent evidence as to how we acquire language as we listen and understand our surrounding and indeed it takes time and conscious effort to second language learner.    

            “So how do we help people acquire language? If acquisition is more important than learning, then that’s what we need to do in our classroom.” This is another theory expressed by Stephen Krashen on his interview. Do we have to skip language learning and focus only on acquisition? “Acquisition gives us our fluency and learning gives us the accuracy.  Adult learners need 95% acquisition in class. It gives both fluency and accuracy. Language acquisition does not happen by learning grammar rules or by memorizing vocabulary list.  Language is acquired when we understand it.  Students expect grammar, vocabulary list and exercises in class. We teach students how to acquire language so that they become autonomous and improve on their own.  The major goal of language class is not to bring grammatical fluency but the maximum level of grammatical accuracy.  If we give a great deal of comprehensible input, a rich source of comprehensible input that will produce both fluency and accuracy, all the rules that the students are ready to acquire will be there in the input.  We give people messages that is interesting and comprehensible, grammar to a large extent will take care of it” as Stephen Krashen expressed.    

He also talked about motivation that counts in language acquisition. “Students who are motivated do better in language acquisition. Those who have better self esteem; better self image succeeds in time. The goal of a language class is to put you in a position so you can go to the outside world and get more comprehensible input. The goal of the beginning language class is not to make you perfect but to make you an intermediate so you can then get more comprehensible input from the outside world. We acquire language in one way, when we get comprehensible input in a low anxiety situation. The lower the anxiety; the better language acquisition there will be. To really precede optimum learning, anxiety must be zero. For language acquisition, the pressure has to be off. The learner has to assume he has to be successful. If anxiety is high, self esteem is low, and the classroom feels where his weaknesses will be revealed, acquisition will not occur.” We must provide a safe environment for students to learn without pressure to achieve their utmost input.  


[1] Stephen Krashen on Language Acquisition  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak3UrGCj71s

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