Writing Feedback / What are the similarities and differences between children and adults in acquiring language? [4]

children and adults' language learning

These days, a bilingual person is treated more competent than a monolingual person and three or four languages are even better. Consequently, it seems common that in one family the child acquires a language, usually their parents' mother tongue, and at the same time the parents learn a foreign language for their promotion or self-improvement. In this case, we can definitely see the similarities and differences between their ways to learn language. There is a stereotype that there must be differences between the children's ability to learn new languages and the adults' since people normally think the children are better in learning new things than the adults. I also have this kind of stereotype like others at the first time, but when I took a class "Second Language Acquisition" in my sophomore it turned out to be false. In the book, the writer said that there must be differences between the adults and children but not as much as we expected. Due to the fact that it is unusual to observe the adults' learning their first language, I will compare the adults' second language learning and the children's first language learning in my essay. First, I will write about the similarities between the children(including school attendance period) and the adults(a high school graduate) in learning language. Next, I will compare their differences in learning language in view of several factors. At the end, summary and my personal opinion will finalize this essay.

This paragraph illustrates the similarities between the children and adults' language learning. I didn't found specific elements they have in common, but I found that their ways to be a successful language learner are same. First of all, they have to be immersed in the new learning. As we all know, it is a basic thing, but people sometimes forget about it. Even for a child who is learning his/her native language, degree of concentrating determines whether s/he become a fluent language user who is good at every aspect of language or just a poor language user who barely listens and reads. Second, a risk free environment and support for the new learning also requires to both the children and adults. Making a warm and relaxed environment lowers their affective filter that encourages them to speak more whether they are right or wrong. If they are right, they identify their remarks as rightful answers and if they are wrong, it is a chance to improve their error. To give opportunities as much as possible let them use what they have learned. For this reason, a wise teacher makes chances to repeat like role play, pair discussion or presentation. If possible, efficient strategies should be used by the teacher. Meaningful learning, for instance, is the one of those. Meaningful learning is about making connections between what learners already know and new information that they are going to learn. The biggest benefit of this is long-lasting memorization. Third, to give feedbacks on their process and outcome is necessary to complete their learning. At the end of learning, everyone needs to get the feedbacks of their performance to check their strong and weak points. If the instructor skips this part, less fruitful consequence remains.

From now on, I will compare the differences between them in learning language. In the middle of searching it, I found that the different circumstance around them is the most crucial factor. From kindergarten to high school, kids are surrounded by warm atmospheres which allow them to make errors, be silence until when they feel ready to speak and express whatever they want to. In addition, their linguistic outcome does not connect to their income or success. Thus, they become brave risk takers who are ready face to face with their flaws. On the other hand, adults are in more strict conditions like employment exam, job interview and promotion test. These conditions forced them to be perfect and don't let them to make any mistake. As a result, adults become timid risk takers and they don't try to enlarge their ability.

In autonomy side, distinctions are clearly detected. Since most children learn in school, they usually led by the teacher and the curriculum. They are dependent on their teacher to lead the learning and to decide what they will study. However, numerous adult learners are more self-directed and they are responsible for their own learning. At first, they decide whether to learn new language or not and they choose the kind of study material fit them like internet service, book and private educational institute. Their learning time will be different depend on their goal to achieve. If they just want to pass the test it won't take long, but if they want to communicate with native speaker without any hesitation endless study materials are waiting for them.

Lastly but not the least, different amount of experience they have brought big divergence. When the adults are in a learning situation, they are able to bring all of their life experiences and use it to figure out new information. Not only in linguistic area but in every field, background knowledge is very helpful to understand new contents. Maybe they have seen it by chance or even struggled it fairly and that will shorten their study time that needs to be invested on learning. In contrast, when children are learning, they have very little life experience that they can use for a resource for learning, so they mostly rely on the experience of the instructor or the textbook offered to them . They will have a hard time to understand it if what they are going to learn is abstract, difficult or a rare occasion. In this situation, much more audio-visible aid, explanation and time are required and this will give both the students and the teacher a hard time.

As mentioned above, they share the way to become a successful language learner but have different internal and external factors that effect on their learning process. They both need immersion on the contents, risk free environment with supports and teacher's feedback to succeed in obtaining linguistic ability whereas they have different conditions in surroundings, initiative and life experience. Reflecting on my childhood and now, I think children's learning environment is more effective than adult's one. If they are told it would be better for them to learn foreign language by watching "Three Little Pigs" and role playing it the grown-ups might be abashed, but they cannot help acknowledging that kind of things are favorable for their learning. Thus, don't be picky, just deal with it.