Young Children Learning a Second or Foreign Language:

Similarities and Differences[1]

Patton O. Tabors

Principal Research Associate

Harvard Graduate School of Education

There is considerable interest in the language-learning abilities of young children around the world.� A great deal of attention has been focused recently on how children learn language, how that process can be supported by the adults in their world, and how their language skills are related to their literacy development.� More recently still, there has been a growing interest in how children add a second language to their repertoire, either because they live in a society that operates in a different language from the one they learned at home - second language acquisition, or because there is a desire for them to learn another language other than the one that is common in their society - foreign language acquisition.

This paper will explore the similarities and differences of these two processes, second language and foreign language acquisition, for young children.� Starting with the basics of all language learning, it will then discuss what we know about the two processes and will draw conclusions about what this means for early childhood programs.

What do we know about how young children learn language?

Let’s start with information about how young children learn language.� In this section, the examples will be taken from English, but the conclusions that will be presented apply to all natural languages.� No matter what language a young child acquires first (and it may be more than one language), the process of acquisition will be similar for any normally developing child, anywhere, learning any language.�

Learning a language may be the most impressive accomplishment of the young child.� Language is a complex set of systems, each of which has its own rules.� As children learn a language, they master these various rule systems simultaneously.� However, in order to understand how these rule systems operate, we must discuss them as if they were separate.� The five systems that will be discussed here are phonology - the sounds of a language; vocabulary - the words of a language; grammar - the way words go together to form phrases and sentences; discourse - how sentences go together to tell a story, to make an argument, or to form an explanation; and pragmatics - using language appropriately and effectively.

Phonology.� First and foremost, knowing a language involves speaking and understanding words.� Those words are made up of syllables, which are the basic units of language production.� When infants are five to eight months old, they start producing such syllables (ba, ma, ga, etc.) in the course of their babbling.� Open syllables like ba and ma are relatively easy to pronounce, and thus form the basis for many 'babytalk' words (e.g., mama, booboo, peepee).� Words that contain closed syllables (those with a consonant at the end) are harder to pronounce, especially if quite different consonants need to be articulated within one syllable.� Thus, young children often say 'goggie' for 'doggie' or 'guck' for 'truck,' because they simply cannot yet put two such different sounds as /g/ and /d/ or /t/ into one syllable. During the early childhood years, however, children's pronunciation of words comes increasingly to resemble the pronunciation that adults use.

Vocabulary.� After a rather slow start, vocabulary knowledge grows very rapidly during this period.� Children typically acquire their first word at about one year of age.� The first fifty words may take several months.� Thereafter the process of word acquisition goes so fast that it is impossible to keep accurate records, but it has been estimated that children acquire 6 to 10 new words a day between the ages of two and six.� Such rapid vocabulary acquisition relies on very powerful strategies for guessing what words mean, considerable willingness to take chances in using new words, and lots of help from adults in providing information about words and their meanings.�

Grammar.�� Grammar refers to the system of rules that children acquire so that what they say makes sense and is correct.� As soon as children put two words together to express simple meanings like rejection (“no tickle”), recurrence (“more juice”), object and location (“daddy kitchen”), actor and agent (“mommy help”), and so on, they begin to demonstrate what they are learning about the rules of grammar in their native language.� Children learning English, for instance, show awareness of word order as an important feature of the grammatical system.� In English, the sentence pattern subject-verb-object is so common that developing the ability to comprehend and use constructions which deviate from this pattern (passives like "the lion was bitten by the flea," complement constructions like "promise Mary you will go," and relative clauses like "the dog bit the cat that chased the rat") can last well into the early childhood years.

Discourse.� �Once young children have developed the ability to put words together in sentences, the next step is to put phrases or sentences together to begin to develop discourse forms such as narratives (“I went to the zoo and saw the elephant”), arguments (“I know she was at school ‘cuz I saw her”), or explanations (“you make that work by turning the wheel”).� Learning the rules about the structure of each of these, and other, forms, as well as the information that needs to be included, continues throughout the early childhood period, as children’s discourse abilities grow.

Pragmatics.�� Gaining control over all of these systems, and developing proficiency in using them, is only part of the process of acquiring a language.� Children must also learn how to use language appropriately--how to be communicatively effective and be responsive to the needs of their listeners.� Pragmatics refers to everything from rules for politeness, like saying 'please' and ‘thank you’ and avoiding discussion of delicate topics (not mentioning how old someone is), to knowing the rules for clarity in discourse, like the necessity for providing antecedents for pronouns, so that listeners know who 'he' or 'they' refer to.

How do children learn how to do all this?� Research on children’s language acquisition has shown that although the process that children go through in acquiring a first language may be very similar in terms of timing and structure, the mechanisms for acquiring language are very dependent on the socio-cultural context that the child is exposed to.� In some societies, children are the object of adult conversation from a very early age, while other societies leave younger children in the care of older children who become the language models for them.� However a particular society works, children must be exposed to linguistic input in order to acquire language, and they must use their developing cognitive processes to construct the language system that they will need to communicate with the adults and important others in their world.

What about bilingualism in young children?

While children acquire language in much the same way, some children are exposed to more than one language sometime during the early childhood period, and the timing, intensity, and context of this exposure can make a difference in the acquisition of the two languages. Some children are exposed to two (or more) languages in the home context and embark on acquiring both languages at the same time.� We would call these children native or simultaneous bilinguals.� These children usually follow the same course of acquisition as children learning only one language, although they may not move through the process as quickly, as they have the extra task of learning two languages at the same time.� Further, their acquisition of their two languages may be uneven, as they may be exposed to one or the other of the languages more intensively.�

If a child is exposed to one language in the home, and then, at a later time, to another language, most often outside the home, this child would be called a sequential bilingual.� Sequential bilinguals have the advantage of taking on a second language when they are slightly older, and therefore more cognitively sophisticated.� But this can also be a disadvantage, as older children are expected to be more proficient and able to express themselves in more advanced ways than younger children.� Again, the amount of exposure to the two languages will be important in determining the course of bilingual acquisition in these children.

What are second language acquisition and foreign language acquisition?

The term “second language acquisition” has been used in the research literature to indicate a wide range of acquisition circumstances, but it is usually meant to indicate that a child is adding a second language to an already established native or first language, no matter what the context may be.� However, for the purposes of this paper, I will be using the term “second language acquisition” in contrast to the term “foreign language acquisition,” and in this case the context is the important factor to keep in mind.� I will use the term “second language acquisition” to indicate the circumstances when children acquire a home language that is different from (at least one of) the community or societal language(s), and then add the community or societal language to their repertoire.� I will use the term “foreign language acquisition” to indicate the circumstances when children acquire a home language that is the same as (at least one of) the community or societal language(s), and then add a language that is not a community or societal language to their repertoire.

Here are some examples.� Rosa was born and raised in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic and learned Spanish in the family context.� When Rosa was three years old her family immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, where the family settled in a Hispanic neighborhood and continued to speak Spanish at home.� By the time Rosa was four years old, her family had enrolled her in Head Start, a national program for low-income preschoolers.� In her classroom, the teacher spoke English with all of the children, while Rosa used Spanish with other Spanish speakers, and began to use English with the children in the classroom who were native speakers of English.�

We would consider Rosa a native speaker of Spanish who has begun the process of second language acquisition by being exposed to English - the societal language in the U.S. - in preschool.�� In this context we can think of Rosa as being in a situation of considerable communicative need to learn English, as her teacher and some of her friends at school speak English, and, although she lived in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood, the society at large, including the media, was dominated by English.� Also, her parents were eager for her to learn to speak English in order to be ready to attend kindergarten the following year.

In contrast, Li-chong was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan and learned Mandarin in the family context.� When Li-chong was four years old, his parents decided that they wanted him to attend a preschool where he would be exposed to English.� They believed that he would learn English easily at this young age and would be able to speak English without an accent.� The teacher in his classroom was from Australia and used only English with the children. The children were required to use English in the classroom, although they spoke Mandarin to each other at recess and after school. Li-chong continued to speak Mandarin at home.�

We would consider Li-chong a native speaker of Mandarin who has begun the process of foreign language acquisition by being exposed to English - which is not the societal language - in preschool.� In this context we can think of Li-chong as being in a situation of reduced communicative need to learn English, as he can use Mandarin most of the time, in most contexts that are important in his life.

The developmental pathway of second language acquisition in young children

Although folk wisdom would have us believe that it is very easy for young children to learn a second language, research makes it clear that second language acquisition is both a social and cognitive challenge for young children, requiring considerable effort.� And there is nothing magical about the process.� As with first language acquisition, it is necessary for young children to be extensively exposed to the new language, to have the help of others in using the new language, and to feel that it is worth the effort to learn the new language.�

The developmental pathway of second language acquisition has been outlined as follows:

Of course this is a cumulative process, as children add layer upon layer of sounds, words, and grammar in their new language.� It is also volatile, as a missing piece (how to pronounce a word, what word belongs in the sentence, how the sentence should go together) can sabotage a child’s ability to communicate effectively.�

How quickly do children move through these stages?� Research indicates that the rate of progress of second language acquisition may depend upon at least four factors:� age, exposure, personality, and motivation.� A child who is older when the process of second language acquisition begins will have more cognitive abilities to apply to the activity.� A child who is exposed to the new language for more hours will hear more of the new language and will have more opportunities to try it out and see what works.� A child who is more outgoing will generate more communication in the new language by joining social groups where the language is being used.� And a child who is highly motivated to learn the new language in order to communicate with others who speak the language will seek out more opportunities to learn the new language as well.� These factors may combine in different ways for different children, which is why predicting the rate of acquisition is difficult.� As in all developmental processes, individual differences are important in second language acquisition.

What would this mean for Rosa?� We already know that Rosa was four years old when she started learning English, which is quite young in the context of second language acquisition. And although she attended an English-speaking preschool, her class was in session only three and a half hours a day.� During the course of the year, however, Rosa used her considerable social skills to develop a strong friendship with an English-speaking girl, so her motivation to learn English and her opportunities to practice English increased.� Rosa started to use English by practicing the sounds at circle time by singing songs and reciting stories.� Then she began using some phrases to get into play with her English-speaking friend and, with her friend’s help, she acquired a lot of names for objects in the classroom.� Soon, she was able to participate in socio-dramatic play, beginning to show that she was developing discourse skills in English as well.� Her teacher told Rosa’s parents that Rosa was using a lot of English in the classroom, but that there were still many vocabulary items that she didn’t know and sometimes it was difficult to understand what she was trying to communicate.� By the end of the year, although Rosa had made a lot of progress in English, her abilities certainly did not begin to approach the level of a child who was a native speaker of English.� In her kindergarten classroom, Rosa would need a lot of support for continuing to learn English.

How does foreign language acquisition differ from second language acquisition?

Early childhood education programs that involve foreign language acquisition for young children are a comparatively recent phenomenon.� Why are many early childhood educators outside the U.S. considering the development of such programs at this time?� And why is English the language that is most often used as the foreign language in these programs?

Two factors seem to have converged to make these programs appealing to educators and to parents.� The first factor is clearly related to the impact of English as the global language of business, diplomacy, and education.� A quick search on the internet reveals that there is a major industry in teaching English as a second or foreign language to adult students who feel that they need to learn English for personal and professional reasons.�

The second factor is the mythology that has grown up around the optimum timing of second or foreign language acquisition.� In this mythology earlier is always considered easier than later, which combines with the belief that children who learn another language at a young age will develop native-like pronunciation of the language.�

In fact, these are the reasons that Li-chong’s parents wanted their son in an English language early childhood program in Taipei.� They believed that this would provide him with the advantage of learning English effortlessly and with no accent.� However, knowing what we do about young children and the course of second language acquisition, it is important to think about each of these assumptions before looking at what the results were for Li-chong.

By targeting English as a language that they wanted their son to know, Li-chong’s parents were making a decision very early in his life about what factors might be important for him later on.� However, this is not an unusual type of gamble for parents to take.� After all, many parents expose their children to a wide variety of athletic, musical, and technical activities at a young age to give their children more life options to choose from.� However, it is more important to examine the second set of assumptions that Li-chong’s parents are making about how easy this will be for him and that he will speak English without an accent.

Let’s think about what we know about the process that is involved in acquiring another language.�� First, it is a cognitive and social process that requires lots of input and lots of practice, and second, there are factors that affect rate of acquisition, such as age, motivation, exposure, and personality.� �In Li-chong’s case, the only input in English came from his teacher and the only practice he had in using the language was in daily drills in the classroom.� Because he was four years old, he, like Rosa, was quite young to be acquiring a second language.� And, because he lived in a community where English was not spoken by either adults or children, his exposure to English was limited to the classroom situation, meaning he was not motivated to use the language.� And finally, although Li-chong’s social skills were well developed, he used his skills to spend time with his classmates during recess and after school, when he could use Mandarin.� Consequently, after a year in the classroom Li-chong’s teacher reported to his parents that, although Li-chong followed all of her directions during activities in the classroom and participated in the group oral language exercises, she had not been able to get him to use English with her in a conversation.� She did report, however, that his pronunciation of English was appropriate during the oral language drills.� At the end of the year, Li-chong’s parents had an important decision to make about what type of classroom they wanted for the following year - one where English would continue to be the only language, or one where Mandarin would be used for most activities, with a short English lesson taught each day.

Conclusions

The purpose of this paper has been to turn the spotlight on two different contexts in which young children are exposed to a language that is different from their first or native language:� a second language context in which children are expected to acquire the community or societal language, and a foreign language context in which children who are expected to acquire a language that is not the community or societal language.� Although there are many variations in these contexts, and therefore many different pathways that young children can take in the second language acquisition process, I have chosen to contrast the results for two young children in order to illustrate the important factors that affect the process.� In one case, Rosa made considerable progress in learning English, because she had a lot of input in the language from both her teacher and classmates, and she was able to practice her new language with a friend who was a native speaker.� Further, because she now lived in an English-speaking society, she was even more motivated to learn English.� In the other case, Li-chong made very little progress in the language, as his only language model was his teacher, and therefore his input was limited and there were no opportunities or need for him to practice the language with anyone.� Although his parents may have been motivated by the idea that there would be advantages in Li-chong learning English at this young age, this was not a factor that motivated Li-chong.

How should early childhood educators incorporate this information into their programs?� If a program serves children who are learning a second language in its classrooms, it will be extremely important for educators to carefully construct the classroom environment to be as supportive as possible for the second language learning children.� Supportive classrooms will be ones where the children receive the maximum input possible and are provided with lots of opportunities to practice their new language.� Educators who are aware of the developmental pathway of second language acquisition will be in a particularly strong position to facilitate the process.�� Further, these will be classrooms where educators understand that young children also need to learn as much as possible about the world around them at the same time, so they will provide as much information as possible using both language and graphic representations of the concepts that they are teaching.

If a program serves children who are being exposed to a foreign language in its classrooms, it will be extremely important for educators to examine their assumptions about the purpose and goals of their program.� Given all of the learning about the world that children need to be doing at this age, it seems unlikely that optimal cognitive development will occur in a classroom where a language that the children do not understand is being used all of the time.� If programs wish to start children on the path of foreign language acquisition, it may be more beneficial to construct a classroom environment in which the children’s first language is used for most of the day, and English (or another language) as a foreign language is presented in the form of songs, stories, word play, and rhymes, to give the children an idea of the sounds of the language and a few vocabulary words.� If children then continue with a gradual introduction of a foreign language in later grades in school, they will have a strong foundation to build on and a positive attitude towards foreign language learning.