- "Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate."
The exposure to spoken or written language that a child receives, which is crucial for language acquisition.
Input hypothesis: Proposed by linguist Stephen Krashen, suggests that language acquisition occurs through exposure to comprehensible input, or input that is slightly above the learner's current level of understanding.
Language input and output: The relationship between understanding and producing language; input (listening and reading) is seen as a precursor to output (speaking and writing).
Second language acquisition: The process of acquiring a new language after one's first language has already been learned.
Linguistic input: The way in which language is presented to learners, such as through written text, spoken dialogue, or multimedia.
Contextualization: The process of providing learners with a rich and meaningful context for understanding new language, which can help to enhance comprehension and retention.
Teacher language input: The way in which teachers speak to their students, including the use of appropriate vocabulary, structure, and pacing.
Input processing: The cognitive mechanisms involved in taking in and interpreting new language, which include attention, memory, and pattern recognition.
Language immersion: A method of language learning in which learners are exposed to the new language in authentic settings, such as through travel or living abroad.
Language exposure: The amount and quality of language input that learners are exposed to, which can vary based on factors such as culture, geography, and access to technology.
Technology and language input: The role of tools such as language learning software, translation apps, and multimedia resources in providing learners with access to language input in different formats and contexts.
Native Language: The language spoken by an individual since birth in the environment they grew up in.
Second Language: A language learned after acquiring proficiency in one's native language.
Foreign Language: A language learned in a formal educational setting or through self-study and not commonly used in the individual's environment.
Input-Based Language Learning: Learning a language through comprehension of spoken or written language in various forms, such as podcasts, videos, books, newspapers, and articles.
Communication-Based Language Learning: Learning a language through intensive communication, often involving interaction with native speakers or language exchange partners.
Immersion Language Learning: Language instruction that takes place in an environment where the target language is the dominant means of communication.
Explicit/Implicit Language Learning: Explicit language instruction refers to when the teacher or textbook explicitly teaches the rules and concepts of a language, whereas implicit language instruction is more indirect and allows the learner to deduce the rules and concepts of the language.
Formal/Learning Context Language Learning: Learning a language in a structured, formal setting such as a classroom, vs. learning in unstructured, informal settings such as at home or in social gatherings.
Technology-Assisted Language Learning: Using technology to assist in language learning, such as language-learning apps, video-tutorials, or online courses.
Natural Learning: Refers to learning through naturally occurring environments, such as listening to people speak on the street, reading natural texts or subtitles, and interacting with native speakers.
- "The capacity to use language successfully requires one to acquire a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary."
- "Human language capacity is represented in the brain."
- "Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion."
- "These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation, and coordination."
- "Speech perception always precedes speech production, and the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built up one step at a time."
- "The distinction between individual phonemes is the initial step in language acquisition."
- "Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whether that be spoken language or signed language."
- "It refers to an infant's simultaneous acquisition of two native languages."
- "First-language acquisition deals with the acquisition of the native language, while second-language acquisition involves acquiring additional languages."
- "In addition to speech, reading, and writing a language with an entirely different script compounds the complexities of true foreign language literacy."
- "Linguists who are interested in child language acquisition have for many years questioned how language is acquired."
- "The question of how these structures are acquired, then, is more properly understood as the question of how a learner takes the surface forms in the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules and representations."
- "Language acquisition involves structures, rules, and representation."
- "Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign."
- "Language acquisition involves acquiring phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary."
- "Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences."
- "These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation, and coordination."
- "Speech perception always precedes speech production in first-language acquisition."
- "Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits."