Learn English

Learning English

Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is a field of study in linguistics that examines the process through which humans learn to understand and use the complexity of language. There are two main ideas as to how children learn their first language, the first is the experience-dependent approach (or nurture), the second is the nativist approach (or nature). The former argues that the meanings of words are learnt through social conventions. This happens through operant conditioning, where consequences modify future behaviour. This would mean a certain word given certain stimulus would reinforce its contextual probability.

The second argument is based on innate meanings. Rather than focusing on a set of rules (grammar) that would generate syntactically correct sentences, it was argued that grammar was innate. Grammar is constructed based on examples of well-formed sentences, but ignores semantics and context. In addition, it was deemed that the input available to the child learner was insufficient to acquire a language on the basis of grammar. Chomsky and others claimed there was a universal grammar connected to the language acquisition faculty, consisting of a set of principles that were modified for each particular language by a set of parameters. These ‘hidden assumptions’ allow children to figure out what was and wasn’t possible in their language.

English Language

Because of its widespread use, the English language is a useful language to learn. The language spread as a result of first the British empire, then the American empire. In consequence, English is now used across many of the Commonwealth nations, whether as a first or second language. These nations include the UK (which consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales), Ireland, Australia, Canada, the USA, various islands (e.g. Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa), Zimbabwe, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, the Philippines, Mauritius, Jamaica, etc.