Module 1Background to language learningBook pp. 67–71

Unit 12 · Differences between L1 and L2 learning

When we learn our first language (L1) we are likely to learn it in a different context, in different ways and at a different age from when we learn a second language (L2) — differences in age, cognitive development, motivation, exposure and interaction that shape how, and how successfully, the language is learnt.

◆What are the differences between L1 and L2 learning?

When we learn our first languageSee mother tongue, L1, L2. click to keep open · see glossary (L1) we are likely to learn it in a different context and in different ways from when we learn a second language (L2). We are also likely to be a different age.

◆Key concepts

What differences can you think of between L1 and L2 learning?

Think about the learners’ age, ways of learning, and the context that they are learning in:

	L1 learning	L2 learning (in the classroom)
Age	Learning starts when the learner is a baby, continues through the early years of childhood, and lasts into adolescence for some kinds of language and language skills, e.g. academic writing (writing for school or university). Babies learn language at the same time as their cognitive skills (the mental processes involved in thinking, understanding or learning) develop. Learners are motivated to learn language as they need to communicate.	Usually starts in primary school and/or secondary school. It may also start or continue in adulthood. Primary learners are still developing many of their cognitive skills. Secondary school learners have already developed many of their cognitive skills by the time they start learning a foreign language. Their attitudes towards learning and learning the foreign language may or may not be mature (fully developed). Adult learners have fully developed cognitive skills. They are likely to show maturity in their attitudes to language learning. Adult and some secondary learners may already have expectations (beliefs that something will or should happen) about how languages should be learnt, may have past experience of learning a foreign language, and may or may not be fully motivated to learn the language.
Context and ways of learning	By exposure to and picking up language, hearing the language around him/her all the time. By learning a lot of language in chunks. By wanting and needing to communicate, i.e. with strong motivation. Through interaction with family. By talking about things present in their surroundings, and by doing things. By listening to and taking in language for many months before using it (silent period). By playing and experimenting with new language. By having lots of opportunities to experiment with language. By getting lots of praise and encouragement for using the language. By hearing simplified speech. By rarely being corrected. Instead people often reformulate what the child has said.	Sometimes through exposure but often by being taught specific language items. Often by focusing on structures and individual words. With strong, little or no motivation to communicate. Through interaction with a teacher and sometimes with classmates. Often by talking about life outside the classroom. Often by needing to produce language soon after it has been taught. Often by using language in controlled practice activities and being corrected. Sometimes by playing and experimenting with new language. The learner is not exposed to the L2 very much — often no more than about three hours per week. Teachers vary in the amount of praise or encouragement they give learners. The learner may receive little individual attention from the teacher, and not interact much. Teachers usually simplify the language they use. Teachers often correct learners. Learners are often asked to produce correct language. They may or may not be given opportunities to make mistakes and experiment.

It is not always easy to describe L2 learning in the classroom because it happens in different ways in different classrooms. The description in the table above may not be true of all classrooms.

L2 learning sometimes takes place outside the classroom when children or adults pick up language. In this situation, L2 learning is more similar to L1 learning, except that the learner often does not get as much exposure to the language as the L1 learner and may not be so motivated to learn.

Another big difference between L1 and L2 learning is that L1 learning is nearly always fully successful, while L2 learning varies a lot in how successful it is.

◆Key concepts and the language teaching classroom

Read these tips and tick the ones which are most important for you:

How we teach learners language will depend a lot on what age they are. The younger they are the more they benefit from learning language in the same ways as L1 learners learn, i.e. through exposure, interaction and learning through doing. Older learners with more developed cognitive abilities are able to and can sometimes benefit from also focusing on the form of language in a more abstractConnected to thoughts and ideas rather than real objects, situations or actions. A text can be abstract and we use abstract words to express things like thoughts (e.g. believe), feelings (e.g. love) or ideas (e.g. beauty). Words for things that cannot be seen … click to keep open · see glossary (less specific, not concreteRelating to real objects, situations or actions. Words can be concrete, e.g. words for real objects like clothes, food, animals which can be seen or touched, or they can be abstract, e.g. believe, love. See abstract. click to keep open · see glossary) or general way.
Motivation is necessary for successful language learning, but learners may not be very motivated, so teachers can make use of strategies to motivate their students.
Learners are different from one another (in learning style, age, personality, etc.). Some may like to analyse language, for example; some may hate doing that. Some may love to take risks and communicate, others may prefer not to make mistakes. It is useful for teachers to find out about their learners’ learning styles, learning needs and expectations, and match their teaching to them. Teachers can do this by varying their teaching style, approaches, materials, topics, method of correction, etc.
Some learners may find a silent period useful, but some learners, especially adults, may not, as they expect to use the language straight away.
Exposure to language is important for learning. We can encourage learners to use English as much as possible in their out-of-class time. They could, for example, listen to radio programmes or songs, read books or magazines, use websites, download podcasts, make English-speaking friends, talk to tourists, write emails to English-speaking penfriends, etc.
Interaction is a way of learning. Pair and group work or class presentations are a way of encouraging interaction.
We can try to simplify our language to a level that learners can learn from, and avoid correcting them too much. They need to build up their fluency, motivation and confidence, and have opportunities to pick up language and experiment with it.
In the classroom, praising learners can be very motivating. Younger learners, especially, respond well to praise. We can also try to give learners as much individual attention as possible and interact with them on a small group or individual level.

↗See also

Units 9, 13 and 14 for factors affecting L2 learning, and Unit 18 for approaches to language teaching.

✎Follow-up activity

➤Follow-up activities · Unit 12

(See page 240 for answers)

1

Look at these two pictures. What differences that influence language learning can you imagine between the two language learning situations? Think of at least five.

2

Here are three learners. Look at the list below. Which ways do you think would help them learn English best?

Miriam is 7. She has just started learning English at school for 3 hours a week. She is from Tunisia.

Santiago is 13. He is in his second year of English at secondary school in Argentina. He doesn’t like learning English. He finds it boring and irrelevant to him.

Bao is 33 and is from Vietnam. He learnt English at secondary school but has not studied it since. He needs to learn to speak English for his new job as a hotel manager.

A Watching DVDs, playing games in English, miming English songs
B Using English to play games in the classroom
C Doing lots of extra homework
D Using websites to chat online
E Studying grammar books
F Doing lots of communicative activities
G Learning through interesting topics
H Chatting to foreign tourists

Check your answers — answer key (book pp. 237–244)

1 Possible answers:

Child with parents

The child is getting individual attention.
The learning time is not limited.
The child is interacting with his parents.
The child is enjoying communicating and interacting.
The parents can respond to the child’s interests and needs.
The atmosphere is relaxed.

Teacher with class

Learners cannot get much individual attention.
The bell will ring after e.g. 30 minutes and end the lesson.
The teacher is telling the learners something. There may be no interaction.
The pupils may not be enjoying the lesson.
The teacher cannot easily respond to each learner’s interests and needs.

2 Possible answers:

Miriam
A, B, F, G

Santiago
Possibly A, B, D (with supervision), G, H

Bao
Maybe A–H, depending on his learning style, availability of time and degree of motivation.

💡Reflect

💡Reflect on these ideas

Think about these teachers’ comments. Which do you agree with and why?

My learners get exposure to English when they listen to me. That should be enough for them.
Grammar is a quicker way of learning than exposure. It works well with older learners.
When you just expose your learners to English, you have no idea if they’re learning or not.

🔍Discovery activities

🔍Try these out and record in your Teacher Portfolio

Look at a unit in your coursebook. Find some activities which encourage interaction, exposure to language, focus on form or motivation.
Look at these websites for articles on differences between L1 and L2 learning or how to teach different age groups: http://www.eltforum.com; the ‘methodology archive’ in http://www.onestopenglish.com; http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk
Watch a young child you know who is learning their first language. Make notes in your Teacher Portfolio on the similarities and differences between how they learn their L1 and how your students learn L2. Can you learn anything useful for your teaching from this?
Do you know the meaning of these terms: linguistic, proficiency? Check their meaning in the TKT Glossary.
Look at ‘English teachers and their English’ at: http://www.cambridge.org/elt/tkt

✎TKT practice tasks

These multiple-choice tasks are exactly as in the book, but interactive: pick your answers, check your score, and retry anytime. The scoring uses the official answer key from the back of the book.

📖Glossary terms in this unit

Key terms highlighted in this unit — study them on the flashcards page.

abstract academic cognitive concrete expectation first language L1/L2 mature maturity silent period

Editorial note — OCR and reconstruction notes for this unit

Book pp. 67–71 (pdf 72–76). The two-page comparison table (pp. 67–68) was rebuilt as one table with stub rows ‘Age’ and ‘Context and ways of learning’; the L1/L2 bullets in the second row are printed as two independent columns, not as aligned pairs, and are kept that way. OCR garbling cleaned: ‘Li/LI/Lr/t2’ → L1/L2, ‘ete’ → etc., ‘varies a fot in how suce stub it is’ → ‘varies a lot in how successful it is’, ‘foctis on forny’ → ‘focus on form’, ‘help ther Tear English best’ → ‘help them learn English best’, ‘teachingenglish.org.wks’ → ‘teachingenglish.org.uk’, ‘hitp’ → http. The 3 learner boxes in Follow-up 2 are set left-to-right as Miriam (Tunisia), Santiago (Argentina), Bao (Vietnam); the scan's column order was checked at --psm 6. Options A–H in Follow-up 2 end at H (no option I printed). Glossary terms taken from the book's unit-by-unit list (p. 258); ‘second language’ is bolded at its definition in the text but the book's list registers the term as ‘L1/L2’.