Reasons That Influence Language Acquisition
Verbal communication has absolute importance in our lives. We cannot communicate freely unless we know the nitty-gritty of a language. Languages have the same essential relation to verbal communication as what colours are for painting. There are hundreds of languages in this world. Some of them are as old as ancient civilizations, while some are relatively modern in their structure and speaking.
Any individual tends to perceive and learn their mother language quickly. As far as any other language is concerned, it would not be very easy to learn any new language. Research shows that only 5% of people tend to learn a language and get along with that language in a compact way.
Different factors affect an individual with one dive in the ocean of a new language. Some of them get along with it so quickly. On the other hand, others might feel reluctant to practicing new words and sentences. Rather than getting any further delay in examining the factors that influence language acquisition, let's get it started:
Age
A lot of people relate to the art of language acquisition with age groups. The general behaviour of humans towards any learning has a direct relation with the age of the learner. We are aware of the fact that age cannot stop learning, but it can positively affect the way how quickly one can adapt and learn a language.
It all starts from being a toddler where the child is confronted by every new expression, full of love and happiness. Children being the sharpest of creatures in terms of their ability to learn can learn a lot more quickly and smoothly rather than a person who is in his 60's. It doesn't necessarily mean that all children are going to be super-fast in learning new languages as certain factors influence language and literacy development in early childhood.
Motivation
An important question that we should know before learning a new language is to know the motivation behind the learning purpose. Just like every other single task of this world, motivation is as vital as hell for learning a new language.
Language teachers must figure out the learning motivation of each student. By doing so, they will be able to teach the student in a better way while making the whole learning process easier for both. Cartoons have played a significant role in the motivation of children in this era. Children are having different role-models as cartoon characters love to speak, act, and react the same way as their role models. These role models can differ from Disney, Captain Planet, Scooby-doo, and so on.
These motivations are not limited to cartoons but also include movies, plays, fictional stories, etc. Aladdin is an excellent example for the Arabic lovers who would love to learn Arabic. The level of motivation is not just limited to entertainment but can include tasks like dissertation help or literature review.
Gender
Gender also plays an important role in developing language learning skills. Although boys and girls have different skill sets on a larger scale. As far as learning a language is concerned, research shows that girls start grasping a new language at the age of two, which is relatively earlier than that of boys. Not only they perceive and communicate earlier, but they are also able to communicate more effectively and efficiently.
This gender-based learning is not just limited to how fast a gender can grasp the concepts of language learning, but several facts also play their role. The relationship between the parents and child, the atmosphere of the house, the frequency of the conversation, how social are the parents of the child- all these aspects certainly have a great impact on the personality and learning capability of a child.
Bilingualism
Children who tend to get to learn a second language in early age can be a bit slow in learning their first language. Getting to speak and listen to both languages at the same can make the child confuse as it is being said that, 'If you chase two rabbits, you will not get either one.'
Language specialists in this regard have shared their opinion. They suggest parents not to teach any second language unless the child starts speaking his first language fluently (especially not before the child schooling).
Personality
No matter either the language seeker is a child or a student at high-school, the overall personality of the learner has a significant effect on the learning patterns. For instance, extroverts tend to have quick learning patterns as they are not afraid of making mistakes and welcome the lessons from their mistakes warm-heartedly. On the contrary, introverts are shyer in front of the gathering and are more hesitant in trying new methods of learning.
Natural Tendency
Undoubtedly, skills and hard work play an essential role in learning a second language, but that's not true for all cases. A lot of Linguistic specialists are of the view that there are some innate abilities in certain children, which helps them in learning a language at a rapid pace than of others who don't possess that natural ability.
Number of Family Members
We discussed above how the relation of the child with their family members affects the learning behaviour of the child towards learning a language. In the same manner, the size of a family also affects the learning perspective of a child. Experts believe that a small family having a single child allows the child to learn a language quickly as compared to a large family with a higher number of kids. A single child gets more attention from parents, whereas multiple children get divided attention of the parents.
Experts opposing this viewpoint comes with the rationale that having 3 or 4 kids in the house allows the child to interact more with their age fellows. Thus, providing more opportunities for children to communicate freely.