Natalia Fabisz – linguistics and beyond

The manner in which a second language is learnt or acquired and how the first language might affect this process is accounted for by a theory which is called “The Competition Model”. In accordance with this model every language has particular ways of portraying meanings which are identified as patterns enabling interpreting of the perceived input (Lynne 2001:14).

It is at early childhood that these patterns of a native language gain significance which, in later development, are transferred to second language acquisition in an attempt to identify them in similar situations. Where the native language and the learned language differ in some aspects the transfer of patterns might not be very productive. Should such a situation occur, help of a teacher is of use. Evidence provided by methodologists supports that theory, in addition indicating that students learn a foreign language focusing on the whole of the language as well as on its parts (Lynne 2001:15).

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It is common knowledge that young learners participate in foreign language lessons more keenly and briskly than adolescents. Moreover, they are eager to take part in exercises even if they do not quite apprehend what it is for, or what is the precise manner they ought to do it in. In addition, it is more important for them to make teachers happy rather than show off. On the other, hand their attention span is much shorter, which makes them uninterested faster than older learners. Moreover, if they find a task too difficult, children are not usually persistent enough to solve it on their own. They also do not possess sufficient schemata to benefit from metalinguistic explanation.

One other advantage of learning a foreign language in young age is children’s evident willingness to try to talk in the target language which is useful when it comes to acquiring pronunciation (Lynne 2001:1).

Child not only can learn directly from instruction, but also indirectly through interacting with others from what they can interact with. That is why the majority of tasks for young learners ought to contain movement and stimulate various senses. Using different activities by child in acquiring foreign language is a crucial factor which makes his learning fun (Scott and Ytreberg 1990:5).

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