An Overview of Second Language Acquisition Chapter 3. An Overview of Second Language Acquisition Second language acquisition is the phrase used to describe the process that people go through when confronted by a need to use a language other than their native one for communication.
People acquire their first and second languages differently.
The linguistic development of children depends upon the linguistic experiences of childhood and the language and language structures that children encounter. Therefore, the burden of language exposure falls upon children's parents and caretakers. There are differences between language learning and language acquisition. Although second language teaching is typically directed at learning and not acquisition, it is still possible to encourage acquisition very effectively in the classroom. Use of a student's first language is not bad.