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Can a Second Language or L2 be Acquired Like LI

A second language is any language learnt outside of your mother tongue that you use to communicate with individuals who do not speak your mother tongue, whether it is at school (also known as the school language) or as an adult. While this occurs, the second language takes on the role of a link language or lingua franca, much like English did when the British ruled India. Once Hindi replaces English as the national language of India, it will serve in this capacity.

It is considered that a second language can grow along the same lines as or through roughly comparable phases as the first language, even if it does not have the same privileges as the first language and is not supported by a natural environment the way the mother tongue is.

As per Stephen Krashen “[Language acquisition, or learning a second language, does not need rigorous practice or intensive use of conscious grammatical principles. The acquisition involves meaningful engagement in the target language, or “natural communication,” in which speakers are more concerned with the messages they are sending and comprehending than with the structure of their utterances.” For the development of communication capacity in the second language, he places a lot of stress on “comprehensible input and a low anxiety scenario.”

Scholars have identified certain crucial phases in the acquisition of a second language that are strikingly similar to the stages in the growth of one’s first language based on research into the mechanisms of second language acquisition. The steps listed below have been determined to be essential for learning a second language:

Stage I: silence epoch. For example, new English learners will spend some time listening to the language and adding words to their receptive vocabulary, but they won’t really be speaking it. They can be responding to the teacher’s questions by repeating “yes” and “no.” To demonstrate understanding, they may also react to images and visuals and mimic motions and actions. The motor abilities acquired via Total Physical Response (TPR) would assist learners understand how the language functions at this level. The student may have 500 words or so in his vocabulary.

Stage II: The learner is thought to acquire a receptive and active vocabulary of roughly 100 words by the end of his first six months of listening and speaking, enabling him to pronounce one- or two-word sentences. He may also employ memorized short passages, even if they might not be grammatically sound.
Stage III: Once a student has a vocabulary of roughly 300 words, they may begin expressing themselves in the target language by employing short phrases and sentences. Additionally, he will make an effort to include his other students and get along better with the teacher.
Stage IV: After four to ten years of exposure to the target language, a person becomes fluent in the second language. Students will typically strive to be as exact as they can and feel awful if they can’t establish contact. They will, for the most part, be able to solve their own issues, even if they will require the teacher’s assistance with certain classroom tasks. According to Stephen Krashen, it is simple to provide ‘input that conveys the message that learners genuinely want to hear in order to ensure second language acquisition. Furthermore, learners should not be compelled to generate language. They should instead be permitted to ‘create’ it when they are ready.’

Krashen also says, “In the real world, conversations with sympathetic native speakers who are willing to help the acquirer understand are very helpful”.