Language Learner

Grammatical categories of English: Number:   In English, only singular and plural are indicated. In count nouns, -s is used to mark the plural.  The plural is also marked in demonstratives (this vs. these, that vs. those). first and third person pronouns (I vs. we, he/she/it vs. them), first and third person possessive determiners (my vs. our, his/hers vs. their), and first and third person reflexive pronouns (myself vs. ourselves, himself/herself/itself vs. themselves).  Some pronouns and adjectives mark the singular (every, each, someone, anybody, a/an), while others mark the plural (all, many, few, most, several).  Third person forms of the verb in present tense also mark singularity by use of -s, and the forms of be mark number as well.  Gender:   English expresses natural gender but not grammatical gender.  That is, nouns have a gender based on biological sex, and are not assigned a separate grammatical gender as in Spanish or German. ...

Differences: In first language acquisition, the basis for learning is universal grammar alone.  In second language acquisition, knowledge of the first language also serves as a basis for learning the second language.  There may be both positive and negative transfer between languages in second language learning. In first language acquisition, children spend several years listening to language, babbling, and using telegraphic speech before they can form sentences.  In second language acquisition in older learners, learning is more rapid and people are able to form sentences within a shorter period of time.  In formal second language learning in older learners, learners are able to use more metacognitive processes in their learning.  They can consciously analyze and manipulate grammatical structures, and they can explicitly describe how language works.  This can speed the learning process. In second language learning ...

Similarities: In both first and second language acquisition, universal grammar may influence learning.  In second language learning, universal grammar may influence learning either independently or through the first language. In both first and second language acquisition, there are predictable stages, and particular structures are acquired in a set order.  Individuals may move more slowly or quickly through these stages, but they cannot skip ahead. In both first and second language acquisition, making errors is a part of learning.  Learners need to make and test hypotheses about language to build an internal representation of the language.  In the initial stages of learning, learners may use chunks of language without breaking them down or processing them as independent units.  In later stages, they may make new errors as they begin to process the parts of each chunk according to the rules of their language system.  For example, a ...

Snake A snake came to my water-trough On a hot, hot day, and I in pyjamas for the heat, To drink there. In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree I came down the steps with my pitcher And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me. He reached down from a fissure in the earth-wall in the gloom And trailed his yellow-brown slackness soft-bellied down, over the edge of the stone trough And rested his throat upon the stone bottom, i o And where the water had dripped from the tap, in a small clearness, He sipped with his straight mouth, Softly drank through his straight gums, into his slack long body, Silently. Someone was before me at my water-trough, And I, like a second comer, waiting. He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more, Being earth-brown, earth-golden from th...