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JZer · Joined: 16 Jan 2005 Posts: 3898 Location: Pittsburgh

In regards to writing, language is learned. One must even learn how to write their first language. Writing is something that is not likely to be acquired like speaking or listening. Steven Pinker talks about that in The Language Instinct

Kootvela · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 513 Location: Lithuania

Not quoting anybody big, my personal idea is that you learn, that's why you acquire. You don't learn, you don't acquire.

rusmeister · Joined: 15 Jun 2006 Posts: 867 Location: Russia

Thank you, JZer and Kootvela! (Where's the 'bow' emoticon?)

cmp45 · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 1475 Location: KSA

The distinction as I see it..."Acquiring" a second language is through your own efforts; where as "learning" a second language is usually through the help or assistance of a native speaker, teacher

Marcoregano · Joined: 19 May 2003 Posts: 872 Location: Hong Kong

Perhaps the main problem here is that the two words have very similar meanings. Posters have different perceptions of what the words mean - so little wonder it is hard to find agreement. These definitions are from the same dictionary...

Learn: 1. to acquire knowledge of or skill in by study, instruction, or experience: to learn French; to learn to ski.
2. to become informed of or acquainted with; ascertain: to learn the truth.

Acquire: 1. to come into possession or ownership of; get as one's own: to acquire property.
2. to gain for oneself through one's actions or efforts: to acquire learning.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject:

John Hall · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject:

John Hall · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject:

I think another point that should be taken into consideration is that although acquisition may seem rather effortless and natural, it is not as fast a process as conscious learning--whether the student is immersed in the new language or not.

Chancellor · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 3:18 pm Post subject:

keepwalking · Joined: 17 Feb 2005 Posts: 194 Location: Peru, at last

Learn it or acquire it? I think it depends on the age at which you start the process.

Most of us who are living abroad will know of little kids who arrive in our host country and chat away in the local country very quickly, whereas we struggle to remember words and have to consciously apply rules of grammar as we utter a whole sentence for the first time. That improves with practice but my friend's 4 year old still speaks Spanish with less effort than I do.

In Pinker's Language Instinct he talks about a cut off age for 1st language learning. There's an infamous case of a 13 year old girl (Genie) who was imprisoned by her father from babyhood and cut off from language exposure. When finally rescued and adopted by an eminent linguist, she never really progressed past the grammatical development of a 3 year old. She had a wide vocabulary but still strung a sentence together such as 'me want it'. She only occasionally formed anything more complex than the 3 word stage. The theory was that as she hadn't been exposed to language as her brain was forming, she never made the neural connections necessary to fully acquire a language.

Now if we apply that theory to 2nd language learning, and compare children to those slightly older 2nd language learners such as myself... perhaps the reason my friend's 4 year old babbles away without any problem is that his brain is still forming neural connections through exposure to language and thus his grey matter can adapt to a different language more easily. My brain gave up making those connections years ago and now when exposed to Spanish, still has to remind itself that adjectives go after nouns, not before. Years of exposure to English set a pattern between my ears - noun-adjective. My brain then filed away copious amounts of new nouns and adjectives, but always connected in that order. Then I arrived in South America and was surrounded by Spanish at which point smoke starting coming out my ears. I had to learn Spanish in a whole new way.

There's weight added to this by a study which looked at which part of the brain is actively involved in language acquisition. At aorund the time of puberty, our language centre of the brain moves from the creative bit to the mathmatical bit - bad news for me as I'm not sure that part of my brain ever developed! Thus as adults we learn a second language in a more methodical way. Sure, being exposed to the language hastens progress but without some book time I doubt I would have progressed in Spanish past counting and ordering food and drink.

Just a theory.