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There is a difference between acquiring a language and learning a language.
Acquiring: natural process that is the result of interacting meaningfully with the language
Learning: formal and conscious study of language forms and functions explicitly taught

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Language study leads to the development of an internal grammar editor that "watches" output to ensure correct usage.
Requires sufficient time, focus on grammar, and explicit knowledge of the rules.
Easier to monitor writing than speaking

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learners "acquire" some language rules sooner than others and in a predictable sequence.

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language acquisition is the result of the learners understanding of the language.
Three constraints:
1. must be understandable
2. must contain grammar structures that are a little beyond the learner's current skill
3. must be part of naturally flowing language

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Social-emotional parts of language acquisition.
most important variables:
1. low anxiety environment
2. student motivation to learn
3. self-confidence
4. self-esteem
It is the causative variable in second language acqisistion

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Believe that language is learned through stimulus, response, and reinforcement

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children are born with a tabula rasa or blank slate

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cannot account for the fact that most utterance we produce are original

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infants are "prewired for linguistic analysis"

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Children learn language through hypothesis testing

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"children create sentences by using rules rather than by merely repeating messages they have heard..."

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Howard Gardener added to this by stating that adults are need to help build vocabulary and master grammar rules

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caregivers play an important role

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conversational scaffolding:
repeating back what the child says to demonstrate understand while modeling back adult usage, while also asking prompting questions

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"scaffolding provides conversational assistance and focused linguistic input tuned to the child's own interests and language use at the moment."

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different cultures speak to their children in different ways creating doubt in the importance of scaffolding

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understanding must be developed and refined over time

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audiolingual method: recorded dialogues are present to students to memorize

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Also relies on drilling verb conjugations

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student first taught to speak and listen then read and write

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language learning consists of imitation, repetition, and reinforcement

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creative construction theory: ELL "creatively construct the rules of the second language in a manner similar to that observed in first language acquisition"

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contrastive analysis: if 2 languages are similar (have the same plural structure, for example) it will be easier to learn them.