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Applied Linguistics Advance Access originally published online on October 24, 2008
Applied Linguistics 2008 29(4):717-722; doi:10.1093/applin/amn040
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© Oxford University Press 2008

The Significance of First Language Development in Five to Nine Year Old Children for Second and Foreign Language Learning

Robert Vanderplank

University of Oxford, UK


  Abstract

In this article, the language learning experiences and development of a child (the author's daughter) between the ages of five and nine are drawn on to argue that we should re-focus our comparison of first and second language acquisition away from early L1 acquisition to the early schooling/middle childhood period. In addition to the transforming experiences of formal and informal education in and out of school, it is suggested that children also acquire essential attributes as part of their natural development such as the ‘mind's eye’ and adult-like de-contextualized memory, which ensure that they may eventually become adult L1 users. The article concludes by advocating that we should re-read texts comparing first and second language acquisition and learning using the child in the early years of formal schooling as the basis for comparison with second language learning.


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