The Classification of Language Acquisition in General

By: Ramdan Nugraha

According to some of the experts on the field of language learning, Djonhar (2012, p.1) sums up that language acquisition classified into three categories; 1) First language, 2) Second language, and 3) Foreign language. She goes further to explain each category with their implication on the teaching of English as Foreign Language (EFL).

Based on many research it is defined that language is a matter of agreement where people or community agree to speak and write using the language they use for communication. The first category named First language (L1) is the language which has been rocognised by people since they were as babies and it was listened in people daily activities. Djonhar (2012, p.1) states L1 or native language or mother tongue is the language primarily learned and used by children or native speakers in a community where the language is spoken.

For the second category named Second language (L2) is defined as the language which is learned by non-native speakers in the environment of community where that language is spoken (Djonhar: 2012, p.1). It could be an example that India is the country who have their own mother tongue (L1) but they decide that English is dominantly spoken as the second language (L2) by the people in many opportunities dealing with the communication in that country.

The last category of language acquisition, Djonhar (2012, p.2) confirms Foreign language is language which refers to a non-native language which is learned and used by non-native speakers in the environment of non-native language. In Indonesia, there are many languages that consist of national language which is Indonesian that used by Indonesian to communicate among different area or ethnic , and then there are the local languages that have big number from each ethnic around Indonesia such as Sundanese, Javanese, and so on. The last one is English as International language and the foreign language at once.

In conclusion, each language category used by countries has its own functions and positions to the people who live in those countries. In addition, it obviously influences the Teaching English as Foreign Language (TEFL) especially for those countries who define English as foreign language must have different approaches with those who have English as the second language or even the mother tongue.