Is Second Language Learning like the First

Abstract

A considerable array of evidence has been collected about the order and process of mother tongue acquisition. This study compares these findings to second language acquisition (learning of French by English speakers) in a natural milieu in which communication rather than form is the learner's focus of attention, and where the language is heard most of the day. The study showed that in many respects the development of comprehension of syntax and of morphological features follows the order in the mother tongue studies. Children of older ages learned much faster than younger children for the sample in the range of four through nine.