L1 and L2

L1 and L2   10/10/2013

A language is meant for communication which is a 2-way process in exchange of concepts, ideas, feelings, opinions and thoughts.   It is the need to communicate to force /foster a child/ a person to learn. 

Communication usually involves 2 parties:  speaker and listener(s)/ and writer and readers

Who taught you to speak your mother tongue /L1?   The answer is affirmatively, “No one!”    You learnt L1 by hearing and listening, especially.  You have normal hearing faculty, so you hear with your 2 ears.  You learnt when you listened attentively with your 2 ears and the heart.    It is whole-hearted learning in order to acquire the language to communicate.   Is it not your learning of L1?

For L2, be it Chinese,  English, BM, French, Spanish, Japanese……….. you need some deliberate effort to learn the language.  Enlgish is learnt as a second language in Malaysia.   If English is L2 to you, I believe you seldom use the language because you have L1 ever ready to ‘serve’ you.    
You only use L2 when you need to in school or some occasions elsewhere and you are often at a loss, not knowing how to express yourself properly in terms of accuracy and fluency.   

Hence, in view of this, I believe you have had little chances to process the language to engage in language use.   Without going though the thinking process and language practice and use,  I am afraid you are only a passive learner. 

        
Well, being able to use the language, you must arm yourself with the language knowledge, i.e grammar and phonetics especially.   Being able to pronounce the word properly enables you to remember the word in sound and spelling.  For example, the word “boomerang”,  an “alien” word (seldom used word) in my life and I forgot about the spelling but not the sound.   Once I mis-spelt the word as “bumerang”  but somehow I suspected the spelling and thus I checked the word in Wikipedia and once again reestablished my grasp of the spelling.  It is for life now and I believe I won’t make the same mistake again.

        
 I can remember the spelling of 6-syllabled word, “responsibility” because I use it often and the most important of all is that I know the pronunciation of the word.   So, it is important to teach the English phonetics like those learning the Chinese Phonetics or the BM phonetics.  This is the basics/ intensive learning preparing learners for extensive learning/ life-long learning.

         
Knowing how to pronounce the word and spelling is not enough if you don’t know how to phrase them in sentences to express your concepts, ideas, feelings, opinions and thoughts.  You have to know the 9 word classes and their functions properly so that you know the sequence of words in a sentence. 

       
Hence the teaching and learning of grammar  is another must to master the language.  Grammar is about forms and functions.    It is the forms of words in different classes especially, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs as well as tenses in both the Active Voice and the Passive Voice  to learn in grammar in general.  For functions, you have to go through intensive and extensive texts reading to get familiarised and reinforced.        

For word classes in the word “able”

        Noun         Verb          Adjective           Adverb

        ability        enable       able                  ably

        [Tim] has (the ability) to complete the project on his own.

        [Studying hard and smart] enables him to score well in most of the  

        subjects.

        [He] is able to finish the work in time.

        [The able-bodied person] should not ask for privileges all the time.

        [Hassan] led the group ably in time of trial for the company.

       

The language knowledge of tenses, word classes and the structures as well as related specific knowledge enables you to express your points at will.   Being competent in grammar and phonetics is prerequisite to master a language.

         
To command a language is only possible when you have enough language knowledge and vocabulary and practice.  So again I would like emphasise the importance of reading to acquire a rich stock of vocabulary, get familiarised / reinforced with the structures,  knowledge and language experience / exposure in general to reach the benchmark for fluency.  

Read whenever and wherever you can for your own good.  It is through texts reading of storybooks, magazines, journals and so on to go in depth and width of the language to become proficient and thus in command of the language.

Yes, language is a tool which enables you to explore the world of knowledge in depth and width for your own good and others when you can help others in win-win ways.