Individual academic writing

Second language acquisition (SLA) is the process by which people learn second
language. According to Ortega 2013, SLA is the scholarly field of inquiry that investigates the
human capacity to learn languages other than the first language during late childhood,
adolescence, or adulthood and once the first language or languages have been acquired. In
other words SLA is the process of learning other languages in addition to the native language.

However, the acquisition of second language is likely to relate to the bilingualism.

Bilingualism is defined as the ability to speak two or more languages well (Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary, 2012). It occurs simultaneously when, for example, a child learns several
languages and inevitably he became a bilingual. In this digital era, it is advantages to be
bilingual especially to the young learner as it enhances the cognitive and socio-emotional
development, boost the learning process and lead to the long term success. However, the
success of acquiring the second language to become bilingual depends on the psychological
factors and the present of the instructional variables. The psychological factors list out 3
elements which are self-esteem, motivation and attitudes. The existent of instructional variable
like the influence of the mother tongue, social media and entertainment the will definitely affect
the process of language acquisition and the bilingualism among young learner.

The second language acquisition depends on the psychological factor of attitudes as it

plays a critical role in learning a second language. The positive attitudes upon one-self, upon
the language itself and the user, toward the teacher and the classroom environment promote
the individual capability of learning the second language. For example, a Russian kid Bella
Devyatkina is able to speak 7 languages including her native language; Russian at the age of 4
years old. She can comprehend and talk in English, Arabic, Chinese French, Spanish and
German language. As reported by Svetlana, 2016, the mother said that Bella is very happy to
learn those languages as she showed great interest in them and always ask for more than what
her parents provided. She had become a bilingual kid when she started to learn all those
languages at different phase of life which known as successive acquisition. Consequently,
young learner is actually able to acquire more than one language if he has positive attitude
toward himself and the language.
 Apart from that, the acquisition of second language among young learner may be
determined by the psychological factor of self-esteem. This is because, the self-esteem lead the
young learner to feel proud of their success and abilities in facilitating language learning. The
young learner will be inspired to always practice the language while doing self-evaluation and
overall assessment of their second language usage and the achievement obtained. For
instance, a 4 years old Malay girl; Fatimah who recently became famous at media social is able
to communicate in English despite her young age. She is also able to talk in Kelantanese dialect
which she acquire it from her father who is a Kelantanese dan her mother who is a Siamese. In
the time being they lived at United Kingdom which spontaneously develop her second language
which is English. According to a video by her mother reveals that, she and Fatimah’s father
always enhance their kids to embrace their abilities and they appreciate her daughter’s thought
which lead Fatimah to continuously practice the second language. Coincidently, Fatimah is
developing herself as a bilingual as she is able to speak her mother tongue; Kelantanese
together with the English language. Thus, young learner who builds with confidence will be able
to be bilingual when the second language is acquired appropriately.

On the other hand, she also gets the motivation and support from her surrounding to be
bilingual in the journey to acquire the second language. Motivation is the impulse emotion or
desire that causes one to act in a certain way. According to Gardner and Lambert as cited by
Maria 2006, there two types of motivations which are instrumental motivation; the need to
acquire a language for a specific purpose, like Fatimah’s purpose is to be able to learn the
lesson at the school. The second motivation is integrative motivation; the desire to become a
member of the culture of the second language group. By hook or by crook, Fatimah has to
practice the English language in order for her to be accepted in the school community and has
good friendship with the other friends. Both types of the motivation trigger Fatimah’s second
language acquisition as she really needs to survive at the foreign country. Hence the
psychological factor of motivations contributes greatly to the acquisition of the second language
among young learner due to the desire of learning the language.
 However, the present of the variable; the influence of mother tongue affects the second
language acquisition among young learner. When learner of second language wants to write or
speak in the target language, they tend to rely on their first language structures. According to
Derakhshan Ali and Karimi Elham 2015 if the structures are different, then a lot of errors occur
in first language thus this indicates an interference of first language on second language
(Decherts & Dllis, as cited in Bhela, 1999, p. 22). Interference is the errors that can be traced
back to the first language, while the learners use the second language (Lott, as cited in Bhela,
1999, p.22). For example, Ali who is Fatimah’s younger brother tends to speak English using
Kelantanese dialect and sentence structure which turns out to sounds weird and full of errors.
Moreover, he also use the word of “gapoever”, the combination of “gapo” Kelantanese word of
‘what’ and the word ever which derives spontaneously by Fatimah. Therefore, the development
of the correct concept of second language will be slower in terms of sentence structure and the
ability to speak in both languages to the maximum will not be accomplished as the native
language interfere with the second language.

On the other hand, the influence of the negative side of the social media is part of the
barrier in the English as second language acquisition toward Malay young learner. In this
modern era, the usage of media social is mushrooming rapidly regardless the age and the
social status. The exploitation of words is rising tremendously like the word “sis”, “bro”, “iollss”
and many more may affect the acquisition of Malay young learner in terms of obtaining the
correct vocabulary. Furthermore, the usage of incorrect spelling of words at the media social of
“WeChat” is being accepted by the Malaysian such as the word “yukenduit” “sowy” “gudjob” and
so on will definitely harm the Malay young learner’s acquisition upon the correct English word.
As reported by Nor Azaruddin, 2014, the youngster nowadays is easily affected by the current
trending words even though it is grammatically incorrect. They are able to grasp those words
into their cognitive and use it widely without knowing the errors. Thus, the drawback of the
media social in the acquisition of English as second language among Malay young learner will
not be able to produce a good bilingual as they are exposed too much on the incorrect English
terminology.
 Nevertheless, the entertainment also gives a huge impact towards the English as
second language acquisition and the bilingualism among Malay young learner. This is because,
these days there are so many songs, movies and online games that integrate the wrong English
terminology. The inaccurate pronunciation of words due to the requirement of the song’s melody
influences the Malay young learner to pronounce it wrongly. Besides, the use of certain slang in
the movie and profanity from the online games also manipulate the young learner to apply
incorrect English. According to Shore’s (n.d). profanity has become increasingly common in
children’s everyday language; no doubt reflecting the frequency with they hear foul language in
the media as well as in the casual conversations of adult. Hence, the Malay young learner has
no capability to attain the correct English as the process of second language acquisition fail to
prepare them to be bilingual appropriately.

In conclusion, the second language acquisition contributes to the development of the

bilingualism among young learner. Instead of the native language, in order to acquire the
bilingualism the young learner needs to be psychologically positive from the aspect of attitudes,
self-esteem and motivation. Although, the existences of the instructional variables like the
influence of the mother tongue, social media and entertainment may affect the second language
acquisition. Despites all those factors, in a study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and
Michelle Martin-Rhee as cited by Bhattacharjee 2012 reveals that bilingual seems to be more
adept in solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. Thus, speaking more than one language has
obvious practical benefit in this globalized world.
References:

Bhattacharjee, Y. (2012, March 17). Why bilinguals are smarter. The New York Times.
Retrived from http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/cite-newspaper.aspx

Derakhshan, Ali and Karimi, Elham. (2015, October). Theory and Practice in Language Studies;
London Vol. 5, Iss.10, 2112-2117.

Maria, R. C. M. (2006 May 5) Second language acquisition psychological factors,

affective/emotional factors; Spanish Vol. 9, Iss. 1697-8005

Nor Azaruddin Husni Nuruddin. (2014, December 14). Perkembangan teknologi pinggir Bahasa
Melayu. Berita Harian Online. Retrieved rom: https://www.bharian.com.my/node/23108

Ortega, L. (2013). Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Routledge; Taylor and Francis
Group. New York.

Shore, K. (n.d.). Inappropriate Language. Education World. Retrieved from:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore007.shtml

Svetlana, A. (2016, October, 28). Four-year-old Russian girl speaks 7 languages. How did she
do this?. Russia Beyond. Retrieved from:
https://www.rbth.com/science_and_tech/2016/10/28/4-year-old-russian-girl-speaks-7-
languages-how-did-she-do-this_642979
 APPENDICES

Language Learning - Categories

1. Simultaneous acquisition occurs when, for example, a child learns several

languages simultaneously within its social environment. Also called Compound
bilingual (amalgamated).

2. Successive acquisition means. that different languages are learned

at differentstages during different phases of life. Called Coordinate
bilingual when the two languages are equally used / important or Subordinate
bilingual when one language (usually the Mother/Native tongue) dominates the
daily life.

3. Natural acquisition means that a language is learned without formal instruction.

4. Guided acquisition means that the knowledge of a language is acquired by

means of instructions (e.g. learning at school).

5. Symmetric acquisition means that several languages are equally mastered with

a similar proficiency.

6. Asymmetric acquisition means that one language dominates the other.