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Linguistics

Language Acquisition

Language Acquisition addresses a fundamental question at the core of linguistics: How do we learn language? This field is divided into two subfields, First Language Acquisition and Second Language Acquisition (which includes third, fourth, etc. language acquisition). Learning our first and second languages are done in profoundly different ways, and often with profoundly different levels of competence. At the heart of first language acquisition is whether or not language learning abilities are innate, or simply a part of our larger mental capacities. And once learned, what does it do to our brains, if anything? This field has close ties to Cognitive Linguistics, Psycholinguistics and Computational Linguistics since what we are fundamentally trying to do is to teach machines to do what we do so naturally. Applied Linguistics is essentially a study in Second Language Acquisition. One of my own papers was classified as Language Acquisition, you can check it out on my here. I come to language acquisition research reluctantly. I don't have a problem with the mechanism part of the subject, but every time they talk about the speed with which language is acquired, I am reminded what a freak I was in learning my first language so young.

Language Acquisition and Neurolinguistics Lab

Language Acquisition

Language acquisition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

National Center for English Language Acquisition

Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition

Vygotsky & Language Acquisition

The Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA)

The Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) Website

The International Commission on Second Language Acquisition

LARCNET

Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition (Assimilação Natural - o Construtivismo no Ensino de Línguas)

Second Language Acquisition Topics by Vivian Cook