Language Learning and Teaching Methods How a child learns his mother tongue

Abstract

This paper attempts to shed light on the way the child learns his mother tongue. Theoretical considerations have been given to explain the mechanisms of child language acquisition. Then, the issues of learning a foreign language have been discussed. In fact, foreign language learning has raised much controversial debates. Reality and various experiences demonstrated that there is no satisfactory method for teaching. Because of the lack of feasibility, a method fails to be used or it is substituted by a new one. It is indeed very difficult to opt for only one single method for both children and adults. Many factors have proved to be influential into the process of acquisition/learning. It is undeniably realized that to learn a language, be it the mother tongue or a foreign language, is to learn how to practice it, how to use it, and to appropriate and assimilate the different ways to respond to it taking into account the circumstances of the situation.