Common Misconceptions about Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is a subject about which most people have opinions. After all, everyone has learned a language, many people have watched their own children learn their native language, and many have engaged in second language learning – whether successfully or not. So, language acquisition is unlike, say, law or nuclear physics or computer technology. If those topics come up, non-experts concede to experts, recognizing their lack of knowledge. With language acquisition, it’s different. Many people believe that they know more about language acquisition than they actually do, and hence there are many popularly held misconceptions about how people learn languages. Though you may not believe all of these myths, especially now that you have done some reading on language acquisition in this course, it will nevertheless benefit you to become familiar with the myths and the theories and research which debunk them.