Furthermore, as they grow up, they may even pick up and learn more languages, perhaps becoming bilingual, trilingual, or even multi-lingual. This is where there confusion between mother tongue and first language start to arise.
Here, mother tongue is basically considered to be the native language. This is the language that is spoken at home by the family, by the parents. The first language, on the other hand, may refer to the first language that the person learned. This could be that same as the native language and mother tongue, or it could be something different.
The term is also used in the context of primary language, i. Some people define this as the language the person thinks in, i. Generally, there is no difference between mother tongue and first language.
Both refer to the language we learn as a child and the language we speak at home. Moreover, we are most fluent and competent in our mother tongue or first language. She is currently reading for a Masters degree in English. Her areas of interests include literature, language, linguistics and also food.
View all posts. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Xose Afra Teacher. Who is a native speaker of English? A " native speaker of English " refers to someonewho has learned and used English from early childhood. Itdoes not necessarily mean that it is the speaker's onlylanguage, but it means it is and has been the primary means ofconcept formation and communication.
Elaid Gottschligg Reviewer. What is our mother tongue in India? About 32 crore people declared Hindi as their mothertongue. This means that Hindi is the language of less than 44per cent Indians and mother tongue of only little over 25per cent people in India.
Kautar Roggenkamp Reviewer. Why you should learn your native language? If the native language isn't maintained,important links to family members may be lost. Linguisticproficiency also helps immigrants to preserve cultural andlinguistic connections to their home country, and beingfluent in another language helps foreigners adjust moreeasily to new cultures. Raouf Feschuk Reviewer. What was the first language spoken by Adam and Eve? Sanoussy Brunklaus Reviewer. Can your first language change?
Your dominant language can change , but not your native language. You can help to shape thefuture of your language , just by speaking it, especially ininnovative ways. Ask A Question. Co-authors: Updated On: 19th March, Views: Similar Asks. How do you change a blade on a Victa lawn mower? But English and Dutch are chronologically speaking my 4th and 6th language, that I learned and acquired at different stages of my life one at 11 yo, the other at 39yo.
Therefore, a dominant language is a language that is most important for us at some point in life. It doesn't need to be our first language, it can be any other language we acquired or learned at any stage.
From a chronological point of view, Italian and Swiss-German are the "first languages" for all of my children, but only for their first years. When our twin daughters were 1,5 years old and their secret language had a detrimental impact on our communication, we decided to only speak German as a family.
At that point our children were exposed to German on a daily basis as it was the language my husband and I communicated in and it was our babysitter's language, and part of our extended family speaks it.
We still kept on reading and singing with our children in Swiss-German and Italian. This language situation changed again when our children started attending the Dutch daycare and then an English school.
English is their most dominant language, the one they are most fluent in and where their word use and choice is most accurate and complex. Dutch and German fare their second "most dominant" languages for the same reasons. In multilingual families, the linguistic situation within the family and social context changes constantly. So, no first language or mother tongue , what about native language?
Terms like native language or mother tongue refer to an ethnic group rather than to the chronological first language. This all confuses families and teachers as, usually, one needs to indicate the mother tongue of the children when signing them up for a daycare or school. This is why I always recommend to indicate also the languages that our children are most exposed to, most fluent and confident in at the moment By focussing on the natural acquisition process , my personal native languages would be German, Italian, Swiss-German and Dutch because I did acquire them naturally , i.
I imitated speakers, copied sentences and became fluent by "trial and error". I then learnt how to read and write German, Italian and Dutch — for Swiss-German not being a written language, this wasn't possible. The fact that someone is a native speaker because he or she acquired the language at an early stage, may be qualifying him or her as a fluent speaker reader and writer , and it might indicate the absence of any foreign accent — but we all have accents
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