Language Acquisition vs Language Learning

When you're learning you are gaining knowledge based on experiences and studying information. For example, you learn math by solving problems in a textbook or learn history by being presented with facts.

Given the title of the post, you are probably confused by the words, "acquisition" and "learning". Why are there two terms to talk about doing the same thing? These words are often used to describe fluency in a language. What is language acquisition vs language learning? In this post, I will highlight the difference between them.

Mother Tongue

When we are young we start school and can communicate with our peers. How does this happen during those years without formal studying? How we learned our first language is by our parents talking to us as if we already knew what they were saying. Over time, our brains were able to make sense of all this gibberish.

To define this term language acquisition, think about what the previous paragraph says. You picked up your mother tongue subconsciously by people around you speaking it. You didn't acquire the language through a textbook or learn any grammar. You simply listen and repeat over and over again till you naturally figured out what sounded right and wrong.

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Children don't learn the language rather they acquire it verbally. For example, their parents don't point at an orange and say that word. Instead, they'll just show the orange and say something along the lines of, "This is an orange." As children grow up they have daily exposure to their mother tongue and that's how they can speak it.

Learning a Language

Having the ability to speak more than one language is an asset. It's certainly not an easy journey, but it's a low-risk high reward. Learning a language is a structured approach compared to its friend, language acquisition. When you learn a language you are using a system of study whether it be with a language learning platform, vocabulary, or classes at school. You are not only learning words and basic phrases but also word sounds and grammar. Language learning also requires you to develop reading and writing skills that are otherwise not focused on through language acquisition.

Acquisition vs. Learning

What is the main takeaway? Language acquisition is natural without formal study and learning involves structured study. This is why bilingual children sometimes don't do as well in a high school language class. They informally speak the language and are often unaware of the grammatical rules. Whereas people who learn a language in a structured setting are more aware of the grammar rules, phonetics, and intonation.

Which way gets you fluent faster? Language acquisition allows you to retain it quicker because you are surrounded by it daily. On the other hand, in language learning you probably only study for a certain amount of hours a week, take a test, then switch back to your mother tongue. Therefore, it takes longer to retain it. Ultimately, the way to become fluent in another language depends on your learning style and how you want to use the language.