Simultaneous and Successive Second Language Learning: Integral Ingredients of the Human Development Process

Abstract

This paper analyzes simultaneous and successive second language learning in the context of human development and schooling. The author defines important terms for the analysis before comparing acquisition of a second language to planned school learning of a second language after the mother tongue is acquired. Drawing from sociolinguistic perspective, human development, school learning and language policy, the author discusses conflicting claims about second language learning in the school context. Some fundamental questions are raised about second language learning, to which the author attempts to develop answers. She highlights the role of language policy in successive second language learning, the need for learning school content within its linguistic and cultural context, and the importance of examining the learned content within one's own cultural circumstances. The author differentiates between cultural content within the micro cultures of specific groups and school content learned within the global macro culture of schooling. The author draws some implications for second language learning, stressing that a second language is learned out of necessity in the human development process. Concluding remarks highlight the importance of ensuring that learners have access to the languages they need to experience and monitor their human development processes in rewarding ways.