language acquisition
Language acquisition refers mainly to acquiring language ‘naturally’. When we acquire new language, we learn it through natural processes rather than through being taught and studying it. You acquire your first language as a child largely through natural processes such as noticing, imitating, hypothesis testing, and uptake of feedback. A lot of what students learn in a second language is acquired through the same natural processes. However, ‘language acquisition’ is also used to refer to second language learning in the classroom context because some of the language learning in this context still takes place through the natural processes of acquisition as well as through formal teaching and learning processes.
