1. During several ages, mankind have been interested in mental processes such as thinking
and learning, and one of the most important of this processes is related to language and how
it is learned. Many scientists have tried to understand this with very different methods, yet
the most remarkable one has to do with observation. Watching and recording, in addition to
research of other people's work, have resulted in the understanding of several different
language features. This is what Pinker, in his First Language Acquisition did. Most of the
research of Pinker is based on studies of other famous scientists; many of them from
different areas (Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, etc) proving that if it is language
related, the horizons of an investigation should be abroad and not stay in one line. The most
we get interested in language, the most we discover about it. Language study is not a closed
field. This means that, as well as language, the way how learning processes occur is also in
constant changing. Of course, not as fast as language, but different communication
mediums also means different ways of comprehend and produce. How the language
changes, and how this changes are evident in children's acquisition of it is the main point of
this author and his research. In the following paragraphs, a short analysis of the chapters 1
and 2 of the Pinker's book First Language Acquisition will be shown.
The first chapter discusses the first language acquisition from five different fields
(Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, Education, and Linguistics) divided into three
areas: the child, the environment, and language. The first area is analyzed from psychology,
based on Researchers who focus on the child during the first 7 to 18 months, and call it, this
period as Early Language Development. Researchers as Rice (2002), Lindfors (1987),
Pinker (1994) present us the idea of using cognitive skills in the ability to learn a language
with which children are in constant interaction, (food, clothing, body parts, toys, etc..),
which allow their to evolve from the use of an one-word, to use of two-words, with which
children express complex ideas how "I want my milk", saying only milk, that leads to
greater complexity. And it includes the first understanding of syntax. The second area is
analyzed from sociology, anthropology and education, in this area are Researchers as
Hymes (1970), Heath (1983), Wells (1986), and Goodman (1990) based on the idea that
children develop the ability to understand and produce language, because language is the
basis of social interaction, for which they need communication skills that allow their to use

2. language in a social context. Finally, the last area of the first chapter is analyzed from the
linguistics that focuses on the nature of language and whose main researcher is Chomsky
who raises the need to develop a theory of language, before a theory of language
acquisition, and gives us the theory of generative grammar, which describes the language
through a series of rules that can be applied to generate sentences that make up the
language and developed in greater depth, through the universal grammar.On chapter 2, one
of the most important ideas related to the acquisition of language is the fact that children
learn the language to which they are exposed and they do not have an inner relationship
with any kind of language, not even the one that the mother speaks. Yet, the relationship
between an infant and language has to do with environmental factors, such as the language
to a subject is exposed. How children interact with this language, for instance, after they
learn that certain words determine what they can get from the people who surround them,
are known as operant conditioning (Skinner), and explain how children acquire the ability
of connect ideas, in order to ask or say different things for different purposes. Also, among
different approaches, the way that this phenomenon occurs is explained. Children
comprehend and produce, but not necessarily in the correct way. What the author explains
is that children might hear a structure and understand it, but produce an incorrect structure
even after they have just heard the correct one (W. R. Miller) Finally, one of the most
important features of language learning is imitation. Its strategies, such as echoing and
repetition, are the base of learning after the recognition of characteristics of a language, and
use of it in order to make effective communication. The most we imitate, practice and try to
produce, the better our learning processes become.
In Chapter 1, we believe the emphasis is on understanding, how the language develops
and is part of our lives from birth, giving us the impression that the human being born with
the skills to learn and take on the language, skills that are developing and evolve over our
lives and allows us to understand its usefulness and importance, and its complexity, but in
turn becoming more easy to obtain and understandable to us. Also raised us and focuses on
the factors involved in the process of language learning, making it clear and emphasizing
that things should be clear that to understand the language, and we must not only focus on
the child, or the environment, or language separately as the only way to explain language

3. acquisition, if we want to understand the role that each factor or area plays in the study of
language, because otherwise it will make difficult to understand the ideas presented by
different Researchers in this chapter. the Researchers in this chapter suggest us, that
language is not learned only by imitation, or as a result of stimuli and responses, we must
understand that it goes further and it relates to the fact that people can communicate, and
have the tools and skills necessary to do, we also need to understand what language is and
its functionality through the linguistics, allowing us to better get the language. About
Chapter 2, we think that Pinker's emphases on environmental aspects of language are an
excellent way of explaining this phenomenon. The examples provided by the author are
common aspects of real life, and have happened to most of us. The way how Pinker deals
with reality, in addition to the profound analysis of language features are amusing. It is not
the usual boring texts which while you are reading it, you start to criticize and you try to
focus it, or contextualize it in order to make it more interesting. The evidence provided by
the author, is also very good. Examples of well known researchers such as Skinner or
Piaget, among others, give us the sense of an excellent and very useful for our careers
reading. The detailed way in which Pinker explains different language phenomena leaves
almost no empty space, or open questions. But actually, there is something that Pinker
missed in his research and is the neurological aspects of language acquisition. The
movements of the brain or the different parts of it that are involved in learning a language
would be an interesting topic too. Hopefully, after the time we have left in our ESL
teaching program, some of us will feel inspired to continue on researching for new aspects
of language learning. Learn, for example, why some children take more time to start
talking, or why some children talk in a different way even though the language to which
they are exposed is more or less the same.
The first language acquisition is a topic where, we can find several theories in order to
explain how to obtain, and because it is so important, for us the importance lies in the
ability to analyze and relate the various theories proposed by the researchers in order to
reach a consensus and seek a better understanding of how we acquire language. Through
the different chapters, we find different points of views, that focus on explaining the factors
that must be taken into account, in order that, we as teachers will be able to build a base of

4. knowledge required about the different ways and language acquisition proposals; Chapter 1
shows us the acquisition of language through the study of the different factors in language,
analyzing deeply the main ideas: the role of the child, the environment and language in this
process, On the other hand, Chapter 2 instead focuses exclusively on the aspect in which
the environment influences language acquisition and its relationship with the child being
influenced in their acquisition of language and what will be his mother tongue, also
explains that the child acquires language in order to communicate and ask different things
with a final purpose; In conclusion the importance of the first acquired language is that, it is
and will be the language in which we communicate with others and to which we are
confronted every day, whether at school, at home or anywhere, is part of us and an
important part of interaction with others, therefore it is necessary to understand what we
mean with the first acquired language.