Jenn’s previous experience teaching ESL was with adults at a university in Suwon, Korea. Much has been made of the differences in the ways that children and adults learn a new language. Language acquisition and language learning are two different means to the same end. Which of the following most accurately describes the differences in the way children and adults learn new languages?

a. Children learn language through immersion and repetition. They must be surrounded by the language for a certain period of time and immersed in it for several hours per day. If these criteria are met, children will naturally pick up the language as long as the process of learning is not interrupted by direct study. Adults, on the other hand, must actively study the language to acquire it. They cannot absorb it through mere observation and repetition; they must study the mechanics and the structure of the language.

b. When provided with comprehensible input, both children and adults will rough tune the input they receive into meaningful language. For children, this process is automatic as their minds are primed to acquire the languages to which they are exposed. For adults, this is a learned skill, so they must concentrate in order to correctly tune the input for storage and later retrieval as communicative language.

c. Young children will naturally acquire the languages to which they are exposed so long as they have the opportunity to practice the language and have some motivation to do so. Adults, on the other hand, derive most benefit from consciously studying the languages they wish to learn. There is some overlap between the two, but generally speaking, as people grow from childhood into adulthood, their natural acquisition skills decline while the cognitive capacity to study languages increases.

d. Adults can only develop their language skills through language learning, while children primarily develop their skills through language acquisition. Language learning is a PPP process: Presentation, Production, and Practice. Acquisition, in contrast, is an ESA process: Engagement, Study, and Activation.