Abstract:

Today, a second language is one of the most fundamental requirements which the global world needs. It is this need which rekindled the debate about the foreign language teaching/acquisition methods that had applied for centuries. In language teaching/acquisition there is a wide range of methods from grammar-translation method to eclectic method that can be applied by teachers. Language acquisition ability is a potential inherent in every human being which remains dormant as a latent power. In the context of langauge acquisition there are serious problems regarding acquisition of a second language compared to acquisition of one’s own mother tongue. Discussions generally focus on this point. Why is it so difficult to acquire a second language while acquisition of mother tongue is so easy? Chomsky believes that individuals learning a foreign language must be able to grasp sentence production scheme in the target language at the very least at a minimum level in accordance with the “universal language principles”. According to him, there are two structures in a language; surface structure and deep structure. In order for learning to be meaningful, learning needs to get close to that of “mother tongue acquisition”. Chomsky argues that there must have been principles and parameters that a universal grammar could provide. A child born into a language learns his/her mother tongue according to these universal principles. The basic principle in foreign language learning is the internalisation of the language via the acquisition of systems and rules. Since we cannot teach a language as we would teach laws of physics we have to find and devise ways and methods leading to natural absorbance of languageThis study contains some suggestions about how Turkish as a foreign language can be taught “more accurately and in an easier way” through comparison and discussion of existing language teaching and acquisition methods.

Keywords: