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Second Language

A person’s second language or L2 is a language that is not the native language/first language/L1 of the speaker, but is learned by the speaker after his/her native language (usually a foreign language, see below). Additionally, a person’s second language can be explained as the second language in the country the speaker lives in and they may be both used in daily life. For example, Canada has two official languages(English and French) and some citizens speak and use both of them.
A person’s dominant language, which is the language the speaker uses most or is most comfortable with, is not necessarily to be his/her first language. The second language can also be the dominant one. For example, the Canadian census defines first language for its purposes as "the first language learned in childhood and still spoken", recognizing that for some, the earliest language may be lost, a process known as language attrition. This can happen when young children move, with or without their family (because of immigration or international adoption), to a new language environment.

Second Language Acquisition

Similarities and differences between learned and native proficiency

Speed
Acquiring a second language can be a lifelong learning process for many. Despite persistent efforts, most learners of a second language will never become fully native-like in it, although with practice considerable fluency can be achieved. However, children by around the age of 5 have more or less mastered their first language with the exception of vocabulary and a few grammatical structures, and the process is relatively very fast because language is a very complex skill. Moreover, if children start to learn a second language when they are 7 years old or younger, they will also be fully fluent with their second language in a faster speed comparing to the speed of learning by adults who start to learn a second language later in their life.

Depth of knowledge
According to Noam Chomsky, children will bridge the gap between input and output by their innate grammar because the input (utterances they hear) is so poor but all children end up having complete knowledge of grammar. Chomsky calls it the Poverty of Stimulus. So learners in both their native and second language have knowledge that goes beyond what they have received, so that people can make correct utterances (phrases, sentences, questions, etc) that they have never learned or heard before.

Emotionality
Bilingualism has been an advantage to today's world and being bilingual gives the opportunity to understand and communicate with people with different cultural backgrounds. However, a study done by Optiz and Degner in 2012 shows that sequential bilinguals (i.e. learn their L2 after L1) often relate themselves to the emotions more when they perceive these emotions by their first language/native language/L1, but feel less emotional when by their second language even though they know the meaning of words clearly. The emotional distinction between L1 and L2 indicates that the "effective valence" of words is processed less immediate in L2 because of the delayed vocabulary/lexical access to these two languages.

Success

Success in language learning can be measured in two ways: likelihood and quality. First language learners will be successful in both measurements. It is inevitable that all people will learn a first language and with few exceptions, they will be fully successful. For second language learners, success is not guaranteed. For one, learners may become fossilized or stuck as it were with ungrammatical items. (Fossilization occurs when language errors become a permanent feature. See Canale & Swain (1980), Johnson (1992), Selinker (1972), and Selinker and Lamendella (1978).) The difference between learners may be significant. As noted elsewhere, L2 learners rarely achieve complete native-like control of the second language.
For L2 pronounciation, there are two principles that haven been put forth by Levis (2005). The first is nativeness which means the speakers' ability to approximately reach the speaking pattern of the second language of speakers; and the second, understanding, refers to the speaker's ability to make themselves understood.

Similarities and differences between L2 and L1

	L2	L1
Speed	slower than acquisition of L1	acquisition is rapid
Stages	systematic stages of development	systematic stages of development
Error correction	not directly influential	not involved
Depth of knowledge	beyond the level of input	beyond the level of input
Emotionality	less emotional when perceiving words by L2	more emotional when perceiving words by L1
Success (1)	not inevitable (possible fossilization*)	inevitable
Success (2)	rarely fully successful (if learning starts after Critical Period)	successful

Being successful in learning a second language can seem like a daunting task. Research has been done to look into why some students are more successful than others. Stern (1975), Rubin (1975) and Reiss (1985) are just a few of the researchers who have dedicated time to this subject. They have worked to determine what qualities make a "good language learner" (Mollica, Neussel, 1997). Some of their common findings are that a good language learner uses positive learning strategies, is an active learner who is constantly searching for meaning. Also a good language learner demonstrates a willingness to practice and use the language in real communication. He also monitors himself and his learning, has a strong drive to communicate, and has a good ear and good listening skills (Mollica, Neussel, 1997).
Özgür and Griffiths have designed an experiment in 2013 about the relationship between different motivations and second language acquisition. They have looked at four types of motivations—intrinsic (inner feelings of learner), extrinsic (reward from outside), integrative (attitude towards learning), and instrumental (practical needs). According to the test results, the intrinsic part has been the main motivation for these student who learn English as their second language. However, students report themselves being strongly instrumentally motivated. Learning a second language and how to be successful depends.

Benefits of Bilingualism

Psychological studies have found that speaking two or more languages is good for people's cognitive process and the differences between brains of bilinguals and single language speakers usually provides some mental benefits, according to an article on The Telegraph in 2013. Including but not limited to these:
Becoming smarter
Speaking a second language improves the functions of the brain by thinking and using the different language systems.
Building multitasking skills
According to a study from the Pennsylvania State University, "juggling language can make better brains". Because multilingual people are usually good at switching between different language systems, they can be good multitaskers as well.
Improving memory
The vocabulary capacity for a high school graduate student is about 45000 words, according to Nagy and Anderson (1984),and being a bilingual will double this number because learning a language involves memorizing rules and vocabulary.
See more in references.

Data for Further Information

Language	The world's most spoken language by native speakers (million)
Mandarin	1197
Spanish	406
English	335
Hindi-Urdu	260
Arabic	223
Portuguese	202
Bengali	193
Russian	162
Japanese	122
Javanese	84.3

Language	The world's most spoken language by total speakers (million)
Mandarin	1200
English	1000
Hindi-Urdu	900
Spanish	450
Russian/Belorussian	320
Arabic	250
Bengali/Sylhetti	250
Malay/Indonesian	200
Portuguese	200
Japanese	130

Collecting the number of second language speakers of every language is extremely difficult and even the best estimates involve a fair amount of guess work. Data updated June 2013 from Ethnologue.com