Second language

A second language is a language that a person learns in addition to their first language. A second language may be learned in a formal or informal way, such as at school or in a family. A person may speak two or more second languages.

Adults do not learn languages the same way that children do. Learning a second language is difficult for adults, who rarely speak it as well as their native language because it is much easier for children to learn a second language.

Some children have native multilingualism and so speak several languages, such as by living in a foreign country or having a father speaking a different language from their mother.

Second Language Media

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  Blackboard used in class at Harvard shows students' efforts at placing the diaeresis and acute accent diacritics used in Spanish orthography.

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  A German student learning French. English (1.5 billion learners), French (82 million learners) and Chinese (30 million learners) are the three most commonly studied foreign languages.

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  Spanish taught as a second language to a class of native English speakers at an American private school in Massachusetts.

Other websites

• Asha