How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? Let us compare them with adults learning a foreign language, for the comparison is both interesting and instructive. Here we have a little child, without knowledge or experience; there a grown-up person with fully developed mental powers. Here no professional teachers, but parents, brothers and sisters, nurses, and playmates; there teachers specially trained in the art of language-teaching. Here only oral instruction; there not only that, but textbooks, dictionaries and visual aids. and yet this is the result: here a complete mastery of the language, however stupid the children; there in most cases, even with people otherwise highly gifted, a faulty and inexact command, what accounts for this difference?
　　 Some people believe that a child’s organs of speech are more flexible than an adult’s. This explanation, however, does not hold water. Children do not learn sounds correctly at once, but make countless mistakes. Others argue that a child’s ear is especially sensitive. But then the ear also needs training, since at first it can hardly detect differences in sounds which grown-up people hear most clearly.
　　 The real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself, partly in the behaviour of the people around him. In the first place, the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favourable of all, namely, the first years of life. A child hears it spoken from morning till night. He drinks in all the words and expressions which come to him in a fresh, ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance, there is perfect assimilation.
　　 The child has another advantage; he hears the language in all possible situations, always accompanied by the right kind of gestures and expressions. Here there is nothing unnatural, such as is often found in language lessons in schools, when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching heat in January. And what a child hears is generally what immediately interests him. Again and again, when his atttempts at speech are successful, his desires are understood and fulfilled.
　　 Finally, though a child’s “teachers” may not have been trained in language teaching, their relations with him are always close and personal. They take great pains to make their lessons easy and interesting, always repeating the same phrases and at the same time doing the thing they are talking about. They are greatly pleased at every little advance the child makes. Every awkward attempt meets with sympathy and encouragement, and the most difficult step on the path of language becomes the merriest game. Unfortunately, this is a point often overlooked by teachers of language, who demand faultless accuracy from the beginning. By keeping their pupils working unnecessarily long at some little part of the subject, they often weaken their interest in learning the language. A great deal will arrange itself in the brain without the learning of too many special rules or the aid of elaborate explanations.
　　
　　 为什么儿童学母语学得很好?我们来比较一下学母语的儿童和学外语的成年人。这样比较,既有趣又有益。一方是毫无知识经验的幼儿,另一方是一个大脑充分发达的成年人。一方是用随意的教话语方法,另一方整个教学有条有理;一方没有专业教师,只有父母、兄弟、保姆和玩伴,另一方有专门受过语言教学训练的教师;一方只通过口头传授,另一方除口头传授之外,还有教科书、辞典及可视辅助材料。然而结果却是:一方不管学话的幼童多笨,都能完全掌握语言,而另一方却在大多数情况下,包括那些在别的方面表现出很高天资的人,会错误百出,语言掌握不准。产生这一差异的原因何在?
　　 有人认为儿童的发音器官比成人的灵活,然而这种解释确实没有任何依据。儿童不能马上学会正确地发音,却要犯无数的错误。还有人认为儿童的听觉特别敏感。然而他的听觉也需要训练,因为开始时他几乎觉察不到成人能听得很清楚的语音上的区别。
　　 在我看来,真正的答案在于儿童本身,部分在于儿童周围人的行为。首先,学母语的时期是一生学语言最有利的时期,即一生的头几年。儿童从早到晚听人们讲母语。他吸收着像永远流淌的清新泉水一样流向他的词语和表达。这里不存在抵触,而是百分之百的接受。
　　 儿童还有另一个优势:他在任何情况下都能听到母语并总伴有正确的手势和表情。一切与实际情景相吻合,而在学校的语言课上人们往往会发现许多不逼真的东西,比如六月天讲述冰与雪,一月份却大谈酷热。儿童听到的话语一般都是他即刻感兴趣的东西。他在学语言的努力获取成果时,他的愿望也一而再、再而三地得到理解和满足。
　　 最后,尽管儿童的“老师”没有受过语言教学的专门训练,但与儿童的关系总是很亲近的个人关系。他们千方百计使其讲授更容易而有趣,一句话总要重复多遍,同时用动作表示出来。他们对儿童的每一个小小的进步都表示出极大的欣慰。每一个笨拙的努力都赢得一份同情和鼓励。学习语言的道路上最困难的一步变成了最开心的游戏。不幸的是,这一点往往被语言教师所忽视。他们从一开始就要求准确无误。他们让学生在小问题上花费过长的时间,这却往往削弱了学生学习语言的兴趣。无需掌握太多的特殊规则和详尽解释,许多话语会在人脑子里自己调理成章。