1 FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND TEACHING Madalena Cruz-Ferreira Abstract “First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child’s natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. “First language teaching” concerns schooling in the language that is intended to become the child’s first (or “main”) one. Mainstream teaching practices similarly take languages as formal objects, focusing on literacy skills, so-called phonological awareness, and other teaching about the language. This chapter gives a first overview of folk beliefs associated with language acquisition and teaching, highlighting whether and how they can guide applied linguists’ concerns about child language development and early pedagogical practices. 1. Language, languages and other vague linguistic constructs The phrase “first language acquisition” commonly refers to the natural development of language which takes place in childhood, from birth; “language teaching”, in turn, pertains to structured language instruction, such as takes place in school settings, whether in childhood or later on in life. One of the first stumbling blocks encountered in discussions of first language acquisition and teaching concerns the ambiguity of the English word language. English is the current so-called language of science, and thus the language in which linguists have preferentially come to discuss matters of language. It is therefore interesting to note the vagueness that pervades the core object of linguistic analyses because of this ambiguity. ________________________________________________________________ ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The final version of this chapter was published with the same title in Wilton, A. & M. Stegu, eds., (2011), AILA Review 24: Applied Folk Linguistics, pp. 78-87. With kind permission by John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia www.benjamins.com