A first language is the mother tongue or a native language of a person and it always is natural (learning). The First language develops by itself as an inborn instinct. It also develops through the exposure a child gets from his/her kins. It comes as an inheritance or a legacy and also as a birthright. This process of acquiring a first language is usually naturally fast; learning with full proficiency. A child begins to learn its first language which is generally called a telegraphic speech. The first language is subconscious and a natural part of a person’s everyday life.
Age is the most important factor that makes a child feel that the second language is totally different from the first language. A child who has already acquired full proficiency in its first language is capable of learning a second language. Whereas it is difficult in the case of an adult. A child’s personality does not make much difference in the acquisition of a first language but makes more difference in learning the second language. An introvert personality shows slow progress but an extrovert shows quick progress.
Culture: The first language seems to be the most important factor in a person’s culture. Whereas the second language does not necessarily be more significant as the former.
Motivation: Motivation is an important factor for second language learning. Since it is a natural phenomenon it is not much needed for learning a person’s first language.
Mother Tongue: Mother Tongue is the first language of a person because it does not depend on the structure of the sentence. A first language has its influence on the second language but not vice versa.
A second language is ‘learned’. It’s the language learnt by a person for easier communication with the native speaker of that particular language. It is also a personal choice taken to be fixed by the person who learns it voluntarily. There are many alternatives to choose a second language as it is ‘learned’ and also as it’s not an ‘acquired’ form of learning. In particular it can be mentioned that learning a second language is never rapid, and varies from language to language and from person to person. Learning a second language needs full efficiency of the first language since it is entirely new to learn and more importantly it could be learning with the influence and help of a person’s mother tongue or a first language.