作者：江苗
　　【Abstract】The paper， based on language acquisition theories， discusses their similarities and differences from comparing children’s L1 acquisition and adults’ second language acquisition， and derives some implications for EFL education.
　　【Key words】Children’s L1 acquisition； adults’ SLA， similarities； difference； implications.
　　【作者簡介】江苗（1987-），女，汉族，，江西赣州人，广州南洋理工职业学院外国语学院，硕士，讲师，研究方向：英语教学，应用语言学。
　　1. Introduction
　　Numerous evidences show that children’s first language （L1） acquisition is effortless and successful mostly， but adults’ second language acquisition （SLA） painful and turn out to lack of success in most cases. Therefore， the field of children’s L1 acquisition gains much interest of linguists in SLA research and EFL teachers. The research on children’s L1 acquisition has profound influence in the SLA. It can be a starting point for us to improve English teaching and learning. This paper mainly discusses similarities and differences between children’s L1 acquisition and adults’ SLA， and derives some implications from the discussion.
　　2. Similarities
　　2.1 Development Patterns
　　Children’s L1 acquisition and adults’ SLA may go through similar stages. The development patterns—silent period， formulaic speech and structural and semantic simplification， bear resemblances （Ellis， 1994）. A silent period is necessary for children and adults， and structural and semantic simplification appear both in Children’s L1 acquisition and adults’ SLA at the early development stages. Although there are many variables in different learners in L1 acquisition， for example， the rapidity of language development， overall， children has a silent period in which they experience the rules and use of a language via listening before they start to produce complete utterances.
　　Both native speakers and second language acquirers produce Formulaic speeches at the early stages. It is the whole utterances learnt as “memorized chunks”， e.g. “I hope so” or“partially unanalyzed utterances with one or more open slots”， e.g. “would like to ____？”（Ellis，1999）. Structural and semantic simplification takes place in both. Articles， auxiliary verbs and the suffixs like –es， -ed are usually removed in simplified structures. And “content words—nouns， verbs， adjective and adverbs” usually are removed in simplified semantic （p.89）
　　For example： school = She is at school.
　　go？ = Shall we go？
　　So first language acquirers and second language acquirers share the similar development pattern.