Foreign language

A language is considered to be a foreign language if it is neither the official language of a country nor the language that is most commonly spoken in that country. Furthermore, native speakers from that country must typically acquire a foreign language through conscious learning, which can take the form of language classes at school, self-study, or attendance at language courses, for example. There is a distinction between the terms "second language" and "foreign language," despite the fact that one can learn a foreign language as a second language. This is because the term "second language" can be used to describe a language that plays a significant role in the region where the speaker lives, whether for communication, education, or government purposes; consequently, a second language is not always a foreign language.

Children are termed bilingual or multilingual if they are exposed to more than one language from the time they are born or very early on in life. It is possible to say that these children have two, three, or even more mother tongues; hence, these languages would not be regarded as foreign to these children, even if one language is deemed a foreign language by the great majority of people in the child's natal nation. For instance, a youngster who learns English at home from his English father and Irish at school in Ireland is able to speak English and Irish well, and neither of these languages is considered a foreign language to them. Because these nations have a number of official languages to choose from, countries like India, South Africa, and Canada have a high incidence of this phenomenon.

In a broad sense, it is considered that youngsters have an edge over adults when it comes to learning a foreign language. On the other hand, research has indicated that prior understanding of language and grammatical norms, as well as an exceptional capacity to memorise vocabulary, may be beneficial for adults when it comes to learning new languages.