Unless some physical or mental impairment hampers, all of us speak and understand completely at least one language. We obtain that language from our parents and from other people surrounding us. As far as any of us can remember, at no time did we consider the process of acquiring that language, it happened naturally. Actually, all we had was a lot of exposure to it (we heard it all the time) and opportunities to use it as much as possible. In conclusion, this kind of language acquierement (acquisition) is a subconscious process.

Very often, due to life circumstances, people get interested in learning other languages that are not part of their daily lives, so they get enrolled in language courses to get to know that language. In these cases, learning the language becomes a conscious process, as the student has to pay attention to the form of the language when he/she studies: how to use present perfect or thinks about the order in which the adjectives should go in a sentence.

Students learn languages all over the world equally. They are taught grammar, vocabulary and functions of the language. But perhaps this is the wrong way to do it; we should possibly give students a lot of exposure to the language just as in their L1, together with opportunities to use it.

In conclusion, the main difference between learning and acquiring a language is the consciousness that takes place while getting the new language. Learning is a conscious process while acquiring is unconscious.

The TKT Course. Taken from here: link.

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