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Afirstlanguage(alsonativelanguage,mothertongue,arteriallanguage,orL1)isthelanguage(s)apersonhaslearnedfrombirthorwithinthecriticalperiod,orthatapersonspeaksthebest.Insomecountries,thetermsnativelanguageormothertonguerefertothelanguageofone'sethnicgroupratherthanone'sfirstlanguage.Sometimes,therecanbemorethanonenativetongue,(forexample,whenthechild'sparentsspeakdifferentlanguages).Thosechildrenareusuallycalledbilingual.Theusageofthesetermsisfarfromstandardized,however.Sometimesthetermfirstlanguageisusedforthelanguagethatthespeakerspeaksbest(hissecondlanguagethenbeingthelanguagehespeakslesswellthanhisfirstlanguage,etc).Sometimesthetermsfirstlanguage,secondlanguageandthirdlanguageareusedtoindicatevariouslevelsofskillinalanguage,sothatitcanbesaidthatapersonknowsmorethanonelanguageatfirstorsecondlanguagelevel.Sometimesthetermnativelanguageisusedtoindicatealanguagethatapersonisasproficientinasanativeinhabitantofthatlanguage'sbasecountry,orasproficientastheaveragepersonwhospeaksnootherlanguagebutthatlanguage.Sometimesthetermmothertongueormotherlanguageisusedforthelanguagethatapersonlearntathome(usuallyfromhisparents).Childrengrowingupinbilingualhomescanaccordingtothisdefinitionhavemorethanonemothertongue.InthecontextofpopulationcensusesconductedontheCanadianpopulation,StatisticsCanadadefinesmothertongueasthefirstlanguagelearnedathomeinchildhoodandstillunderstoodbytheindividualatthetimeofthecensus.Thetermsfirst,native,andmothercanalsobemisleading,regardlessoftheirdefinitions.Itisquitepossiblethatthefirstlanguagelearnedisnolongeraspeaker'sdominantlanguage.Youngimmigrantchildren,whosefamilieshavemovedtoanewlinguisticenvironmentmaylose,inpartorintotality,thelanguagetheyfirstacquired.Goodskillsinone'snativelanguagesareessentialforfurtherlearning,asanativelanguageisthoughttobeabaseofthinking,however,thisishighlycontroversial.Incompletefirstlanguageskillsoftenmakelearningotherlanguagesdifficult.Nativelanguagehasthereforeacentralroleineducation.MothertongueThetermmothertongueshouldnotbeinterpretedtomeanthatitisthelanguageofone'smother.Insomepaternalsocieties,thewifemovesinwiththehusbandandthusmayhaveadifferentfirstlanguage,ordialect,thanthelocallanguageofthehusband.Yettheirchildrenusuallyonlyspeaktheirlocallanguage.Onlyafewwilllearntospeaktheirmothers'languageslikenatives.Motherinthiscontextprobablyoriginatedfromthedefinitionofmotherassource,ororigin;asinmother-countryor-land.AsecondlanguageorL2isanylanguagelearnedafterone'sfirstlanguage.Somelanguages,oftencalledauxiliarylanguages,areusedprimarilyassecondlanguages.Aperson'sfirstlanguageisnotnecessarilytheirdominantlanguage,theonetheyusemostoraremostcomfortablewith.Inaword,mostprobably,one’snativelanguageishisfirstlanguage.Butifhemovetoaplacewhereadifferentlanguageisspokenbeforeorinthecriticallanguagelearningperiod.Hisnativelanguagewillbedifferentfromhisfirstlanguage.