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Some linguists make a distinction between foreign language and second language. A second language is a language that a community is familiar with though it is not their native language. The second language usually plays some role in the community whereas a foreign language does not. According to Ellis (1994:11) a second language plays an institutional role to the community where it is learnt unlike a foreign language .We could therefore say that English language is a second language in Kenya because it plays a major role (in education, government and judiciary) and that Japanese is a foreign language in Kenya because it is not assigned the same roles.
francis1897 answered the question on March 8, 2023 at 08:54