Made or trained to talk?
One of the distinctive characteristic of human race is language. Humans possess an intricate system of communication (language), a system learned by all humans in the first two or three years of our lives. Language is what differentiates us from animals and other ways of communication. Language acquisition can be defined as a process in which humans acquire the capacity to produce and comprehend language. Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infant’s acquisition of their native language. The capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of instruments including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an a large vocabulary.
Over the years, many theories and approaches of language acquisition have emerged. Three language acquisition theories can be mainly identified: imitation theory, reinforcement theory, and the innateness theory. As a manner of explanation, the three theories will be briefly described subsequently. Firstly, the main idea in the reinforcement theory is that children learn to speak like adults because they are taught to do so by being praised and otherwise rewarded for doing things properly. In addition, they are helped because parents "correct" them when they make mistakes. In the second place, the imitation theory states that children learn grammar by memorizing the words and sentences of their language. And last but not least, the innateness theory declares that the brain of the human being is genetically predisposed for language. Just as we are made to have two arms and are designed to walk, we are made to talk.
Having defined this, we will focus and contrast the last two mentioned theories. The imitation theory w...
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...ions such as why some children have language disorders or how children and adults learn a second language, and we still do not understand what happens when a stroke or a disease such as Alzheimer or any other mental disease seems to erase a person’s knowledge of language. Clarifying the process of language acquisition promises not only to help scientists answer these questions, but to explain elementary features of learning and the human brain.
References
Fisher, N. (n.d). Children’s Language Acquisition, University of Michigan. Retrieved from: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/nicolesling/theories_of_language_acquisition
Buitrago, M. (n.d). Behaviorist theory on language learning and acquisition. Available at: http://soda.ustadistancia.edu.co/enlinea/MAURICIO_BUITRAGO_ingles_PSYCHOLINGUISTICS_PRIMER_MOMENTO/Behaviorist_theory_on_language_acquisition.pdf
A person cannot own words. In adolescence, we develop our sense of language. The words and gestures that combine to convey our needs or ideas. We learn that words have a set meaning, or definition. That words can substitute identical words. That a group of words must follow specific rules. Grammar, spelling, and punctuation are major components of language. Language is a shared form of communication.
This brings a responsibility to the parents to make sure that they care for their child so that they can enhance their native language and possibly others as well. Children’s brains develop fast and it starts to create the foundation for their learning in the future. How parents care for their children can truly impact them in their development and learning skills. One important aspect that parents can do is talk to their child as much as possible. This starts to introduce children to different sounds and words in their native language and can help them develop their language skills. It can help children develop their language skills much faster. Another thing that parents can do is show positive reinforcement to their children by clapping when they begin to develop language skills. When they are infants, they use their body language or make eye contact to communicate with their parents. Showing positive reinforcement to these beginning stages of language can positively impact the growth of their language skills. This topic is important because it shows how crucial this period of time is in the development of language
Linguistics classifies language as a mechanism that permits free and creative expression of feelings into signs, and the opposite interpretation of such signs back into feelings (Christiansen & Kirby, 2005). According to Becker, 2005, “human language is seen as the last key evolution in the development of life on earth (2)”. His idea is that biological changes in humans are as a result of forces of evolution implying that human language originated from certain sources, and that its characteristics derived from human genes. Language by itself is a distinction amongst the various animal communication systems as it permits creation of infinite symbols through the innovative blending of finite vocabulary, using recursions (Caplan et al., 1984). In this regard, language is similar to the genetic code, which utilises a limited set of DNA bases to create numerous proteins.
This essay is about a child’s development and learning, focusing primarily on language development. It will describe the main stages of developmental "milestones" and the key concepts involved for children to develop their language skills, discussing language acquisition and social learning theory. The essay will also look into the key theorists involved in language development, primarily Vygotsky and Chomsky, and how these theories have had an impact on the way society views language and their implementation within schools. The essay will describe the factors affecting language development, both biological and environmental. While also discussing key arguments among theorists, one being the nature vs nurture debate, and how these play a part in the teaching in schools.
There are three main theories of child language acquisition; Cognitive Theory, Imitation and Positive Reinforcement, and Innateness of Certain Linguistic Features (Linguistics 201). All three theories offer a substantial amount of proof and experiments, but none of them have been proven entirely correct. The search for how children acquire their native language in such a short period of time has been studied for many centuries. In a changing world, it is difficult to pinpoint any definite specifics of language because of the diversity and modification throughout thousands of millions of years.
To continue with the key features, language is known to be special because of how children are able to learn in ways that are different from learning other things. (Willingham, 2007). Strong evidence shows how prepared the human brain is to learn language with very little stimulation. The results that show this point of view to be true is known to be the worldwide consistency of language learning.
This essay is going to illustrate the different stages in language acquisition that children pass through and elicit the theories in accordance.
In the discussion of nature verse nurture, one controversial issue is language. Arguing on the side of nature, children across the world seem to exhibit universal stages of linguistic development. Infants as young as seven months old are able to recognize simple linguistic rules from a string of sounds. When a child is first learning to speak, they typically combine words in ways that an adult would not. They can also speak and communicate clearly without adult correction. These observations suggest that we are born with the capacity to communicate verbally and through the use of kinesics, or gestures. However, nurture also plays a large role in the use of language. Linguistics differ amongst children from region to region based on the way the people around them speak. Thousands of languages such as: Spanish, English, Italian, and Creole are spoken around the world. Vernacular and accents also vary within each language and is acquired through a learning process, not genetics(Brown, 10/1/13). Another major environmental factor is correction from parents and adults. A child may be born with the ability to speak, but grammatical correctness and annunciation requi...
How do children acquire language? What are the processes of language acquisition? How do infants respond to speech? Language acquisition is the process of learning a native or a second language. Although how children learn to speak is not perfectly understood, most explanations involve both the observations that children copy what they hear and the inference that human beings have a natural aptitude for understanding grammar. Children usually learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native language through imitation, (which helps them learn to pronounce words correctly), and grammar is seldom taught to them, but instead that they rapidly acquire the ability to speak grammatically. Though, not all children learn by imitation alone. Children will produce forms of language that adults never say. For example, “I spilled milk on hisself” or “Debbie wants a cookie”. This demonstrates that children have the desire to speak correctly and have self-motivating traits to communicate. This supports the theory of Noam Chomsky (1972)-that children are able to learn grammar of a particular language because all intelligible languages are founded on a deep structure of universal grammatical rules that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human brain. Adults learning a second language pass through some of the same stages, as do children learning their native language. In the first part of this paper I will describe the process of language acquisition. The second part will review how infants respond to speech.
Language is a part of our everyday lives, and we can describe the meaning of language in many ways. As suggested in Gee and Hayes (2011, p.6 ) people can view language as something in our minds or something existing in our world in the form of speech, audio recordings, and writings or we can view language as a way of communicating with a group of people. Language can be used to express our emotions, make sense of our mental and abstract thoughts and assists us in communicating with others around us. Language is of vital importance for children to enable them to succeed in school and everyday life. Everyone uses both oral and written language. Language developed as a common ability amongst human beings with the change
Wilder Penfield and Lamar Roberts first introduced the idea that there is a “critical period” for learning language in 1959. This critical period is a biologically determined period referring to a period of time when learning/acquiring a language is relatively easy and typically meets with a high degree of success. German linguist Eric Lenneberg further highlights Roberts and Penfield’s findings and postulated the Critical Period Hypothesis in 1967. According to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), certain biological events related to language development can only happen in the critical period. During this time, the brain possesses a degree of flexibility (ability and ease of learning a language) and becomes lateralized (assignment of language functions becomes concrete – either in the left or right hemisphere) (Marinova-Todd, S; Marshall, D & Snow, C. 2000 9-10). This critical period lasts from childhood through the onset of puberty (usually at around 12 years of age). Once this period is over, it is more difficult to learn a language because language functions in the brain have become concrete. This hypothesis can be seen with the case of Genie, a woman who was isolated from human interaction and language up to the age of 13. By the time she was rescued, she was well after the critical period for language acquisition, and as such, she did not have a full command of the English language. Had she been rescued before the age of 13, she may have had more linguistic capability. However, this accounts for firs...
As stated earlier, there are different components to language which must be taught and used in conjunction with context and social situations (Gee & Hayes, 2011). These include phonetic (sound patterns of words), syntactic (sentence structures), semantic (meanings of words and sentences) and pragmatic (using language in certain contexts) mechanisms (Fellowes and Oakley, 2014). Learning these can put meaning and purpose to the language that children learn through their surroundings, including contact with other children and adults, their culture and build upon their cognitive functions. Children in the early years are at a crucial time in their learning, the exposure to language they get from their home environment can set them up for the rest of their educational journey and beyond schooling. McInerney (2014) explores Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development, explaining that language is used as a communication instrument and a way to organize our own thoughts.
The study of language development, one of the most fascinating human achievements, has a long and rich history, extending over thousands of years (Chomsky, 2000). As the nature-versus-nurture argument is inevitable to arise whenever human behaviors are discussed, it is not surprising that language experts have debated the relative influences of genetics and the environment on language development (Hulit & Howard, 2002). Among the various proposals concerning the mechanisms involved in acquiring a language, two opposing theoretical positions, the behaviorist and the nativist, are the most prominent and influential ones (Ayoun, 2003; Garton & Pratt, 1998; Owens, 2001). Due to the indefinite explanation of the exact process, the continuous interest of the inquiring people, and the sheer significance of the precise result, the controversy remains ongoing and popular. In view of the more obvious limitations of the behaviorist interpretation and the prevailing contributions of the nativist interpretation, the latter one is more rational to accept.
Language acquisition is perhaps one of the most debated issues of human development. Various theories and approaches have emerged over the years to study and analyse this developmental process. One factor contributing to the differing theories is the debate between nature v’s nurture. A question commonly asked is: Do humans a...
Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children’s first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept – long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as language with so little experience of life. Experiments have clearly identified an ability to discern syntactical nuances in very young infants, although they are still at the pre-linguistic stage. Children of three, however, are able to manipulate very complicated syntactical sentences, although they are unable to tie their own shoelaces, for example. Indeed, language is not a skill such as many others, like learning to drive or perform mathematical operations – it cannot be taught as such in these early stages. Rather, it is the acquisition of language which fascinates linguists today, and how it is possible. Noam Chomsky turned the world’s eyes to this enigmatic question at a time when it was assumed to have a deceptively simple explanation.