Theories Of Language Acquisition

1479 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theories of language acquisition

The subtlety of language acquisition has been the most fundamental question in the study of linguistics and human development. From Bow-wow Theory to Yo-He-Ho Theory, the major theories on language origins and learnability emerged at mid-20th century and has been heavily debated ever since. Among them, the idea of universal grammar in which is usually credited to linguist Noam Chomsky, remains the most notable and controversial theory over time. He introduced and developed the t heory from 1950s to 1970s as he proposed and championed linguistic nativism in language acquisition. Chomsky supports that language mastery involves knowledge of linguistic rules and conventions, which he later named that as ‘cognizance’. He believes that cognizance is present in some particular regions in human’s brain where it inherently contributes to the acquisition and usage of language. Such language faculty is the initial root of all linguistic grammatical rules and principles; it is the mental archetype of all languages. To begin with, Chomsky chooses to focus on children’s acquisition of language because children have the least pre-existing knowledge of language compared to adults. Children in this case are the primal study in the innateness of language. By looking into children’s interaction in language acquisition, Chomsky reasons his arguments with “primary linguistic data” where Primary linguistic data is the first-ever language experience in childhood. This learning experience simultaneously interacts and activates the initial cognizance of children, resulting to one’s linguistic knowledge from the exposed language. It is the crucial knowledge for the comprehension of speech and language. By studying children’s language acquisition, it is irr...

... middle of paper ...

... in an innate, distinct manner like a neurological network consisted of several individual functional competence. This innateness of human is especially confirmable when studying children’s acquisition of language.

Reference
1. JR, S. (2001, 11 6). The Acquisition of Language by children. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/98/23/12874.full
2. Tool module: Chomsky’s Universal Grammar. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_rouge06.html
3. Lydia, W. (2003). Second Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar. Cambridge University Press.
4. Laurie , B. (2008, 4 30). Speech and asl developmental milestones. Retrieved from http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/languagedevelopment.htm
5. Steven , P. (Performer) ( 2011). Steven Pinker on How Children Learn Language [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7arILiqxg

Show More
Related

  • The Future Prediction of Human Language

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chomsky as qtd., by Aaron & Joshi, proposed that language was inborn, a biological requisite, species specific, and had implications for genetic determination. This theory came after Chomsky defined universal grammar as a system of rules and principles that a...

    Read More

  • Oral Language And Literacy Acquisition

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    While some literacy acquisition theorists suggest that literacy acquisition is similar to oral language acquisition, I have to disagree. These theorists say that learning to read and write is a natural process that needs very little instruction, I have to disagree. According to Peregoy and Boyle, the authors of Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL: A Resource Book for Teaching K-12 English Leaners, English learners can benefit from English literature instruction well before they have developed full control orally. This statement informs me that while the two forms of acquisition seem correlated, they indeed are not directly a result of each other. While oral acquisition seems can come more easily with exposure, reading and writing acquisition

    Read More

  • Child Development and Learning Focusing on Language Development

    1979 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Infant-Directed Speech and Its Effect on Language Acquisition

    1651 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kuhl, P. (2007). Is speech learning 'gated' by the social brain?. Developmental Science, 10(1), 110-120.

    Read More

  • Are Humans Predisposed To Learn Language?

    1258 Words  | 3 Pages

    “We can know so much because in a sense we already knew it” (Chomsky, 1976 p.7). Within this quote are the foundations for Chomsky’s theory of an innate predisposition to learn language by his imagination of a mind that holds a priori knowledge. It is suggested by Chomsky (1976) that this innate knowledge is within the human mind at birth and is unlocked by experience. Essentially, Chomsky’s argument is that there is some sort of biological basis only evident within humans that permits the acquisition of language across different cultures, notwithstanding the complexities or differences between them. Christiansen and Chater (2008) provide for Chomsky’s position by noting that children can obtain their native language before being able to carry out tasks such as tying laces or riding a bicycle.

    Read More

  • Three Main Theories of Child Language Acquisition

    892 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Children Language Acquisition

    693 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay is going to illustrate the different stages in language acquisition that children pass through and elicit the theories in accordance.

    Read More

  • Nature vs. Nurture in Language

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Language Acquisition

    3235 Words  | 7 Pages

    Language is multifaceted. It contains both verbal and non-verbal aspects that children seem to acquire quickly. Before birth, virtually all the neurons (nerve cells) are formed, and they migrate into their proper locations in the brain in the infant. When a baby is born, it can see and hear and smell and respond to touch, but their perceptions are limited at such a young age. The brain stem, a primitive region that controls vital functions like heartbeat and breathing, has completed its wiring. Elsewhere the connections between neurons are wispy and weak. But over the first few months of life, the brain’s higher centers explode with new synapses. “For the large majority of people, the dominant area in language processing is in the middle of the left hemisphere of the brain, in particular in Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area” (Siegler, 1998, p. 142). This helps an ...

    Read More

  • Language Development in Children

    1962 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... (p. 116). In her article, “Babies Prove Sound Learners,” Sohn (2008), states, “Such studies show that, up to about 6 months of age, babies can recognize all the sounds that make up all the languages in the world” (para.24). B.K. Skinner suggest that the materialization of language is the result of imitation and reinforcement. According to Craig and Dunn (2010), “Language development is linked to cognitive development that, in turn, depends on the development of the brain, on physical and perceptual abilities, and on experiences. Biological and social factors also jointly influence the early development of emotion and personality” (p. 117). In her article, A natural history of early language experience. Hart (2000), states, “Talking is important for children, because complexity of what children say influences the complexity of other people’s response” (para. 1).

    Read More

  • Age and Second Language Acquisition

    1492 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the increasing popularity of dual immersion programs in schools and the widespread notion that language acquisition is something that needs to happen early on life, is there an ideal age to learn a second language (L2)?

    Read More

  • Comparing Theories of Language Acquisition and Language Development

    2926 Words  | 6 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Language Acquisition

    7590 Words  | 16 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Language Essay

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    Language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language with natural communication while children are acquiring the foreign language. Children usually concerned with message which they are conveying and understand not with the form of utterances. These utterances are initiated by the acquired systems and the fluency of language is based on what we have ‘picked up’ through active communication. Both formal knowledge and conscious learning of the second language learning may be alternate to the output of the system, sometimes before and sometimes after the

    Read More

  • Krashen’s Hypotheses of Second Language Acquisition

    1531 Words  | 4 Pages

    Krashen’s Hypotheses of Second Language Acquisition. For decades, foreign language teachers have wandered into a scientific abyss. Until 1983, there had been little real research dealing with the ways in which someone acquires a second language. Teachers mostly used the audiolingual classroom model that had been in place for the past twenty years (or, even worse, the literally ancient grammatical translation model that had been used by civilizations millennia old).

    Read More

More about Theories Of Language Acquisition

Open Document