Critical Age in First Language Acquisition

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1.0 Introduction

Language is a set of arbitrary symbols which used for communication. Children will be taught or learn their first language from birth. Sometimes the term native language and the term mother tongue are used to indicate the term first language. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all normal humans speak, no nonhuman animal does.(Pinker, 2005) Nonetheless, learning a first language is something every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal lessons. Children may show individual differences in the acquisition of their first language, but the stages they experience in the first language acquisition are similar and at a surprisingly similar rate from child to child. Many researchers have hypothesized that young children are predisposed to the acquisition of language (Chomsky, 1959; Lenneberg, 1967; Newport,1990) and further that this disposition is unique to childhood. (Grimshaw, 1998; Adelstein, 1998; MacKinnon, 1998; Bryden, 1998).

2.0 Critical Age in First Language Acquisition

In late 1950s, Noam Chomsky introduced the language theory of Innatism. The theory of Innatism is programmed for first language acquisition. Chomsky stated that infants are born with what he termed as Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in the brain. LAD is a sort of mechanism or apparatus for children to acquire their first language. An input is necessary to stimulate the LAD in order for children to learn. Furthermore, children acquire grammatical rules without getting explicit instruction. The linguist Noam Chomsky believed that all people had an innate knowledge of the grammar of their native language. (Kasper, 1998). Therefore, Chomsky claimed that children’s acquisition of...

... middle of paper ...

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9) Mayberry, I. Rachel (1993). The Critical Period for Language Acquisition and The

Deaf Child’s Language Comprehension: A Psycholinguistiic Approach. Canada:

McGill University from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2374106

10) Kasper, F. Loretta.(2003). Language Acquisition in Humans. Sample Final

Examination in Reading from

http://kccesl.tripod.com/readingmatrix/samplereadingfinal.html

11) Pinker, Steven. (2005) Chapter to appear in L. R. Gleitman, M. Liberman, and D.

N.Osherson(Eds.), An Invitation to Cognitive Science, 2nd Ed. Volume 1:

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