It is also possible to extract evidence of the importance of social communication in language development from children brought up in total isolation. These children may have certain contact with other humans, but are deprived of all social interaction. One clear example of a child kept in isolation is the case of “Genie”, who was subjected to extremely severe abuse and mistreatment by her own father when she was kept in isolation for approximately 13 years, and was consequently never exposed to any significant amount of speech. Curtis (1977) perceived the case of Genie as a unique opportunity to study the human development of language, and found that Genie would never be able to have proficient grammar and never learn good syntax and produce correct sentences. The case of Genie created the hypotheses of “critical periods” in the learning of language, suggesting that first languages are easier acquired before puberty and learned more efficiently. However, Genie learned some language skills, which hints that some level of language attainment is possible even after a critical period. However, one should remember that linguistic deprivation is usually related with other kinds of deficiency and it becomes difficult to separate these effects from each other.
Other environmental inputs have been proven many times to also influence the learning of a language. An educated and socially skilled parent will address their child linguistically differently than a parent who is less educated and has scarcer social skills. Naigles and Hoff-Ginsberg (1998) established this fact in a study that examined the degree to which the nature of verb input accounts for the order in which children learn verbs. They used a joint sample of speech from 57 m...
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...e and learned do imaginably counterpart each other equally and provide a piece of a greater picture, which neither would be able to provide by itself. This so-called bootstrap process between innate abilities and acquiring general knowledge is a different perspective in psycholinguistics, which can perhaps help us explain children development of not only language, but also other cognitive abilities. It will open up for the understanding of mentally disordered individuals if achieving information of what happens in the brain when you lose this bootstrap process. With today’s improvement of technology, it is possible to study this activity by examining what happens in the brain when e.g. looking at linguistic problem solving and general knowledge obtainment. If this bootstrap process exists, we should be able to see that one affects the other, in a developing “ladder”.
When Genie was tested for brain development and language acquisition, her IQ increased a little but it still took her a while because she lacked that inborn language of exploring it because of her isolation. In this situation we can tell that a nature experiment wasn’t the best idea. Chomsky, believed that we humans possess a language that is innate. The language acquisition did not really work because of the isolation she was in. Innate meaning, inborn as in she is born with the building blocks on how to read or write or etc. Although she was born with the nature side but it still had stopped her from learning things such sounds and speaking. When she was taken care of in the hospital, Genie’s tests came out as she could understand way more than she could actually speak. Over time is when she slowly began to understand more. The fact that Genie was born in a vulgar environment explains how she lacked at language acquisition. A critical period when a baby must be exposed to language was said to be two to thirteen years old this was critical because the brain is “easier to work with.” Her case supports this because she was not exposed to language during the critical period so her brain lost the ability to learn the language she was supposed to
159). Research by Naigles and Hoff-Ginsberg (1995) states “the plausibility of syntactic bootstrapping was investigated to the extent of the linguistic input mothers provide children. With verb acquisition, the claim that children use syntax to acquire verb meanings does not preclude their use of other sources of information. Syntactic bootstrapping of a verb meaning fits into an account of syntax acquisition, syntactic bootstrapping does require that the child know some syntax before using syntactic frames to acquire verb meanings (Naigles & Hoff-Ginsberg, 1995).” Children acquire knowledge of words based off the context of the sentence.
Socioeconomic status (SES) is a major topic of interest within the study of language development in children. It has been indicated as one of the most widely studied constructs in the social sciences (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002). Even with the wide variety of studies involving SES, there has never been a complete consensus on what SES actually represents. Beyond the development of language, SES also affects the overall development of a child. These developmental differences then further lead to differences in language acquisition. When looking at SES, there are many factors to consider. The concept of capital seems to best embody the current meaning psychologists hold of SES, according to Bradley and Corwyn (2002). Capital is favored because of its inclusion of access to financial (material resources), human (nonmaterial resources such as education) and social capital (social connections). The current working definition of SES involves family income, education level, and occupations, which influence the theories and characteristics that children develop (Hill, 2006). The effects of socioeconomic status on children are shown through many factors that affect language development through the child’s overall growth, their cognitive development, as well as their stress management and the parenting styles that they are exposed to.
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.
Conversely, limited exposure to a specific language may cause a delay or regression in language fluency. Therefore, a children can develop with a balanced sense of language and cognition when surrounded by appropriate sounds from those who are in their inner circle, or “mesosystem” (2011, p. 127), and when they receive ample opportunities to learn. Furthermore, I believe that language acquisition and cognitive development becomes successful when there is cohesion between the systems (microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem), rather than a variety of mixed messages defining “good speech” and “bad speech” (2011, p. 123), or the idea of code-switching based on one’s cultural
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.
When children are born they have no concept of what a mother and father are, but they understand who they are and as the grow older they are able to connect those words mother and father to a person. Many behaviors and characteristics are resulted from learning. Albert Bandura tested a social experiment where a child watched another person act aggressively, they child then mimicked this aggressive behavior. This conditioning all leads to nurturing. Nurturing a person and conditioning them through actions and language can lead them to be anything, even if they have a genetic nature. Genie, through careful study and teaching was able to learn certain words and know the difference between the color black and white. She could use simple signs to get people to understand what she wanted. Prior to her teaching, she knew nothing of how to communicate, but due to a nurturing environment she was able to connect to the people around her. The critical period of a person's life comes when they are at infancy. This is the time when children learn the simple words of whatever language they are being taught. Studies have shown that if you want your child to be bilingual, the best way to teach them is when they are young, because at this point they are in the early stages of learning a language, and they are able to adapt much more quickly to this language then when they get older. The critical period of a child again falls under nurture, as it is up to the parents to nurture their child by teaching them the language they need to know to be successful. Language doesn't come in a your genetic nature, it comes from your parents teaching. While many believe that one can only learn a language in the critical period, it is disproven in A Genie and millions of other. Genie was able to form words and half decent
... (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).
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...
The critical period hypothesis for language acquisition was popularized by neurologist Eric Lenneberg. The hypothesis suggests that if an individual is not exposed to language during a specific period in their childhood then they will have great difficulties acquiring language later in life (Redmond, 1993). I believe the two “wild children” cases of Genie and Victor provides evidence to support the critical period hypothesis. Genie’s case supports the hypothesis because although she developed a vocabulary and despite all of her intense therapy sessions, she still was not able to create meaningful and grammatically correct sentences (Garmon, 1994). Genie’s inability to create real sentences may indicate that she endured the extreme deprivation during her critical period and it prevented her from acquiring language. Victor’s case also supports the critical period hypothesis. The professionals in the documentary The Secret of The Wild Child stated: “While Victor knew how to read simple words, he never learned how to talk” (Garmon, 1994). This quote implicates that similar to Genie, Victor developed a vocabulary,
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.
In this part, the writer will point out the importance of the biological and neural foundation of language learning by discussing the following :First, the brain anatomy. Second, l...
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.
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