Language is a species-specific and species-uniform faculty that all (and only) human beings are endowed with.The American linguist Noam Chomsky terms this uniformly distributed ability to acquire languge, Language Acquisition Device. Chomsky claims that linguistic competence is the product of a species-specific innate language faculty, and it is further maintained that this faculty is independent of other cognitive capacities. Language acquisition and production are mysterious and complex mechanisms and so much study had gone into these fields. But though the ability is unifom, there are sometimes aberrations in the acquisition, and later in reception or production of language, in some individuals. Such problems or abnormalities regarding the processing or expression of linguistic information are called language impairments or language disorders.
Cognitive capacities are the product of structures in the brain. Like all the other cognitive abilities, language is also centred on the functioning of brain. Studies in neurolinguistics have proved that language has a specific location in human brain. Neurolinguistics addresses the question of how linguistic knowledge is represented in the brain. The highly developed brain with multiple layers is the most remarkable characteristic of human beings, distinguishing him/her from other primates, making him/her a thinking animal. Different parts of the brain are associated with different functions.The layer which has most recently evolved and is most characteristic of higher primates is the cerebral cortex, the folded surface of the cerebral hemispheres which contain what is called grey matter, where higher intellectual functions, including language are located. Damages caused to this area ca...
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...ge level; (ii) poor language functioning must be out of keeping with other aspects of development (this is normally interpreted as a substantial discrepancy between a language test score and non-verbal IQ); (iii) possible physical causes (e.g. hearing loss, acquired brain damage or abnormal structure of the articulators) and recognized syndromes associated with language delay (e.g. autism) are excluded.
Specific language impairment (SLI) is one of the most common childhood disorders, affecting 7% of children. These children experience difficulties in understanding and producing spoken language despite normal intelligence, normal hearing, and normal opportunities to learn language in the absence of any obvious neurological problems. The causes of SLI are still hotly debated, ranging from nonlinguistic deficits in auditory perception to high-level deficits in grammar.
...m the pre- to post- testing across all experimental groups were relatively modest. Results for children in active treatment groups weren’t statistically different than the ones in the control group. The limited literature for PLI school age children suggested that the change was slow by standard scores on norm reference tests. It was noted that they had focused their analyses on the general measures of language and cognitive skills. The study was also affected by the sample size, especially the control group. It would have been productive if they considered each child’s characteristics at the starting point, and examinations of the effects of age, initial severity and language backgrounds. The author also noted, more homogeneous samples of bilingual children with PLI in future exploration and the overall intensity of the experimental treatment was high for children.
Kapantzoglou, M., Restrepo, M., & Thompson, M. S. (2012). Dynamic Assessment of Word Learning Skills: Identifying Language Impairment in Bilingual Children. Language, Speech & Hearing Services In Schools, 43(1), 81-96. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2011/10-0095) Wagner, R. K., Francis, D. J., & Morris, R. D. (2005).
When a problem is noticed by parents or teachers a child gets diagnosed based on his/her difficulties. Sometimes a diagnosis may not be possible, or necessary. Many children with milder SLCN (speech, language and communication needs) can be supported well in their school or nursery setting, or respond well to general support strategies, and they don’t need specific help.
"Communication Development in Children with Language Delays." Communication Development in Children with Language Delays. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Jan. 2014. .
Language is integral to learning as it is linked to our thoughts. It helps us to organise our thoughts in an organised way. If a child has difficulties in communicating with others due to a speech and language delay or disorder, they will not be working to their full potential, as they will be less able to organise their thought processes and express themselves. This becomes even more of a problem as children become older and the curriculum becomes more demanding, the use of rational and abstract thinking will become more important, hence the importance of early detection and intervention. The early years are a time of rapid learning and development, therefore the earlier the diagnosis of delayed language acquisition, the easier it will be for professionals and others to target the childâ€TMs needs so that they are able to give appropriate support, thus benefiting the
It has long been debated whether or not humans are the only species that have evolved and are advanced enough to cultivate a complex language system. While it has been argued that other species do indeed have their own inherent methods of communication, none so far have exhibited sign of a language system as complex and structural as that of humans. Apes have exhibited their own method of language through ‘call systems,’ a limited number of sounds produced when certain stimuli are encountered. But while they are capable of their own language, it is another question entirely of whether they are capable of human language, which is characterized by its inherent qualities of displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, discreteness, duality and cultural transmission (Nature of Language, p. 17-18).
Language is an essential thing needed to communicate and to develop the skills one needs to be a complete, whole, intelligent individual. Language is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Here we shall define language and lexicon, evaluate the key features of language, describe the four levels of language structure and processing, and analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology.
Speech and language delays can be problematic for preschoolers, school aged children and adolescents. These delays range in degree of severity and have many causes; physical and developmentally. Communication plays a specific and important role to all people, especially, preschool children who are developing speech and language skills at fast rate. The consequences of these delays can be devastating for the children affected and can follow them into adulthood. These effects may include academic problems, social and emotional issues and may even lead into mental illness. Children with speech and language delays need professional intervention as young as possible. However even with intervention, some children are still at risk of suffering the negative effects of speech and language delay.
"[H]uman knowledge is organized de facto by linguistic competence through language performance, and our exploration of reality is always mediated by language" (Danchin 29). Most higher vertebrates possess ‘intuitive knowledge’ which occurs as the result of slow evolution of species. However, the ability to create knowledge through language is unique to humans. According to Benjamin Whorf, "language…. is not merely a reproducing instrument from voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas…. We dissect nature along lines laid down by language" (Joseph 249). In addition, the development and acquisition of language seems to be related to "complex sequential processing, and the ability to form concepts and to classify a single stimulus in a multiple manner" (Joseph 178). Antione Danchin suggests that the knowledge we create through language allows us distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world to produce models of reality, which become more and more adequate due to the "self-referent loop" which enables us to understand ourselves as objects under study. This "path from subject to object," which is common to all humans, Danchin claims, suggests the existence of a universal feature of language (29).
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.
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 the last few decades, the notion of language and brain has been highlighted in different scientific fields such as: neurology, cognitive science, linguistics biology, technology and finally education.
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.
What this means is that once a child learns to associate the word “dog” with the image of a dog, the child should be able to understand that every animal that barks is also a dog. Dehaene-Lambertz also points out that it is advantageous for fetuses to be exposed to speech while still in the womb. An important point is made when Dehaene-Lambertz and her colleagues establish that “human brains before intense exposure to speech have things in common with the brains of mature and linguistically competent human adults” (367). It is noted that certain parts in the cranial cavity of the brain, such as the auditory cortex, are bigger on the left side than on the right side, giving the cerebrum a slightly asymmetric structure in both the children and adults. Also, this finding is confirmed by Chomsky when he states that “such an organic structure as the brain” (176) is capable of processing and generating human language.