Language development is a very special process. There are three steps in the
development of the human language. There is phonological development, semantic
development, and finally grammar development. I will explain to you what these
steps consist of and how two gorillas learned language and who taught them.
Phonological development is one of the first types of human language development. According to the text Essentials of Psychology. 'Phonological Development is the development of the ability to produce recognizable speech.'(pg.262) When a baby is first born he or she babbles. When the baby gets older the babbling narrows and consists mainly of sound used in the language. When the baby gets to this step, the baby's production of the first spoken word is very soon. The baby's first word should be said before he or she reaches their first birthday. When the child gets to the ages of one and two his or her vocabulary increases rapidly. Many average toddlers have a vocabulary of fifty words or more. The words toddlers generally have in their vocabulary are that of family member's names, familiar objects such as ball or ninny, and some of their favorite foods. Children use most of these words as a holophrase. Holophrases are single words utterances that communicate meaning.
Semantic development is the second language development that we get when we get older. According to the text Essentials of Psychology ?Semantic development is the development of understanding of the meaning of spoken or written.?(pg.262) Vocabulary increases very quickly after the age of two. Many toddlers learn new words each day. When a child reaches the age of six his or her vocabulary is about several thousand words. At the age of ...
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...d sentences. Koko has a tested IQ of between 70 and 95 on a human scale. The average for is 100. Michael can also sign about 350 words. In addition to studies of vocabulary the project has investigated spontaneous gorilla language use. By demonstrating the intelligence of gorillas. The Foundation hopes to protect them from captive and mistreatment. The project Koko has proven that the stereotypical image of gorillas as bloodthirsty animals is inaccurate. The study of gorillas? language sheds light on the vital connection between human and gorillas.
We had known little about how animals could understand our language. The gorillas have the ability to learn and understand phonological development, semantic development, and grammar development which all are basic compounds to human language. One day all animals will be able to talk by using the human language.
Word learning is a fundamental building block for early language acquisition. One controversial phenomenon associated with vocabulary growth is vocabulary spurt, usually characterised as a rapid increase in productive vocabulary in early childhood language. Despite the fact that initially, the word production starts slowly, it has been argued that after a few months, children undergo a transition to a subsequent stage of faster vocabulary growth (Goldfield & Reznick, 1990). Several theories have attempted to account for this phenomenon. For instance, Plunkett (1993, as cited in Ganger & Brent, 2004) suggests that the acceleration results from linguistic advances such as word segmentation which allows children to pick up more words from speech stream; however, there is now a growing disagreement on its existence in all children (Goldfield & Reznick, 1990; Ganger & Brent, 2004).
All primates have the same sensation and are capable of receiving excessive amounts of information. All senses, sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are essential to the development, survival, and overall well-being of living primates. It is fascinating how non-human primates, without language, can communicate in the same ways as human primates, with language. Non-human primates and human primates are highly developed mammals that possess many of the same communicative characteristics, but still differ greatly. Non-human primates fit into the category of not having language, but being able to communicate.
The debate about whether or not apes can learn human language has been going on for many years. There is an overwhelming amount of research on the subject to support both sides. It should be understood however, that learning and understanding human language is not the same as speaking the language. Apes are unable to physically speak human language for several reasons. As noted on the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics website, “Unlike humans, apes lack the anatomical pre-requisites for verbal language production. The organs within the vocal tract, such as larynx muscles and vocal cords, cannot be moved as freely and coordinated as in humans, especially not at a comparable speed” (Bangle, “Questions and Answers”). With that said, I believe the research I found strongly supports that apes do have the capacity for learning and understanding human language. There have been numerous studies conducted in which apes have been taught to communicate using sign language. In the 1960’s a female chimpanzee named Washoe was taught the American Sign Language. Washoe was raised by researchers Allen and Beatrix Gardner and is believed to be the first chimpanzee to learn aspects of human language. The Gardners established Project Washoe to teach the chimpanzee American Sign Language. The National Geographic News reported that “For Washoe to be considered "reliable"
9. Research on the language capabilities of apes clearly demonstrates that they have the capacity to:
Language is commonly held to be the province of humans, but other inhabitants of earth possess their own forms of communication. Birds, dolphins, and whales are some of those that have a language. Primates also use vocal communication with each other. Their utterances have varied uses and volumes, with each primate’s voice being distinct just as human voices are. These unique calls have given researchers insight into the social workings of primate groups. The very fact that primates have a language offers insight into the evolution of language and calls into question what the term human truly means.
When most people think of the process of language development in “normal” children, the concepts that come to mind are of babies imitating, picking up sounds and words from the speakers around them. Trying to imagine that a child who cannot hear one single sound a person makes can learn to speak a language is absolutely fascinating. These children range from amazin...
Intelligence, as it is used in this paper, means the capacity of a mind to understand what is happening around to acquire knowledge and apply it in practice. The gorillas this paper refers to are in captivity, and their intelligence compared to humans’ intelligence is being tested by scientists who raise the gorillas from very young ages ("History & Milestones,", 2016).
When infants are acquiring their first language, adults speak to them differently than they would speak to other adults. This kind of speech is formally named “Infant-Directed speech”, but is also referred to as “baby talk” and “motherese”. Infant-Directed (ID) speech has several properties that distinguish it from Adult-Directed (AD) speech. There is a debate over whether or not ID speech helps infants acquire language or is a hindrance in their language acquisition process Several experiments have been performed to test the effect of ID speech on infants’ language learning. These experiments all used different properties of ID speech. Overall, the experiments have proved that ID speech helps infants acquire language better than AD speech for different reasons. Further studies can be performed on ID speech to learn more about its effects on second language acquisition and on different ages.
Language development may happen at very different times for infants, but all infants develop language. Infants grow in their language development as they go through different stages. Infants are wired to learn language and that starts in the mother womb. Many things happen after the baby is born that are vital to their language development. In order to understand how language develops, we have to look at certain events that happen in an infant’s life that shape this development.
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.
Usually Sometimes after one year, the acquisition progress would evolve into the stage of "first word." Children begin to use the repeatedly use same word to appoint at the same thing, it is also called holophrastic stage. According to same child-language researchers, the words in holophrastic stage serve three functions: they are either linked with a children's own action or desired action; or are used to convey emotion; or serve a naming function.
Child development language is a process by which children come to communicate and understand language during early childhood. This usually occurs from birth up to the age of five. The rate of development is usually fast during this period. However, the pace and age of language development vary greatly among children. Thus, the language development of a child is usually compared with norms rather than with other individual children. It is scientifically proven that development of girls language is usually at a faster rate than that of boys. (Berk, 2010) In other terms language development is also a crucial factor that reflects the growth and maturation of the brain. However, this development usually retards after the age of five making it very difficult for most children to continue learning language. There are two major types of language development in children. These include referential and expressive language development styles. In referential language development, children often first speak single words and then join the words together, first into –word sentences and then into th...
Children go through a number of different stages as language develops. According to Craig and Dunn, (2010), “Even before birth, it appears that infants are prepared to respond to and learn language” (p. 112). Children develop these skills quickly with nature and nurture influences. Researchers have proposed several different theories to explain how and why language development occurs. This paper is an overview of the process of early childhood language development with research evidence supporting the information stated.
In order for a toddler to learn good language techniques they must be nurtured in positive environment like Preschool. When a child is between the age of three and five, their vocabulary grows tremendously. They also start to make their sentences longer and more compound. The preschool teacher plays a big role in a child language and cogitative skills by asking open-minded questions and announcing new terminology during lessons and activities. Preschool helps develop a child’s cognitive skills by engaging in hands-on activities. The hands-on activities challenge a child to ask questions and solve
Further in this term-paper I am going to describe the stages in child language acquistion starting from the very birth of an infant till the onset of puberty.