Theories of Language Acquisition

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Theories of Language Acquisition The theories of language acquisition are essentially centred around the nature nurture argument. The theory that children have an innate capacity for language was created by Noam Chomsky (1928- ) an American linguistic. This nativist approach states that learning language is part of the genetic makeup of human species and is nearly independent of any particular experience which may occur after birth. Once a childs brain has been exposed to speech for the very first time it will receive and make sense of these utterances, due to its particular programming. Chomsky believes that there is a language acquisition device somwehre in the brain which enables children to distinguish between linguistically acceptable and non-acceptable language.it also provides children with the basic rules of grammar that govern the use of language, which are exacted through trial and error. The nativists belive that this language acquisition device explains why all normal children acquire language during the same time period in a certain order and for the fact that children can understand new sentences and formations of sentences without ever having had experience of them before. It is evident, however that there are many weaknesses with this theory; primarily that it is not a complete enough theory to explain the whole of language acquisition. It does notr explain why socially deprived and isolated children, for example geneie, have non-existant language skills. even when they were reintroduced into society, they failed to acquire much more than a very basic level of linguistic knowledge. If this theory was co... ... middle of paper ... ...thought and language. Being exposed to this interaction at first will eventually enable them to build their inner resources. Adults, whilst talking to children alter the way they speak to allow room for the child to take part in a conversation. For example they use simplified utterances, distinctive intonation patterns and questions which invite direct participation. Adults also expand on the child’s speech which has been proven to increase his/her awareness of grammatical structures. This child directed speaach is an important means of creating a positive relationship between parent and child, which forms the basis for future communication. However, Piaget greatly disagreed with child directed speech, believing it to be an impoverished form of speech, not allowing children to learn the correct forms of language.

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