preview

Difference Between Nature And Nurture In Language

Decent Essays

Nature and nurture both play significant roles in a child’s development of language. Many scholars (such as Coulmas 1989 as cited in Christie, 2005) agree that the human brain is designed for language, yet they also state that it is learned because of relationships and interactions with those around them for example a child’s parents (Christie, 2005). There are four major aspects of language development: phonology – the sound structure of speech, syntax – grammatical rules, semantics – meaning of words and phrases – and pragmatics – using language to communicate. Theorists and scholars alike have debated nature versus nurture for many years, however it’s not nature or nurture but rather an interplay of the two creating a unique development of language for children (Caton, Brisbane, Australia).
Phonological development is the ability to be able to identify individual sounds and combine them into spoken words. From three months, babies will start to recognise their parent’s voices, and by four to seven months’ babies will be able to recognise change in tone as well as respond to sounds such as music. As babies start to develop language they will start to form phonemes together e.g. mama, dada. The environment plays a big role in the early language development of a child, as the behaviourist perspective states children start to learn language through operant conditioning – repetition and imitation followed by positive reinforcement – and classical conditioning – children

Get Access