Essay about How Do Humans Acquire Language?

Language development deals with how a child develops his/her language skills during their growth period. Language development has been an issue debated among language experts over a long period of time. Experts have opposing views on how a child acquires/learns language. There are four main theories of language development and they all have different thoughts on the acquisition of language. Behaviorists (Skinner) believe that language is learned. Nativists (Chomsky) believe that language is innate and unique to humans. Cognitive theorists (Piaget) believe language is not innate but a product of cognitive development. Finally, social interactionists

First, children¡¯s acquisition of language is an innate mechanism that enables a child to analyze language and extract the basic rules of grammar, granted by Chomsky. It basically states that humans are born with a language acquisition device that, the ability to learn a language rapidly as children. However, there is one important controversy in language acquisition concerns how we acquire language; since Chomsky fails to adequately explain individual differences. From the behaviorists¡¯ perspectives, the language is learned like other learned behaviors. It is learned through operant

B.F. Skinner’s theory of Operant Conditioning has at its foundation a desire to demonstrate a “cause and

Lastly, it is important to include Norm Chomsky every time we talk about language acquisition. Through his studies we can say that children can learn a new language because of their innate ability in their brain to be able to classify different words, specifically grammatical terms. He suggested that we have a device in our brain which he called a Language Acquisition Device that allows children to notice the differences between two languages. In my opinion if all of us have this device. All the child needs to stimulate it to be able to learn those important first words that a child is going to need as they further exposed into a language.

Chomsky’s theory seeks to explain how children acquire language so quickly. Chomsky asserts that children are born with innate linguistic abilities that are triggered by experience (Universal Grammar 2006).

However, it can be argued with (Bruner 1964) that social interaction doesn’t explain all the complexities of language acquisition. Almost every day the language we hear is often incorrect, poorly defined, incomplete and full of hesitations, mispronunciations and other errors, and yet despite this we still learn to talk following the correct grammatical rules. Again this indicates the idea of Chomsky’s (1968) LAD model that children are born ‘hard-wired’ with the innate knowledge of linguistic rules and so these rules help the baby make estimations and presumptions about the language it is hearing. From these estimations and presumption the child can work out grammatical sets of rules and when more language is exposed to them, the more their language develops. Even within Chomsky’s (1968) LAD theory, undoubtedly he believed the role and promotion of the ‘nature’ aspect is the core foundation on which language can develop. But his theory also requires the role of nurture

The article For the Love of Language by Geoffrey Cowley was published by Your Child's First Steps on October 2000. The author focuses on the importance of language and how children develop their language skills. Cowley states that the journey towards language starts in the womb and that babbling is the first step towards fluent speaking. Children also start associating names with objects around age one and children around two years old start to connect noun phrases with verb phrases. And lastly, children around seven months do not just seek out associations between words, but also extract principles governing word order. Cowley also uses terms like cochlear implant, mimicry, simple conditioning, operant conditioning, and specific language impairment (SLI).

Skinner, in ‘A review of B. F. Skinner’s verbal Behavior’ and ‘Selections from Science and Human Behavior’, discusses the idea of operant conditioning in human behavior, and functional analysis in human verbal behavior respectively. Both ideas seek to explain human behavior, whether in physical action or in verbal communication. Operant conditioning takes its root from Thorndike’s law of effect, dealing with reinforcing consequences that are contingent on a response (or specified behavior). Functional analysis, on the other hand, deals with the identification of the variables that control verbal behavior and the means by which they interact to produce a particular verbal response. In this paper we seek to look at these two ideas in detail, as well as present Chomsky’s concerns and arguments about them.

Behaviourists believe that learning a language is no different from learning anything else. It becomes a habit by the stimulus-response-reinforcement-repetition process (Cook, 2001). The behaviourists also claim that we learn by imitation and by association (Lightbown & Spada, 2006). However, psycholinguists argue that imitation is not enough because it is not only the mechanical repetition but also natural exposure that children acquire language (Cook, 2001).

Children learn the language from various methods either watching televisions or observing the communications around them. It is practical for Tom’s parents to teach Tom how to speak his native language. Tom can also learn language through observation, such as reading books and watching videos designed for children. From the Speaking and Hearing Science lessons, I learned that there are various factors being responsible for child’s language development such as biological preprogramming and environmental stimulation. According to BF Skinner (1957), “language is acquired through modeling and reinforcement”. [ ] While according to Noam Chomsky ( ), “the language acquisition is due to biology and thus innate to human beings”. [ ] So, Tom is supposed

“‘Conditioning’ simply means learning, and the term ‘operant’ refers to something that acts upon something else. Operant conditioning, then, is a form of testing in which an animal learns that a response, such as pressing a lever, results in a consequence, such as a food pellet being delivered to the animal (Pritchett & Mulder, 2004).” In operant conditioning, there are two categories: reinforcement and punishment. Both can be utilized using either positive or negative strategies. In reinforcement tactics, the behavior is attempted to be increased. A positive example of this would be praising a child if they say something that resembles mama or dada for their first words. A negative example would be the parents not responding or even chiding the child for mumbling or not being very coherent. Each action is strengthened by the parents reinforcement of praise when saying the correct words or their disregard when the child does not sound coherent. In the positive example, praise is being offered so the child is receiving something, therefore making the reinforcement positive. When the parents ignore the wrong words that the child speaks, we describe

Chomsky proposed a theory of language acquisition, which holds that at least some knowledge about language exists in humans at birth. Additionally, that all languages share some properties of organization and structure. (Miller, p. 198)

Language is seen as the way in which humans communicate, and the acquisition of language for most humans starts at a young age. Although the debate of Nature vs. Nurture in regards to behaviorist reinforcement principles or universal grammar is used to stratify how child language acquisition comes about, an old and strong theory proposed by Noam Chomsky suggests that the ability to acquire a language is a natural and inborn phenomenon. He changed the world’s perspective by questioning behaviorist Burrhus Frederic Skinner’s theory which at the time held the simplest explanation believed to be most credible.

There are several theories regarding language development. Work by Chomsky, Piaget and Kuhl are critical. Studies by Chomsky, as examined by Albery, Chandler, Field, Jones, Messer, Moore and Sterling (2009); Deloache, Eisenberg & Siegler (2003) argued for the innateness of language acquisition due to its complexity. Development is assisted by a language acquisition device (LAD) and universal grammar both of which holding the propensity for commonalities throughout all languages. LAD is the key to the Syntax rule. The knowledge to master the rules is held unconsciously. Chomsky concludes exposure through auditory channels as being the only requirement for learning. Arguably Kuhl (2010) writes infantile exposure to language through auditory channels only, does not contribute effectively to learning indicating the importance of human interaction. Piaget, as discussed by Ault (1977) postulated language as not being part of the earliest stages of development. Signifying within sensorimotor stage, between birth and two years, the child’s development is too reflexive. Gleitman, Fridlund and Reisberg (2004) discuss the critical period hypothesis and suggest the young brain being more suited to acquisition than the adult brain. Lenneberg (1967) (as cited in Gleitman et al 2004) advocates, brain maturation closes language acquisition capacity window. Kuhl (2010) identified, within the critical period babies develop

Numerous theories try to explain the process of language acquisition. These theories fall into one of two camps. The environmentalist (or connectionist) theory of language acquisition asserts that language is acquired through environmental factors (Halvaei et al. 811). Theorists in this camp believe that a child learns language by gaining information from the outside world and then forming associations between words and objects. The nativist (or rationalist) approach, on the other hand, asserts that it is innate factors that determine language acquisition. Noam Chomsky, often described as “the father of modern linguistics”, falls into this camp as he believes that speech is the result of hidden rules of language that are hidden somewhere in the brain (Rahmani and Abdolmanafi 2111). Steven Pinker, a colleague of Chomsky, is a renowned psychologist, cognitive scientist and linguist who discusses his own theories on language acquisition in his book Words and Rules.