Psy/241-0901 Language Development

All language theorists acknowledge nature and nurture both play significant roles in children’s language development. However, the theoretical debate to whether nature or nurture is the dominant tool during a child’s language

Nature and nurture both play a significant role in language development. Language development refers to how children understand, organise, speak and use words in order to communicate at an effective, age-appropriate level (Karen Kearns, 2013, P.105). For centuries, theorists have been debating the roles of nature versus nurture. Although, each child’s language will develop at their own pace and there will be many individual differences based on culture, ethnicity, health and ability. As well as physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in which will contribute to a child’s language development.

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

Developmental is understood as the act or process of developing; progress such as child developmental. When children go through the process of developing, they all develop the same regardless of what state or country there from. The way children develop has been studied by two psychologists’ name Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson and they both develop a theory of how children develop through their entire life starting as a newborn baby through adulthood. Jean Piaget came about four theories of children develop and Erik Erikson came about eight theories of children develop.

How do both nature and nurture interact in the promotion of language development in young children?

Nurture is the influence of external factors (McLeod, 2016). Language experts have different views on how children develop their language. There are six theoretical perspectives on language acquisition, these are behavioural, nativist, maturational, cognitive development, social interactionist and neurobiological perspectives. Nature and nurture play an equal role

The linguistic theory of language would say that the origin of a language problem is because the child has an impaired language acquisition device (LAD). For this theory, language is essentially an intrinsic skill of an individual, which means that it is not determined by the input of others or the interactions that an individual experiences. Instead, if there is a language problem, it will be the fault of the individual’s inner LAD, which is what leads to the acquisition of grammar in the individual. This LAD helps

Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky are two influential thinkers who have impacted the speech and language pathology field with their key concepts. Piaget believes that there are four main stages in a child’s development that lead to a child learning language. Without these stages, Piaget argues that a child cannot cognitively grow at an appropriate pace. However, Vygotsky argues the social interactionist theory, which states children develop language through social interacting with adults who are linguistically knowledgeable and the influence of the zone of proximal development. In this paper, I will explore how Piaget and Vygotsky both influence language development in children.

Skinner believed that children acquire language through imitation and reinforcement. Noam Chomsky suggested that skinner’s theory does not explain language development. He believed that all children have an innate sense of language. He called this our language acquisition device. The (LAD) enables children to use language when they have acquired vocabulary. Adults can reinforce children’s language development through interaction and responding to children’s first sounds and words. Children need opportunities for developing vocabulary through their play. Adults are role models so must use speech and language that is clear and grammatically

First, even though researches do not have all answer for the question “How a child from birth to age 8 developed language literacy?”. They recognized that a child’s language acquisition depending on the active engagement of the child and the level of language in the child’s environment. The five main theories of language development: behaviorist argues that children imitate what they hear, nativist argues that children do not need external stimulus because they can figure out language, Piagetian and Vygotskian believes that a language is built on cognitive development and social relationships, constructivist argue that children are the creators of language, and Halliday’s pointed out that language development in a child are gradual through interaction with others. (Morrow 134). Also,

According to Zukowski (2013), language development refers to the process of learning in early life where infants acquire various forms, meaning and word usage. In addition, language refers to the different utterances in regards to linguistic input. Language development in childhood focuses on major arguments in

Many of the earlier theorist, B.F. Skinner, believed that children learned language through imitation. While Michael Halliday believed that children develop language through positive reinforcement of language forms. Noam Chomsky, a more current theorist, believed in Generative Grammar, which is the idea that all human language starts from a common source. It has a set of grammatical rules and approaches that is hardwired into the human mind (Freeman and Freeman, 2014).

Due to this, children and their acquisition of a first language has always been the focus of research into language acquisition. Various theories have tried to address how this phenomenon occurs however, almost sixty years later; there is not one definitive answer but three main schools of thought. Behaviourism based on the work of Burhuss Frederic Skinner; Nativist originating in Noam Chomsky’s research; and Cognitive founded in the studies of Jean Piaget.

Nowadays, with continuous enhancement of economy and culture globalization, bilingual or multilingual speakers are increasing all around world. In United States, one out of five elementary school students speak another language other than English at home. Although some parents prefer their children exposed to monolingual environment, the mainstream trend is more and more children in America speak one language at home but another language at school, or use both first and second language at school. Bilingual education becomes more and more important for bilingual children growing up in target language environment. Commonly, children learn second language through two different sequences, one is simultaneous acquisition, and another is sequential acquisition. Which means they can choose to learn two languages at same time, or study second language after first language is well mastered. But for babies or toddlers under three years old, they seem to receive language passively; lots of people wonder how could these toddlers develop two languages and how could parents or bilingual educators guide them effectively. This paper aims to review literature on the aspect of language development of Bilingual toddlers; the theory results would contribute to effectively develop one to three years old bilingual toddlers’ language acquisition.

There are three major theories of first language acquisition, which are nativist approach, behavior approach, and functional approach. There are still some scholars who challenge these theories. As to nativism, Chomsky (1965) held the view that we are born with a genetic capacity to perceive and acquire the language, and that the capacity is contained in the language acquisition device. He proposes that the language organ helps children acquire languages. In another word, the theory proposes that children are born with the knowledge of natural languages. In this theory, this language development is part of children’s maturation or growth, and this process is based on suitable speech input. Also, nativism believes that children can create language randomly, and the non-standard language proves that children have a set of grammar rules that applied serially in the brain. However, some scholars use the parallel distributed processing model (PDP) to challenge nativism and argue that our brain processes information simultaneously at many levels, so the rules of language are not applied serially in our brain (Brown, 2014). They say that PDP can better explain the neural connections happened in our brain when we perceives or use languages.