What is First Language Acquisition? First Language Acquisition studies how children acquire their native language. Up to this day, there are many theories that theorist came up with to explain how children acquire their language. The main theories that people believe for how children acquire language are Innateness Hypothesis, Imitation Theory, Reinforcement Theory, Active Construction of a Grammar Theory and last but not least, Social Interaction Theory. These theories have many similar characteristics as well as many differences.
The main theories of language acquisition perceive that children are capable of developing and maturing whether by themselves or with the support and stimulation from their environment to acquire language. The five
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Strength of this theory is that children learn best from first hand and concrete experiences. By listening to other people, whether it is on television, the radio or face to face, the child will memorize the words and sentences of the language and imitate or reproduce what was heard and by doing so will acquire language. The theory explains that children will learn the language of their parents or guardians regardless of where they were their birth place or ancestors’ language. A weakness of this theory is that it fails to acknowledge that children has any sort of internal grammar rules for combining words, sentences and other elements in systemic ways. For example, a child would not hear their parents or an adult saying words such as ‘goed’ or ‘hitted’, therefore, that child is connecting how other past tense verbs are being formed by adding ‘ed’, so the child adds ‘ed’ to all verbs to form its past …show more content…
Now, my position on how children acquire language is better understood and modified. I believe that the major theories, such as Innateness Hypothesis, Imitation Theory, Reinforcement Theory, Active Connectionist Theories and Social Interaction Theory are all correct to an extent and are linked to each other; therefore, neither of them can be considered the only theory to understand how language is acquired. Children learn at different rates and by different methods and that is one main reason I agree with all the theories to an extent and cannot just agree with one or even two of them. But the Innateness Hypothesis, the Imitation Theory and the Active Construction of a Grammar Theory are three theories that mainly influence my understanding of language acquisition; mostly by observing, interacting and speaking to
There are 4 theoretical perspectives. The different theoretical perspectives vary in their focus on the role of nature and nurture as well as the emphasis on one or more of the five aspects of language knowledge. Throughout this chapter, the focus will be on recognizing how nature and nurture interact and can be related. It provides a framework for understanding the complex ways children develop language as they interact with people and objects in their environment, school and home
Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are learned. The avenue of socialization is crucial in learning a second language. When natural conversations occur with native and non-native speakers, a natural
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
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
The communication with your child starts way before the youngster can speak. From their cry, smile, and the responses they give you to help you understand his or her needs. Language developments have different stages that children pass through to assist them in the development of speech and languages. There are a plethora of factors which can inhabitants’ a child language development. However, these are amongst the top causes for language development such as a child’s inborn ability to learn language and the language the child hears.
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
Therefore, from the behaviourist approach, language acquisition can be seen as a stimulus-response process. Children learn language by immitation and analogy. The roles of imitation, repetition, reinforcement, and motivation are essential in learning the language. The First Language Acquisition is thus the result of nature which based on practicing.
Many second language acquisition theories have been developed over the years. These theories examine the avenues in which second language is acquired and the avenues in which they are
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
From a baby 's first word to their first complete sentence, there 's a lot to debate with their language development. The average child has a vocabulary of up to six-thousand words by the time they turn five years old (Brighthubcom, 2016). Language development is one of the most critical roles for an educator in both early childhood and primary settings. It is this ability of language development that is particularly interesting in the nature vs nurture debate. In order for educators to provide effective communication, it is important that they have the knowledge and understanding of the four key concepts of language, such as phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic development and the underlying theoretical perspectives that explain the processes of language acquisition and development.
Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided
Most young children develop language rapidly, moving from crying and cooing in infancy to using hundreds of words and understanding their meanings by the time they are ready to enter kindergarten. Language development is a major accomplishment and is one of the most rewarding experiences for anyone to share with a child. Children learn to speak and understand words by being around adults and peers who communicate with them and encourage their efforts to talk.
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
In this essay, we will discuss the different stages of language acquisition. There are five main stages that any child passes through to acquire the first language and these stages are:
The research of second language acquisition (SLA) and its theories surged in the twentieth century. At a first glance, the definition of SLA may seem clear, however when analysed further it becomes clear that the subject is a bit more complex. Nevertheless, a good definition of it could be as follows: “a study of … the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or outside a classroom.” (Ellis, 1997:3) From the 1940s to the 1960s, a psycholinguistic theory known as behaviourism (stimulus-response), was developed, becoming recognised as a legitimate theory behind SLA. This was a positivist approach towards language learning which involved the interference and transfer between a speaker’s first