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Why A Parent 's Help And Guidance Important For A Child 's Linguistic Development

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Whilst I would consider a parent’s help and guidance important in a child’s linguistic development, this development would be “impossible without innately organized circuitry to do the learning” (210, Pinker). Therefore, a language cannot simply be taught. The human brain can seemingly process information in some way that is involuntary and requires no real conscious effort; the only type of help or guidance a child requires is exposure to a stimulus. Therefore, I believe that a parent’s help and guidance is not imperative, it is just helpful in an infant’s linguistic progress.
There are different, quite opposing theories as to how children actually acquire language. On the one hand, in discussing “the formal, nativist approach, grammar is conceptualized as a set of abstract categories, structures and principles, and constraints that are genetically encoded as an innate Universal Grammar” (319, Genetti). On the other hand, the discourse-based theory states that “grammar is viewed as a set of forms and functions that are constantly being shaped by the mental processes and communicative needs of speakers and hearers as they use language in everyday talk (discourse)” (319, Genetti). Although I do consider the latter discourse theory to be important in a child’s language development, as a child will to some degree imitate their caregiver, they will only do this when they are mentally ready and capable to do so. Therefore the nativist theory is a very credible concept in child

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