Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is the process of
learning a native or a second language.
Although how children learn to
speak is not perfectly understood, most
explanations involve both the
observation that children copy what they hear and
the inference that human
beings have a natural aptitude for understanding
grammar. Children usually
learn the sounds and vocabulary of their native
language through imitation,
and grammar is seldom taught to them; that they
rapidly acquire the ability
to speak grammatically. This supports the theory of
Noam Chomsky (1959).
that children are able to learn the grammar of a particular
language because
all intelligible languages are founded on a deep structure of
universal
grammatical rules that corresponds to an innate capacity of the human
brain.
Adults learning a second language pass through some of the same stages,
as do
children learning their native language. In the first part of this paper
I
will describe the process of language acquisition. The second part will
review
how infants respond to speech. Language Acquisition Language is
multifaceted. It
contains both verbal and non-verbal aspects that children
seem to acquire
quickly. Before birth virtually all the neurons (nerve cells)
are formed, and
they migrate into their proper locations in the brain in the
infant. When a baby
is born, it can see and hear and smell and respond to
touch, but only dimly. The
brain stem, a primitive region that controls vital
functions like heartbeat and
breathing, has completed its wiring. Elsewhere
the connections between neurons
are wispy and weak. But over the first few
months of life, the brain's higher
centers explode with new synapses. This
helps an infant to be biologically
prepared to face the stages of language
acquisition. According to the textbook
Child Development: A Thematic
Approach, 3rd Edition (D. Bukatko & M.W.
Daehler, 1996, p. 252) there
are four main components to language acquisition.
These components are
phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatics. Phonology is
the study of how
speech sounds are organized and how they function. It is the
main linguistic
accomplishment during the first year of life. The phonology of
language
refers to fundamental sounds units and the rules for combining them.
Each
language has a certain number of sounds called phonemes. Phonemes are
the
smallest unit of sound that affects the meaning of a word. Infants are
able to
identify hundreds of variations of sounds. For example, an infant who
is six
months old can detect the difference between ma and pa. An infant`s
first year
is mainly receiving messages but also working on being able to
produce messages.
As they physically develop infants form the ability to
make sounds. Some of
these initial sounds are cooing, vowel like utterances
occasionally accompanied
by consonants and babbling which are consonant-vowel
combinations. During the
first 6 months of life, physiological changes, such
as the shape of oral cavity,
tongue development, motor control of lips, and
tooth eruption, also take place
that contribute to speech development. One of
the infants task is to identify
phonemes. According to the textbook
(D.Bukatko & M.W. Daehler, 1996, p. 202)
infants show an early
sensitivity to prosody, which is patterns of intonation,
stress, and rhythm
that communicate meaning in speech; the fluctuations of the
voice. For
example, raising your voice to ask a question or lowering it to let
the
infant know you are serious. This helps infants to learn the phonology
of
their language and prepares them for the next stage of learning which
is
semantics. Semantics is the meaning of words or combination of words.
Shortly
before babies have their first birthday, they begin to understand
words, and
around that birthday, they start to produce them (Clark, 1993).
Words are
usually produced in isolation. This one-word stage can last from
two months to a
year. Children's first words are similar all over the planet.
About half the
words are for objects: food (juice, cookie), body parts (eye,
nose), clothing
(diaper, sock), vehicles (car, boat), toys (doll, block), and
household items
(bottle, light, animals (dog, kitty), and people (dada,
baby). At this time
children usually start to use gestures to call attention
to an object or event
defined as protodeclarative communication.
Protoimperative communication is the
use of a gesture to issue a command or
request. For example a child throws his
bottle down to show that they no
longer want it or they point at specific
objects they want the parent to see.
Around 18 months, language changes in two
ways. Vocabulary growth increases
and the child begins to learn words at a rate
of one every two waking hours,
and will keep learning that rate or faster
through adolescence (Clark, 1993).
Primitive syntax begins with two-word strings
such as all dry, all messy, all
wet, I sit, I shut, no bed, no pee, see baby and
see pretty. The child
utterances in this two-word stage are described as
telegraphic because they
contain only the elements necessary for getting the
message across, leaving
out modifiers and prepositions. Syntax is important
because the child learns
to combine words correctly or grammatically. It is at
this stage the child
learns to express internal states and also to direct the
actions of others.
Pragmatics is the rules for using language effectively within
a social
context. For example when a preschooler yells out Give me that book!
she may
be unaware that this order to her teacher is socially
unacceptable.
Parents play a significant role in teaching the child what
is socially
acceptable and what is not. They do this by reminding the child
to always say
Thank you and Please and to use other socially acceptable
manners. They also act
as models by acting out what they are requesting from
the child. Normal children
can differ by a year or more in their rate of
language development, though the
stages they pass through are generally the
same regardless of how stretched out
or compressed they seem. Infant`s
Respond To Speech Infants respond to speech in
various ways. Infants
communicate through crying, fussing, smiling, body
movements, and other
nonverbal behaviors. With repeated interactions, their
parents, families, and
other significant caregivers interpret the meaning of
these signals and
respond accordingly. Both participants, parents and child, are
part of a
unique conversation. For example, a typical conversation a parent may
say is
"Look at daddy. Look at daddy." The infant's face turns in the
direction of
the voice and daddy exclaims, "She's looking at me! She's
looking at me!"
This is called a language-body conversation because the
parent speaks and the
infant answers with a physical response such as looking,
smiling, laughing,
turning, walking, reaching, grasping, holding, sitting,
running, and so
forth. These conversations continue for many months before the
child utters
anything more intelligible than "mommy" or
"daddy." Although the infant is
not yet speaking, the child is
imprinting a linguistic map of how the
language works. Silently, the child is
internalizing the patterns and sounds
of the target language. When the child has
decoded enough of the target
language, speaking appears spontaneously. The
infant's speech will not be
perfect, but gradually, the child's utterances will
approximate more and more
that of a native speaker. Through these early
exchanges, infants discover
that their behaviors regarding language have a
powerful effect on their
caregivers and they soon develop more efficient ways to
communicate. In a
study, found in an article on the Internet, the author
reports, Peter Jusczyk
(1997) found that at 4 1/2 months, babies respond to
their own names. But the
response is largely undifferentiated from other kinds
of speech, just like a
child might respond to Hi, without knowing what it means.
Infants can be
offered certain nonsense words or sounds and will appear excited
because it
is part of a routine that has been established by parent and the
infant. The
understanding and use of language to communicate begins early in
life. Babies
initially interact with their world by: Crying and squealing to
show hunger
or pain. Exploring objects by banging them together, throwing, or
mouthing
them. Copying other people's actions e.g. Waving bye-bye.
Blowing
raspberries, to show excitement and pleasure. Looking at
objects and
people. Using their faces to communicate e.g. Smiling, frowning.
- Taking
turns in making sounds. Cooing and babbling. Hearing is an important
factor in a
child's ability to develop normal speech and language skills.
Newborns build a
foundation for these skills by hearing voices and
environmental sounds. If
hearing loss is not detected at this early stage, a
child's language development
is significantly delayed (Chen 1999).
Frequently, parents are the first to
notice a problem with their child's
hearing. If a child is not responding
appropriately to audio stimulus, the
parent may want to request a hearing test
and other evaluations. Hearing loss
affects speech and language development,
which inevitably impacts academic
performance and communication skills. A
child's communication is considered
delayed when the child is noticeably behind
his or her peers in the
acquisition of speech and/or language skills. Speech
disorders refer to
difficulties producing speech sounds or problems with voice
quality. They
might be characterized by an interruption in the flow or rhythm of
speech,
such as stuttering, which is called dysfluency. Speech disorders may
be
problems with the way sounds are formed, called articulation or
phonological
disorders, or they may be difficulties with the pitch, volume or
quality of the
voice. Summary Right from birth, all of the senses are
operational. Babies
reacts to pain, heat, cold and certainly, to touch. The
newborn seems to
distinguish certain kinds of sounds, smells, and even
tastes. Language
acquisition seems to happen at lightning speed. The
challenge in this paper was
explaining how kids pick up language so rapidly.
There are many questions about
when infants start to hear and respond to
sound. Colleagues credit Peter Jusczyk
(1997) for being one of the key
experimentalists to bridge the gap between the
study of infant speech
perception and language development. It is his belief
that the very seeds of
language learning, in fact, start to develop in the womb.
Just last week,
in the U.S. alone, some 77,000 newborns began the miraculous
process of
wiring their brains for a lifetime of learning. During a child's
development,
there are a series of time periods, or "windows," in
which a child can best
learn or refine a particular ability, such as speech.
After this time
period is over it becomes much more difficult, sometimes
impossible, for the
child to learn the same thing. With this in mind, it is
important for
researchers to continue to observe and learn about language
acquisition.
Where it starts (the womb) to what critical periods an infant or
child will
have the greatest window of opportunity is very important if we are
going to
overcome some of the language disabilities that we have. In a world
where
babies are born prematurely and mothers are having drug exposed and
positive
toxic babies, it is imperative that the research
continues.
Bibliography
Chen, Deborah, Ph.D. (1999) Learning to
Communicate: Communications Issue
XII, California State University,
Northridge Chomsky, N. (1981) Lectures on
Government and Binding.
Dordrecht, Netherlands: Foris Publications. Clark, E. V.
(1993) The Lexicon
in Acquisition. New York: Cambridge University Press Jusczyk,
Peter
(1997) Johns Hopkins University. Mama! Dada! Origin of Language Pegged
At
6 Months.