Language Acquisition

“Learning is not development; however, properly organized learning results in mental development and sets in motion a variety of developmental processes that would be impossible part from learning. Thus, learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human, psychological functions” (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 90). The Russian psychologist of the early twentieth century, Lev Vygotsky, laid down the foundation for an entire school of thought to later be known as the socio-cultural perspective on human development. Vygotsky differentiated himself from other psychologists of the time by placing an emphasis on societies influence on development and the processes by which development

Our world commences when we are born and begin adapting to our upbringing. “But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural.” (Amy Tan “Mother Tongue” WP pg. 232). The main character speaks about her friends, some understanding little of her mom’s “broken English” and some, none at all. However; that’s

The concept of adulthood represents not only the sum of one's experiences, but also the determination of one's place within society. Adulthood is formed through the experiences of the individual. These experiences catalyze the acceptance of a social role, as opposed to title or paycheck. Finally, the acceptance of an individual's social role initiates a process of social unity. In this way, the sum of a person's experience and the changes that result from said experiences present the evolution of child into adult.

The acquisition of language starts from phonology, which is an important skill for a child to master where he or she is to absorb the sound and identify the sounds form one language to another. This was nurtured both at home and in school where Alexander has to absorb sounds from native (Cantonese) and foreign languages (English).

If students begin their bilingual education as early as kindergarten, they are more likely to successfully acquire a second language. Children are like sponges and soak up information easily. Research conducted by Dr. Patricia Kuhl at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington shows that by 8-12 months, if babies are exposed to a second language, they retain the ability to distinguish those foreign sounds. Moreover, through the age of 7 or 8, children are able to learn to speak a second language with fluent grammar and without an accent. After this critical period, the ability to master a

Language/literacy development "is often defined as a system of symbols, spoken, written, and gestural that enables us to communicate with one another" (Martoz pg. 40). There are two types of language used, receptive and expressive language. Receptive language is defined as "understanding words that are heard" (Martoz pg. 40). Although young children often understand concepts, relationships of actions and words, and words themselves doesn 't mean that the young child has the words and vocabulary to communicate those concepts and words. Expressive language is defined as "words used to verbalize thoughts and feelings" (Martoz pg. 40). This language is closely related to social and cognitive skills. The use of language in a child 's vocabulary often reflect the language that

Language is essential to our everyday life, it’s the way we communication, the way we express our feeling and simply how we understand the world that surrounds us. Being bilingual means being able to speak two languages. Multilingual is being able to speak more than two languages. In some countries, nearly everyone is bilingual or multilingual, in the United States however, most of us are monolingual; we only speak English. In countries like India, and other European countries it is very common for people to speak more than one language. Children begin to learn to speak more than one language at a young age. Being said, it is easier for a child to learn more languages when they are younger.

. Behavioral differences are innate. E.g. Chomsky (1965) argues that acquisition of language is innate.

One of the earliest explanations of language acquisition was proven by Skinner. He proved that for language to develop it needed an environmental influence. Skinner argued that children learn language based on “behaviourist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings”. The child realises the communicative value of words and phrases when correct utterances are rewarded. In an ECCE setting the preschool teacher helps shape the child’s language by rewarding them when they imitate speech, sounds and

There are two theorists associated with cognitive development; Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget believes that things children learn and do are organized as schemes, groups of similar actions and thoughts are repeated in response to the environment. Vygotsky believes that thoughts and language are separate functions for infants and toddlers. This is important for me to know because when teaching my first graders using Piaget’s belief that children curiosity to adapt to their environment, will help me in setting up my classroom so as to provide the friendliest environmental atmosphere. Another useful belief of Piaget that I intend to use, is by exploring and manipulating physical objects, children gain a relationship with their physical environment. I agree with and will use Vygotsky belief that language is a way for children to exchange ideas with adults and their peers and that it is vital for cognitive development. Also Vygotsky theory that I found useful is that social activities provide the seeds from which complex cognitive processes can

The learning perspective of language acquisition suggests that children acquire language through imitation and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). The ideology behind this view claims that children develop language by repeating utterances that have been praised by their parent, therefore gaining a larger vocabulary and understanding of phrases over

Learning languages is a treasure. This is a sentence that we know it holds some truth, however we can’t claim for sure that our bilingual kids are smarter than the kids who learn one language. Well, a study has shown that learning languages from a very early stage is extremely important in the brain development of the child, especially in the areas responsible for decision-making and problem-solving.

In support of his findings, Skinner eventually realized that human beings could not only respond also manage their environment to induce results. However, Skinner and Watson both repudiated that thinking or emotion plays a significant role in determining behavior. Instead, humans appear to learn many behaviors -including languages- through repetitions and positive or negative reinforcement. Scientifically speaking, behaviorism explains how learning takes place. When it is taken into account in the field of language teaching, it shows how languages are learned. Behaviorist psychology had a significant effect on the teaching and learning principles of audio-lingual method. In Audiolingualism, the underlying theory of learning is behaviorist. Stimulus, response, and reinforcement are the main components of Behaviorism. When we adjust it to language learning; the stimulus is the information about foreign language, the response is student’s reaction on the presented material, and the reinforcement is natural “self-satisfaction of target language use (Richards & Rodgers, 1987). At the same time, foreign language learning from this perspective is a matter of automatic habit formation. Pattern drills and memorization of dialogues play a substantial

“Similar to the behaviorist theory, the interactionist theory believes that nurture is crucial in the process of language development. Though, the interactionist perspective differs from the behaviorist

From the literature review, it was established that there were several factors affecting language learning and acquisition. More specifically, it was revealed that factors such as exposure at an early age, motivation, attitudes, incentives and educational system can influence language acquisition. However, most of the research were conducted in the west and were focused on students as subjects to the study and foreigners working in the country where they need to learn the language to lengthen their range of employment opportunity.