ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of Language Acquisition

1953 Words8 Pages

What is language? Language is a set of random symbols that contain acceptable meanings by the society and culture, which allows us to communicate with others in our community. Possessing this ability to communicate through the procedure of language is considered to be an essential human trait; every normal human speaks but nonhuman does not (Wikipedia, 2015). Since acquisition literarily refers to learning and obtaining something, then acquisition of a language would therefore mean the learning or obtaining of a language. Language acquisition is basically the development by which humans obtain the ability to observe and understand language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. It has been known that language acquisition refers to the acquisition of the first …show more content…

Most human beings, before turning 5 years old, acquire one language at least to the level of native competency. How is it possible that a child can achieve this extraordinary feat in such a short amount of time? Have you ever heard a baby babble on and on? How could we explains how a baby, at one moment, could barely form words can, couple of years later, speak regularly and coherently? These questions fascinated many researchers and linguists like Noam Chomsky and others who devoted much of their time and career to explaining this phenomenon. Researchers have debated with each other for a long time over the answers to these questions, but there is one thing they could agree on: language acquisition is a complex process. Language acquisition is one of the dominant subjects of cognitive science. This essay will further discuss the cognitive perspective on language acquisition, focusing on grammatical and vocabulary

Show More
Related

  • Early Childhood Language

    1005 Words  | 5 Pages

    What is the evidence that early childhood is a sensitive time for learning language? Social interaction, myelination, brain maturation, and scaffolding are evidence that early childhood is a sensitive time for learning language. In addition, children in early childhood are considered “language sponges” because they absorb every bit of language they hear or read. How does fast-mapping aid the language explosion?

    Read More

  • What Changed American Indian Culture

    1307 Words  | 6 Pages

    Language can be defined as, “the learned system of arbitrary vocal symbols, by means of which human beings, as members of a society, interact and communicate in terms of their culture" (Leap 209). Language is not just the words a person chooses to speak. Language is much deeper. Language ties many different generations together and that is how people can share history. Unfortunately, “the profile of Indian language fluency among the adult members of a tribal community rarely predicts how familiar with the language the younger members of the tribe will be” (Vizenor 218).

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis Of Sex Lies And Conversation By Tannen

    817 Words  | 4 Pages

    Language is powerful! Without language, nobody can communicate at all. Language is an essential and foremost tool to allow individuals to communicate, express feelings or thoughts, and share information or knowledge. More importantly, language is a powerful tool that not only brings people together but also separates them including, various aspects of language diversity, such as dialect, naming, and communication style.

    Read More

  • Language In Frederick Douglass Learning To Read

    285 Words  | 2 Pages

    Language is the basic verbal expression of culture. Language is so abstract, yet people manage to say a lot with mere words. The structure of language helps determine how one is likely to view the world and it determines how people think. An illiterate does not have the ability to construct abstract thoughts until it has had some academic experience. The way in which they go about learning wholly depends on their culture.

    Read More

  • Sociologically Challenged Life Shwalbe Analysis

    346 Words  | 2 Pages

    A noteworthy topic discussed by author Michael Schwalbe in Chapter Five of his book The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation is the importance of language acquisition in the early stages of one’s life and its sociological effects on society. Schwalbe leaves out the specific details of when exactly children/infants start to develop their language skills, however, it is important to note that most start to speak (i.e., voice their first word and/or phrase) at around the age of twelve months, with cooing and babbling happening in earlier months. These developments are all provided the children have been given the proper environment that allows these advancements to take place. If the child is isolated, however, as Schwalbe

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Patricia Kuhl's Article Baby Talk

    427 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the article “Baby Talk” by Patricia Kuhl, research on how infants learn their first language within a short time is explained. Babies have the special ability to master a language within a few years, something that teenagers and adults have difficulty with. Only recently have scientists such as Patricia Kuhl start to understand how a newborn brain processes and learns language. Infants require two processes to learn a language, mental analyzation and socially interacting with their parents. At the age of six months, a baby enters a special period where their brains analyze their parent’s speech and determine which phonemes out of 800 possible phonemes are used in their first language.

    Read More

  • Manipulation In Dystopian Literature

    2151 Words  | 9 Pages

    Language is a form of communication associated with knowledge and original thought, which develops our understanding of the world. It enables us to think on at

    Read More

  • Contextual Factors Affecting Childhood Development

    943 Words  | 4 Pages

    Language skills Language skill is one of the milestone achievements of the first two years of life. Children are born with innate schema of communication, such as body language or facial expression to communicate with parents or caregiver. 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).

    Read More

  • Pavlov's Theory Of Classical Conditioning

    1265 Words  | 6 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • How Does Language Affect Communication

    1045 Words  | 5 Pages

    Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication used by the people of a particular country or profession. Even animals communicate. Birds use sound and movement to transfer information. Likewise human beings use sound and movement like speech and gesture to communicate. Language is the fundamental factor leading and affecting communication.

    Read More

  • Interactionist Theory Of Language Development

    1115 Words  | 5 Pages

    From the earlier stages of development, children learn to understand other people by tone, facial expressions, and gestures. Although these are important aspects to communication if a child is only using gestures to communicate and not words, then there might be a difficulty in language development. On average “Children will typically be able to say 50 words by the time they reach 2 years. At this age, they will start to put short two-word sentences together. Language learning increases dramatically and by three years children are using three to four-word sentences and can be easily understood by familiar adults.

    Read More

  • Nativist Theory Of Language Acquisition

    1333 Words  | 6 Pages

    This is a theory that suggests humans acquire language substantially easier during a critical period of biological development, which is from infancy to puberty. (Hoff,2005). One case study carried out focused on a girl named Genie. Genie was locked in isolation in her home and was not discovered by authorities until she was at the age of 14. Throughout her life of confinement, Genie was not exposed to a substantial amount of language.

    Read More

  • Essay On Child Language Development

    752 Words  | 4 Pages

    This statement indicates that, an infant discover the language through sounds he heard. This sounds, as the infant grows, will develop into chunk of sounds and later on will expand into understandable words. Their development of language will

    Read More

  • Language Acquisition Literature Review

    1000 Words  | 4 Pages

    Research Questions 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.

    Read More

  • Reflection About Language

    1620 Words  | 7 Pages

    Language is an abstract concept which needed by people to communicate. Language has an intrinsic meaning which represents an image and it is also symbolic however not only symbolic. Language is also a complex system and it is creative and productive meaning that you can product many words. Language does not only include objects but also includes all the images and concepts of the world. There is an abstraction of a real world.

    Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of Language Acquisition

Open Document