Children Learning Their Native Language example essay topic

How do children acquire language? What are the processes of language acquisition? How do infants respond to speech? 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 observations 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, (which helps them learn to pronounce words correctly), and grammar is seldom taught to them, but instead that they rapidly acquire the ability to speak grammatically.

Though, not all children learn by imitation alone. Children will produce forms of language that adults never say. For example, "I spilled milk on his self" or "Debbie wants a cookie". This demonstrates that children have the desire to speak correctly and have self-motivating traits to communicate.

This supports the theory of Noam Chomsky (1972) -that children are able to learn 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 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 their perceptions are limited at such a young age. 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. "For the large majority of people, the dominant area in language processing is in the middle of the left hemisphere of the brain, in particular in Broca's Area and Wernicke's Area" (Siegler, 1998, p. 142).

This helps an infant to be biologically prepared to face the stages of language acquisition. According to the textbook "Children's Thinking", written by Robert S. Siegler (1998) there are four main components to language acquisition. These components are phonology, semantics (meaning), grammar (syntax), and communication (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 6 months old can detect the difference between "ma" and "pa". According to Siegler (1998), "most children do not gain full phonological competence until roughly school age" (p. 147). 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 (Siegler, 1998).

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 infant's tasks is to identify phonemes or the melodies of parent's voice patterns. According to the film, Discovering Psychology: Language Development (2001), infants show an early sensitivity to prosody, which is fluctuations of the voice, patterns of intonations, and melodies / rhythms in speech that communicate the meaning that's contributes the context. This rise-fall theory of melodies is universal across cultures. Infants read adults patterns of speech associated within a context and learn the meaning of language. For example, if a child were about to engage in a dangerous situation, such as crawling by a flight of stairs, a mother would convey her message by telling her infant to "Stop!

No! Don't do that!" in a louder voice and in a sharp tone. In contrast, a melody that may be comforting to the infant is when the mother is using "mother ese", such as before they are to fall asleep to help the infant feel secure and safe. 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. It is the meaning in a language.

Shortly before babies have their first birthday, they begin to understand words, and around that birthday, they start to produce them (Clark, 1993). Usually, when an infant produces their first words, they refer to "objects and actions that interest them, that they are relatively concrete, and that they want" (Siegler, 1998, p. 149). This one-word stage lasts about 12 months to 18 months. Most of the words infants produce are objects: food (juice, cookie), body parts (eyes, nose), vehicles (car, boat, plane), toys (blocks, doll), animals (cat, dog), and people (baby, mama / dada ).

At this time children usually intertwine the use of gestures and words to call attention to an object or an event, most often issuing a command or a request. According to Bee (2000), an infant who wants something or doesn't want something will manipulate their parent to change their surroundings. For example, "A baby who wants you to hand her favorite toy may stretch and reach for it, opening and closing her hand, making whining sounds or other heartrending noises" (Bee, 2000, p. 230-231). For another example, a child might throw their bottle down to show that they no longer want it or they may point at specific objects they want the parent to see.

Children will also use gestures as well as one-word phrases. This is called holophrases. Siegler (1998) quote holophrases "express the meaning of the entire phrases" (p. 149). In this case, a child would say "ball" to communicate that they "want the ball" or "the dog took the ball". 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). This is called "language explosion". Primitive syntax begins with two-word sentences such as "all gone", "all messy", "I sit", "no bed", and "see baby". Grammatical use is needed when a child has knowledge of more than one word in order to convey their message and they tend to acquire many of the grammatical rules as they begin to produce sentences. ."..

Young children are motivated to learn grammar, even when they can communicate well without learning them and are not corrected for grammatical errors" (Siegler, 1998, p. 157). 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 modifies and prepositions (Bee, 2000). Syntax is important because the child learns to combine words correctly of grammatically. It is at this stage that the child learns to express internal states and also to direct the actions of others. .".. Children seem to evidence a sophisticated understanding of so-called motivational mental states, such as intentions and desires, by 18 to 24 months of age" (Sabbagh & Baldwin, 2001, p. 1055).

Children have desires to learn how to speak grammatically correctly and they speak correctly when the "grammatical markings" are produced where they should be or where they expected them to be within a sentence (Siegler, 1998). Furthermore, children showed better word learning when the speaker was knowledgeable (Sabbagh &Baldwin, 2001). In Sabbagh and Baldwin's study (2001), a speaker was labeled "ignorant" if the speaker showed uncertainty toward a toy. A speaker was labeled "knowledgeable" if they did not show uncertainty toward the toy but only showed that he has not made a decision yet. For example, in the uncertainty condition, the experimenter said, "my friend said one of these toys she made is a mod i, but I don't know which one". In the knowledgeable condition, the experimenter said, "I would really like to call one of these toys a mod i, but I don't know which one".

The results indicated that 3 and 4 year olds did not show word learning when the speaker showed signs of ignorance. "Four-year-olds base their word learning on inferences about a speaker's knowledge state, and not on the speakers hesitancy. 3-year-olds did not appear to do the same... the 3-year-olds showed poorer evidence than the 4-year olds, showing that 3-year olds word learning was based on hesitancy" (Sabbagh & Baldwin, 2001, p. 1066). 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", "Please", "Excuse me", and "I'm sorry" and to use other socially acceptable manners. Parents also act as models by acting out what they are requesting from the child. According to the film, Discovering Psychology: Language Development (2001), there are 3 features that comprise the rules of conversation which are, opening conservation, the willingness to converse ("Hi-"Hello"); understanding the unwritten rules of turn taking in a conservation; and closing a conservation by mutual agreements ("Bye"-"Bye"). If conservation is not mutual, a speaker or party may leave feeling distressed or confused.

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 compressed they seem. In addition, "if children have parents who talk to them often, read to them regularly, and use a wide range of words in their speech, they begin to talk sooner, develop larger vocabularies, use more complex sentences, and learn to read more readily when they reach school age" (Bee, 2000, p. 245). In a study conducted by Snow (2001), it was found that there is a significant difference in vocabulary exposure between early exposure at home during the first few years and those who were not exposed as frequent to vocabulary early on. "The rate of vocabulary growth in 22 middle-class children aged 14-26 months was density of maternal input... by age of 3, children of professional parents heard nearly 40 million words, whereas children of working-class parents had heard 20 million words, and children of parents on welfare had heard only 10 million words" (Snow, 2001). In other words, children with the greatest "lexical input" had the largest vocabularies, as they grew older. In another study conducted by Evans, Lorraine, & Hart (1999), it was found that parent's responsiveness and parent-child verbal interactions is lower when a family lives in crowed homes as compared to those in less crowed homes.

Evans, Lorraine, & Hart (1999) claims that the major factor of why families are living in crowed homes in which influences lower verbal interaction with children is the families socioeconomic status. "Residential crowding is also positively correlated to the degree of chaos in homes, which, in turn, is negatively associated with parental responsiveness to infants" (Evans, Loraine, & Hart, 1999). Another possible explanation for why crowding in family homes is correlated with less and poorer parental speech is that the parents may not have the time or energy to give to their infants. There may be many other children and family members in the home, as well as the parents may be working numerous jobs. Overall, parents' responsiveness and verbal interactions with their infant effects the infant's cognitive development as well as language development. As the infant matures, their language production will be slower developed due to inconsistent feedback from their environments.

Infants respond to speech in various ways. Infants communicate through crying, fussing, smiling, body movements or gestures, and other nonverbal behaviors. With repeated interactions, their parents, families, and other caregivers interpret the meaning of these signals and symbols and respond accordingly. Both participants, parents and child, are part of a unique conservation. For example, a typical conservation a parent may say is " Look at mommy. Look at mommy".

The infant's face turns in the direction of the voice and mommy responds, "She's looking at me! She's looking at me!" This is called language-body conservation 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. When the child looks in the direction of the voice, the baby is reinforced. The reinforcement could consist of seeing their parent's happy face, hearing higher pitch sounds that children prefer, receiving a hug, which is comforting to the child, or the child may enjoy the playful attention and enjoys being engaged in it.

These conservations 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. The child internalizes the patterns and sounds of the target language or word. Siegler (1998) describes this fast mapping of how a child makes the connection of the meaning of a word and the word itself. This concept has limitations due to the many interpretations a word may have. For example, pointing to a dog and saying "this is a dog", children could result in over extension, causing the infant to generalize a dog is anything that has 4 legs, and a tail.

In a study conducted by Jusczyk (1997), it was 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; and cooing and babbling. Research pursued by NICHO Early Child-Care Research Network (2003) found little evidence or no causal relations in reference to type of child-care and the effects on a child's cognitive domains.

"Specifically, child-care, defined in terms of provision of intellectual experiences and stimulation for the child, may affect cognitive development, as indexed by language ability, memory, and achievement" (NICHO Early Child-Care Research Network, 2003). Moreover, the research concluded that cognitive outcomes are not enhanced if a child receives more exposure of higher quality of care. This entails that more, higher quality care does not lead to more and better outcomes, either does it lead to worse outcomes. For example, children who were enrolled in child care in low-quality care seemed more angry and defiant; and children who spent time in high-quality care seemed apathetic and withdrawn. As this seems confusing for most, researchers need to provide specific studies to conclude any significant differences. This study was a naturalistic study, and to possibly ensure if any changes could occur in outcomes of children depending on the type of quality care should conduct experimental or quasi-experimental research.

Language acquisition seems to happen at lightning speed. Children pick up language so rapidly and continue to develop of how to communication effectively with one's environment. Therefore, both nature and nurture play an important role for language development to mature and strengthen an infant's language skills. Children only learn those languages to which they are exposed, and to enhance the learning of the rules of those languages, an infant must be taught directly or indirectly within their environment. In contrast, if the infant were never taught any language, the infants can and will produce some form of communication on their own. Chomsky (1972) proposed a reason why children are able to acquire language on their own; that people are born with a "language organ" which is called "Language Acquisition Device".

This supports the notion that language is universal. According to Lenneberg (1967), he agrees with Chomsky (1972) theory, but proposed that language acquisition is no longer as effective, where as the brain is only receptive to learning language within a specific time period within a child's life, which Lenneberg calls a "critical period". .".. That the time between 18 months and puberty is a critical period... ". (Siegler, 1998, p. 160).

Lenneberg's (1967) theory was supported when research was conducted on a young girl named Genie. Genie has been severely neglected from the time of birth until the age 13, who never had the chance to learn proper language skills due to the lack of interactions from her environment. "If she made any noise, her father beat her... he never spoke to her and only made barking sounds and growled at her" (Pines, 1997). Genie's mother was terrified of her husband and, in turn, could not take care of her due to her blindness. She was able to produce meaningful words and sentences, but her production of language lacked structure and she was not grammatically correct. For example, she would produce language at a 1 year-old level.

When Genie was given the Vineland Social Maturity Scale and the Preschool Attainment Record, she scored as low as normal one-year-olds. "At first, she seemed to only recognize only her name and the word sorry" (Pines, 1997). After being trained, when she tried to convey her messages to the experimenters, she used basic one-word or two-word structures, such as "stop it", "no more", and "jump", when she wanted to jump as opposed to saying "I want to jump" or "I like to jump" or "Jumping is fun". Experts have tried to teach Genie to learn language at a higher level, but she was not able to do so because she missed the critical period.

During a child's development, there are series of time periods 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 just as in Genie's case. 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.