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Language Development
Elissa, age 11 months, 19 days awakens:
First sounds from Elissa's crib:
"Aah".
Long pause.
"Aah, aah."
Shorter pause.
"Da, da."
Pause.
"Ma, ma,"
Mother holds out her hands :
"You want to come up?"
Elissa holds out her hands :
"Aah, aah, aah, aah."
Does Elissa show any understanding of language in
the "conversation"? it depends on our definitions of
language. If we view Elissa's contribution to this
interchange in terms of language structure. However, if
we view it in terms of language function, that is, the
communication of ideas and emotions by one person to
another.
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In fact, even in the first weeks of life, Elissa
communicated with cries, body movements, and facial
expressions, and her mother responded on cue. This
mother infant dialogue gradually becomes more
elaborate and extensive. What account for this rapid
language development? Are infants born with a powerful
desire to communicate and a subtle grasp of the
underlying principles of language form?
Skinner's Theory Some researchers, led by B.F.
Skinner (1957), have maintained the children are
conditioned to talk. How rapidly and how well a child
talks, according to Skinner, depend primarily or how
often the child hears speech and how well the child is
reinforced for talking. As time goes on, the infant learns
that "mama" brings Mother, and that other sounds bring
other results. Other families with hold rewards until the
child gets a word "right"; and still others tend to ignore
the toddler's efforts to communicate.
Chomsky's Theory Rather than concerning
themselves with parents reactions to their baby's first
words, other researchers, led by linguist Noam Chomsky
(1968), psychologist David McNell (1970). Chomsky
explains this similarity by suggesting that all human
beings have an inborn ability to learn language. To
emphasize the inborn, automatic nature of this ability.
Chomsky decided to call in language acquisition device
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(LAD). Part of human predisposition to learn language,
according, according to Chomsky, is an inborn
understanding of the basic structure of language, which
Chomsky calls the deep structure.
Disagreements Naturally, linguists and learning
theorists disagree about whether Chomsky's or skinner's
theory is the more accurate. Many linguists think
Skinner's theory is too simplistic, because it does not
explain the child's language learning as it really happens.
It would seem apparent that rather than simply parroting
the speech they hear, children create much of the
language they speak, using their own understanding of
the rules of grammar.
In any case, most parents reinforce their children for
the content of their speech rather than for its grammar.
For instance, Eve, at 18 months, pointed to her mother
and said. "He a girl". That's right," her mother said.
Pleased that her daughter. On the other hand, learning
theorists point out that the existence of Lad or the deep
structure of language has not been proven, whereas a
substantial body of research support certain aspects of
Skinner's view
Neither side in this language controversy had much
luck in convincing the other, until researchers began to
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study parent child interaction, recording precisely
what each half of the partnership said and did rather than
looking first at parent behavior. Specifically, the
discovery of baby talk. When I was to college, I want to
work in a day in a day-care center at a refugee camp in
west berlin, six months before the wall went up. I was
soon the discover that my young friend's message takes a
similar form in any number of languages a repeated
single syllable generally beginning with a hard.
Motherese. Baby talk differs from adult talk in a number
of features : It is distinct in its pitch(higher) intonation
(especially low-to high fluctuations), vocabulary (simple
and more concrete). Thus, contrary to Chomsky's
contention contention that parents confront toddlers with
a baffling variety of grammatical usages which only their
innate grasp of deep structure.
Many conversations between parent and child show
the parent interpreting the child's imperfect speech and
then responding with short clear sentences the child can
understand.
Nigel's mother is putting him to bed.
Mother : And when you get up in the morning, you'll go
for a walk
Nigel : Tik
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In most episodes of baby tlak, the child is an active
participant, responding to the speaker and making his or
her needs known. While Chomsky was wrong in
underestimating the parent's role in language learning.
Let us look now at some of the specific steps in that
process.
First Communications Normal babies are born able to cry
in several ways, as researchers have discovered by
analyzing recorded cries. The usually "hunger" or
"rhythmic". These early cries are reflexes than a
deliberate attempt to communicate.
As we have seen, crying is not the only
communication that occurs in early in fancy. In the first
months of life. Babies have facial expressions and body
movements that provide clues about their feelings.
Babbling : By 20 weeks, babies have added several
consonant sound to the vowel of cooing, and by 6
months. Because "ba-ba-ba" is one of the first repetitions,
helps babies utter their first words.
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