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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. 1 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 2 (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 3 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 4 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. 5