Language Acquisition

A detailed Summary of Language Acquisition

The theory that there is a critical period for linguistic acquisition may be analysed through the indirect observation of cognitive learning to communicate. Whilst there are many human languages, all demonstrate a number of universal traits. This allows us to theorise that there is a critical period in which individuals may learn a language. The most significant comparison to justify this argument, is that of a young girl named Genie. Through her experience of learning her first language during the maturational stages of her life instead of infancy, we can take an insight into the biological and environmental factors in understanding speech.

Richard Meier (1991) argued, through indirect evidence, that there was a stage from infancy to maturity in which an individual has the ability to learn a language. Studies conducted on individuals conclude that throughout different stages of maturity, older individuals of the study were at a disadvantage to learn a second language and allow us to understand that there may be both a biological and psycholinguistic reason. It is already understood that children have a greater short-term memory over adults but a decreased attention span, which may be attributed to the biological process of

There is what is called a linguistic sensitivity in infancy; babies can hear all phonetic distinctions especially that of "Motherese". Motherese consists of a high pitch, repetitive voice, that is slowed with strong intonations and elevated contours. Through this modification in pronunciation we may suggest that infants can accumulate more information about speech, and learn more rapidly because they feel secure and are gaining more attention than a mature person would. By way of illustration, we would not speak to a twelve year old with motherese because we believe them to be older and more mature and therefore we do not give them as much attention as we would a younger child. Babies are more interested in listening to high pitch noises of that kind, just as they are inclined to listen to the sounds of chimes or clapping from baby toys. Infants' attention span is very little so if we change the pitch of our voice, the baby responds better because they are interested and therefore tend to listen more attentively. This may be entwined in the nature versus nurture controversy.

The question that we are continually asking ourselves is how do children acquire language? This question involves several key issues: issues concerning the quality and quantity of input necessary for language acquisition to occur, and issues concerning the nature of the neuropsychological and cognitive abilities the child must bring to the language-learning task (Cur

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Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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