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tongue- which the speaker first acquires and use on a constant basis.
According to Lennenberg (1967) the language that one picks up during the
critical period will generally be the person’s first language. The Canadian census
agrees that the first language that one acquires during childhood is the first
language.
Amongst the most prominent theories of language acquisition that has been
(Freeservers.com, 2012).
Firstly, the child becomes aware of a concept, they acquire the words and
patterns to convey the concept. Simple ideas are expressed earlier than more
complex ideas even if they are grammatically more complicated. Piaget claims
that the human mind has a template known as the schema: The representation in
the mind of a set of perceptions, ideas and /or actions which go together (Atherton,
2011). The schema helps individuals understand the various happenings around
schemata).
process of incorporating new information into pre-existing schema, more often than
Piaget contends there are four stages of cognitive development which are
operational stage (7-11years) and formal operational stage (11 years and up).
The first stage or the sensorimotor stage is the stage where a child learns
about himself and his environment through motor and reflex movements. The
Corporation, 1990).
Pre-operational stage follows after the child reaches at the age of 2. During
that stage, a child’s intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, and
his language use matures, advancing to basic sentences. The child’s memory and
reaches the age of 7-11-: Children then develops seven types of conservation,
namely number, length, liquid, mass, weight, area and volume. The child’s
The final stage in the cognitive development is the formal operational stage,
where the child’s developed intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use
language acquisition and learning. The theory takes into considerations of the
own identity is about behavior central to oneself. Rogers believed that people could
only fulfill their potential for growth if they had basically positive self-regard. On the
contrary Abraham Maslow’s believed that those who satisfied all their needs might
Behaviorist Theory.
3. Behaviorist Theory
actions.
negative; a child will respond to different triggers and with experience, remember
behavior, and this in turn affects their language acquisition capability, as such, a
acknowledgement of their behavior, they will likely change that behavior until they
Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with a language acquisition
device (LAD) which encodes the major principles of a language and its
grammatical structure into the child’s brain and thus possesses an inherited ability
must be already imprinted on the child’s mind. Children have then only to learn
new vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures from the LAD to form sentences.
Chomsky points out that a child could not possibly learn a language through
imitation alone because the language spoken around them is highly irregular –
theory applies to all languages as they all contain nouns, verbs, consonants and
theory which postulates not only a general ability in humans to acquire language,
but also the ability that comes from a specific language acquisition device in the
brain, equipped already at birth with specific grammatical rules and principles.
The main arguments in favor of the innateness hypothesis are first,
grammar: “How do we come to have such rich and specific knowledge, or such
the hypothesis that these are innate, and most essentially all humans acquire
endows children with the capacity to derive the syntactic structure and rules of their
native language rapidly and accurately from the impoverished input provided by
adult language users. The device is comprised of a finite set of variables which
languages vary, which are set at different levels for different languages on the
that many aspects of language are universal (common to all languages and
Universal Grammar.
conditions and rules that are elements or properties of all human languages”
(Cook, 1985). The language properties inherent in the human mind make up
grammar, but of a set of general principles that apply to all grammars and that
leave certain parameters open; Universal Grammar sets the limits within which
Universal Grammar present in the child’s mind grows into the adult’s
provided; it is not learnt in the same way that, say, riding a bicycle or playing the
guitar are learnt: ‘a central part of what we call “learning” is actually better
course under the triggering and potentially shaping effect of the environment’
(Cook, 1985).
dissimilar from ideas current in biology on other issues, for instance the view that
So, to acquire language, the child needs not only Universal Grammar but
to know how to fix the parameter for the order of Verb, Subject, and Object. The
(Cook, V, 1985). But the children also have to learn aspects of language that are
peripheral, that do not conform to Universal Grammar. The child’s mind ‘prefers’
to adopt rules based on the handy set of principles with which it is equipped; they
are in a sense the easy way out, and need only triggering experience to be learnt.
By listening to the language around him, he can decide how to fix the parameter
of sentence order as SVO or SOV, for instance. His mind ‘prefers’ not to adopt
peripheral solutions, as they fall outside his pre-programmed instructions; they are
more demanding. This may be interpreted through the concept of markedness: the
Chomsky’s work has been highly controversial, rekindling the age-old debate over
whether language exists in the mind before experience. Despite its few limitations,
determined biologically. The notion of critical period was connected only in the first
structural reorganizations within the brain were developed only from roughly the
age of two to puberty which was around thirteen or fourteen. Language skills which
were neither learned nor being taught during this age would remain permanently
of language was very limited in the first language acquisition during the early
childhood exposure (citizendium.org, 2009). He believed that the brain would lose
the plasticity after two sides of the brain has developed specialized functions.
standing debate in language acquisition over the extent to which the acquire
that the ability of brain to acquire a language is stopped at puberty with the onset
the both sides of brain develop specialized function, in which after the process, the
brain would lose its plasticity as the function of the brain is set.
Lenneberg stated that if the child did not learn the language before the
puberty, the language could never be learned in a full and functional way. He
on their first language prior to puberty for the best acquisition results.
Lenneberg’s works is still highly regarded as one of the most well regarded
Everyone is unique in their own little way—from the way they walk, the
manner they talk and the process they learn. The first language learning
own way on how they acquire learning in language. And through this, the
Each theories mentioned above have different explanation and often times
contradict each other. But even though there are such instances, still these had
brought many contributions to the parents and the teachers applicable to the
learning approaches.
Some made everyone realized that reward conditioning will bring huge
that learning process occurs due to the emotion and individual consciousness.
Each theories has different ideologies but still their mission is one—to
provide everyone a light for the pursuance of another study and a threshold for a
better understanding.
References