Tema 06 A

 

INTRODUCTION Every aspect of language is enormously complex. Yet, Yet, children learn most of the intricate intric ate system of their mother mother tongue before the age of six. Before they can add 2+2, children are putting sentences together, asking questions, negating sentences, using the syntactic, phonological, morphological, and semantic rules of the language. hildren are not taught language as they are taught arithmetic. !hey learn language in a different "ay.

LINGUIST COMPETENCE AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE #e are far from completely understanding the language acquisition process. #e are $u $ust st be begi ginn nnin ing g to gr grap appl plee "ith "ith th thos osee aspec aspects ts of th thee hu huma man n ne neur urol olog ogica icall an and d  biological make up "hich explain the child%s ability to acquire language. ertainly it is clear that the child is equipped from birth "ith the necessary neural prerequisites for  language and language use. &ur kno"ledge of the nature of human language tell us something about "hat the child does and does "hen acquiring a language' () hildr hildren en do not learn learn a langua language ge by storing storing all all the "ords "ords ant all the sentences in some giant mental dictionary. !he list of "ords is finite,  but no dictionary can hold all the sentences, "hich are infinite in number. 2) hildren hildren learn learn to understand understand sentences sentences they they have have never never heard heard before, before, and to construct sentences, most of "hich they have never produced  before.

 

*) hil hildr dren en must must th there erefo fore re learn learn rule rules s "hich "hich permi permitt th them em to use language creatively. -) o one one teaches teaches them these these rules. rules. !heir !heir parent parentss are no more a"are a"are of   phonological, syntactic, morphological, and semantic rules than the children are. hildren, then, seem to act like very efficient linguists equipped "ith a perfect theory of language, "ho use this theory to  build up the grammar of the language they hear. hear. /n additi addition on to acquirin acquiring g the complex complex rules of the gramma grammarr 0that 0that is, linguistic competence), children must also learn the complex rules of the appropriate social use for language, "hat certain scholars have called communicative competence. !hese include, for example, the greetings "hich are to be used, the taboo "ords, the polite forms of address the various styles "hich are appropriate to different situations, and so forth.

STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN CHILDREN 1ingui 1in guists sts divide divide the child% child%ss acquis acquisiti ition on of a langua language ge into into prelin prelingu guisti isticc and linguistic stages. !here continues to be disagreement as to "hat should be included in these periods. But most scholars agree that the earliest cries and "himpers of the ne"born cannot be considered early language. uch noises are completely stimulus3 controlled4 they are the child%s involuntary responses to hunger, discomfort, the feeling of "ell3being, etc.

THE BABBLING STAGE 5sually around the sixth month period, the infant begins to babble. !he sounds  produced in this period seem to include the sounds of human languages. !he role of   babbling is not clearly understood, but it is absolutely clear that in order that the language develop finally, the child must receive some s ome auditory input.

 

THE HOLOPHRASTIC STAGE ometime after children are one year old, they begin to use same string of  sounds repeatedly to mean the same thing. 6ost children seem to go through the one "ord "o rd7o 7one ne sent senten ence ce stage stage.. !he !he ch chil ild d us uses es $u $ust st on onee "ord "ord to ex expr pres esss co conc ncep epts ts or   predications "hich "ill later be expressed by complex phrases and sentences.

THE TWO-WORD STAGE 8round the time of their second birthday children begin to produce t"o3"ord utterances like' allgone sock4 bye3bye boat4 it ball4 hi mommy4 dirty sock4 mummy sock. 9uring this stage there are no syntactic or morphological markers4 that is, no inflections for number, tense, or person. !he t"o "ords a child utters can express a number num ber of differ different ent gramma grammatic tical al relatio relations ns "hich "hich "ill "ill lat later er be expres expressed sed by other  other  syntactic devices.

TELEGRAPH TO INFINITY !here does not seem to be any three3"ord sentence stage. #hen a child starts stringing more than t"o "ords together, the utterances may be t"o, three, four, or five "ords or longer. !he "ords in a sentence are not strung together randomly4 from a very early stage, children%s utterances reveal their grasp of the principles of sentence formation. !hese first utterances of children "hich are longer than t"o "ords have a special characteristic. 5sually, the small function "ords such as to, the, can, is, etc, are missing 4 only the "ords "hich carry the main message :the content "ords: occur. hildren often sound as if they "ere reading telegrams, "hich is "hy such utterances are called telegraphic speech. ;or example' athy build house4 o sit here4 ar  stand up table.

 

8s children acquire more and more language, or more closely approximate the ad adul ultt gram gramma mar, r, th they ey no nott on only ly be begi gin n to us usee fu func ncti tion on "ord "ordss bu butt al also so acqui acquire re th thee inflectional and derivational morphemes of the language. !here seems to be a natural orde orderr of acqui acquisi siti tion on of morp morphe heme mes. s. /t seems seems th that at th thee suff suffix ix :i :ing ng is th thee earli earliest est inflectional morpheme acquired. Eventually all the other inflections are added, along "ith the syntactic rules, and finally the child%s utterances sound like those spoken by adults.

THEORIES OF CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISISTION IMITATION !here are those "ho think that children merely imitate "hat they hear. /mitation is involved, of course, but the sentences produced by children sho" that they are not imitating adult speech. Even "hen children are deliberately trying to imitate "hat they he hear ar,, th ther eree are un unab able le to pr prod oduc ucee sente sentenc nces es "hic "hich h ca cann nnot ot be ge gene nerat rated ed by th thei eir  r  grammar.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT  8noth 8n other er theory theory sugges suggestt that that childr children en learn learn to produc producee correc correct t senten sentences ces  because they are positively reinforced "hen they say something right and negatively reinforced "hen they say something "rong. !his vie" does not tell us ho" children construct the correct rules. #hatever #hate ver correction correction takes place is based more on the content of the message than on its form. !hat is, if a child says obody don%t like me, the mother may say Everybody likes you2. Besides, all attempts to correct a child%s language are doomed to failure. hildren don%t kno" "hat they are doing "rong and are even unable to make the corrections "hen they are pointed to them.

 

CREATIVE CONSTRUCTION !he reinforcement reinforcement theory fails along "ith the imitation theory theory.. either of these vie"s accounts for the fact that children are constructing their o"n rules. 9ifferent rules govern the construction of sentences as the grammar is learned. !hee imper !h imperfect fect senten sentences ces childr children en use are perfect perfectly ly regula regular. r. !hey are not mistakes in the child%s child%s language4 they reflect his or her grammar at a certain stage of  development. !he child seems to form the simplest and most general rule he can from the language input he receives, and is so pleased "ith his theory that he uses the rule "henever he can. !he most obvious obvious example of this overgenerali