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
Before the age of 20 months, Genie did speak, however her speech was of a moderate capacity, as she had just begun to grasp the naming explosion period of her life. However, once trained to speak again she has learnt certain aspects on language despite her isolation. It is clear from our empirical evidence that some significant internal constraints are required to account for why children, and only children, uniformly succeed in learning language (Newport, 1990). There is what is called a linguistic sensitivity in infancy; babies can hear all phonetic distinctions especially that of "Motherese". Moreover, a child who is brought up in Japan speaks Japanese whereas the same child who is growing up in Australia would speak English, and consequently the environment is also crucial in acquiring language, so called nurture outlook. Genie was basically isolated from the social milieu, unable to listen to any kind of audible materials such as television or social conversations (Curtiss, S. Genies profile of abilities demonstrates that the cognitive knowledge of the preoperational and even concrete operational intelligence is insufficient for the acquisition of syntax and morphology. Since Genie was taken from isolation, information has been gathered from these investigations, suggesting that learning a first language during adulthood can often result in incompetence of linguistic capabilities. Language is a power thing, without language it would be difficult to communicate and collect people's thoughts and feelings. Therefore we can say that heredity must be involved in language some how, which may be defined as the nature view. 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 (Curtiss, S. Although the normative data that would allow for an age assessment of her semantics are lacking, her semantic ability suggests a tie between semantic development and more general conceptual development (Curtiss).
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Acceptance Essays
