The development and acquisition of language over the span of lifetime - Essay Example

Outline Introduction Literature review Mastering a language in early years of life Acquisition of formal language in school age children Emergent literacy which takes about reading skills in children through an understanding of language Conclusion The development and acquisition of language over the span of lifetime Introduction The development and acquisition of language can be taken to include changes that occur in a human being over time in his or her life time with the knowledge of passing information. It spans from infants all through adulthood to death. Meaning when one is born the development process takes various perspectives. It involves making into one coordination of motor skills and psycho physiological processes. Language acquisition involves development in areas such as cognitive, moral understanding, conceptual understanding, personality, social, emotional, identity formation and self-concept. Literature review Language acquisition in human beings is evident during infancy most probably at four months. At this time the babies start to discriminate speech sounds and uses babbling which commonly comes from their mothers. They use preverbal Communication which involves gestures and vocalization to make their intents known. The way they acquire this type of language skills is universal and therefore the syntax process takes place slowly as they develop1. The syntactic development of the child is explained using two theories or approaches. The first one includes Nativist theory which argues that children have an innate language acquisition device (LAD). It assumes that LAD is a small area in the brain which has a collection of syntactic rules for all the languages that he or she may be interacting with. The theory notes that the environment alone gives communication full of errors and therefore the device provides the child with novel ability to construct sentences using learned vocabulary. Therefore because of possession of this LAD they are able to learn any language without the interference of the incomplete information from the environment. The second theory known as the empiricist opposes the fist theory. It argues that there is enough information that can develop the linguistic domain of a child and not LAD. Empiricist believes that brain process is sufficient enough for language development in babies. For a child to acquire language fast, then engagement with environment more often is needed in order to stimulate the rate of development. It recommends a child- directed speech (SDS), which involves the care giver or the parent communicating with the child in appropriate and particular way. After all these have happened the child is prepared in mastering the language to be used. Mastering a language in early years of life It is a stage that is associated with window in human houses. Window of opportunity or critical period shows that the innate traits that drives human in language acquisition fails to develop at some point. Therefore they should be aroused at the early stage to rule out that late ability to prevent it from occurring. For example if a bird grows without experiencing others singing, they wont do the same in future since that period will have passed them. Therefore considering window of opportunity rule to human beings in language acquisition ability, Lenneberge guessed that if the baby is not exposed to early learning of the intended language then mastering of the language denied, full acquisition will be difficult even if remedies are put in place to help curb the situation. The window opportunity is seen dependent on environment hence inseparable. If the environment fail to trigger childs language instinct, then in due time the window opportunity eventually closes and the baby misses a chance to learn how to speak. Feral children from Latin meaning ferrous or wild are those kinds of children who have been deprived of language and have not been allowed to interact with human beings2. Examples are the Indian girls Kamala and Amala who were found in wolf den; Genie, the little girl who was kept in isolation by her furious parents and other children were kept away from interaction with human beings failed to develop speech. It was so because their window opportunities had been closed and thus they could not acquire language. It was noted that feral children had difficulty mastering grammar. They never developed full endings of words and syntax of their mother tongue despite their ability to acquire the language to an extent. Therefore all these events will depend on environmental input to help the individual go through the stage well. The timing of the experiences also is key feature in learning the adaptations. Acquisition of formal language in school age children This stage takes different approaches depending on the child’s mastery of the first language in the early years. It takes place after learning of the native language had completed. The most emphasized area in defining second language acquisition is that it take place in the context at which that language is spoken. For example native Dutch speakers who are learning English in USA or native Japanese learning Chinese. The learning of second language does not necessarily need to take place in a classroom context. The learning of this second language occurs in environments where the non-natives have got full access to the speakers. It requires the people involved to first understand the difference occurring between the first language and the second language. The second language also depends heavily on learning experiences in more structured settings associated with classroom or formal setting. The stage is explained using three models. They include universal grammar model, completion model and monitor model. The first model involves a system of principles, conditions and rules that are elements and properties of human language. The second model is built on assumptions of natural language created to communicate. The third model is mostly used in school settings. Emergent literacy which takes about reading skills in children through an understanding of language Emergent literacy are experiences that the children begin to develop ideas about how written a language does its job and what they do before they start decoding the print. These skills develop mainly out of literacy interactions. It involves aspects such as phonological awareness making the child realize that words can be broken into smaller units. Print concept aspect involves understanding that print can be read in the same way during repetition, letters make up words and orientation of books from left to right3. Alphabet knowledge perspective involves knowing sounds and names of letters those in capital or small. The last aspect literature language involves familiarity with conventional language used in tales eg once upon a time and being able to understand decontextualized language. At this stage the child is able to listen to books read by adults. At this time the child learns by association and continuous engagement in what they see people doing. Other activities like watching tvs, listening to radios and social interaction by playing also help them develop their creativity skills. Conclusion. In conclusion the three aspects discussed above cannot be studied in isolation of another. It is because after each ending one seems to show up. Therefore for a child to acquire language the respective elements should play their roles for the holistic development of the child. Work Cited Bot, K., and W. Schrauf. Language Development over the Lifespan,New York, NY: Routledge,2009, Gullberg, M., and K. Bot. Gestures in Language Development. Philadelphia,John Benjamins Publishing. 2010 Sigelman, C.K... Life-Span Human Development, Canada: Cengage Learning. 20110 Read More