Critical Period of Language Acquisition - Essay Example

Critical period of language acquisition Introduction Since the origination of humans, the languages used by them to communicate co-developed and co-evolved with them. That is, the languages developed, without any separate initiatives or external forces, as part of a natural ‘growth’. So, even though, humans acquire languages naturally through out their lives, there is a critical period during which language acquisition will be at an optimum level. That critical period will be the childhood. For any child, the early childhood years are crucial for their overall development. That is, in those early years only they will learn a lot, and are also needed to be taught a lot about various concepts and aspects. Apart from the small things or concepts taught by the parents, siblings, schools, etc, etc as part of life’s and academic education, the children will tend to learn many things on their own. The children using their brains and other sense organs will learn from the environment, the things they handle, the images they see, and importantly the words they hear, etc. So, the crucial formative years only functions as a perfect setting for the child to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and also vocally. Vocally in the sense, they will develop the ability to acquire multiple languages and speak in them. But, as the child grows, the ‘plasticity’ of the brain to acquire languages tends to weaken. So, this paper will discuss why the brain appears to lose its plasticity for language, from different angles. Neurological Even though, the vocal box, and other vocal and auditory organs only help the humans to listen, speak and thereby acquire languages, the brain only plays an omnipresent role in all the process. That is, when children hear languages in the form of sounds, their brain, which will be in the developing stage, will try to form patterns and importantly will try to reproduce it. And only when the child’s brain develops further the formation of pattern will accelerate, resulting in seamless reproduction and also own creation of sounds and languages. “… before babies utters their first slobbery syllable, they have been hard at work mentally calculating the statistical nuances of their parents language. Not only are babies capable of deciphering sounds, she said, but they also can map how the individual sounds are combined, how syllables are stressed, and what the intonation qualities are--"all by the time they celebrate their first birthday (NIDCD). So, the bottom line is, in the critical period of language acquisition, the brains plays a crucial role. As Santrock (2007) points out, Noam Chomsky, the well known philosopher, also opined that language acquisition is innate, rapid, development that happens in regions of the brain. So, a child even without parental guidance instinctively acquires all the grammatical and syntactical rules of spoken language, and thus learns a language. “In brain science…speech is grasped as "the brain function module", while… language is incorporated in the brain system as an independent module form like modules such as perception, memory, consciousness, and are formed as independent modules. Simultaneously, they are interconnected and work interactively” (Onda and Matsuishi, 2003). But at the same time, this ability disappears among the children at school age. The ability or “device” of the child to acquire languages disappears in the school stages mainly due to the deterioration of pathways and tracts in the brain regions. Further, Chomsky noticed that the different periods of language acquisition are common, regardless of the language spoken, and he explained this commonality across time and geography (Santrock, 2007). So, due to the brains’ evolution or deterioration or reduction in plasticity, the critical period of acquisition gets narrowed down, leading to the deterioration in the acquisition procedure.. Home Language Environment (HLE) HLE for children is determined by the role played by the home and parents, particularly by mothers as they are the singular most important transmitter of language. Mother’s role is important because children spend most of their formative years with their mothers, including their ‘creative’ months in the womb, where itself they will start the language acquisition processes in a minimal way. “They may begin to learn in the womb. We know that they react to their mothers voices from birth - they have been listening to her over the last three months of pregnancy” (Mason). So, the language and the resultant culture that gets formed from infancy through preschool, is determined by the home environment in which the child lives, particularly his/hers’ interactions with their mother. For example, Huttenlocher and her team (as cited in Santrock, 2007) observed that infants whose mothers spoke more often to them during their infancy, had noticeably larger vocabularies when they grew up. This notion was proved in an experiment with 22 toddlers and their mothers conducted by Huttenlocher and her team. Other studies have also confirmed this notion and have associated HLE to the acquisition of syntax among the children in their early years (Santrock). Even, Illiterate mothers also do an excellent job of communicating with their babies and leading them on to normal speech-language acquisition (Karanth). The other aspect, which Santrock notes is that speeches directed at child helps to focus the infants’ attention and also to maintain their communication. The end product or the success of HLE is that, it creates a large vocabulary and thorough acquisition of language in children in their earlier ages. Also, this aspect has many parts including preparing the children to read, write, and spell at earlier ages. But, now due to the changes or demands of life, most of the children are deprived of the physical presence and care of parents including mothers. This has led to the reduction in the plasticity of the brain to acquire new languages. That is, due to the competitive world, both the parents are occupied is some jobs and this puts the children isolated or mostly in the company of other children or third persons in daycare centers. So, the mothers’ role in the development of languages gets diminished, leading to poor acquisition of language. Genetic Genetics also plays an important role in the process of language acquisition. That is, the physical arrangement, makeup and capability of all language related organs including brain are based on genetics. “It seems most likely that our brains have some type of hard wired language module, which is genetically programmed” (Brainskills.co.uk). Noam Chomsky gave a new perspective to this genetic connection by proposing that children are born with a genetic mechanism for the acquisition of language, which he called a "Language Acquisition Device" (LAD). He claimed that the LAD was wired with language universals, and equipped with a mechanism that allowed children to make complex guesses about what they hear around them (cogeco.ca). But, on the other hand, because of this genetic connection only, the ability of children to acquire new languages deteriorates, with brain being the main victim. That is, genetics related factors like hormonal clocks of puberty, climacteric, menopause, and the DNA-timing devices have an indirect affect on the functioning of the brain and thereby cause the deterioration of its plasticity. That is, Chomsky’s disappearing language “device” is mainly due to the action of autosomal dominant genes on somatic chromosomes, with DNA-timing suppressors playing a crucial role. The DNA-timing suppressors are actually activated by decreased concentrations of histones, transcription factors, etc, which are evident in children in their early school years. Also, the gene, chr7, has been reported to play a crucial role in speech disorders (Lia, Fisher, Hurst, Vargha-Khadem, and Monaco, 2001). The reason and the pattern for this inherited disorder are mainly due to autosomal dominance. So, the plasticity of the brain to acquire new languages gets impeded by genetic factors. Education Education also plays an important role in the acquisition of language among children during their school years, with the school teachers mainly helping them to acquire spoken and reading skills. “Early childhood education teachers need to plan and implement a play-based program that provides children with opportunities to test and communicate their ideas and feelings, and to talk about experiences that are meaningful and relevant to them” (Wilson and Rubin, 2001). Through spoken skills, they communicate a lot developing the vocabulary. Then, through reading, the children advance in grammar, writing and spelling (Santrock, 2007). So, through spoken and reading skills, they begin to view the world as self, which is in relation to others, and also understand that others have separate existences from themselves (Santrock). This improves their language acquisition very much and there will be visible improvement. “The rate of vocabulary acquisition definitely does accelerate in the third year and beyond: a plausible estimate would be an average of 10 words a day during pre-school and elementary school years” (ling.upenn.edu). Thus, education contributes to create moral and intellectual courage, character and reflective awareness of self and others among the children. But, this acquisition of language in School, as part of education, also stops affecting the plasticity of the brain. That is, when the children go to high school, their mind will be affected by various other issues and that will impede the path. Also, when the medium of teaching becomes difficult for the children to grasp, the language acquisition will get derailed. “It is extremely difficult for children who do not understand what their teachers are explaining to do well in school. Language acquisition services open the door to academic excellence for LEP students and, by preventing academic failure, benefit our society as a whole” (PTA). So, it is clear that different aspects like Neurology, Home environment, genetics and education only play a very important role in the functioning of the brain and thereby acquisition of language. Recent brain researches also clearly indicate that young children have a natural aptitude for language development and acquisition. And as the children are attitudinally more receptive to learning languages, they will be developmentally at a critical period for language acquisition (CTCOLT). Reference: Brainskills.co.uk. How Does Language Acquisition Happen? Retrieved January 29, 2008 from http://www.brainskills.co.uk/HowDoesLanuageAcquisitionHappen.html cogeco.ca. Theories of Child Language Acquisition. Retrieved January 27, 2008 from http://home.cogeco.ca/~monicafitz/theories.htm CTCOLT. Second Language Acquisition in the elementary School. Retrieved January 27, 2008 from http://www.ctcolt.org/second%20language.htm Enard W. et al. (2002, August).Molecular evolution of FOXP2, a gene involved in speech and language. Nature, Vol. 418, 869-871. Karanth, P. (2000). Empowerment of Mothers of the Hearing Impaired Children in CBR Programmes. Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal. Vol. 10. Lai, C.S.L., Fisher, S.E., Hurst, J.A., Vargha-Khadem, F . & Monaco, A.P. (2001, October). A forked-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature, 413, 519-522. ling.upenn.edu. Stages of language acquisition in children. Retrieved January 29, 2008 from http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2003/ling001/acquisition.html Mason, T. Lecture 2: The Evidence from Neurology and from First Language Acquisition: Evidence from mother-tongue acquisition. Retrieved January 29, 2008 from http://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/Licence/CM/OldLectures /L2_neurology.htm NIDCD. (2002, April). New Lessons in How Brain Acquires Language Offered at Seminar. Retrieved January 29, 2008 from http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/news/releases/02/6_14_02.htm Onda, Y and Matsuishi, T. (2003). Language and Brain-Reading Kuniyoshi Sakais Language and Brain Science. Retrieved January 27, 2008 from http://www.matsuishi-lab.org/languagebrainJ-E(final).htm PTA. Language Acquisition. Retrieved January 29, 2008 from http://www.pta.org/ia_pta_positions_1118175994328.html Santrock, J.W. (2007). Life-span development (3rd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill Watkins K. E., Dronkers N. F. & Vargha-Khadem F. (2002, March) Behavioural analysis of an inherited speech and language disorder: comparison with acquired aphasia. Brain, Vol. 125, No. 3, 452-464 Wilson, L and Rubin, C.R. (2001). Encouraging Language Acquisition in Young Children. Retrieved January 27, 2008 from http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/cccf/rs031_en.htm Read More