Aspects of Language Development.
Human language is an important aspect of communication which is placed apart from other systems of communication in two different ways: it is syntactic, and it is learned. Language is a cognitive skill that is essential to human communication. Without language, life would be very different. Children learn their native language with ease while they are still young, even though some other adults would learn their second language with greater difficulty at their later age.
Language is therefore learned and it is not innate. According to Behaviorist B.F Skinner (1957), he claims that language is learned due to human behaviors and their response to a subjected stimulus. Imitation is a process is language development. When a child is learning their first language, they must receive positive feedback when he makes the correct utterance. This feedbacks are expected to make a strong reinforcement in developing positive behavior. This is because it is believed that we are born with a blank slate that is known as a tabula rasa. Children learn language based on behaviorist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings. Correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words and phrases.
On the other side, nativist linguists called Naomy Chomsky also argued that the idea that humans are born with a Language Acquisition Device that enables the children to learn a grammar of a language and the innate grammar called Universal Grammar. This is activated during the first language acquisition and the stages of grammar. Stages of language acquisition follow some sequence and duration across all the language developments. Language can be too complex to be learned by the use of environmental linguistics exposure alone. Incorrect utterance and linguistic inputs can be heard in the first learning language of the children. The child acquires the correct set of utterance rules for the language they will learn from innateness and without the support of the environments.
On Chomsky’s view, the language faculty contains innate knowledge of various linguistic guidelines, constraints, and principles; this innate knowledge constitutes the ‘initial state’ of the language faculty. In interaction with one’s experiences of language during childhood means that, with one’s exposure to what Chomsky calls the ‘primary linguistic data it gives rise to a new body of linguistic knowledge, namely, knowledge of a specific language. This is the final state of the language faculty constitutes one’s linguistic competence and includes knowledge of the grammar of one’s language. This knowledge, according to Chomsky, is essential to our ability to speak and understand a language.
This makes me believe that language is learned and not innate. The stimulus is a good response to gauge human behavior. Language development is an imitation process whereby a child can be impressed by the positive feedback that he got from the correct utterance and negative one when he makes a mistake. This means therefore, positive behaviors reinforce good behavior in support of the language and negative feedbacks when a child makes a mistake hence language learned will not be improved.
Language is entirely learning process. Our bodies have, most likely in response to our ancestor’s use of language, developed very intricate organs for use in language: Our vocal cords and ears. These allow us to perceive and use spoken language, which in turn has been supplemented by symbolic language. Our dependency on communication has forced those without the natural ability to construct complex substitutes like sign language. However, theoretically, a human being can live all its life without ever developing any language, because it is a skill learned.
In conclusion, therefore, the concept of innate and learned language developmental is reasonable in that, language is not just another skill that is just learned in the same way that a general-purpose computer can run any program, but also times has an inborn ability to respond to the stimulus of the environment automatically. Our bodies, particularly throats and brains, are highly adapted and specialized to the tasks of language that are learned within a given period in a countless generation of children’s developments.
References
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