LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Language refers to a form of communication in which we learn to use complex rules to form and manipulate symbols (words or gestures) that are to generate an endless number meaningful sentences. The growth and development in speech, vocabulary, length of responses are some of the important aspects of language development. The vocabulary of children in the beginning is too limited. There is continuous increase in the size of one’s vocabulary during childhood. Later on, as a result of pressure of needs and learning, the vocabulary goes on developing.

Meaning and significance

The major characteristics that distinguish between human beings from animals is their ability to use language. Speech is the most important form of communication. Communication has six forms: 1. Speech            2. Facial and bodily movements       3. Touch       4. Sign language used by the deaf   5. Arts such as music, dance, painting etc. and  6. Written symbols of words.

Sequence of Language Development:

1.     At birth language is particularly absent

2.     Around 4 weeks -  small throaty sounds are noticed

3.     Around 16 weeks – cry, smile, cooing etc.

4.     Around 28 weeks – babbling stage begins

5.     Around 40 weeks – try to imitate others sound

6.     Around 52 weeks – says two or more words

7.     Around 18 months – baby combines words to from basic sentences

8.     Around 24 months – baby uses simple phrases and understands simple directions

9.     Around 36 months – Talks in sentences, answer simple questions

10.   Around 4 years – use conjunctions and prepositions

11.          Around 5 years – speaks without infantile articulations

Theories of Language Development

In the 1950’s two theories of language acquisition were developed that took opposing views: behaviourism (language develops as a result of environmental influences) and nativism (language development is inborn and innate).  Of  the different views on language development, those proposed by Chomsky and Vygotsky calls for special attention.

CHOMSKY’S VIEW ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Noam Chomsky, the great twentieth century American Linguistic, posited that children are born with a powerful language acquisition device (LAD) which represents a knowledge of universal grammar or grammar of all human languages. The LAD processes the linguistic input or the language to which a child is exposed and intelligently tests several hypothesis about the nature of the input to quickly and efficiently come up with the knowledge of the rules or grammar of that language.

According to Chomsky, language is being constructed. The primary form of language is stored in human brain. What is to be done is to enable the child to make use of that and acquire knowledge. The main function of language is communication of ideas. We perceive language as the ability to comprehend and speak ideas. 

Chomsky’s Theoretical Constructs

The important theoretical constructs postulated by Chomsky for explaining his views on linguistic development in children are the following:

1. Language Acquisition Device: [LAD]   It is a neural system of the brain hypothesized to permit understanding of language.  According to Chomsky all human beings are born with an innate predisposition (latent tendency) to learn a language fluently, and this predisposition is encased in our biological make-up. This innate, language ability that facilitate the acquisition of language in man is called the Language Acquisition Device. The LAD processes and shapes the primary linguistic data received by the child from the environment and enables him to acquire ideas about the rules of language as applied to one’s own language without being aware of.

2. Universal Grammar:  Chomsky held that all languages of the world have the same basic underlying grammatic structure, and the specific languages have rules that transform these underlying structures into the specific patterns found in given languages. According to Chomsky, all languages have the same basic underlying grammatic structures and principles, which he called Universal Grammar, i.e. all languages of the world share similar characteristics of using nouns, verbs, pronouns, though not necessarily in a similar order.

3. Generative Grammar:       Chomsky defined generative grammar as a finite (limited)  set of rules operating on a finite vocabulary to generate an infinite number of acceptable grammatical sentences and no un-acceptable ones. So, from a small number of words, using ‘some rules’, the child can create a vast number of words or sentences. 

Language Acquisition Through Universal Grammar

According to Chomsky children are born with a special biological brain mechanism to learn languages, which he called Language Acquisition Device.  Chomsky opined that despite many superficial differences found in the surface structure of different languages of the world, they have the same basic underlying grammatic structures and principles, which he called Universal Grammar, i.e. all languages of the world share similar characteristics of using nouns, verbs, pronouns, though not necessarily in a similar order.

 All children go through a critical learning period in the first three years of their life during which the child’s LAD is active. It accepts the primary linguistic data from the environment as input, processes and transforms it with the help of the Universal Grammar structures, and generate as an output grammar of the language from which the data have been drawn.  In this process, the infant acts as a little linguist trying to figure out the set of abstract rules which generate the sentences that are heard. Chomsky maintains that the extraction of these rules is possible only if the child already knows their basic nature, i.e.  he has  a LAD which contains knowledge of universal grammar.

During language acquisition, the universal grammar develops into a particular grammar of the language that the child is exposed to, i.e. his native language. The children then extracts and acquires the rules of that language. 

Chomsky’s View of Language Acquisition

According to Chomsky, language acquisition is not a process of imitation, but it is a creative process that involves the creation and reliance on a rule system. For example, the English children go through a period in which they produce past tense forms such as ‘goed’ (past tense of  go) and ‘comed’ (past tense of come) rather than went and came. Such forms are very infrequent in the children’s input. Here the child incorrectly applies the regular rules of past tense formation. This indicate that language acquisition involves the development of a rule-based system, a defining feature of generative grammar.  

Normal language development involves a number of well defined stages. The basic lexical (Dictionary word) and grammatical properties are all acquired within the first three years.  At 6-8 months children start to babble, at 10-12 months they speak their first words and at 20-24 months they begin to put words together. When they are between 2 and 3 years they produce simple sentences with infinite verbal forms.

VYGOTSKY’S VIEW ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Lev Vygotsky was born in 1896. He studied at the University of Moscow and though he received a degree in law, he became a teacher of literature. Vygotsky’s interest in language and literature blended with his interest in psychology and lead him to theorize about language / cognitive development in children. His theory is known as Social Constructivism. He hypothesized that development of inner speech in children developed in the same manner as all other mental processes. According to Vygotsky language develops not from the individual to the social, but from the social to the individual. The earliest speech of the child is essentially social. He argues that language in the form of private speech guides cognitive development. If we closely observe children engaged in play it can be noted that they often talk themselves as they play – Psychologists call this phenomenon as Private speech.  Through social interaction and with the help of the society the child acquire knowledge and new ways and means  of behaviour.  Thus the culture of the society acted as an important instrument of the language development. Culture is reflected in language; as language is an instrument to transmit culture form one generation to the other. STAGES OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Primitive stage: This stage is characterized by non-intellectual or thoughtless speech. As babies, we goo and gah and cry and babble. These are examples of the primitive stage of language development. The sounds produced serve no real purpose except to produce the sound. The baby may make sounds without producing speech.   Naïve stage : (lack of experience in life) As the child begins to speak, he learns how to say words far before he learns their meaning and function.   An example of this manifestation is “ball”. To the child this one word can mean a variety of things such as “where is my ball”, “give me the ball”, etc. To an adult with an established knowledge of language, this word refers to a child’s toy, but to a child’s  though it can have various meanings. As the child develops and gains understanding of new words, he begins to produce naïve sentences like “where ball” and “where is the ball.” The child uses these structures without any understanding of how to put a sentence together or why the words must go in that order.  He only knows that when the words are said in a certain way, others understand his meaning.    Ego-centric stage or (External Stage): During the external stage the child begins to use external objects to represent words. For example, the child uses flash cards, objects, or fingers when counting. Another example is the use of his name to remember letters and the sounds they make.  The most interesting event is the beginning of egocentric speech. The child will talk to himself when there is no one else around and also during play with others. This is the child’s verbalization of thought. In-growth stage: As the child’s egocentric speech turns inward, he enters the final stage. He uses the skills he has acquired to perform logical tasks internally. Rather than counting aloud, he will count “in his head” using part of his short term memory.