Chapter 1. Language Acquisition in Young Children

Synopsis

Pauline Davey Zeece, University of Nebraska – Lincoln

^{This boy is signing "I Love You" in American Sign Language to his infant brother.}

The Science of Human Development

Research and the Scientific Method

^{This researcher has created an experiment for children that will allow her to gather data that will prove or disprove her hypothesis.}

To attempt to deal with the distortions of personal opinions and biases, researchers rely on the scientific method, a technique for answering questions that requires empirical research and data-based conclusions. The scientific method includes four steps:

1. Ask a question.

2. Develop a hypothesis, which is a specific prediction to be tested.

3. Test the hypothesis to provide empirical evidence about the validity or falsehood of the hypothesis.

4. Draw conclusions to support or refute the hypothesis.

The Nature/Nurture Debate

Many of the research questions presented by those who study children and adolescents are inspired by or nested within developmental theories. These theories connect facts and observations with patterns and explanations. They guide hypotheses, generate discoveries, and often provide the basis of practice guidance.

At the heart of many developmental theories is the nature versus nurture controversy that focuses on whether heredity (nature) or the environment (nurture) has a greater influence on a particular feature of development. The view has swung back and forth over time regarding the amount of influence that either nature or nurture has on a wide range of developmental traits. Today, it is commonly accepted that most aspects of a child’s or adolescent’s development are products of the interaction of both nurture and nature. Advocates of each side of this question introduce theories for how either nature or nurture impacts development (Clark, 2003). Consider how these different advocates would explain children’s language acquisition, which is the process by which language capacity develops in a child.

As an introduction to the topic of language acquisition, play the two videos on this screen.

Language Acquisition: A Nurture View

A major proponent of the position that language acquisition depends largely on environment (nurture) was the behaviorist B. F. Skinner, who theorized that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events as well as by imitating others. In particular, adults play an important role in language acquisition by speaking to children in a slow, grammatical, and repetitive way. In turn, children discern patterns in language and experiment with speech gradually through interaction with their speaking world.

Language Acquisition: A Nature View

Noam Chomsky theorizes that parts of the brain have evolved over time specifically for the purpose of producing, organizing, and understanding language. According to this theory, there is an assumption that all languages have a common, essential structural basis and set of rules and that children are born with an innate propensity for language acquisition. This propensity allows children to decipher what is and is not possible in the grammar of their native language and to master that grammar by the age of about three years old. This inborn ability to grasp the rules of language is known as universal grammar. Today, researchers continue to theorize about how language evolves.

Play the two video clips to hear Noam Chomsky discuss his theory of language acquisition. Pay particular attention to his position on the nature/nurture controversy.

Language Acquisition: A Nature View (continued)

Lessons from the Silence: Nicaraguan Sign Language

Before the 1970s, most deaf children in Nicaragua were homebound and isolated from others who could not hear. In 1981, a vocational school opened in Managua, and deaf children were permitted to attend. Upon exposure to their deaf peers, these previously secluded children began to communicate with one another using a rudimentary set of gestures. With each generation of students, these gestures evolved from crude and pantomime-like movements into a more sophisticated sign language (referred to as Nicaraguan Sign Language or NSL). In spite of its organic evolution in a rather insular community, NSL demonstrates characteristics found in nearly all other spoken and signed languages.

Dr. Ann Senghas and her colleagues (2004) reported that the deaf Nicaraguan children at the Managua school developed distinct signs to signify movement and direction. This distinction is especially significant because this child-created sign language mirrors a distinction that also appears in spoken language. Based on her research, she concluded that these children instinctively broke information into small chunks for signing. This strategy provided great flexibility. The deaf students were able to string these small chunks back together in order to form sentences with a wide range of meaning. This feature of the spontaneously-generated NSL is similar to all spoken and signed languages throughout the world. Her findings suggest that there is an instinctive component to the way in which language is learned.

Play all three videos to see Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) in action.

Assessment: Check Your Understanding

Assessment: Check Your Understanding

Assessment: Check Your Understanding

Assessment: Check Your Understanding