How Do Humans Learn Language?

How do humans learn language?

Language is in our lives as soon as we are born. Children learn it without any thought whatsoever.

Children learn language from their parents/caregivers. They learn language by adult expectations and model their behaviour by what is going on around them. Children then learn how to function right in their environment, and know how to use body language, and when it is okay to say something appropriate. Children learn a lot by listening to their parents/caregivers, and this is a great way how to learn language.

The way that children learn how to speak has quite a few steps involved. First is babbling (no talking as such), single words (for instance cat, dog etc.), followed by requests/questions, then linking words together (or known as two words), and as time goes on, more complicated sentence structures.

When a child is learning to speak, the child will find it easier to understand you if you simplify your speech so that you can build upon their learning. When a child is learning a language, they will learn 8000 words per year on average. When the child is five years of age, they will already know 5000 words.

There are a few features of child language. One of the features is that sounds and structures of words aren’t well-formed. This is a bridge that all children need to cross as they grow older. As a child is developing language skills, they are exposed to quite a lot of sounds that they will eventually learn. This does take time, and patience, but they learn from their parents/caregivers and this helps dramatically in child language acquisition.

In a child’s developing brain, language comes from the left hemisphere of the brain. This is evident in studies done by scientists.

When children learn language, the strategies they use are quite useful and evident. Children can learn words from past experience, or they learn in stages (for instance, we walk before we run). This seems quite logical, as children learn language very slowly. Children learn language at different rates to others, but this is normal, as each child has different learning capabilities. Children will not learn what they are not ready for, so they will go at their own pace. Children are only competing with themselves to learn language.

Speech and language are two different things. Language is an intellectual ability, while speech is a physical ability. There’s nothing wrong with someone’s language if they stutter, because it is a physical thing, not intellectual.

Language is just a tool that helps people get through life and gets things done for them. Children don’t really know this, so children will discover language their own way and discover new things in life.

Bibliography:

http://linguistlist.org/ask-ling/lang-acq.cfm#individual

“Why Do We Talk” – Documentary on SBS – 2010

Damara Pearson - 1B