Language, Biology and Learning

Language, Biology and Learning

1. First language acquisition

   • Child language development
     • Early exposition is vital for a child's development of speech
       • It seems this exposition triggers our biological mechanisms capable of processing and producing language.
         • From an early age, children are capable of categorical perception, distinguishing sounds and emotions.
           • They can master the syntax of their mother tongue by the age of five
       • Critical Period Hypothesis
         • The more time without exposition and use, the more difficult it is to learn a language.
         • Brain plasticity facilitates language learning, but it stops as the person becomes older.
       • Theoretical perspectives
         • Both innateness hypothesis and statistical learning theory prove that we are naturally wired to acquire first and second languages
           • Children internalize their own rules along the way before internalizing those of the adult language system
             • We language mediators help them make the necessary corrections.
         • Lexical priming
           • Children store in their minds different patterns and word combinations, which will be used according to the communicative need.
     • Early initation of social exchange is also vital.
       • Using child-directed speech
       • It is necessary to provide gradual yet constant language exposure to learners
         • Starting from simple to more complex units
       • Language is both experience and socially dependent.

2. The brain and language

   • Our brain provides healthy people with the ability to understand language, process it and also communicate with others.
   • we have unique anatomic configuration for language expression, such as the position of our larynx and a flexible tongue.
   • Damage to the brain can can affect language such as Broca’s aphasia (syntactic difficulty) and Wernicke’s Aphasia (loss of the ability to use and understand lexis).
   • Different from animal communication, we are capable of possessing large amounts of vocabulary, memory associations and varied phrasal syntax.

3. Bilingualism and second language development

   • There are similarities between monolingual and bilingual language development
     • Such as onset of babbling, first words, and rate of vocabulary growth.
     • Similar pragmatic abilities, too.
   • The bilingual child exhibits code-mixing and transfer effects from one language to another
   • Benefits of a bilingual child
     • They understand the world from two linguistic and cultural perspectives. Brain structure is also expanded.
       • Our use of a second language also marks our identity.
   • For adults, it is difficult to attain native-like proficiency levels.
     • They cannot achieve in ways that young learners can.
       • However, adults can achieve high levels of literacy in a second language.
         • It is not just the age. Motivation and amount of contact with the second language affect attainement
           • Second language learning is both a social and cognitive process.
     • Is it necessary?