Complexity of language acquisition

Language development in infancy is by far the most intriguing aspect of cognitive development. Infants must use very unfamiliar information from their environment, in this case language, and break it into pieces, parts, rules, meanings, process it, categorize it, and eventually use it to adapt to their surroundings. Because this process contains so many complex parts it seems amazing that language development occurs so rapidly and at such a young age. We have discussed in lecture that although infants’ capacity to learn is very high the amount at which they can learn at a single instance is much slower and more tedious than adults. Plausible research has also shown that a critical period may exist between birth and adolescence, in which an infants’ ability to acquire language skills (i.e. naïve physics) is at a heightened rate. Because of their limited capacity for learning from their environment it seems unusual that that critical period would exist during this time.

Another interesting idea about infant language acquisition is how infants are able to learn such a complex system of symbols when their existing knowledge about the world is so limited. As we know babies are not smart! Just the ability to learn the syntax of sentences and morphology of words is in itself an intricate and multifaceted process. There is something about the necessity and purpose of language that seems to force a difficult process, like language acquisition, to occur during a period of life when knowledge their knowledge system is basic and simple. Because of this reasoning I tend to agree that a deep and innate existence of some type of language structure exists within us from the time we are born. This is not to say that we know how to comprehend and produce language at birth. But I do believe that an innate structure containing a body of mechanisms is responsible for our ability to rapidly learn language and all its profound parts. This mechanism is like a sponge and when we dip the sponge into water it immediately sucks up all the water is can hold. Language is the water to the sponge.

The bottom line is, infants could not adapt and survive in their environment without the ability to communicate their needs. Later in early adolescence, without language, infants would have a hard time establishing connections and relationships with others around them. After all, social relationships with parents, family, and friends are one of the most important aspects of an individuals’ identity in life. Although research cannot explain exactly how the acquisition of knowledge occurs it seems there is an endless number of possibilities for why knowledge is one of the most critical and fascinating parts of cognitive development.