Language

This week has been spent discussing how children learn language. This is a particularly interesting topic for me. I have always wondered how we acquire what we know about language. Are we destined to learn language? We have focused on several viewpoints, including the nativist, behvaiorist, and new approaches that find a compromise between the two. I believe that a compromise between the two views appears most accurate when examining language. It wouldn’t make sense thinking that language was only part of nature because that view completely denies the large role language plays as a social construct. While I do believe that certain aspects of language are inherent and innate, there are other parts that are learned through culture and experiences within one’s environment. When learning new words or how to use those words children look to their parents to provide them with the proper social cues utilizing their ability to social reference. The study by Baldwin found that when mentioning a new word that children haven’t heard before they follow the gaze of the person who is talking. This suggests that children use their parents as a referencing tool and know that whatever a person is talking about they are most likely looking at it as well.

I found all of the information this week particularly interesting because I can directly apply it to my life. My friend has daughter who recently turned two and she doesn’t talk much, in fact she rarely talks at all. She knows single words, but hasn’t reached that point in which she strings at least two of them together. Her favorite words happen to be stop, no, open, and push. We are currently trying to teach her to use her words instead of pointing, while trying to teach her words for other objects. She appears to understand what we are saying when we ask her to do something, but for some reason she just won’t use her words. Something I took from last lecture that I think will greatly help my friend in his quest is to use follow in labeling, as well as making sure that whatever he is referring to he should be looking at.

I have a question about the Nicaraguan sign language. It was stated that it started out as home signs that the children developed themselves within their homes to help them communicate with their family. However, I would think that these home signs weren’t simply of the child’s construct. Wouldn’t the parents and those around them have played a role in their child’s home signs? Those around the children would have to know what they meant when certain signs were used so possibly they aided in creating those signs. And if this was the case than the pidgin becoming a creole was influenced by social factors.