Are Children Born with an Innate Ability to Acquire Language

Are Children Born with an Innate Ability to Acquire Language Humans ability to use language is essential and many believe it to be the sole ability that seperates us from all other mammals (Chomsky, 2006 ; Crrystal, 1997 ; Hocket, 1960. The importance for humans to be able to acquire language from a young age is unquestionable, but how we acquire it is under huge debate amongst psychologists and psycholinguists. Nativists such as Chomsky (1959) believe language has an innate basis and this is how we acquire it so quickly and at such a young age, whilst behaviourists believe we acquire language like any other learned behaviour (Skinner, 1957). Another theory in this debate is the social pragmatic theory which states that children create constructions of languages which develop over time (Tomasello, 2003). This essay aims to explore the theories that exist within this debate and therefore examine the support and evidence for each in order to assess if children are in fact born with an innate ability to acquire language. Immitation Perhaps the most simplest theory existing within this debate is the idea that children learn language by imitating adults and modelling their speech based on what they hear others saying. Adults also use child directed speech and therefore talk differently to and around children compared to how they talk around other adults (Cook and Newson, 2007). Many psychologists have also said that this theory is too simplistic to account for language acquisition (Bloom, Hood, and Lightbow 1974, Clark and Clark 1977, Chomsky 1986, and Dale 1976). This theory cannot be ignored though as imitation has been proven to help children acquire an accent (Blades, Cowie and Smith, 2003). Skinner Further support Evidence for the imitation theory comes from Skinner, who founded behaviourism, which claims that any behaviour is learnt from experience and subsequently there is no such thing as an innate ability; this includes the ability to acquire language. In 1957 he claimed that language acquisition was simply a matter of imitation, reinforcement and association therefore we learn language in the same way that Skinner showed how a rat can learn a path in a maze. Support for Skinner comes from Clarke-Stewart (1973) who found that children who experienced a vast amount of spoken languages from their parents had a larger vocabulary compared to those who experiences little spoken language. Chomsky Chomsky however disagrees with Skinner (Chapman and Routledge, 2005) and believed that children are born with an innate knowledge of the structure of language. He called this a language acquisition device (LAD) which is an innate mechanism only in humans which allows us to develop language. (HARTLEY). Chomsky argued that a poverty of the stimulus existed as the language in by which children are surrounded is not rich enough for children to successfully learn language and so they must be helped with the process of acquisition by some form of innate knowledge (HARTLEY). Chomsky (1959) pointed out that children cannot learn by imitation alone as they are able to produce sentences they may have never heard before and this is one of the major flaws of behaviourism. Children use grammar to construct these new sentences by using grammatical rules, this also means they can identify when they produce ungrammatical sentences and can prevent these mistakes from being produced again in the futur e (WHITNEY). Chomsky also noted that all languages have universal grammar or linguistic universals which all humans are programmed to understand and learn quickly early on in life. The theory of Universal Grammar says that all languages have the same basic foundation. As humans were not genetically programmed to speak a particular language so grammar allows us to learn the patterns of a particular language without actually being taught them (WHITNEY). If no one is born knowing a particular language, and were prepared to acquire language, then we must be born with the ability to acquire any language. This is reflected in children of a younger age as it is easier for them to learn a new language than it is for adults. However, this ability to acquire language rapidly must be taken advantage of before puberty, as after this critical period it is much harder for a child to learn how to talk correctly (HARTLEY). Support for Chomsky Like Chomsky, Jill and Peter de Villers (1978) showed that parents use child directed speech when talking to their children, and so if imitation were to be the answer to how we acquire language, children would talk using this motherese language. Support for language acquisition being innate can be taken from a longitudinal study conducted on a 9 year old deaf child called Simon. Researchers studied him from 2 years old and found that despite his parents teaching him incorrect grammar when it comes to in sign language, he was able to sign with correct grammar (http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/01/health/linguists-debate-study-classifying-language-as-innate-human-skill.html). However, this study was only conducted using one child and therefore cannot be seen as representative of the whole population. Dionne, Dale, Bolvin and Plomin, 2003 (Mccartney and Phillips, 2006) conducted a study using same sex twins and found that when they correlated vocabulary and grammar ability, they were equally correlated at ages 2 and 3. This, they believe, suggests that there are genetic factors influencing these abilities and therefore there is a general innate language basis. If language does in fact have an innate basis then language disorders should be inheritable Criticism for Chomsky There are less extreme nativists than Chomsky who say that we are born with language biases allowing us to learn language. This is called the whole object assumption or fast mapping. The acquisition of names for entities belonging to different types and the effect of lexical contrast (Kipp and Shaffer YEAR). Bard and Sachs (1977) reported a study where a child had two deaf parents, despite being surrounded by speech from television and friends he was unable to acquire language until a speech therapist began to work with him around the age of 4. After this he was able to acquire language rather quickly showing there must be some form of innate knowledge that allowed him to acquire languages quickly, however he still needed to be taught how to use language. Gomez and Gerkhen, 1998 (Hoff and Shatz, 2009) reject the idea that language has innate properties. They say that many researchers assume that because language is so complex, it is unlearnable and therefore we must be born with a way of knowing how and when to generalise from the stimuli in which we encounter. Piaget, 1980 (Piaget, Piatelli-Palmarini and Chomsky, 1980) also said because language is complex we cannot assume it has a specific innate basis simply because we acquire it quickly and early on in life. Bloom and Markson (YEAR) pointed out that the focus of most language acquisition research is based on parents teaching children speech. This research is mainly conducted within western cultures, however this is not universal as in some cultures parents dont help their children to learn words, therefore they learn from overheard speech. However these children still develop a good vocabulary. Locke, 1995 believed that all knowledge that rationalists said was innate can actually be learnt through experience. At birth our mind is a tabula rosa on which sensations can influence and determine our future behaviour. Research has been conducted regarding the critical period that Chomsky referred to regarding optimal acquisition of language. Research has shown that if children have not acquired language before puberty then they are not likely to ever fully acquire it, regardless of any innate mechanisms they may hold. If the language acquisition advice truely existed, like Chomsky believed it to, then surely this critical period would not exist, or at least we should be able to acquire language at any age (Hayes, YEAR). Lenneberg Lenneburg (1967) believed in a critical period for language acquisition but that that said that a child must experience spoken language frequently during this critical period in order for language to be fully acquired. After this critical period prior to puberty, the child undergoes several changes which makes it increasingly harder for the child to acquire language. This is also supported by the fact that it is harder for adults to learn a language than it is for children. Social Pragmatic Theory Tomasello (2003) looked away from a specifically innate theory of language acquisition and instead created a construction based approach to how children acquire language; developing from simple to more complex constructions. Bruner (1983) said that almost all language a child acquires is done so through a routine of interaction with adults or more complex speakers than themselves. A child will first learn to understand a persons intentions by sharing goals and therefore enabling the child to know what is going on and why it is happening. This then facilitates joint attention between the child and adult allowing them to both focus on the same object or cultural routine. A cultural routine is an activity or event which occurs frequently in the childs everyday life and so the child is able to predict successfully the shared goals existing in that activity (Tomasello 2008). An experiment conducted by Baldwin 1991, 1993 (Bates and Tomasello, 2001) showed that children are capable of monitoring an adults attentional focus and know that a label refers to an object that the speaker is attending to, even if this object was hidden. At around 16 months children were unable to identify any object, but around 19 months they successfully chose the object the adult was attending to despite this object being hidden from sight. Despite this Atkinson (1982) and Gleitmen et al (1984) believed that the social pragmatic view of how children may acquire language is vague and subsequently does not produce testable theories of language.

What Stress Is Essay -- Impact Stress Physiological Systems

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The purpose of this paper is to define stress and how it effects the body's physiological systems. This paper will include the normal functions and organs involved in the following five physiological systems, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, respiratory, immune and musculoskeletal. This paper will also include a description of a chronic illness associated with each physiological system and how the illness is affected by stress.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Stress means different things to different people and stress effects people in different ways. Some people think stress is something that happens to them such as an injury or a promotion and others think that stress is what happens to our mind, body and behaviors in response to an event. While stress does involve events and how one responds to them these are not the critical factors, but our thoughts about the situation in which we are involved are the critical factors. Essentially, stress exists whenever homeostasis is disturbed or cannot be maintained (Stress and the Social System Course Guide, 2013). Homeostasis refers to the body's ability to keep the internal chemical and physical environments constant. As your body begins to react to stress several changes occur. These changes include increased heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of stimulatory hormones. Ones body prepares itself in stressful situations to either stand ground and fight or to flee from t he situation. Walter Cannon called this stressful reaction the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 2012). There are different ways in which one can experience stress and it is important to remember that stress is an essential part of life. Not all stressful situations are negative. Receiving a promotion at work, the birth of a child or taking a trip can all be stressful but are not threatening. The reason why one may see these situations as stressful is because they may feel unprepared to deal with them. To eliminate confusion and misuse of words Hans Selye gave names to the different types of stress one may experience, he described damaging or unpleasant experiences as distress and pleasurable or satisfying experiences are called eustress (Rice, 2012). The next part of this paper will consist of information describing the organs and the normal functions involved in five of the physiological systems in the human body. It will also include one illness... ...ve Stress Management, 6th ed., Dubuque, IA: W. C.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Brown 2012. Kitteredge, Mary. The Respiratory System, New York, NY: Chelsea House Publishing,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2010. Nourse, M. D. Your Immune System, New York, NY: Franklin Watts, 2010. Rice, Phillip L. Stress and Health, 3rd ed., New York, NY: Brooks/Cole, 2013. The American Medical Women's Association. Guide to Cardiovascular Health,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  New York, NY: Dell Publishing, 2009. University of Maryland University College. Course Guide-BEHS 463: Stress and the   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Social System, College Park, MD: International University Consortium, 2009. Weston, M. D. Know Your Body: The Atlas of Anatomy. Berkeley, CA: Marshall   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Cavendish Books Limited, 2005 Internet Sources Balta, D. M. D. (2009). The TMJ: How can Such a Small Joint Cause so Much Trouble?,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  [Online]. Available: http://www.drbalta.com/tmj.htm [11/12/14]. Seattle Education Project. (2013, November). STEP: The Immune System - An   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Overview, [Online]. Available: http://www.thebody.com/step/immune.html [11/12/14]. Byard, Terry & Favian. (2013). The Musculoskeletal System, [Online]. Available: http://www.nutritionhighway.com/skeletalsys.html [11/14/14].

The Endless Shildhood Of Christopher Mccandless English Literature Essay

One of my friends is so annoyed at society that he decides to swim across the Pacific Ocean in the dark with 60 lbs of rice. What would you experience about this friend of mine? Is he a airy, or merely a psycho? Krakauer ‘s book â€Å" Into the Wild † A is a existent narrative about such an highly idealistic immature adult male, Christopher McCandless, who behaved precisely like my friend. McCandless leaves his comfort zone to go through some of those black and bare countries to seek his intimacy to nature as a manner of demoing his ripening. Tragically, he is wounded in Alaska, deep in the forests, and dies in an derelict Fairbanks metropolis coach where he camps out. So does Christopher McCandless truly turn up? Some people regard him as a hero, stating what he did interrupt an unseeable concatenation that sentimentally locks him up, and the load he feels from his parents and society. He goes on to happen his ain manner, though non the same manner as we normally do. Even though he ne'er succeeds, he deserves our regard since one has to hold an tremendous bravery to step out of the safety and the societal parturiency. But what I think, there is nil romantic about him, running off from the universe, wholly unprepared, merely for penalizing his parents and all of those who â€Å" do n't understand † ? His narrative is tragic and thought provoking, non romantic. I merely feel sorry for his household. Krakauer mentioned a batch of similar unattached immature work forces who runs off from their household trusting to happen happiness and peace in the wild, or possibly merely to pull attending. â€Å" Entering the wilderness purposefully ill-prepared, and lasting a near-death experience does non do you a better homo, it makes you curse lucky † . ( Krakauer, page 71 ) Almost to everyone, those are troublesome childs, wholly idealistic, and unprepared to last on their ain. Harmonizing to writers all of them about stop up died in similar state of affairss. Comparing to McCandless and those cats, Wayne Westerberg at the maize factory is what adulthood is truly approximately. For Chris, the poulet in the microwave is a good illustration ; it ‘s the â€Å" romantic † semblance that causes many work forces like Chris to lose their lives. Again like Wayne Westerberg who thinks of and care about everyone, adulthood is about loving and caring for others. Christopher McCandless does non understand the significance of love. He unwisely chooses to walk into the shrubs for a self-destructive decease. After graduation, he disappeared, left his household in choler. Mature people would ne'er make that to others they love, even if they have jobs with them. Would it be that difficult to drop a message, to give a phone call, or merely make anything? Chris could merely state, â€Å" I ‘m still alive, and I ‘ve decided to populate off route for a piece, but I will ever be in touch. â€Å" A Yet he â€Å" gives off a little luck, abandon a loving household, abandoned his auto, ticker and map and burned the last of his money before shleping off into the ‘wilderness ‘ West of Healy † ( Krakauer, page 71 ) , which would merely do his household think something bad had happened. All those actions are non epic, and surely non inspirational. He does n't convey a compass, neither does he brings a elaborate map, but sardonically he chooses to populate in this coach. He can ne'er happen a manner to truly flight from the society. He will merely remain in the charming coach for a short 112 yearss, and die anonymously for that. ( Sparknotes ) He ne'er values his life plenty to hold on merely a few basic accomplishments to last, so how can we state he is mature? What truly inspirational are people or heroes who live in the natural state but still care about people they love. Dick Proenneke is one of them, who started his venture in theA wilderness of Alaska when he was already past 50. He finally used fundamental tools to construct a cabin, ate what he hunted, fished or grown, etc. And he lasted it for 30 old ages. Even though he had a guy bead him supplies, what he did was still truly inspirational. He frequently went back to see his household, sharing his love for the out-of-doorss and adventure.A ( Wikipedia ) Compared with Dick Proenneke, Chris is much more of a cockamamie male child. He has ne'er had a elaborate program to travel back or any supply backup. I ne'er mean to be violative to the McCandless household, but any one with limited resource life in the wild alone is a self-destructive effort, although I ‘m certain they ‘ve ( his household members ) shared with the same ideas. ( Endnotes ) In any dictionary, we can happen similar accounts to the word â€Å" mature † . It is â€Å" one that is to the full developed or ripe. † ( Oxford English Dictionary ) But how can we specify that we are to the full developed? We begin our internal growing the twenty-four hours we come to the Earth. As clip goes by, our experience accumulates, but we still run into new challenges, new troubles and new escapades. We are ne'er experienced plenty to cover with all those fresh things we confront. So, what is existent mature? In my sentiment, to be mature is to act responsibly, to face challenges carefully, and to love people wholeheartedly. Adults are non kids any more. We can non merely state, â€Å" It ‘s non my concern † and escape like a coward when confronting dangers and troubles. There is no room to compromise, but merely to endeavor frontward. We have to cognize what is fear, what may ache us. We have to take into consideration of all the effects and acc ept the worst consequence. When we choose to take the undertaking, no affair how difficult it is, we will lodge to it until we have the right reply. And besides accept it no affair that reply is happy or non. That is what a mature adult male should make, with unagitated attitude and passion. Most of all, a existent mature individual understands the power of love. S/he cares about others, does things in their favour, and even by making that means to scarify him or herself. Whatever he does, he cares about feelings of people around him or his opposite number. Those are my definitions of a mature adult male, a none-perfect but a healthily developed individual. Comparisons to the mature group of people, a just sum of juvenile people in this universe feels that they non necessitate others ‘ love like McCandless. Possibly because they have been turned down when they are small, or possibly they have beenA deridedA with teasing comments. By distancing themselves from others, they are willing to experience the hurting of purdah instead than the hurting of farther, possible rejection. I am ever inquiring how do they shut the spread, either by seeking to detect their ain value, self-respect so that they can accept a new relationship or merely by leting the emptiness of despairing topographic points to protect them from farther hurt? ( Endnotes ) A Sadly, McCandless chooses the 2nd one, wastes his life. â€Å" He tried excessively difficult to do sense of the universe, to calculate out why people were bad to each other so frequently. † ( Krakauer, page18 ) He could hold done something more meaningful with his comfortable life alternati vely of making nil. But he ‘s hunted by an imbecile thought to populate off land in Alaska with every bit small resource as possible. It seems to me every bit amusing as Timothy Treadwell ‘s phantasy life with wild Grizzlies. ( Wikipedia ) There are still a batch of people like Chris today who pays a monetary value for their immatureness. One narrative published last hebdomad on Yahoo intelligence is about the decease of a follower to McCandeless. â€Å" Cavalrymans say 29-year-old Claire Jane Ackermann attempted to traverse the Teklanika River with a 27-year-old adult male from France on Saturday when they lost their terms and were pulled under by the current, and the adult male survived. † ( AP intelligence ) Not until the minute McCandeless realizes â€Å" Happy merely existent when shared † ( Krakauer, page 178 ) does he complete his ultimate transmutation to a responsible mature adult male. But his life shortly ends in tragic, which is a rough duty for him to take. What promising is we readers have seen him eventually grew up even merely before he dies. â€Å" He was ready, possibly, to cast a small of the armour he wore around his bosom, that upon returning to civilisation, he intended to go a member of the human community. † ( Krakauer, Page 179 ) He eventually understands the importance of the function love plays in the mature would. If there is an after-life, we are certain that Chris will understand the significance of adulthood and will be more mature.Sources: 1.Enote Editors. â€Å" Enote on Into the Wild. † Enote.com/ hypertext transfer protocol: //www.enotes.com/into-wild. 2.SparkNotes Editors. â€Å" SparkNote on Into the Wild. † SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 1 Oct. 2010. 3.Yahoo News. â€Å" Swiss adult female drowns in Alaska river near site from the book † / hypertext transfer protocol: //www.journalpioneer.com/Canada — -World/Arts/2010-08-17/article-1679680/Swiss-woman-drowns-in-Alaska-river-near-site-from-book, -movie, -Into-the-Wild/1. 4.Wikipedia Editors. â€Å" Wikipedia on Into The Wild. † Wikipedia.com/ hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_ ( movie ) . 5.Wikipedia Editors. â€Å" Wikipedia on coming of age. † Wikipedia.com/ hypertext transfer protocol: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coming_of_age. degree Fahrenheit

Short Story Alive But Not Living - 1484 Words

Alive but Not Living All around the world, it is believed that men are superior to women. In some countries it is worse than others but nevertheless, almost every woman in the world has or will have to face gender discrimination at least once in her lifetime. In nineteenth-century China, since the day a girl was born, she was taught that she was useless. She was told that as a child, her job was to obey her natal family and as a married woman, it was to obey her husband in-laws. In a remote Hunan County, Lily is a girl who, her whole life, has longed to be loved. However, as a girl and later a woman it was considered wrong of her. At the age of seven, Lily is paired with a laotong or â€Å"old same†Ã¢â‚¬â€an eternal friendship that bonded two girls as kindred sisters who are even closer than a husband and wife. Her laotong, Snow Flower, introduces herself by sending Lily a silk fan where she has written a poem in nu shu, the unique and secret language created by Chinese women. As the years pass, Lily and Snow Flower send messages on the fan and compose stories, on handkerchiefs, to share their hopes, dreams and accomplishments. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See shows the pain, the hardships, and the pressure that girls and women, like Lily and Snow Flower, living in nineteenth century China had to go through because of their culture’s beliefs. In nineteenth century China, almost all girls had to go through the pain of footbinding—a custom in which the toes and arch of theShow MoreRelated The Short Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Essay969 Words   |  4 PagesThe Short Stories of Gabriel Garcia Marquez Short story writer. Novelist. Journalist. Political activist. Nobel Prize winner. Most beloved of 20th century Latin American authors, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born on March 6, 1928, in the small coastal town of Aracataca, Colombia. He published his first story, The Third Resignation, in 1947 and began studying law and journalism. 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