Acquisition of the language

The acquisition of the language is a big step of the development of the Enfant which is generally held between the age S of one and three years. Even if the Apprentissage of the language actually begins well before this age and continues beyond the Early childhood, it is during this period which the transformations of the verbal Communication oral are most remarkable as well in comprehension as in production. Oral language acquisition by the child proceeds in parallel with the development many other cognitive aptitudes and in particular from the Intelligence Symbolique but these evolutions are sometimes dissociated. It is for example the case in the children reached of the Syndrome of Williams who present an oral language relatively good whereas their intellectual performances are lower than the normal.

Stages of language acquisition

  • During human development, the language is preceded by not-verbal means of communication (reciprocal sets of imitations between the mother and the baby for example). Indeed as of the birth (c.a.d as from some minutes after the birth) the baby detects if the people who surround it are interacting with him or not. If it is the case the baby answers and is stimulated by this interaction: it is then about communication préverbale. Thereafter, this not-verbal Communication remains present at the time of the verbal communication: for example one discusses while including oneself/understanding as much better than one looks at one and the other.

  • the possibility of handling linguistic signs does not appear abruptly but is prepared by a work which starts very early. Thus, the Accent of the Native tongue is made hear as of the first prattlings of the child before it can speak truly nor to even pronounce a his having any Signification.

  • language acquisition is done by the means from the five direction: Hearing, Seen, To touch, Sense of smell, and Taste which helps with the structuring of the Cerveau in order to recognize the external stimuli.

The cries of the child

The cries of the Nouveau-né are not yet language, it is only about expressions of faintness or Souffrance without intention of significance or Communication. But if they do not have a direction for the Bébé, its entourage will give some to them. The baby will establish a Lien in his brain between his cries and the sight of the adult , he will use them as signals addressed to its entourage so that it acts on him.

The Prattling

Gradually, the child will recognize the people and will establish a bond between the words which they pronounce and some objects that they indicate. The interaction between the child and these objects will be used as increasingly definite Repère.

Around three months the child includes/understands simple words like dad . It is important to announce here that one of the fundamental factors allowing the development of the communication Linguistique is the not-verbal Communication (imitation, emotional Communication). So that the child speaks it is necessary that it wishes, it is necessary that it is stimulated.

About the fourth month one can hear the first chirps, which corresponds to a complex prattling more . The baby produces initially sounds in an accidental way, it is in general a fort stimulating for the adults interacting with the baby, who comment on the sounds, repeat them, react to it. It is thus the interaction adult-baby itself which is stimulated and thus the baby is strongly incited to persevere. The baby will reproduce certain sounds then regularly and repeated.

Towards the end of the first year, the prattling is clearer and one notes the intentional repetition of some sonorities, the child then has the possibility of pronouncing the first mot.

The first word

It expresses an intention of significance specifies and corresponds truly to the access to the language. There is no privileged word appearing more systematically than others (even if dad and mom is the most frequent words) and the age of appearance ranges between nine and twelve months.

This first word has more significance for the child than it does not have any for the adult, this is why it is qualified sentence word because it does not return only to one object, but to a Action or a Situation.

Example: “Mom” can mean “it arrives”, “this object belongs to him” or “it is its voice which I hear”.

The child wants to thus say some more than it cannot say some, the Intention of significance exceeds the Capacité expression. A word in general has multiple significances which the entourage manages to decode according to the circumstances.

One can thus consider that two principal moments ago in language acquisition:

  • Initially, capacity to articulate some phonemes independently of their significance;

  • In the second time, capacity to relative give them a direction to the Language spoken by the entourage.

The directions used to mean the word have much importance: The more it implied, the larger there will be the capacity to define it.

Example: See a woman can mean “mom” while to see and hear a woman can mean “mom” for person in particular.

References

Related articles

Sources

  • Edelassus, a site devoted to philosophy and psychology

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