DL - Communication and Language Development Lesson
Learning Targets:
- Describe how language acquisition occurs and explain the idea of universal grammar.
- Outline the key milestones in language development and determine the critical period for language acquisition.
- Identify the regions of the brain responsible for language processing and speech.
- Discuss the connection between thought and language, and explore the benefits of thinking in images.
Courtesy of the AP psychology course and exam description, effective fall 2024. (n.d.). Links to an external site.
Language
Language is the most tangible indication of our thinking power and one of the most remarkable cognitive abilities. It is a means of communication in which we combine arbitrary symbols to produce meaningful statements. American linguist Noam Chomsky called it our "human essence". It sets us above all others and allows us to share and express meaningful information.
Language can be flexible, versatile, and complex. It is created using symbols, which can be sounds, written words, or gestures. Due to the arbitrary nature of the connection between a symbol and its meaning, language is extremely flexible. The meaning of symbols is shared by those who speak a common language, thus making foreign languages sound meaningless and bizarre because we do not share a connection between sound and meaning.
All languages contain certain elements and rules. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language. There are 869 phonemes in human speech. Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaningful sound. They can be "a" or parts of words such as the prefix or suffix. Grammar describes the system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate and understand each other. Semantics are the rules of a given language. Syntax describes the order of words in a particular language. We are unaware of these rules until they are violated.
Language Acquisition
Language acquisition is a fascinating process that humans undergo from birth. Renowned linguist Noam Chomsky proposed the concept of universal grammar, suggesting that we are inherently equipped to learn any human language. This stems from the idea of a language acquisition device, an innate capacity that enables us to grasp the complexities of language. Language acquisition refers to the process by which humans learn or acquire language and the ability to produce and comprehend words and sentences to communicate.
We learn a language in three stages, and several proposed theories explain how it is acquired.
Stages of Language:
- Babbling Stage—This stage develops around 1-3 months and is characterized by spontaneous sounds. Babies create sounds from all languages. By about ten months, these sounds have been narrowed down to those of the language of the house.
- One-word Stage - Around one year, children begin to use one word to identify objects. At this stage, family members can understand them.
- Telegraphic Speech—Children around two years old enter the two-word stage and begin to use nouns and verbs to communicate. At this point, they are functionally deaf to sounds outside their language.
| Summary of Language Development | |
|---|---|
| Approximate Age (months) | Stage |
| 4 | Babbles many speech sounds ("ah-goo") |
| 10 | Babbling resembles household language ("da-da") |
| 12 | One-word speech ("ball") |
| 24 | Two-word speech ("Want milk.") |
| 24+ | Rapid development into complete sentences. |
Take a moment to watch this short video explaining the theories of the initial stages of language acquisition.
Critical Periods
The critical period for language learning refers to a timeframe in early childhood during which the brain is highly receptive to acquiring language skills. This period typically spans from infancy to around puberty.
For example, children who receive cochlear implants to restore hearing ability after being born deaf need to undergo this procedure within the critical period to have the best chance of developing proper language skills. If the implants are received after this critical period, the individual may struggle to fully grasp language nuances and complexities.
Similarly, the environment in which a child is raised plays a significant role in language acquisition. Children raised in bilingual households have a unique advantage during the critical period as they are exposed to multiple languages simultaneously, making it easier for them to learn and differentiate between languages during this critical window of development.
By the time we graduate from high school, we have amassed a vast vocabulary of approximately 60,000 words. Interestingly, after the age of 2, we continue to expand our vocabulary at a rapid pace, learning around 3,500 new words per year, which amounts to about 10 words every day. It's important to note that while the timing may vary, all children generally follow the same sequence of language development due to maturation processes. In terms of language comprehension, babies exhibit receptive language skills early on; by 6 months, they can understand conversations directed towards them. On the other hand, productive language, which involves the ability to articulate words, gradually emerges as children grow and interact with their environment.
As individuals learn a language, they often encounter challenges and make errors along the way. One common error is overgeneralization, which occurs when learners apply a grammatical rule too broadly, leading to mistakes in their speech or writing. For example, a child might overgeneralize the past tense rule by saying "goed" instead of "went" because they are trying to apply a consistent pattern they have observed. These errors are a natural part of the learning process as individuals navigate the complexities of language acquisition and gradually refine their linguistic skills over time.
Brain Areas Involved in Language Processing and Speech
When certain areas of the brain are damaged, it can lead to difficulty with language processing and speech. For example, damage to the left frontal lobe, known as Broca's area, can result in a condition called aphasia, where individuals may struggle to speak words but can still comprehend speech. Alternatively, when specific areas in the left temporal lobe, such as Wernicke's area, are affected, individuals may have trouble understanding others' sentences and may only be able to speak incoherently. These brain regions play crucial roles in our ability to communicate effectively through language.
The Relationship Between Thinking and Language
When exploring the relationship between thinking and language, we encounter the Theory of Linguistic Determinism by linguist Benjamin Lee Wholf. This theory suggests that individuals who use languages lacking a past tense, like the Hopi language, may struggle to think about the past since their language does not explicitly represent it. However, this extreme view is contradicted as humans can indeed think about concepts for which they lack words. For example, a young child may have thoughts or memories of events before they learned language to articulate them. On the other hand, the concept of linguistic relativism proposes a less extreme idea, acknowledging that our language influences our thoughts. An example of this is how speakers of languages with gendered nouns may attribute different qualities or characteristics to objects based on their grammatical gender assignment, impacting how they perceive the world around them.
Do Animals Think? 
Without question, animals can communicate. Numerous examples can be seen in the wild, especially when animals are communicating warnings of impending dangers. Studies have found that the closer the animal is to a human the greater the language capabilities. Psychologist Wolfgang Kohler found that chimpanzees could develop language skills on par with that of a 2-year-old human.
Karl von Frisch discovered that the Western honeybee communicates distance, location, and quality of pollen sources by performing a little dance known as the "waggle dance". The language revealed in these dance sessions showed that the bee covers more distance in the summer than in other months of the year.
[CC BY 4.0] UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED | IMAGES: LICENSED AND USED ACCORDING TO TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION