The Contribution of Biology and Environment in Children’s Acquisition of Language

The contribution of Biology and Environment in Children’s Acquisition of Language
Name Xiaohui Qi,10323199
Institutional Affiliation School of environment, education and development
Course Title Human Development
Date 10th Oct
OUTLINE
* Introduction
* Psychological theories
* Behaviorist theory
* Psycholinguist theory
* Interactionists theory
* Environmental and Biological Components
* Biological factors
* Environmental factors
* Conclusion
The Contribution of Biology and Environment in Children’s Acquisition of Language
1.0 Introduction
When a child is born, they do not know how to speak. As the child undergoes the different stages of growth and development, they also acquire linguistic prowess. This ability is gained through interacting with other children, family members and teachers. Many psychologists and scientists agree on the fact that language acquisition and development are determined by different factors (Sommerville, 2006). Multiple factors play a role in the child’s language development and there is no single factor that can be said to be solely responsible for this development. Many of these experts, including as the behaviorists, the interactionists, and the psycholinguists have their reservations, but the discussion points at the child’s environment and biology (Da Silva, 2007). The acquisition of mother language and the second language have become areas that many are interested in and endeavor to unravel. This paper will evaluate the contributions of the environment and that of biology in language acquisition of a child.
2.0 Psychological Theories
A child goes through different stages of development, including cognitive and lingual. Growth and development start at the conception of an embryo and ends when a person dies. The development of language is one of the key developments in a child. The rate and level of language acquisition are determined by both environmental and their biological factors (Da Silva, 2007). Psychologists have been able to propose three major theories of language acquisition. These theories are behaviorist theory, psycholinguistic theory and the interactionist theory (Kiymazarslan, 2011).
2.1 Behaviorist theory
The behavioristic theory was first put forward by Skinner in 1987. According to the theory, a child is born with no knowledge of any language. However, inside the child is the ability to learn how to learn and speak. In this theory, a child can learn how to speak through imitation. In the early stages of a child’s development, the child imitates the parent most often producing utterances that do not make meaning. This is the first stage of developing language in the child. As the child grows, the babbling sounds grow into plain words that an adult can understand. The child improves on the language skill as it grows and the child can construct sentences and express themselves to the surroundings.
The behavioristic theory emphasizes the role that the environment plays in the development of a language among children. The environment in which the child develops dictates the growth of language abilities in a child. This theory revolves around the behaviorism theory that was developed in 1923 by John Watson. The events in the environment that the child grows in cause an unconditioned response for learning a language (Church, 2012). The child then produces another response that can be reinforced when the events happen sometimes. This response is learned with the repetition of events in the environment, and result in a trigger of similar responses in learning. In other terms, a child can learn language through repetitive events in their environment.
2.2 Psycholinguist theory
Some psychologists have a different view, where the learner is viewed as the initiator of the learning process. This is the psycholinguistic approach. In this approach, the child has in them the capacity to learn and activate a language and the skills to communicate. As a child grows, they activate the innate capacity, which helps them produce sounds. As the child undergoes growth and development and activates the capacity, they are first able to produce simple sounds. The capacity grows as the child grows and it gets to the state where they can form coherent sentences and phrases.
One of the most vocal psycholinguists was Noam Chomsky (1965). According to Chomsky, a learner possesses the capacity to deal with language. The environment in which the child is brought up in only acts as a trigger. According to this theory, the input that the child gets during the period of growth and development does not reflect directly to the language output of the child. Every child is born with the biological component to learn and understand language. The exposure to the environment and language from the primary caregivers gives triggers this biological component, and the child can learn. This biological component to learn that is present in every learner is called the Language Acquisition Device (Cowie, 2017).
2.3 Interactionists theory
The third theory of language development is the interactionist theory. This theory can be termed as the combination of the behaviorists and psycholinguistic theories. According to the interactionist theory, language development is a result of the interaction between the natural abilities, otherwise called mental abilities, and the environment in which the learner is (Chapman, 2000). When a child is born, they possess cognitive capacities, and with time and experiences, the capabilities grow. The environment in which the child is growing and the neurological growth, which is biological, determine the child’s learning. As the child grows, language and neurological capabilities grow too. These capabilities grow in order to deal with the more complex stages of development.
According to the interactionist theorists, a learner acquires and internalizes linguistics structures from their environment. They, therefore, have to become acquainted with the role that communication plays in the social setting. Piaget, the major theorist of the interactionist theory, claims that the learner must form a natural discourse with the primary caregiver since the growth of language is not only determined by the sounds that the learner acquires during the period of learning (Antony & Hornstein, 2003). For communication to develop, the learner must create meaning. The recognition of meaning in a child is brought about by their interaction with the environment. In the same vein, the learner can use the language they have learned to control the outcomes of their environment Castello, 2015).
From the above literature, it is correct to conclude that language development has everything to do with the environment and biology. The neurological development of a child is of the utmost importance for the child to develop and have complete control of language (Diller & Cann, 2010). The environment in which the child grows, which is determined by the kind of environment of the primary caregiver, also has a huge contribution to the development of language. Psychologists have gone further to evaluate the theories and the contributions of environment and biology to language development. Environmental factors mainly refer to the surrounding of the child, while biological factors are innate or genetically programmed.
3.0 Environmental and Biological Components in Language Acquisition
To many psychologists, environmental and biological components are very significant in the development of a child’s ability to communicate. According to some psychologists, the two components go hand in hand and are similarly important. Traxler, Boudewyn, and Loudermilk (2012) observe that human language has a large innate component in it. This means that the biological component is a huge part of the human language and how learners can understand and perceive it. The biological component, however, cannot manifest without the environmental component. Observations have been made to further this argument on children who are born deaf, but do not get exposed to training formally on sign language. These children develop their system of communicating and expressing themselves in a simple way to their environment (Cairns, 2008). This observation cements the fact that both the environment and biology are components that greatly contribute to the language learning process.
3.1 Biological factors
As earlier stated, growth and development are continuous processes in a human. This means that humans continue with the processes of growth and development as the advance in age. During the phase of development, there is a certain stage where children learn and acquire language skills. This stage can be referred to as the sensitive period. According to Cacioppo and Freberg (2019) language is a process that grows to maturity levels between the age of 18 months and puberty. This is the stage where the brain is developing rapidly to reach optimum (Singleton and Ryan, 2004). Lenneberg developed the Critical Period Hypothesis in 1967 in which he stated that there is a finite period during which a person can acquire language skills without much struggle. During this period, a child can flawlessly acquire a second language and talk like the natives (Hammer, Jia & Uchikoshi, 2011). This is the right stage to train any child a new language as the brain is at a stage that can quickly grasp new language skills. The rate of brain maturation varies from child to child and as the level of maturation increases, so does the ability to comprehend more complex language develops.
There are some cases where a child does not acquire language prowess before puberty. In these instances, it is usually hard for the child to learn. Psychologists have tried to study some of the cases where children did not acquire language skills, and they have attributed these cases to unfortunate events like imprisonment by their primary caregivers. When a child is completely locked out of the environment that triggers the brain to learn language skills, then they have difficulties acquiring these skills at a later stage. They may develop some skills, but they are barely comprehensive, and they may never acquire the basic rules that guide...