...Theories Of First Language Acquisition English Language Essay Imagine a blank template, a white sheet of paper, thats how human being starts off. From a crying baby in a cradle, to babbling, to simple single words, slowly progressing into two-words, then finally a complete sentence, ever wonder how one acquires the ability to produce the language? Linguists throughout the ages have tried to find out how does one ACQUIRE a language, is it a deep structure as claimed by Kimball? Or is it an innate ability, a build-in human capacity propagated by Chomsky? Various theories have arose since language studies came to fore, and the ability to acquire language has interested various parties since the dawn of man. From the dunes of Egypt, Psammeticus, the Pharaoh during the 7 th century BC, believed language was inborn and that children isolated from birth from any linguistic influence would develop the language they had been born with. Fast forward to the 15th century,King James of Scotland performed a similar experiment; the children were reported to have spoken good Hebrew. Akbar, a 16th century Mogul emperor of India, desired to learn whether language was innate or acquired through exposure to the speech of adults. He believed that language was learned by people listening to each other and therefore a child could not develop language alone. So he ordered a house built for two infants and stationed a mute nurse to care for them. The children did not acquire speech, which seemed to...
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...Feargal Murphy Language Acquisition & Disruption 29-10-2015 The acquisition of language is one of the most difficult tasks a human infant takes on Children´s acquisition of language has been considered one of the most important human behaviors. Nowadays, there is still the belief that infants learn their mother tongue through their parents, either by imitating their behavior or through the sounds they emit. However, all children in different parts of the world learn the language they hear in their environment. From the outset, children tend to learn as many things as they possibly can, which will be used throughout life, for example, walking, talking and socializing. The acquisition of language is an issue that has been discussed for many...
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...Notes about Vygotsky Taken from http://golum.riv.csu.edu.au/~srelf/SOTE/EEL403/2HDT.htm#Sociocultural Sociocultural theory (Vygotsky) Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory is possibly the theory given the most credence at present. Vygotsky believed the child’s culture and their interactions with others is significant in their overall development – especially in relation to cognitive development. In particular, Vygotsky views a child’s interactions with adults and more able peers as key to their overall development. He believed that a child would internalise dialogues with others and use this information to guide actions and acquisition of new skills on later occasions. From Vygotsky’s perspective learning is dependent on support from adults. Key to Vygotsky’s theory are the notions of private speech, scaffolding and the zone of proximal development. Key ideas ❖ the child is viewed as an active seeker of knowledge; ❖ the child and environment interact together enabling cognitive development in a culturally adaptive way; ❖ the mind is perceived to be socially constructed; ❖ the child is born with basic attentional, perceptual and memory capacities; ❖ development occurs as a direct result of contact with the environment; ❖ child as self communicator – leads to higher order thinking; ❖ language and thought develop independently, but eventually merge and interact. Private speech Vygotsky believed that in order...
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...Methods * Categories | * Communicative Language Teaching | The Grammar-Translation Method | * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Theory of Language * * * * * * * * * * * * * *...
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...Factors that Influence Language Development JUDITH JOHNSTON, PhD University of British Columbia, CANADA (Published online February 24, 2005) Topic Language development and literacy Introduction Learning to talk is one of the most visible and important achievements of early childhood. In a matter of months, and without explicit teaching, toddlers move from hesitant single words to fluent sentences, and from a small vocabulary to one that is growing by six new words a day. New language tools mean new opportunities for social understanding, for learning about the world, and for sharing experiences, pleasures and needs. Subject The nature of language knowledge Language development is even more impressive when we consider the nature of what is learned. It may seem that children merely need to remember what they hear and repeat it at some later time. But as Chomsky1 pointed out so many years ago, if this were the essence of language learning, we would not be successful communicators. Verbal communication requires productivity, i.e. the ability to create an infinite number of utterances we have never heard before. This endless novelty requires that some aspects of language knowledge be abstract. Ultimately, “rules” for combining words cannot be rules about particular words, but must be rules about classes of words such as nouns, verbs or prepositions. Once these abstract blueprints are available, the speaker can fill the “slots” in a sentence with the words that best convey the message...
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...“intelligence” intelligence • Scores are given as numbers that show the test taker’s results relative to others. • When adjusted for age, a person’s IQ generally does not vary greatly over the course of their life. • IQ tests can be given on various skills (linguistic, math, etc) Nurture Theories (Skinner) Behaviorism B h i i • Knowledge and Linguistic ability results from stimulus-response conditioning. • Focus is on controlling behavior not behavior, cognitive processes. •C Concerned only with d l ith observable/measurable behavior. Nurture Methods The Audio-lingual M th d Th A di li l Method • Based on Behaviorism – Positive reinforcement of desired production – Emphasis on “correctness” correctness – Seeks to create language habits – Repetition Nature Theories (Chomsky) Universall Grammar U i G • Humans are born with a Language Acquisition Device that allows us to understand languages in terms of universal principles. Nature Theories (Chomsky) Language A L Acquisition Device i iti D i • The LAD is said to have 4 aspects – The ability to distinguish...
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...language. Such body parts are controlled by the brain for their functions. E. Bruce Goldstein (2008) defines language as a system of communication using sounds or symbols that enable us to express our feelings, thoughts, ideas and experience. lastly Language can be defined as a means of communication. Cooper(1989) defines language Development as the result of the series of on-going planned actions that language communities take to ensure that that they can effectively use their languages to achieve their social, cultural, political, economic and spiritual goals. In summary Language development is the process which starts early in human life where children grow in their acquisition of human language from a single word to rich sentences. 1....
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...that “Language acquisition follows the principles of reinforcement and conditioning.” They give one example in our textbook on page 232 about a mother praising her baby for saying “mama” which means the baby is more likely to continue saying it. Once the baby gets older the learning theory approach to acquisition no longer applies, because it has an issue with grammar. A child that might say “Why he walks away?” could be understood by the listeners around so it makes the theory harder to explain. So we might as well jump to our next topic in language acquisition, which is an innate process by nativist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believed that people shared something called universal grammar. He also suggested the language acquisition device, it’s a neural system of the brain to help the understanding of language. There is also clear evidence from scientist who have helped this innate process they have researched. They have discovered that there are specific places in the brain that contribute to learning languages, and there are certain areas in the mouth and throat that help with new speech. There is also some research on how some languages need a different tone in speech such as pitch to make a words mean different things such as Chinese. In conclusion, moan Chomsky and some scientist have discovered that your body and mind are surely capable of learning other languages. Now we can review the approaches of these different theories and innate process on learning acquisition. So from what...
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...Biological foundation of language acquisition: Summary How humans have evolved differently from other primates to allow for the use of complex human language? According to a number of modern linguists such as Chomsky who is frequently regarded as the father of modern linguistics, the same elementary linguistic structure is shared between all human beings, and they acquire language naturally. This means biological foundations lay out the foundation for language acquisition of all human beings. This presentation will be talking about the biological foundations of language acquisition, evolutionary biology of language, and provide an example of a case in which an individual cannot acquire language, respectively. When a person knows a language, he/she utilizes it either by producing sounds or remaining silent and receives auditory signals. Therefore the knowledge of a language doesn’t necessarily mean the ability to speak and structure sentences but the ability to comprehend the essential structure of language. However, the ability to speak still holds an important role in language acquisition. The voice production is made up of three main parts: Respiration (lungs), phonation (larynx), and articulation (mouth,lips,teeth, nose etc). So how can a child acquire language before the latter stage of communication? It is the brain that allows the child to do it. The brain consists of two hemispheres: left and right. And the corpus callosum plays a role of connecting the two hemispheres...
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...heories about how young children acquire and develop language Young children become amazingly proficient communicators during the first three years of life. As the Birth to Three Matters framework points out, they use 'the hundred languages of children' - body language (including facial expressions and dance); sign language (their own and family inventions as well as an officially recognised sign language); painting, drawing and mark-making; and oral expression. They have been acutely active listeners since their days in the womb, where they learned to recognise the speech patterns, tunes and tones of the languages used in their home contexts. Language theory research informs us that young children's language development is influenced by many factors, including having sensitive adults and older children around them who will listen and attend to their expressions and who will use and model appropriate language themselves. This has been called 'Motherese' by researchers led by Cathy Snow. Children's babbling during their first year includes the sounds of every world language and 'crib talk' demonstrates their intense interest in the sounds they hear around them. Although children with a hearing loss will stop babbling, if they grow up in a home with parents who can sign, they will follow the same patterns of development using their first language - signing - and will sign their first word at around the same age that hearing children speak theirs. Between two and three years...
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...When a heart breaks When a heart breaks It won't go quietly It screams about your past mistakes Which isn't very lovely I guess I can understand It was once a vibrant being But it took more than it could withstand Without a chance of fleeing Now it lays in a shattered mess At the foot of my bed The pain never hurting any less But I know I must move ahead I know when a heart breaks It may never mend But it always gives and never takes So now I know this is the end Expressing How I Feel It's been a long time now we have been talking on the internet, And my love is growing each day although we have never met. Words can't truly express how I feel about you, You know my love is authentic, you have seen some clues. I was sad and searching for a mate like a lonely dove, And then you came along to bless me with your divine love. And although baby, we are miles apart, Not a day goes by without you in my thoughts. Sure online I have met a lot of girls, But trust me, you are the only girl for me in this world. We are so compatible for each other, I could never feel this emotion again for another. I can't wait for that day when you are really mines, I know it will be soon, just in a matter of time. If loving you is a sin, then I am the devil, Right now my love for you, is at the highest level. Ketika jantung istirahat Ketika jantung istirahat Ini tidak akan pergi diam-diam Ini jeritan tentang kesalahan...
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...studies. By learning vocabulary foreign learners can improve their knowledge and proficiency in second language. Over the last years so many researchers, for example (Folse, 2006; Huang, 2007; Min, 2008; Shen, 2010; Vidal, 2011; Mohebbi, 2013; Charkova, 2014), tried to discuss the different sides and the role of vocabulary learning, that is why so many useful strategies have been indicated in their findings. As we know vocabulary always plays a great role in learning English as a foreign language, especially for the students in universities, because it is a suitable time for them to improve their English skillfulness. The trend of linguistic theory play great role in the improvement of language education. Vocabulary acquisition was neglected...
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...‘M&As: why don’t people ever learn from the mistakes of others? by William Richards Introduction Over the years, mergers and acquisitions research has identified the importance of leadership and workplace learning as critical determinants of M&A activities and outcomes. However, surprisingly little systematic attention has been paid to conceptualising or studying the impact and effect of either leadership styles or learning on the success of M&As – either in the academic or in the practitioner literature (Cartwright and Cooper, 2001) Although scholars and practitioners recognise that acquisitions frequently fail to live up to their potential (Larsson and Finkelstein, 1999), the impact of leadership on the outcomes of the acquisition process and the learning that takes place, has not been well developed or even widely recognised. A review of scholarly and practitioner focused writing on M&As suggest that while much has been written on the actual M&A process, others have only occasionally noted the critical importance of leadership and learning in the success or failure of M&As. Even in those cases where the leadership impact has been acknowledged, past work on M&As has neither examined nor proposed any details concerning what constitutes what learning that actually takes place during M&A or how it makes a difference. A review of academic and practitioner literature on M&A reveals that discussion of the primary determinants of M&A process and outcomes rarely ever...
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...process of becoming an “educated” individual. This presentation is about the phenomenon of adding languages. In it I will define a few of the key terms that we will use and 5 stages we go through when learning a language. What is language acquisition? Do you know what word you first spoke? Have you ever considered how many words you have learned over your lifetime? Many psychologists estimate we learn around 3,500 words a year between our first birthday and before we are 30. We grow from infants without language to chatterboxes with a gift for gab, and researchers are fascinated by how this happens. Psychologists have different theories on language acquisition, or the process by which we learn to speak, write, or even use sign language in meaningful ways to communicate. Theories of Language Acquisition Behaviorists, like B.F. Skinner (who lived from 1904-1990), argued that language acquisition and development are learned behaviors. Behaviorists believe we learn by associating events, known as classical conditioning. We also learn through rewards and punishments, a process known as operant conditioning. Another aspect of behaviorism is that we learn by observation and imitation. How do these theories of learning apply to language acquisition? Over repeated exposures, infants may learn to associate an object with a sound or word for that object. When an infant...
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...Introduction and Organizational Context We chose the topic of Merger and Acquisition as they are very relevant and prevalent in the current time. Still, acquisitions are tricky. Corporate cultures need to mesh, as do revenue and expense synergies. While CEO's often see themselves as empire builders looking to grow their companies by any means necessary, the reality is that successful acquisitions that really help companies long-term are in the minority. There are many factors involved during M&A such as: volume and valuation, growth, TMT convergence, talent management, business transformation to name a few. According to our case study one of the most important aspects that we believe during this process is leadership and change management but at the same time it is also very important to emphasize on employee satisfaction. Of course, there are conflicts during any such big change and there will be instances that require tough decisions on part of leaders but an important thing during this change is to focus on the big picture. The company chosen for our case study will be referred as Company A and Company B hereafter: Company A: It is a big firm of about 1800 employees. They started out by reselling technology products and gradually made their presence in commercial ranging from Finance, Healthcare, media etc. and government domains ranging from security to big data analysis. Their goal behind acquisition as stated by their CEO is: “We want to be the world’s largest pure-play...
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