What sort of factors need to be present if a child is to follow a normal process of language acquisition?

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Adam Weeks 12A        English Language: Child Language Acquisition

What sort of factors need to be present if a child is to follow a normal process of language acquisition?

        Children's development of language takes place at different ages but certain factors are essential for this acquisition of language. The case study of 'Genie' is a perfect example of the factors needed to acquire language and the effects on the absence of these factors. Language acquisition is aided by several essential features: interaction with people; positive encouragement; mental stimulation and physiological development.

        The interaction between a child and a parent develops from birth. The continuing interaction between a young child and adults around them helps to develop their acquisition of language. The input theory of child language acquisition supports the interaction between children and parents and a major role in a child's development. The input theory suggests that using child directed speech is key to normal development of language. When using motherese, parents use simple sentences with few syllables to communicate with children. The lack of syllables allows the child to understand much easier. Along with simple sentences a parent would repeat phrases several times and use over emphasis to reinforce what they are saying to the child. Interacting with children gives them the opportunity to start to imitate what they hear. The theory of imitation is the most traditional view of language acquisition. This theory suggests that children learn from imitating what they hear. This theory supports social competence and use of orders and registers but does not explain how children are able to create new sentences and get the grammar of sentences wrong. In the study of 'Genie', it was found that she had been locked in a small room for over a decade and had received little contact from her parents. When Genie was found she could not talk, but after a short period with adults she soon started to produce utterances. It was thought that Genie picked up the language through the theory of imitation or the inateness theory that was derived by Noam Chomsky.

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        Another essential feature of acquiring language is that the child is positively encouraged. When communicating with a child it is often hard to keep his/her attention therefore continuous praise and encouragement helps with keeping their attention. Positive encouragement by an adult can be made by imitating the child's actions, which will make them believe that they have been understood and congratulated. In addition to repetition, an adult could speak with phrases ending in positive intonations, which will again help the child concentrate and allow them to believe that they are being congratulated. The work of B.F. Skinner and Katherine Nelson ...

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