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Language has a function-to communicate meaning-and it has a form-the substance out of which those meanings are expressed linguistically. Everything we say or write must have some function, and as we say or write it, we can avoid it, we cannot avoid using its forms-its sounds or written shapes, its words, its sentence structure and so on. There are so many functions in English as there are reasons for speaking and to describe them systematically would be difficult. Describing the form is also difficult, but in this case we are helped by the fact that, even though there are many hundreds of thousands of them, the formal elements of English are not limitless in number.
Neither are the many language rules which allow us to combine these elements together to make meanings. In its recent history, language teaching has been primarily directed towards presenting the form of the language in a sequenced, organized way. But form without meaning is dry bone without flesh.
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Meaning is very much part of language and so must be included in language instruction. It is the teacher’s task to create a bridge between form and meaning in designing instructional techniques and materials.
To get a fast rundown of early learning theory, let us take a fast examination of the ideas of a few brilliant philosophers who you have probably already heard of. In Descartes’ view language acquisition was a simple and easy process, barely worthy of attention. Platon believes that the emphasis in language learning must lie on what we already know.
As for Locke, his philosophy is that all knowledge comes from outside ourselves through sensory experience rather than through innate knowledge that we have at birth.
According to B.F. Skinner, people’s behavior is no more than a response to external stimuli and there is no innate programming within a human being to learn a language at birth.
On the other hand we have Chomsky who unlike Skinner who saw language learning coming from external stimuli, saw an innate device for language acquisition. Noam Chomsky thought the humans had something called a language acquisition device, or LAD, in their brains that allowed them to learn languages.
Stephen Krashen’s Monitor Model is probably the most cited theory in second language acquisition. Language acquisition occurs with comprehensible input (i.e. listening to or reading things that are just slightly above our current language level). This theory suggests that we should both strive to increase our second language inputs (like by singing, listening to music and going through books for reading).
Learning languages with fun stories and music can make the journey to fluency faster and more enjoyable.
Language is depended on our individual growths and exposures. We start learning languages at about the same age/stage in our lives. Children learn words from reinforcement from adults. A youngster who is surrounded by speech and language all the time usually learns language skills faster. Talking, reading, singing to a child will have a big effect on how well a child is able to communicate later. The target of language acquisition research is to describe how a child becomes competent to produce and understand language, select the proper processing strategies and achieve language “milestones”. The theories for sure have one thing in common though, and that is the fact that they all believe that language acquisition is the key aspect that distinguishes humans from other organisms and by understanding how diverse aspects of language are acquired, we can better understand the main vehicle by which we communicate.
Function and Form of Child Language Acquisition. (2020, Sep 14). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/function-and-form-of-child-language-acquisition-essay
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