Acquiring the Human Language-Playing the Language Game

2) What are some of the themes that are central to the film? How have they been communicated?

It shows just how complex and intricate the human mind is in the children. Before this video I would never have noticed how smart children actually were and all that they can perceive. This video can be very useful for parents by helping them realize how important the first part of a child’s life is. Everything they see and experience is molding and shaping them to be who they are. It can also help them realize why babies are so emotional because taking in so many new things can be overwhelming for children especially. Also can be useful for anyone who plans on doing research on children to have an idea of how their brains work at fifteen months versus eighteen months. It shows how much is going on in their minds, and also how they cannot focus on just one specific thing because they are constantly taking in information in many

1.  What do you consider to be the major themes of the film and why?

What 2 logical arguments could you refute this film’s points? Take issue with a particular point or the whole idea. (2 marks)

D2 - Justify responses where child maltreatment or abuse is suspected or confirmed, making reference to current legislation and policies.

The article “How do babies learn their mother tongue?”, written by Roberta Michnick Golinkoff and Kathryn Hirsh-Pasek, discusses the process in which babies learn a language. The authors cover the process with analogies and examples starting with a fetus in a womb, and ending with a 18-month-old watching television.

Worth 15 points 1. Who is most to blame for the events depicted in the film? Were you angered by the events? Why?

Moreover, the main topic of this video is the learning of other language in the childhood.

From watching the video, I could improve myself by understanding how a baby understands things growing

This video is about a great mystery; how do children acquire language without seeming to learn it and how do they do so many things with so little life experience.

For my spring break video, I chose the video about that girl that had been kept from the language speaking society. Genie’s case had been one of the largest cases like never before seen. Being deprived of the outside society, It happened to be difficult for Genie to learn language. Scientist claim that for one to be fluent in language you must learn before a particular age. Genie, caught on to gestures and simple phrases, but not enough to speak a full fluent sentence. Being deprived of the outside society for such a long time, did not help in the process of learning language in Genies situation. Human interaction is a key point in learning language. People learn from interaction. This video very much validates that at a young age interaction

The case of “Genie” is a tragic look at the effects of child abuse and neglect on childhood development. Genie’s case was particularly extreme, as she lived the first 13 years of her life in isolation and confinement. With little to no human interaction throughout her entire life, she developed no language skills. Researchers were extremely interested in this case, as it gave them a chance to explore two theories of language development. One theory is Noam Chomsky’s view that children are born with an innate ability to learn and understand language. Chomsky termed this structure in our brain the “Language Acquisition Device” (LAD). An alternate theory by Eric Lenneberg stated that language development is a result of our environment, and stressed the importance of critical periods. Lenneberg believed that the critical period for language development only lasted until around 12 years of age, and inability to develop language during these critical periods would result in major deficits.

“For the Love of Language” is written by Geoffrey Cowley was published in October of 2000 by Newsweek special issue. This article talks about the development of language as a child grows from a new born to a toddler. The first significant point that Cowley makes is that “simple conditioning is a part of the story. Anyone bombarded by a particular language hears certain sound combinations more often than others, and babies are quick to home in on the most probable combinations” (13).

After I watched the video and read the chapter 8, I confirm my idea that babies and children have learning abilities and they are using their abilities all the time, when they are interacting with environment and the people around. As a mother, I noticed that my child could learn simple thing as smile when I watched her or copied some expression from her grandmother. I read a lot about how to stimulate babies before my child born because I wanted to give her the best environment to develop her skills. I also bought a lot of stimulates toys, but my child didn’t want to play with them, she only wanted to spend time with me and play with simple recycling things, such as, boxes and plastic bottles.

With this article I have come to understand that with parents taking more hands on steps with their toddlers, these toddlers will learn to speak more fluent than less helped children. With my class psychology 201s and this paper it has helped me learn how (SES) plays a role in toddlers learning speech. This was a very useful paper in many factors, such as giving you the information of how toddlers learn and how well they learn. In my writing I will cover the process of how toddlers learn speech, with how the adult teaching process plays a role in their learning, and ways adults can help improve their learning.