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 ...