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A 4 page research paper that discusses why young children acquire language so easily and why older children and adults have difficulty learning a second language. Chomsky's theory is described. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khllac.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
correct use of pronouns, such as "I," "you" and "me" ("Language Development in Children"). Furthermore, most of this remarkable language acquisition has occurred since the child turned 2, as
previously motor skills, such as learning to crawl and walk, were the toddlers top priorities. Nevertheless, babies begin imitating the sounds of their native language long before they know what
that those sounds have meaning. Young children acquire their first language seemingly without effort, which brings up the question of why older children and adults often have trouble acquiring a
second language when learning the first was so easy. Noam Chomskys model of language development is the central theory driving modern linguistic research. In the 1960s, Chomsky proposed that,
in humans, the ability to learn language is innate. Chomsky argues that "all children share the same internal constraints which characterize narrowly the grammar that they are going to construct"
("Chomsky"). To put this another way, Chomsky believes that language acquisition is constrained by the certain physical features of the brain and the way that cerebral neural networks function. In
computer technology, "hardware" refers to the mechanical part of the computer, which cannot be changed, while "software" refers to different programs, which can be purchased and installed on the computer.
In essence, Chomsky believes that the way in which children acquire their native language is hardwired into the brain and present at birth. This explains why a child who hears
two languages spoken during the sensitive period for language acquisition grows up speaking both languages with a native-speakers ease. This theory differs considerably from older theories of language acquisition.
Linguists recognize that that there are only a limited number of sounds or strings of sounds that human beings can easily speak (Archangeli 2). While the worlds languages sound considerably
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