Stages of Language Acquisition

How We Learn to Communicate Across Time

Stages of Language Acquisition

The very essence of being human incorporates language. Language is the catalyst for humans to connect and understand each other. Without communication, limitations of human understanding would place invisible barriers that could jeopardize the intimacy and closeness that humans crave. Fortunately, we are born with a hard-wired ability to learn a language (Denahm & Lobeck, 2013). And while learning language is paramount to civilized communal living, language acquisition is acquired in stages. (Denham & Lobeck, 2013).

Any disruption in a child’s environment can deter learning. For instance, children born into homes with extreme neglect will not follow the stages of development as would a child in an environment where the child’s needs are met (Denham & Lobeck, 2013). Therefore, the acquisition of language, the context in which the child lives, and genetic factors are crucial to a child’s development.

The beginning stage of language acquisition is pre-talking (Hutauruk, 2015). Infants are exposed in utero and after birth to the sounds of adults speaking (Denham & Lobeck, 2013). Later, in the pre-talking stage, infants from birth to 6 months will start to coo. This is the first stage of learning vowel sounds such as “uh and “oh” (Hutauruk, 2015).

A baby begins to babble from six to eight months (Hutauruk, 2015). The baby will start to make sounds such as “ma-ma” or “da-da,” which is differentially reinforced by the parents, while other symbolic combinations are not. Sounds and symbols start to be associated through this process. Babbling is essential to the later formation of a fully developed speech and language system (Denham & Lobeck, 2013).

The Holophrastic stage is completed between the 9th and 18th months (Hutauruk, 2015). In this stage, the baby speaks their first words, and by the end of the holophrastic stage, the baby may speak multiple words (Hutauruk, 2015).

Moving on from the Holophrastic stage is when the toddler (18–24 months) speaks two words and may even form sentences (Hutauruk, 2015). “Children begin to form actual two-word sentences, with the relations between the two words showing definite syntactic and semantic relations and the intonation contour of the two words extending over the whole utterance rather than being separated by a pause between the two words,” cites Hutauruk in her paper Childrens First Language Acquisition At Age 1–3 Years Old In Balata.

The fifth stage begins between 24 to 30 months (Hutauruk, 2015), known better as the Telegraphic stage, is a period where sentences start to form that contain “hierarchical, constituent structures similar to the syntactic structures found in the sentences produced by adult grammar” (Hutauruk, 2015) The combined nature of the telegraphic stage shows the complex development of language that exists even at such an early age.

Second Language Acquisition

The process of learning a second language is called “Second Language Acquisition” (Denham & Lobeck, 2013). Within this spectrum, a person has already acquired a first language and is now attempting to learn another. The person is confronted with new grammatical rules that do not match the original style. Often in this scenario, interlanguage grammar occurs. Interlanguage grammar uses the first language grammar rules meshing with the new language (Denham & Lobeck, 2013).

This distinction can be heard through the phonology used by the speaker, which is similar to the first language (Denham & Lobeck, 2013).

Two concepts emerge when discussing second language acquisition: simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism (Denahm & Lobeck, 2013). Sequential bilingualism is often found in people who learn another language in schools: a first language is learned and then a second (Denahm & Lobeck, 2013). This can also be called second language acquisition. However, simultaneous bilingualism occurs when a person learns two languages simultaneously (Simultaneous Bilingualism and Sequential Bilingualism).

True Bilingualism vs. Second Language Acquisition

A controversy exists between linguists regarding true bilingualism and second language acquisition. This controversial question, if true, suggests bilingualism is more similar to first language acquisition (Denahm & Lobeck, 2013).

Problems arise about the competency of native speakers of two languages due to more exposure to one language versus the other: the stage of development of the native speaker and other factors that complicate this matter (Denham & Lobeck, 2013). However, true bilingualism is more similar to first language acquisition since the fluency of both languages is learned simultaneously, which in turn masquerades as first language acquisition.

Language Genesis

Language genesis is an automatic tendency for humans to create language (Lobeck & Denham, 2013). It is a term that defines the formation of creoles and pidgins within a language (Lobeck & Denham, 2013). Creoles are descriptions of other nationalities’ languages blended into English. For instance, the official language of Louisiana is French creole (Lobeck & Denham, 2013). This occurred when French colonies were a mainstay along the territory's banks before the Louisiana purchase (Louisiana Creole, 2019). After the United States bought the land, the remaining people were from various areas. Through time their languages meshed with English to create French creole (Louisiana Creole, 2019).

Pidgins’ languages are formed from creoles. “Pidgins are languages that grow out of necessity when groups of people that don’t share a common language must interact with each other” such is the case of Louisiana back in the 1800s, where there was a mixture of African, French, Spanish, and Native Americans (Denham & Lobeck, 2013, The Evolution of Pidgin Languages, 2019).

Pidgin languages evolve from at least three languages, of which one is “more dominant” (Denham & Lobeck, 2013). In this incidence, the dominant language transfers most of its words to create the pidgin language, also known as the substrate language (Denham & Lobeck, 2013).

There are a few qualities that pidgins must possess. Pidgin language cannot have native speakers. They are also a combination of languages that involve their own grammatical rules and possess a small vocabulary, and pidgins are not understood when the contributing languages stand alone (Denham & Lobeck. 2013). Therefore, pidgin languages are formations of the areas where people of particular languages live.

With the multiple challenges, phonology, semantics, and grammar that humans must overcome to develop language, it continues to be awe-inspiring (Denham & Lobeck. 2013). Indeed, exposure to language is a prerequisite, yet it must happen simultaneously with the growing and changing brain of the infant, child, and adolescent.

This delicate symphony can be thrown off track by malnourishment, inconsistent caregiving, and an impoverished language environment (Spratt et al.) If these physical and psychological properties are not in place, they will delay brain myelination and neocortex growth, and language and non-verbal social skills will also suffer (Spratt et al.)

Challenges of Language

Language, as it has been commonly understood, has always faced new challenges throughout the millennia. These changes were first seen as often hostile and unwelcome, as two different cultures collided through unexpected wars or mass emigration from distinctly different societies (Barnes, 2003). Over time these changes became incorporated, and the differences blended into the day-to-day discourse.

In this vein, we see a current threat in the use of initialisms and icons known as emojis, which are thought to hijack precision language in place of a commonly recognized visual symbol (Denahm & Lobeck, 2013, Leiber, 2010). That which had been deemed heretical at first becomes normative and serves to facilitate more indirect communication such as emotional nuances that are clumsily and ineffectively done using the standardized manner of communication (Leiber, 2010) As a child is born into the “new” world of emojis, for them, it is the language that their brains will incorporate through an evolution shaped imperative.

Language acquisition is a critical process that must occur for humans to develop their communication capacity fully. Shared understanding within a culture remains dependent on having a common language, be it the standard form, a creole, or a pidgin.

Second language acquisition or simultaneous language acquisition is key to a society’s ability to absorb and assimilate immigrants, emigrants, and visitors abroad. The nature of language will continue to evolve through time, as history has shown. Human’s ability to adapt to different grammatical rules and blended language facilitates deeper understandings and enlarges the capacity for interpersonal growth.

References

Aronoff, M. (2013). Rochelle Lieber, Introducing morphology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xii 215pp. ISBN 978–0–521–71979–7 (paperback), ISBN 978–0–521–89549–1 (hardback). Word Structure, 6(2), 226–229. doi: 10.3366/word.2013.0047

Barnes, L. (2003). Language, war and peace: An overview. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10228190308566188.

Denham, K. E., & Lobeck, A. C. (2013). Linguistics for everyone: an introduction. Belmont, Calif.?: Wadsworth.

Hutauruk, B. S. (2015). Children First Language Acquisition At Age 1–3 Years Old In Balata. IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS), 20(8), 51–57. Retrieved from http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol20-issue8/Version-5/F020855157.pdf

Rhys, L. R. L. (1961, December 1). Simultaneous bilingualism vs Sequential bilingualism. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/425/simultaneous-bilingualism-vs-sequential-bilingualism.

Spratt, E. G., Friedenberg, S., Larosa, A., Bellis, M. D. D., Macias, M. M., Summer, A. P., … Brady, K. T. (2012). The Effects of Early Neglect on Cognitive, Language, and Behavioral Functioning in Childhood. Psychology, 03(02), 175–182. doi: 10.4236/psych.2012.32026

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2014, December 9). Louisiana Creole. Retrieved November 15, 2019, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Louisiana-Creole.

The Evolution of Pidgin Languages. (2019, August 8). Retrieved November 18, 2019, from https://unitedlanguagegroup.com/blog/evolution-pidgin-languages/.