A cognitive approach to language acquisition.docx

A cognitive approach to language acquisition.docx

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Acognitiveapproachtolanguageacquisition

英语语言学课程设计论文

班级：

英语093班

姓名：

姜珊珊

指导老师：

程渊老师

日期：

2011年12月25日

Acognitiveapproachtolanguageacquisition

AbstractThispaperisaimedattakingacloselookonlanguageacquisition.Toelaborateit,mythesiswilldevelopasfollows:

Inthefirstpart,Iwillmakeabriefintroductionoflanguageacquisition.Inthesecondpart,twoaspectsoffirstlanguageacquisitionwillbepresentedandinthethirdpartofthepaper,Iwilldescribesometheoriesrelatedtothesecondlanguage.Intheend,Iwilldrawaconclusionandclarifythatlanguageacquisitionisoneofthebestexamplesoftheindispensabilityofthemultidisciplinaryapproachcalledcognitivescience.

Keywordsfirstlanguageacquisition（L1）,secondlanguageacquisition（L2）,cognition,children,hypothesis,Krashen,capacities

Introduction

Thetermacquisitionisoftenusedtorefertofirstlanguageacquisitionwhichstudiesinfants'acquisitionoftheirnativelanguageandsecondlanguagewhichreferstotheadditionallanguageaftertheleanerhasacquired.Languageacquisitionistheprocessbywhichhumansacquirethecapacitytoperceiveandcomprehendlanguage,aswellastoproduceandusewordstocommunicate.Thecapacitytoacquireanduselanguageisakeyaspectthatdistinguisheshumansfromotherorganisms.Althoughitisdifficulttopindownwhataspectsoflanguageareuniquelyhuman,thereareafewdesignfeaturesthatcanbefoundinallknownformsofhumanlanguage,butthataremissingfromformsofanimalcommunication.Forexample,manyanimalsareabletocommunicatewitheachotherbysignalingtothethingsaroundthem,butthiskindofcommunicationlacksthearbitrarinessofhumanvocabularies（inthatthereisnothingaboutthesoundoftheword"dog"thatwouldhintatitsmeaning）.Otherformsofanimalcommunicationmayutilizearbitrarysounds,butareunabletocombinethosesoundsindifferentwaystocreatecompletelynovelmessagesthatareautomaticallyunderstoodbyanother.Itiscrucialtotheunderstandingofhumanlanguageacquisitionthatwearenotlimitedtoafinitesetofwords,butrathermustbeabletounderstandandutilizeacomplexsystemthatallowsforaninfinitenumberofpossiblemessages.So,whilemanyformsofanimalcommunicationexist,theydifferfromhumanlanguagesinthattheyhavealimitedrangeofnon-syntacticallystructuredvocabularytokensthatlackcrossculturalvariationbetweengroups.

Also,languageacquisitionisoneofthecentraltopicsincognitivescience.Everytheoryofcognitionhastriedtoexplainit;probablynoothertopichasarousedsuchcontroversy.Possessingalanguageisthequintessentiallyhumantrait:

allnormalhumansspeak,nononhumananimaldoes.Languageisthemainvehiclebywhichweknowaboutotherpeople'sthoughts,andthetwomustbeintimatelyrelated.Everytimewespeakwearerevealingsomethingaboutlanguage,sothefactsoflanguagestructureareeasytocomeby;thesedatahintatasystemofextraordinarycomplexity.Nonetheless,learningafirstlanguageissomethingeverychilddoessuccessfully,inamatterofafewyearsandwithouttheneedforformallessons.Withlanguagesoclosetothecoreofwhatitmeanstobehuman,itisnotsurprisingthatchildren'sacquisitionoflanguagehasreceivedsomuchattention.Anyonewithstrongviewsaboutthehumanmindwouldliketoshowthatchildren'sfirstfewstepsarestepsintherightdirection.

Amajorconcerninunderstandinglanguageacquisitionishowthesecapacitiesarepickedupbyinfantsfromwhatappearstobeverylittleinput.Inputinthelinguisticcontextisdefinedas"Allwords,contexts,andotherformsoflanguagetowhichalearnerisexposed,relativetoacquiredproficiencyinfirstorsecondlanguages"Itisdifficulttobelieve,consideringthehugelycomplexnatureofhumanlanguages,andtherelativelylimitedcognitiveabilitiesofaninfant,thatinfantsareabletoacquiremostaspectsoflanguagewithoutbeingexplicitlytaught.Childrenwithinafewyearsofbirthunderstandthegrammaticalrulesoftheirnativelanguagewithoutbeingexplicitlytaught,asonelearnsgrammarinschool.Arangeoftheoriesoflanguageacquisitionhavebeenproposedinordertoexplainthisapparentproblem.Thesetheoriesincludeinnatisminwhichachildisbornpreparedinsomemannerwiththesecapacities,asopposedtoothertheoriesinwhichlanguageissimplylearnedasonelearnstorideabike.Theconflictbetweenthetraitshumansarebornwithandthosethatareaproductofone'senvironmentisoftenreferredtoasthe"Naturevs.Nurture"debate.Asisthecasewithmanyotherhumanabilitiesandcharacteristics,itappearsthattherearesomequalitiesoflanguageacquisitionthatthehumanbrainisautomaticallywiredfor（a"nature"component）andsomethatareareshapedbytheparticularlanguageenvironmentinwhichapersonisraised（a"nurture"component）.

Body

vFirstlanguageacquisition

Thedevelopmentofthefirstlanguageacquisition

Howdoweexplainchildren'sdevelopmentoflanguageacquisitionmostimportantly,theirinevitableandearlymastery?

Severalkindsofmechanismsareatwork.Thebrainchangesafterbirth,andthesematurationalchangesmaygoverntheonset,rate,andadultdeclineoflanguageacquisitioncapacity.Generalchangesinthechild'sinformationprocessingabilities（attention,memory,short-termbuffersforacousticinputandarticulatoryoutput）couldleavetheirmarkaswell.Inthenextchapter,Ishowhowamemoryretrievallimitation--childrenarelessreliableatrecallingthatbrokeisthepasttenseofbreak--canaccountforaconspicuousanduniversalerrorpattern,overregularizationslikebreaked（seealsoMarcus,etal.,1992）.

Manyothersmalleffectshavebeendocumentedwherechangesininformationprocessingabilitiesaffectlanguagedevelopment.Forexample,childrenselectivelypickupinformationattheendsofwords（Slobin,1973）,andatthebeginningsandendsofsentences（Newport,etal,1977）,presumablybecausethesearethepartsofstringsthatarebestretainedinshorttermmemory.Similarly,theprogressivelywideningbottleneckforearlywordcombinationspresumablyreflectsageneralincreaseinmotorplanningcapacity.Conceptualdevelopment（seeChapterX）,too,mightaffectlanguagedevelopment:

ifachildhasnotyetmasteredadifficultsemanticdistinction,suchasthecomplextemporalrelationsinvolvedinJohnwillhavegone,heorshemaybeunabletomasterthesyntaxoftheconstructiondedicatedtoexpressingit.

Thecomplexityofagrammaticalformhasademonstrableroleindevelopment:

simplerrulesandformsappearinspeechbeforemorecomplexones,allotherthingsbeingequal.Forexample,thepluralmarker-sinEnglish（e.g.cats）,whichrequiresknowingonlywhetherthenumberofreferentsissingularorplural,isusedconsistentlybeforethepresenttensemarker-s（hewalks）,whichrequiresknowingwhetherthesubjectissingularorpluralandwhetheritisafirst,second,orthirdpersonandwhethertheeventisinthepresenttense（Brown,1973）.Similarly,complexformsaresometimesfirstusedinsimplerapproximations.Russiancontainsonecasemarkerformasculinenominative（i.e.,asuffixonamasculinenounindicatingthatitisthesubjectofthesentence）,oneforfemininenominative,oneformasculineaccusative（usedtoindicatethatanounisadirectobject）,andoneforfeminineaccusative.Childrenoftenuseeachmarkerwiththecorrectcase,neverusinganominativemarkerforaccusativenounsorvice-versa,butdon'tproperlyusethemasculineandfemininevariantswithmasculineandfemininenouns（Slobin,1985）.

Buttheseglobaltrendsdonotexplainthemainevent:

howchildrensucceed.Languageacquisitionissocomplexthatoneneedsapreciseframeworkforunderstandingwhatitinvolves--indeed,whatlearningingeneralinvolves.

Representationoflanguageacquisitioninthebrain

Recentadvancesinfunctionalneuroimagingtechnologyhaveallowedforabetterunderstandingofhowlanguageacquisitionismanifestedphysicallyinthebrain.Languageacquisitionalmostalwaysoccursinchildrenduringaperiodofrapidincreaseinbrainvolume.Atthispointindevelopment,achildhasmuchmoreneuralconnectionsthanheorshewillhaveasanadult,allowingforthechildtobemoreabletolearnnewthingsthanheorshewouldbeasanadult.

Stages

AverageAge

LanguageDevelopment

TheBabblingStage

6months

changestodistinctbabblingbyrepeatingaconsonant-vowelsequence

TheOne-word

Stage

1year

Beginningoflanguageunderstanding;one-wordutterances

12-18months

Singleworduse;repertoireof30-50words（simplenouns,adjectives,andactionwords）,whichcannotasyetbejoinedinphrasesbutareusedoneatatimedoesnotusefunctors（the,and,can,be）necessaryforsyntax,butmakesgoodprogressinunderstanding

TheTwo-wordStage

18-24months

Two-wordphrasesorderedaccordingtosyntacticrules;vocabularyof50toseveralhundredwords;understandspropositionalrules

TheTelegraphtoInfinityStage

2years

Newwordseveryday;threeormorewordsinmanycombinations;functorsbegintoappear;manygrammaticalerrorsandidiosyncraticexpressions;goodunderstandingoflanguage

3years

Fullsentences;fewerrors;vocabularyofaround1,000words

4years

Closetoadultspeechcompetence

vSecond-languageacquisition

ExplainingSecondlanguageAcquisition

Second-languageacquisitionistheprocessbywhichpeoplelearna

SLA）isalsothenameofthescientificdisciplinedevotedtostudyingthatprocess.Secondlanguagereferstoanylanguagelearnedinaddit