He Language development in children Has become a focal point in neurocognitive development studies. In spite of being a complex function and presenting a slow acquisition, children's linguistic potential is evident from the early stages of development.
Language is a system we use to interact communicatively with others through the use of sounds, symbols and words. Through it we try to express contents, meanings, ideas or thoughts (Jhonson and Hann, 2015).
Functions and stages of language
Language includes both primary functions, such as perception and processing of speech and production or linguistic production, as secondary functions, such as reading or writing (Jhonson and Hann, 2015).
Different linguistic experts argue that there is a clear relationship between the development of these skills and the early experiences and abilities of speech and speech perception that babies are exposed to at birth and will also be the basis for development Of complex linguistic functions (Jhonson and Hann, 2015).
From birth to three months of age, babies use crying as the main form of communicative interaction with their caregivers. Between the ages of 3 and 12 months, Stage of babbling, In which simple sounds begin to appear. Approximately, around 12 months appears the First word With meaning and communicative intention (Roselli et al., 2010).
In the period from 12 to 24 months, children begin to produce their first words referring to the denomination of objects, while the sentences begin to occur around 18 months. From this moment, these phrases begin to evolve gradually acquiring a greater complexity to reach an efficient communication (Roselli et al., 2010).
Critical periods of learning
Although the linguistic domain is directly related to brain maturation and the acquisition of other types of abilities, such as those of the motor type, and also acquired progressively, different studies show that babies of only 6 Months of age can successfully discriminate speech sounds from speeches delivered in both their native and a different language. They consistently show Babies are able to detect the linguistic spectrum of any language .
In this area, the Dr. Patricia Khul , Director of the Brain and Learning Sciences Institute at the University of Washington, has played an important role in research on language and early brain development. His different works have shown the implications of critical periods in language acquisition, bilingual education, or learning to read.
Thus, in his lecture" The Linguistic genius of babies "Shows extraordinary evidence about how babies learn language, how they"take statistics"about the sounds that will be needed for the production of their language.
In his exposition he begins by talking about Critical periods of learning . We understand this concept as a limited time period, during which children are able to incorporate new learning and skills into their cognitive or behavioral repertoire. That is, it is a sensitive period for learning.
The existence of this critical period in language learning explains the fact that children and babies are"geniuses"in learning a second language until about seven years of age. Let birth until approximately the stage between 3 and 7 years of age, the learning ability of a second language is maximum. However, from this moment a systematic descent of this ability begins.
The mother tongue or native tongue is acquired during the stage of childhood, while generally the second language can be acquired both in childhood and in adulthood. However, it is the children who have the greatest advantages for their acquisition, due to the great plasticity that presents their developing brain that, in many cases, allows them to acquire a great amount of information of simple type or complex of unconscious way And with little effort (Navarro-Romero, 2009).
Different studies point to puberty as the critical stage from which learning a second language becomes more complex. Because of this, adults will find it more difficult to reach an expert or native level in a second language, as a result of the reduction of the plastic properties of the brain. (Navarro-Romero, 2009).
The main objective of the laboratory led by Dr. Khul is to find a general model of language acquisition and the critical periods that take place in social, emotional and cognitive development. In this way, they have focused their research on the critical period of the Sound domain Employees in the native language.
An experiment was carried out, in which different sounds of different languages were used in different parts of the world. The baby had to sit in the lap of his mother and undergo a training phase in which he had to turn his head discriminated a change of sound, for example: from"ah"to"ih". If they discriminated this change correctly, the response was reinforced with the appearance of a toy.
This experiment showed how Babies are able to discriminate sounds from all languages , Regardless of their country of origin.
Babies behave as" Citizens of the world ", However adults do not show this ability, we are dependent listeners of the culture, that is, we discriminate the sounds of the language that we dominate.
From these results came another important question:
At what point do we stop being able to discriminate the sounds of all languages and become culturally dependent listeners? .
We listen to music depending on the culture Before the first year of life .
This response was obtained through a second experiment. This was done with infants residing in Tokyo and the USA, measured the baby's head turns when listening to"ra"and"la"sounds, relevant in the English language but not in the Japanese language.
The results showed that in the period of 6 to 8 months the babies' responses are equivalent, that is, they are able to discriminate sounds independently of their place of origin.
However, two months later (10 months of age), American babies show an increase in their responses to these sounds and the Japanese a decrease. This may indicate that babies are specializing in listening for relevant sounds of the language they are going to learn.
Dr. Khul tries to explain these results as follows: babies as they listen to a speech"Take statistics". The statistics of English and Japanese are very different. English has many R-L's and the distribution of Japanese is totally different. Where there is a greater group of intermediate sounds. For this reason, infants through their statistical study are able to detect these differences.
Babies analyze these statistics and begin to specialize in the most relevant sounds. They absorb the statistics of the language and that changes their brains and transforms them into listeners dependent on the culture.
As distributions stabilize, learning becomes slower. Adults, we no longer absorb those statistics unconsciously.
However, Dr. Khul argues that in the case of bilinguals, they must possess two parallel groups of statistics, which alternate with each other depending on the language of the speech. This was tested, through a new experiment.
When tested in monolinguals in Japanese and US children with the sounds of the mandarin show the same pattern. Between 6-8 months, they are totally equivalent. Two months later (10-12 months). Taiwanese babies are making progress while the US is not. However, if American babies are exposed to Mandarin for 12 sessions (during the critical period up to 8 months of age) they reach the same level of sound discrimination as Taiwanese babies (exposed to Mandarin for 10 and a half months ). This shows that babies begin to extract statistics the new language to which they are exposed.
The role of social interaction
In addition, it was also Role of social interaction in language learning .
Patricia Kuhl carried out two experiments for the importance of this interaction in the acquisition of a language (Navarro-Romero, 2009). In these, the babies were exposed directly to native speakers using stories and toys and other groups, was exposed to the language through an audiovisual medium, in this case, movies. In the first, Kuhl worked with a group of children who, in a certain number of sessions, played with native speakers using toys or stories. Navarro-Romero, 2009).
The results showed that the group of babies exposed to the language through audiovisual techniques did not show any learning. From this a clear conclusion is added: Direct social interaction is essential for babies to absorb the statistics of the language to which they are exposed.
In general, the results and conclusions drawn by Dr. Khul show how a critical period of language learning exists. From birth to about three years of age, our ability to assimilate a second language is maximum.
This conclusion has important educational implications for the learning of other languages and for the establishment the ideal moment of exposure to them. On the other hand, it also points out the need for direct social communicative interaction for the incorporation of linguistic-type learning.
Bibliography
- Jhonson, M.H., de Hann, M. (2015). Languague. In M. H. Jhonson, M. de Hann, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (Fourth Edition ed.,
p. 166-182). Wiley Blackwell. - Khul, P. (2010). The linguistic genius of babies. Ted Talks.
- Navarro Romero, B. (2010). Acquisition of the First and Second Languages in Childhood and Adult Age Learners. Semester Magazine of Initiation to Research in Philology, 2 , 115-128.
- Rosselli, Mónica; Matute, Esmeralda; Alfredo, Ardila;. (2010). Neuropsychology of Child Development. Mexico: The Modern Manual.