2006-06-17 19:07:59 · 5 answers · asked by weg 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Primary & Secondary Education
Language acquisition is learning to speak a language. A baby learns to speak by listening to his/her parents and mimics their speech. That is why it is so important to speak in normal language not baby talk when speaking to an infant. In addition, the parent should be constantly reading to the infant to increase the baby's vocabulary development.
2006-06-17 19:30:48 · answer #1 · answered by Irene D 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Language acquisition is the process by which language develops in humans. First language acquisition concerns the development of language in children, while second language acquisition focuses on language development in adults as well. Historically, theories and theorists may have emphasized either nature or nurture (see Nature versus nurture) as the most important explanatory factor for acquisition.
Most researchers however, acknowledge the importance of both biology and environment. One hotly debated issue is whether the biological contribution includes language-specific capacities, often described as Universal Grammar. For fifty years, linguist Noam Chomsky and, before his death, Eric Lenneberg, strongly argued for the hypothesis that children have innate, language-specific abilities that facilitate and constrain language learning.
Other researchers, including Elizabeth Bates, Catherine Snow, and Michael Tomasello, have hypothesized that language learning results only from general cognitive abilities and the interaction between learners and their surrounding communities. Recent work by William O'Grady proposes that complex syntactic phenomena result from an efficiency-driven, linear computational system. O'Grady describes his work as "nativism without Universal Grammar". One of the most important advances in the study of language acquisition was the creation of the CHILDES database by Brian MacWhinney and Catherine Snow.
2006-06-18 02:11:35 · answer #2 · answered by cmhurley64 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am guessing that you are questioning this label on a report card of some sort.
It is usually describing the ability to read and understand what is read and write so that other people can understand it.
2006-06-18 02:12:00 · answer #3 · answered by starting over 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How you learn to use language.
2006-06-18 02:11:00 · answer #4 · answered by happypanda03 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
probably, what you learn in a language:new words, grammar structures, functional structures....
2006-06-18 02:12:21 · answer #5 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋