Task 5 -Final Evaluation

Maria del Pilar Montillo Ortiz
Cartago, Valle del Cauca
May 17, 2020

The Definition of “Language Acquisition Device” and its Relation with First Language Learning.

Language acquisition device is a “tool” with which humans are born and is located in the brain, it is used to help children to learn and understand language quickly. Children can acquire language and innately understand grammar.

Noam Chomsky developed the language acquisition device in the 1950s, and he proposed that every child has the fundamental rules for language and he states that they simply need to acquire the vocabulary (Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device: Definition & Explanation, 2015). With this capability, children can learn their first language depending on the environment that they develop; if a child is in an environment in which only Spanish is spoken, the child will acquire only Spanish. However, children who grow up in an environment in which both Spanish and English are spoken will acquire both, Spanish and English as their first language (Bilingual and Monolingual Baby Brains Differ in Response to Language, 2016).. The language acquisition device is given in childhood and for an adult is more difficult to learn a new language. In my experience, I learned English when I was 18 years old, and at that moment my learning was easy because a was young, but through the years I see that the way I learn is a little difficult, I realize that I don’t learn as before; but that do not mean that adults cannot learn a new language, adults can learn if they use the language acquisition device, but the learning would be a little difficult and this no going to be as native-like.

It is necessary that the children heard equally the two languages so that these can become their first language. When children heard more often one language, for example, Spanish, this will be their first language, and English, for example, will be their second language because there isn’t a frequent contact with one of the languages. I have never seen this theory develop, but I would like to expose to my child, when I have one, with both languages to see how the development of it is; the challenge will be the low contact with English because I am the only one who speaks this language.

Knowing this will be appropriate to involve the child, if it is possible, with another language since birth, because the child will learn two languages. If it isn’t possible to involve the child since birth with another language, it will be appropriate to take advantage of the capability to learn of the child to guide him/her in a second language through a bilingual school or an institute.

Link of the recordings: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nxxAiL7RcxE2ym-nuQ0cydEvufYbXDKH/view?usp=sharing

References:

Steve Kaufmann – lingosteve (December 26, 2008). Stephen Krashen and Language Acquisition. [Video file]. Recovered from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr64l4FjvBQ

Mary Acevedo (May 31, 2013). Stephen Krashen's 5 Hypotheses of Second Language Acquisition. [Video file]. Recovered from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jobpF4c-1NI 

Teachalanguage1 (November 13, 2009). Comprehensible Input: Teaching a Foreign Language. [Video file]. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rg1ZC5rbc5Y

I-LABS Tech Support (March 22, 2016) Bilingual and Monolingual Baby Brains Differ in Response to Language. [Video file]. Recovered from: https://youtu.be/TAYhj-gekqw

Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device: Definition & Explanation. (2015, August 21). Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/chomskys-language-acquisition-device-definition-lesson-quiz.html.