Discuss the diversity of young children's experiences of language and Essay

Discuss the diversity of young children's experiences of language and literacy at home. To what extent can there be a match be - Essay Example 4). Since the mind is believed to be a blank slate, the culture or the behavior prevalent in the child’s surroundings may affect the way he learns language. The infant can learn through social interaction and transmitted learning, which is largely behavioral in a sense that what he observes dictate the way he learns language. However, the behaviorist theories on language were criticized by Noam Chomsky saying that the mind is already structured and that language learning is highly psychological through his theory of Universal Grammar. Chomsky believes that children’s language acquisition is â€Å"closely tied to the theory of the mental mechanisms children use in acquiring language† (Pinker, n.d.). A part of the brain which Chomsky called â€Å"learning acquisition device† is part of the â€Å"human genetic endowment† which makes the person involuntarily and innately learn his natural language (Kellog, 1997, p. 242). If Chomsky’s theory shoul d be followed, there would be no formal pattern as to how children learn how to talk, since they do it â€Å"their† way and not because of behavioral ‘patterns.’ Since each child is unique in his way of learning the language, there could be no one way to teach it nor there is one process which stood above all others in terms of effectiveness and accuracy. Children are born with their own facet of learning the language and the environment’s role is just to aid the development of language learning through experience; the idea of Chomsky reveals to be more relevant if basing on the effectiveness of teaching strategies following such principle. Language Learning in the Early Years One of the most unique characteristics of humans apart from other animals is the use of language in many ways, aside from communication. Through language, people were able to build civilizations with sophisticated culture and arts which were innovated by the present age for utility a nd fashion. Truly, human’s leap towards the development of language leads them to discover more about themselves and their surroundings. The transformation of language is magnificent, but what truly is amazing is how people learn the language in the early years of life considering that babies are born without a language. This idea wonders linguists from different times; they explored a human’s language development and made theories about it, but still, no absolute principle is governing the process of language acquisition. Bock (2005) revealed more interesting findings about babies and their language. She reported the findings of Patricia Kuhl, a university professor, found out that the babies’ mind is set by birth to distinguish different sounds that they have â€Å"no trouble hearing distinctions and sorting out sounds† (Bock, 2005, p. 4). The same claim was made five years earlier through an experimental research by Professor Peter Eimas of Brown Unive rsity. In the experiment, Professor Eimas took advantage of the baby’s habit of sucking. The baby subject, Jean-Paul, is French exposed to French culture and language. The recorded sound pattern of his sucking became the basis of comparison along the process. When he was initially exposed to the Russian language, he sucked the rubber nipple more vigorously and began to subside as he tend to ‘get bored’ with the Russian sound. When the researcher exposed him back to the French language, he showed