How Did You Learn Language?

It’s a feat I consider nothing short of astounding.

Here is a rough outline of language development in children, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it.

^ That shows WHAT happens. But HOW does all that magic take place?

Here’s a simple explanation from http://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/faq-how-do-we-learn-language :

Children acquire language quickly, easily and without effort or formal teaching. It happens automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not.

Although parents or other caretakers don’t teach their children to speak, they do perform an important role by talking to their children. Children who are never spoken to will not acquire language. And the language must be used for interaction with the child; for example, a child who regularly hears language on the TV or radio but nowhere else will not learn to talk.

Children acquire language through interaction – not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children. All normal children who grow up in normal households, surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language that is being used around them. And it is just as easy for a child to acquire two or more languages at the same time, as long as they are regularly interacting with speakers of those languages.

So language happens naturally.

Some like to say that humans are hardwired for language. Our brains are designed to develop language. I say ‘develop’, not ‘learn’, because learning requires effort.  Our first language develops. If we want to learn another language later in life, we have to learn it.

But our first language happens naturally. And here’s the recipe.

 

What’s missing from this recipe?

The child needs to have access to the language of the language model.

The language model is, in most cases, parents and family members — people who consistently interact and communicate with the child during her early years.

If the language model uses spoken English, and the child can clearly hear the spoken English, the child will develop spoken English. If  the language model uses American Sign Language (ASL) and the child can clearly see the ASL, the child will develop ASL.

A child who who is deaf before her language emerges will not develop spoken language naturally because she cannot hear it clearly enough, even with hearing aids or an implant.

Returning to our original question:

How did you learn language?

The answer is: You learned it by listening to others. 

For more about how kids who are deaf learn language, read Deafness and Language 2.