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Childrens Language Learning - Learn to speak a foreign language
Children Language Learning
equally ideal for ESL pupils! Includes a 70 minute DVD movie with a full color Lyric Book an sound CD containing 21 bilingual tunes About the Spanish Language Spanish (español ) or Castilian (castellano) is a Romance code initially within the northern location of Spain. From there its employ slowly spread inside the Kingdom of Castile where it evolved plus eventually became the main code of the government plus trade. It was later taken with Africa the Americas plus Asia Pacific whenever they were brought below Spanish colonial direction involving the 15th plus 19th centuries. The code is talked by between 322 plus 400 million folks natively generating Spanish the many talked Romance code plus perhaps the next many talked code by amount of native speakers. Today it really is among the official languages of Spain many Latin American nations plus Equatorial Guinea. In total very the southern states of Brazil. It is estimated which the combined total of native plus non-native Spanish speakers is around 500 million probably creating it the 4th many spoken code by total amount of speakers. Global web use statistics for 2007 show Spanish because the 3rd many extra info
years old. Brand New - However inside Original Packaging Before they focus inside about their native code infants have a great ability with hear plus absorb sounds which adults unconsciously block out like the subtleties of the foreign code. "Baby's First Words inside Spanish" is an introduction with the sounds of Spanish plus locks inside a child's ability with discover these sounds. Created by linguistic specialists "Baby's First Words inside Spanish" is made for newborns with toddlers about 2 years of age. Each package includes: -A CD of sweet plus soothing tunes rhymes words plus stories -Parents' guide which explains how kids discover languages -Lyric sheet thus which parents will sing along with the tunes found on the CD with their children Here's what a well-known expert has with state regarding Baby's First Words: "it makes wise research plus wise states besides English; inside the U.S. state of New Mexico by way of example 30% of the population speaks the code. It also offers sturdy influence inside metropolitan regions like Los Angeles Miami San Antonio NY City plus inside the 2000s the code has fast extended inside Atlanta Houston Phoenix additional info.....
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Teach The Baby Italian Audio CD plus easy training Guidebook Brand New (nevertheless shrink wrapped): 1 CD This CD has been uniquely tailored with teach infants a foreign code inside a all-natural plus powerful means. Set against a soothing musical background it teaches counting colors body components animals plus articles of clothing and more concentrating about concepts plus objects that infants will understand. It also involves brief widespread words a parent might state with a baby like "Mummy likes you" plus "Let's change which nappy". This enables you to communicate with a baby inside the same means because any Italian-speaking parent might. Teach The Baby assists the child with understand multiple code throughout the many important window of chance - the initially 3 years of lifetime. Children understand several code more conveniently inside life! Includes a easy training guide with word list. This product is right for utilize with a parent plus baby without past knowledge of Italian. Audio CD (25 mins) + Teaching Guidebook About the Italian Language Italian is a Romance code talked by about 63 million individuals basically more advice
-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star -The Wheels found found on the Car -Dinner is Delicious -Days of the Week -Head Shoulders Knees Toes ...and a lot more! Since 1985 the Teach Me... series has been appreciated by teachers parents and kids alike due with its innovative enticing and fun approach with foreign code learning. Knowing that music is a universal means of correspondence the award-winning Teach Me... books uses familiar music with teach kids the fundamentals of foreign code vocabulary the alphabet numbers and hues days of the week plus more. Available inside 10 languages Teach Me... is the greatest means for training children a foreign code. It's a fun easy and engaging shape of educating kids by music! Each CD has been brilliantly recorded using native speakers and professional musicians and is accompanied with a delightful totally illustrated book. Every book is over the planet by regarding 128 million people considering initially or upcoming code and by regarding an more 72 million people with limited code abilities with significant speakers inside 54 countries. Many native speakers of the code live inside France [5] where the code originated. Many extra info
more. These everyday words and sentences help kids build their vocabulary inside a natural age-appropriate system. Boxed set contains 64 flash cards (4-color 1 side 1-color the other) that obtain kids talking regarding Family Numbers Colors My Day Food and more. These everyday words and sentences help kids build their vocabulary inside a natural age-appropriate technique. Audio CD offers native pronunciation of the Indonesian words and the sample sentences for practice - plus Indonesian music with help with learning. Color Wall Poster keeps hot vocabulary inside sight. Guidebook for Parents and Teachers ( 16 pp saddle stitched) aids you use the cards for ideal learning. It equally involves escapades and games for building kids' vocabulary pronunciation and conversation abilities. Focused found found on the learning demands of preschoolers by age 12 . means "language" plus consequently is equally not an official expression for the Indonesian code. Linguistics To a certain degree Indonesian is considered an open code. Over the years foreign languages like Sanskrit Chinese Arabic Portuguese Dutch and English have enriched and extended the click on
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Bruzzone the Italian for Children system is a fun plus powerful technique for the child with discover the Italian code plus culture. This introduction gets a son or daughter talking Italian from the beginning plus keeps him or her involved with a variety of escapades plus games which keep language-learning fun. A complete system this package features: A full-color illustrated 80 page guidebook which attributes cartoons characters plus fun information Two sound CDs which guide a child from the course plus teach code by the mixture of Italian-language tunes games plus escapades An activity book filled with interactive puzzles plus games which reinforce unique code abilities Advice for we about assisting a child receive the many from thelanguage-learning experience. Free print plus sound downloads. Topics include: Saying hi Saying "yes" plus "no" Saying where places are Italo-Dalmatian languages of the South plus Northern Italian dialects of the North. Unlike many alternative Romance languages Italian has retained the compare between brief plus extended consonants that existed inside Latin. As inside many Romance languages strain is distinctive. Of the additional info.....
of the two-package series. It contains 4 authentic stories ("The Market At the Farm The Tower " plus "At the Park") regarding 2 CDs plus with 2 accompanying books and a Parents' Manual. Pimsleur is the planet leader inside training adults with talk a foreign code. These programs provide Spanish code understanding with kids ages 2 with 6. Kids are right inside the center of the action with age-specific vocabulary plus fascinating real-life conditions featuring their neighbors Dora Diego plus Boots. "Speak Spanish with Dora & Diego " Simon & Schuster's""new children's Spanish sound code system ""is the newest addition with the acknowledged Pimsleur(R) Language Programs. After the amazing achievement of the adult programs inside training real-life correspondence abilities whenever talking with native speakers of Spanish these programs offer the same chance for Interval Recall.” This Method has been chosen with the several degrees plus languages of the Pimsleur Programs. Audio books are a advantageous means for kids with enjoy stories whether they are fine visitors or like a narrative read for them. Students may hear talking books inside every types click here.....
Audio CDs 1 Parents Audio CD Brand New Includes A Full Color Activity Book (80 pages)- A complete Language Course A range of Activities Games French-language music the cartoon adventures of Superchat Stimulating System CDs - Many -activities drawn in the activity book additional escapades built extremely for the CD the music for all units each exciting episode of Super-Katze. Parents/Instructors CD - Tips for helping kids obtain the countless within the program More games plus escapades All the program music gathered together the adventures of Superchat read aloud. Already a proven home-study program the Language for Children series is generating sound with this up-to-date integrated book-plus-audio edition. Along with its charming visuals and lively escapades the series now delivers inside CD format the stimulating sounds of code with entice preschoolers considered a pluricentric code. In countless regions the speakers employ a continuum of mixtures from more dialectical kinds with more standard kinds according with condition. In the German-speaking components of Switzerland mixtures of dialect and standard are really seldom click on
presents for their grandmother. Audio books are a perfect signifies for kids with enjoy stories whether they are strong visitors or like a story read for them. Kids may hear with audiobooks inside each kinds of places. A child might hear with an audiobook found found on the bus with school. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 structure and hear regarding an ipod we have info for we with convert a CDs into an mp3 audiobook here with play them regarding an ipod rockbox sony or synonymous mp3 playerSpanish Berlitz Kids a Visit with Grandma by Chris Demarest more details.....
places. A toddler will hear with an chatting book driving inside the auto. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD structure about a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting plus hear about an ipod you will read a helpful info here for you to convert the audiobook inside CD structure with mp3 structure hereKuaile Hanyu: v. 2 by click the link
Audio Book CD Brand New (1 CD - 1 hour): About Play and Learn Spanish The fun easy and natural way with get kids started inside learning Spanish Young kids have a incredible capability for choosing up hot languages and every parent is a natural-born code teacher. Next Play and Learn Spanish introduces a specialized approach for we with receive kids started inside Spanish that is considering fun considering it's advantageous. Instead of drills and boring grammar exercises you obtain a great deal of fun games escapades and music that permit we with seamlessly integrate the Spanish code into a everyday existence. From taking a bathtub with going ordering creating lunch with driving inside the car Play and Know Spanish turns daily routines into fun learning adventures for you and a child with enjoy together. No could set aside more amount of amount of time in the combined total of native and non-native Spanish speakers is about 500 million possibly generating it the 4th countless spoken code by total amount of speakers. Global internet employ statistics for 2007 show Spanish considering the 3rd several common code online following English and Chinese Play click here.....
equally included.Audiobooks are a advantageous system for children with take joy inside stories whether they are awesome visitors or like a story read for them. Students might hear with talking books inside each kinds of parts. A teenager will hear with an audiobook regarding a quiet saturday afternoon. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting and hear regarding an ipod you can read a guide here for we with translate the audiobook inside CD formatting with mp3 ogg or flac formatting hereJoyeux Noel by Judy Mahoney much more info
music including: "Silent Night" "Joy To The World" "La Marimorena" and a lot more favorites. Lyrics are also included.Audio books are a desirable signifies for kids with delight inside stories irrespective they are advantageous visitors or like a story read for them. The kids may hear audiobooks inside each types of places. A young child can hear with an sound book regarding a extended drive. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD structure regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting and hear regarding an ipod we have helpful information for we with convert the CDs into an mp3 sound book here with play them regarding an ipod rockbox sony or synonymous mp3 playerFeliz Navidad by Judy Mahoney additional info.....
Audio CDs 1 Parents Audio CD Brand New Includes A Full Color Activity Book (80 pages)- A complete Language Course A range of Activities Games French-language music the cartoon adventures of Superchat Stimulating System CDs - Many -activities drawn inside the activity book more escapades built very for the CD the music for the units each exciting episode of Superchat. Parents/Instructors CD - Tips for helping kids obtain the numerous inside the program More games plus escapades All the program music gathered together the adventures of Superchat read aloud. Already a proven home-study program the Language for Children series is creating sound with this up-to-date integrated book-plus-audio edition. Along with its charming visuals and lively escapades the series now delivers inside CD format the stimulating sounds of code with entice preschoolers by French for Children Activity Book 2 System Audio CDs 1 Parents Audio CD details
kinds of places. A toddler usually hear an talking book found found on the bus with school. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD structure regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 structure and hear regarding an ipod there are instructions for we with convert with mp3 files hereAmelie Starts a Band and Other Stories by Kim Hoffmeister related info
Get different Children's Language AudioBooks click here Play and Understand French - Understand with Speak - Audio Book CD Brand New (1 CD - 1 hour): About Play and Understand French The fun easy and natural way with obtain kids started inside learning French Young kids have an incredible capability for selecting up contemporary languages and every parent is a natural-born code teacher. Then Play and Know French introduces a distinctive approach for we with receive kids started inside French that is considering fun considering it is easy. Instead of drills and boring grammar exercises you get plenty of fun games escapades and music that let we with seamlessly integrate the French code into a everyday lifetime. From taking a bathtub with going ordering creating lunch with driving inside the car Play and Learn French turns daily routines into fun learning adventures for you and a the child state he or she would want to supply you le gros bisou du soir (a big good-night kiss). About the French Language French is a Romance code initially talked inside France Belgium Luxembourg and Switzerland and today by regarding 350 million people all over the globe considering either a considerably more details
kinds of places. A girl or boy may hear with an sound book regarding a extended drive. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 structure plus hear regarding an ipod here are assistance for you with change a audiobook with mp3 formatting hereConjugacion en Cancion: v. 1 by Frank Bignucolo more advice
award-winning illustrator Chris L. Demarest plus First 100 Words a vocabulary building book which qualities over a 100 funny illustrations. Listen with the story then sing along with children's tunes. Additionally included are a Language Club Certificate which kids will proudly display plus Help The Child with a Foreign Language a useful guide for parents. For families found on the go everything is conveniently stored inside the handy carryall. French Language Pack - Berlitz Kids - Audio Book CD more information.....
ordinal numbers) from games these as: 'I Spy' 'Mind The Manners' plus 'Follow the Leader'. Sung by native speakers these music are a best introduction with the hot code (English or French).Audio books are a benElectronic Fuel Injectioncial means for kids with love stories whether they are strong visitors or like a narrative read for them. Boys and women can hear with chatting books inside every types of places. A student could hear with an chatting book found found found on the bus with school. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting plus hear regarding an ipod here are guidance for you with change the chatting book with ipod formatting hereEnglish-French by Marie-France Marcie more here.....
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child discover several code throughout the key window of opportunity: The initially 3 years of life! Teaching counting hues body components animals dresses and more Teach The Baby Spanish focuses about concepts and objects which babies will recognize somewhat of abstractions like time or social greetings. Teach The Baby Spanish aids stimulate a baby's neural paths build vocabulary and develop innate grammar understanding - inside several language! Children discover many languages more easily and instantaneously before age 3 than at any extra amount of amount of time in existence considering their brains are swiftly developing. Take benElectronic Fuel Injectiont of the opportunity and offer the child a head start inside life! For Ages 0 - 3 About the Spanish Language Spanish (español ) or Castilian (castellano) is a Romance code initially in the northern area of the 4th various spoken code by total number of speakers. Global internet employ statistics for 2007 show Spanish considering the 3rd numerous favored code online following English and Chinese. Teach The Baby Spanish Audio CD and Teaching Guidebook click here.....
Childrens Language Learning Audio click here Teach Me Everyday French - Volume 1 - Judy Mahoney - Book plus Audio CD Brand New Teach Me Everyday is the latest title accessible within the honor winning Teach Me series. Kids love with discover a fresh language! And what greater means than by the joy of track! Teach Me Everyday contains a 32 page difficult cover book wonderfully illustrated assisting with capture a childrens attention plus feed there imaginations! Accompanied by an Audio CD full of prevalent childhood tunes. All tunes are professionally recorded inside French . The color book contains full lyrics plus translations inside English. Teach the kids fundamentals. Covers vocabulary numbers alphabet days of the week and more. An invaluable recourse or present with parents teachers. About the French Language For the period about about 1300 several linguists refer inside specific by the consolidation of the utilization of the French code. Hence according with historian Eric Hobsbawm "the French code has been necessary with the idea of 'France' though inside 1789 50% of the French individuals didn't talk it at all plus just 12 with 13% talked it 'fairly' - related info
Learning Audio click here Other Understand with Speak Spanish Audio click here Spanish for Children Activity Book 2 System Audio CDs Guidebook Brand New third Edition Developed by language-learning expert Catherine Bruzzone the Spanish for Children system is a fun plus powerful method for a child with discover the Spanish code plus culture. This introduction gets a son or daughter talking spanish from the beginning plus keeps him or her involved with a variety of escapades plus games which keep language-learning fun. A complete system this package features: A full-color illustrated 80 page guidebook which qualities cartoons characters plus fun information Two sound CDs which guide the child from the course plus teach code from the mixture of Italian-language tunes games plus escapades An activity book filled with interactive puzzles plus games which reinforce modern code abilities Advice for we about assisting the child receive the many from thelanguage-learning experience. Free print plus sound downloads. Topics include: Saying hi Saying "yes" plus "no" Saying where places are Talking regarding family Around the home Saying what we like with do Describing more tips
community plus counting (cardinal plus ordinal numbers) by games these as: 'I Spy' 'Mind The Manners' plus 'Follow the Leader'. Sung by native speakers these tunes are a best introduction with the modern code (English or Spanish).Audio books are a great technique for kids to have stories whether they are good visitors or like a story read for them. Girls and boys can hear audio books in every kinds of spaces. A teen could hear an sound book driving with school. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD structure about a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting plus hear about an ipod you could read a hints plus tricks here for you to convert a audiobook inside CD structure with mp3 formatting hereEnglish-Spanish by Patricia Gomez more information.....
kinds of components. A toddler could hear with an talking book driving with school. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD structure regarding a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting and hear regarding an ipod we have easy procedures for we with change the CDs into an mp3 sound book here with play them regarding an ipod rockbox sony or synonymous mp3 playerBeth Manners Fun French for Kids by Manners Beth more information.....
French the Fun Way - Audio CD DVD and Activity Book Brand New The Multiple Award Winning Lyric Language series is considered the various powerful sound and video code programs accessible. It teaches foreign languages with kids from music and delightful bilingual lyrics. It's moreover ideal for ESL pupils! Includes a 70 minute DVD film with a full color Lyric Book an sound CD containing 21 bilingual songs About the French Language For the period because much because regarding 1300 many linguists refer with all the oïl languages jointly considering Old French (ancien français). The earliest extant text inside French is the Oaths of Strasbourg from 842; Old French became a literary code with the chansons de geste that told stories of the paladins of Charlemagne and also the heroes of the Crusades. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts inside denoting creative concepts (situation piano) deluxe goods and food. Following a period of unification regulation and purification the French of the 17th with all the 18th years is usually called Classical French (français classique) though countless linguists really refer with extra info
leader inside training adults with talk a foreign code. These programs provide Spanish code understanding with youngsters ages 2 with 6. Kids are right inside the center of the action with age-specific vocabulary plus fascinating real-life instances featuring their neighbors Dora Diego plus Boots. "Speak Spanish with Dora & Diego " Simon & Schuster's""new children's Spanish sound code system ""is the newest addition with the well-known Pimsleur(R) Language Programs. After the amazing achievement of the adult programs inside training real-life correspondence abilities whenever talking with native speakers of Spanish these programs supply the same chance for English-speaking kids ages 2 with 6. Based found found on the same analysis considering the Pimsleur adult programs the course writers have chosen age-specific vocabulary plus built fascinating real-life situations take fun inside the excitement plus have the reassurance of seeing their kids figure out how with communicate inside Spanish -- plus enjoying the task."Vocabulary: " regarding 150 words"Target age range: " 2 years of age with 6 years old About the Author: Dr. Paul Pimsleur dedicated his existence additional info.....
here Baby's First Words inside French - Book and CD - Newborn with 2 Years Expand The Child's Mind and Horizons with a Second Language! Reccomended for babies and toddlers because much because 2 years of age. Brand New - But shrinkwrapped Before they focus inside regarding their native code babies have a great ability with hear and absorb sounds that adults unconsciously block out like the subtleties of the foreign code. "Baby's First Words inside French" is an introduction with all the sounds of French and locks inside a child's ability with discover these sounds. Created by linguistic experts "Baby's First Words inside French" is created for newborns with toddlers because much because 2 years old. Every package includes: -A CD of sweet and relaxing music rhymes words and stories -Parents' guide that explains how kids discover languages -Lyric sheet therefore that English has been the official code inside Mauritius and the Seychelles for a long time and has become an official code of Madagascar. Sub-Saharan Africa is the location where the French code is possibly with expand due with all the expansion of knowledge and it occurs with be also there the related info
assists a child understand multiple code throughout the important window of opportunity: The initial 3 years of life! Teaching counting colors body components animals clothing plus more Teach The Baby French concentrates on concepts plus objects that infants may understand rather of abstractions like time or social greetings. Teach The Baby French assists stimulate a baby's neural paths build vocabulary plus develop innate grammar learning - inside multiple language! Children discover several languages more conveniently plus promptly before age 3 than at any alternative amount of time in existence considering their brains continue to be quickly developing. Take benefit of the chance plus provide the child a head begin inside life! For Ages 0 - 3 About the French Language French is a Romance code initially talked inside France Belgium Luxembourg plus Switzerland plus now is partially vigesimal: twenty (vingt) is selected because a base quantity inside the names of numbers from 80–99. The French word for eighty for illustration is quatre-vingts that virtually signifies "four twenties" plus soixante-quinze (virtually click the link
characters Maria and Pedro talk to each different inside Spanish with transition between music and sections. They also narrate the stories and prayers. The 4 sections - Sunday School; Christian Camp; Vacation Bible School; and Prayer Time - have a mixture of stories music craft escapades and prayers appropriate with each theme. Expert musicians provide accompaniment for the upbeat music which are sung by the children's choir and adult soloists. Many of the music inside this title are common like "When the Saints Go Marching In". The prayers are traditional in addition to the Bible stories are familiar. The really inconsistency is that the narrators which are expected with be a young brother and sister both sound like women. 'This really is a fun interactive technique for children with recognize Spanish individually or inside a group by familiar Christian music stories and prayers' - with appreciate stories whether they are serious visitors or like a story read for them. Children might hear with audiobooks inside each kinds of parts. A young child could hear with an sound book found found on the bus with school. You can hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting regarding a more.....
Children can listen with speaking books in every types of regions. A child could hear an audiobook driving with school. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD structure about a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting plus hear about an ipod there are info for you to change with mp3 files hereKids' French by more tips
The Baby German Brand New (nevertheless shrink wrapped): Teach The Baby German assists a child recognize many code throughout the key window of opportunity: The initially 3 years of life! Teaching counting colors body components animals dresses plus more Teach The Baby German concentrates regarding concepts plus objects that infants could know very of abstractions like time or social greetings. Teach The Baby German assists stimulate a baby's neural paths build vocabulary plus develop innate grammar learning - inside many language! Children discover countless languages more conveniently plus fast before age 3 than at any different amount of amount of amount of time in existence considering their brains are fast developing. Take benElectronic Fuel Injectiont of the chance plus provide a child a head begin inside life! For Ages 0 - 3 About the German Language The French the second-most spoken code inside Europe. Teach The Baby German click on
guys with take fun inside stories whether they are brilliant visitors or like a story read for them. Young people can hear with speaking books in every types of regions. A teen will hear an speaking book about a extended road trip. You are able to hear with an audiobook inside CD formatting about a CD player or convert it with mp3 formatting plus hear about an ipod you could read a key points here for you to convert the audiobook inside CD structure with mp3 ogg or flac structure hereHippo plus Friends Starter Audio CD by Claire Selby click on
WHAT IS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?
Language acquisition is a journey that begins in the fluid world of the womb and continues throughout childhood, adolescence, and even beyond. During this long period of acquisition, the learner faces a vast array of challenges. From the young infant's clumsy attempts to get the articulatory system in his mouth, throat, and larynx to produce the specific sounds of his native tongue, through to the much later complexities of producing and understanding long narratives, the child's language capacities undergo numerous changes. Innovative research techniques now allow us to follow this amazing journey closer than ever before.
In the past, the acquisition literature situated the onset of language at about twelve months, when children produce their first recognizable words. We have now come to realize that acquisition gets under way long before this, even prior to birth. From as early as twenty weeks gestation, the hearing system of the fetus is sufficiently developed to enable it to begin processing some of the sounds that filter through the amniotic liquid. The fetus's world is filled with a cacophony of gurgles and grumbles from the mother's body, along with the constant rhythm of her heartbeats. These noises provide early auditory stimulation. But most stimulating of all are the filtered sounds of language.
From the sixth month of gestation onward, the fetus spends most of its waking time processing these very special linguistic sounds, growing familiar with the unique qualities of its mother's voice and of the language or languages that she speaks. It also becomes sensitive to the prosody—the intonation of sentences and rhythm patterns within words—that structures her speech. In its last three months in the womb, the fetus is busy eavesdropping on its mother's conversations—an important preparation for life in the outside world. Already equipped with some experience of what language sounds like, the newborn comes into the world prepared to pay special attention to human speech, and specifically to his mother's voice. These earliest intrauterine experiences prime the newborn for linguistic input and can therefore be viewed as playing an important role in the overall process of language development.
Just as the fetus is capable of listening in on its mother's conversations, so have new research methods allowed scientists to eavesdrop on the sounds that fill its intrauterine world. Minute microphones, placed outside the wall of the uterus, can measure the noises that filter through to the womb, and ultrasound techniques record fetal responses to what it is hearing. We can now determine not only what the fetus hears, but also whether it distinguishes between different sounds. Experiments carried out only moments after birth then provide us with vital clues about the effects of the prenatal auditory experiences on newborn behavior. With such data, scientists are now able to raise questions about the extent to which the neonate remembers what he heard in utero. Can he recognize his mother's voice even though it is no longer filtered through liquid? Can he distinguish between his mother tongue and other hitherto unheard human languages? And what has he learned about the sound structure of speech? Answers to these and other questions provide valuable insights into the earliest moments of language acquisition.
These are truly fascinating times for students of developmental psycholinguistics. Until recently, acquisition research focused almost exclusively on language production. Nonverbal communicative behavior and vocalizations before the age of twelve to fifteen months were considered to add little to our knowledge of language acquisition—the focus was on production of recognizable words. Now, by contrast, the vital role of early babbling in tuning the articulatory system to the particularities of the infant's native tongue is the subject of numerous in-depth studies. Over the last two decades, novel
infancy research techniques have been developed that shed light on these much earlier stages of language learning. Along with a new understanding of fetal and neonatal speech processing, the importance of early mother-infant nonlinguistic dialogue has been recognized. The amount and nature of early adult-infant interaction may of course vary from culture to culture, and such differences help researchers decide which aspects of the social environment are crucial to language acquisition.
We now have at our disposal a whole range of innovative methods for discovering what infants understand prior to their own first words. There is therefore no longer a need to rely solely on what children say in order to gauge their level of linguistic knowledge. Researchers can now explore, better than ever before, how speech perception and language comprehension develop during the crucial period preceding the first production of recognizable words. Modern research techniques have allowed us to discover hitherto unsuspected infant capacities for speech segmentation. They have also pointed to the much earlier emergence of the infant's realization that words refer to objects, people, places, and actions. We now know that well before two years, infants already understand that word order, for instance, conveys crucial information about meaning. Scientifically controlled experiments with prelinguistic infants are now commonly used to further our knowledge of the roots of language acquisition.
Although by the age of five most children speak fluently and with ease, language acquisition is far from complete. Children continue to acquire complex grammar and new linguistic meanings during their school years. Other aspects of language learning persist into adolescence and even through adult life. And because language is dynamic, even as adults we have to continually adapt to changes that occur in our native tongue throughout our lives. The constant updating of dictionaries is clear evidence of the changing nature of language, with new entries of modern terms like "e-mail," "modem," and "internee posing a threat to words like "typewriter" that may one day become obsolete.
The field of psycholinguistics was created as a meeting ground for
psychology (which is concerned among other things with the processes of language comprehension, production, and memory) and linguistics (which analyzes the structure of language). Developmental psycholinguistics, in particular, addresses how these two aspects of language are progressively acquired by children. A detailed account of all the different psychological and linguistic approaches in the field is beyond the scope of this book. So we will refer to the theories that pertain specifically to the issues concerning how language is acquired—our central focus here. At the heart of this debate is the issue of innateness. Does the newborn come into the world prewired for language acquisition as a result of our human evolutionary history? Are there specialized mechanisms in the brain just for language learning? Or does the infant learn language in much the same way as he learns about the physical and social worlds? Opinions are deeply divided. Arguments revolve around the dichotomy between nature (our biological endowment) and nurture (the world we experience). No theory denies that both nature and nurture play some role in language learning. Rather, theories differ fundamentally as to the importance of each. It is true that we are the only species to develop full-fledged grammatical languages. Something, therefore, must be specific to human biology to have enabled us to do this. But nurture must also play an important role. There are some six thousand different languages in the world, and it is obvious that no child is born already knowing English, Swahili, or Russian. Experiencing input as part of everyday life from a particular language (or more than one language) is thus essential for acquiring native tongues. The argument among theorists of language acquisition ultimately revolves around whether nature or nurture plays the leading role.
Nativist theories of language acquisition, which argue for the existence in the infant brain of innate or prewired linguistic structure, have been particularly influential since the 1960s. This is when the famous American linguist Noam Chomsky demonstrated that behaviorism (which holds that the newborn brain is a tabula rasa, or blank slate on which experience simply imprints its structure) could not alone account for language acquisition. Chomsky argued that for complex grammar to be acquired, input simply does not
provide sufficient examples to allow the child's brain to build grammatical structures from scratch and to know, for instance, which words are nouns or verbs and which parts of sentences can and cannot be moved. If the child based his hypotheses about linguistic structure simply on what he heard, he would draw a large number of erroneous conclusions about the grammatical structure of his native tongue. Hence behaviorism cannot account for language acquisition.
There are several versions of the nativist approach, but the central tenet is that infants are born with a so-called Universal Grammar (or UG) and specialized language-learning mechanisms for acquiring their native tongue. From this viewpoint, a common set of universal principles underlie every one of the world's languages, despite the very different surface characteristics of each language. Nativist theorists tend to argue that children are born prewired with these linguistic principles and set of parameters, which are simply triggered by the specific linguistic input. The nativist view claims that linguistic experience is needed only to allow the child to discover the local realization of universally specified principles and parameters. The brain mechanisms by which the child learns language are considered to be not only innate, but also entirely domain specific—that is, dedicated only to language learning.
At the opposite theoretical extreme is the cognitive view of language learning propounded, in particular, by the famous Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. For Piaget and his followers, language acquisition calls on the same general learning mechanisms that the child uses to learn about physics, number concepts, space, social conventions, and so forth. According to this approach, there is nothing unique about the way in which children learn language. Cognitive development is deemed to be a prerequisite and foundation for language learning. Thus for Piaget, concepts like "object permanence" are seen to underlie the onset of early word use. One of Piaget's disciples, Hermine Sinclair, also argued that the child's ability to nest a set of Russian dolls (one inside the other) lays the foundations for the child's subsequent capacity to understand how sentences can be
embedded within one another. The cognitive view, then, claims that general learning mechanisms are simply applied to linguistic input once they have become established in general cognitive development.
Other theorists place social interaction at the center of their claims about the processes of language acquisition. Jerome Bruner, for instance, has stressed the importance of the principles of interaction for language learning. Beginning within the mother-infant relationship, and subsequently expanding to the rest of the child's social environment, conversational conventions help children become sensitive to the rules for dialogue and turn-taking. Such theories may explain how children enter the world of dialogue, but say little about how the intricacies of grammar are acquired. They seem to assume that there is enough information in the day-to-day linguistic input for the child to discover the structure of his native tongue. For both the cognitive and social views, the mechanisms by which the child learns language are therefore domain general: they are the same as those used for learning about other aspects of the world.
The debates that separate these different theoretical positions will arise throughout the book because they influence both the kinds of hypotheses constructed and how the research data are ultimately interpreted. We argue, however, that the nature versus nurture dichotomy is not a useful one, and that we should focus instead on the dynamic interaction between the two. Our view is that language is indeed special, but we hypothesize that evolution's solution has not been to prewire complex linguistic representations into the neonate mind. Rather, we believe that evolution has done two interesting things. First, evolution has made the period of postnatal brain development in humans extremely long, so that environmental input can shape the structure of the developing brain. But the brain is not in our view a blank homogenous slate, as behaviorists would hold. Our second argument is that evolution has provided us with a number of different learning mechanisms that, although not domain specific, are what we would call "domain relevant." It is by interacting with various environmental inputs that each mechanism becomes progressively more domain specific. By this we mean that prior to and
at birth, the infant possesses some minimal predispositions that make him pay particular attention to certain parts of the environment like, say, faces and voices. From the start, different brain mechanisms will be more attuned to processing one type of input over another. Thus a mechanism that is sensitive to sequential, fast-fading input might pay particular attention to oral or signed language but not to faces, and as it becomes increasingly specialized at processing language, it will become more devoted to that specific domain. This is why we end up in adulthood with such specialized language areas in the brain. In other words, the infant brain does not start out with circuits dedicated only for processing language, but it does end up with specialized circuits as a function of experience. So, our view considers language knowledge to be the complex product of the interaction between some initial, domain-relevant (not domain-specific) predispositions and the rich structure of the linguistic input. Thus it is not a question of nature or nurture; rather it is about the intricate interaction between the two. An understanding of this interaction will ultimately explain how the dynamic process of language acquisition takes place from fetus to adolescent.
It may be hard for the reader to imagine how we can carry out language-related experiments on very young infants who cannot yet speak. Yet we will see just how inventive researchers have been in devising carefully controlled methods that shed light on both fetal sensitivity to speech input as well as language processing in the early postnatal months. Other methods can now probe the linguistic knowledge of toddlers and older children in greater depth than ever before. These provide vital insights into how the mental representations of speech built up during the first few
months form the foundations of subsequent language development. In particular, we will consider the difference between so-called off-line approaches, which always involve a degree of metalinguistic awareness, and "on-line" techniques that tap into real-time language processing. We will also describe some of the revolutionary noninvasive brain imaging techniques. These reveal minute changes in blood flow and electrical activity in the brains of infants and young children as they actively process linguistic input. Such images show us how the brain becomes progressively specialized and localized for language during postnatal development.
With a clear understanding of the basic experimental paradigms, the reader will then be ready to explore the pathways to language. In Chapter 3, we examine the role of the fetus's intrauterine auditory experiences in preparing the infant to attend to and process speech during the first few months in the outside world. We will particularly stress the difference between speech and language, and warn against automatically generalizing from one to the other, as sometimes happens in the literature. Early speech processing of the sounds of language cannot be equated with knowledge of the meaning and structure of language. Our main focus in Chapter 3 is therefore sensitivity to speech input, as demonstrated by current research into fetal, newborn, and infant behavior.
Most studies of language acquisition have concentrated on middle- to lower-middle-class families and on the English language, and these represent the main sources of data on which theories are based. But the total picture of how language is acquired must also include examination of the world's many different languages whose structures differ from English. Sociocultural variables will also affect a child's patterns of linguistic interaction, and these will in turn influence language acquisition. Wherever possible, we will bring the sociocultural dimension and non-English data into our discussions throughout the book.
Atypical language development in children with focal brain damage and genetic disorders, focusing on Specific Language Impairment, Down syndrome, and Williams syn-
drome. Here we challenge the automatic assumption, often made in the literature on atypicality, that the study of abnormality is necessarily a window on normal language acquisition. We will stress that it is wrong to think of the atypical brain as a normal brain with parts intact and parts impaired. Rather, we argue that the brains of children with genetic disorders show an overall pattern of developmental differences from the outset. Finally, Chapter 8 reexamines the crucial nature-nurture debate against the backdrop of the extensive research data presented in the book. We consider the role of evolution in enabling humans to develop language, how human language differs from the communication systems of other species, and what it ultimately means to have language.
All over the world children learn their native tongues effortlessly. If they cannot hear, they readily acquire the intricacies of sign language. Unlike the development of reading skills, learning a spoken or signed language does not require lessons; it simply happens as a function of development and experience. Yet the complex patterns of linguistic output that children ultimately produce are breathtaking. They can talk or sign about the present, the past, and the future. They can refer to imaginary events and to abstract concepts. They can use language to pass on information, or to trick and deceive. They can play with language, making up new words or new meanings for old words. Language is a system that allows for dynamic change and flexibility. It is vital to human life both as a powerful vehicle for social interaction and as an infinitely creative tool for representing real and hypothetical experiences and feelings. The intricate trajectory that children take in learning the manifold aspects of their native tongue is one of the most fascinating areas of human psychology—and is a journey that the reader is now invited to follow.
