Research the works of Noam Chomsky, Jean Piaget and MariaMontessori on how children acquire language. Outline the salientpoints. What are the implications of this research for us aseducators of young children?

This essay is a background study on three early childhoodresearchers; Chomsky, Montessori and Piaget on how childrenacquire language and the implications of their research toeducators of young children.

It will be worthy to do a background study on the definitionof language. “The study of language has a long and rich history,extending over thousands of years. This study has been frequentlyunderstood as an inquiry “that languages are the best mirror ofthe human mind.” Chomsky (1986: pp. 1).

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquirethe capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as toproduce and use words and sentences to communicate. Languageacquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, becausenonhumans do not communicate by using language. Languageacquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, whichstudies infants' acquisition of their native language.

Language is a human instinct. All societies have complexlanguage, and everywhere the languages use the same kinds ofgrammatical machinery like nouns, verbs, auxiliaries, andagreement. All normal children develop language without consciouseffort or formal lessons, and by the age of three they speak influent grammatical sentences.

Chomsky’s ideas explained the facts in a way that no othertheory can. Acquiring language is not a normal mental problem.Children pick up language effortlessly and learn the rules oftheir native grammar (whatever it might be) by hearing a limitedset of sample sentences. According to Chomsky's followers, thelimited information they receive is mathematically insufficientfor them to determine grammatical principles, yet somehow they

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are still able to do so. This is what is sometimes called “Theparadox of language acquisition”. As Chomsky explained,

In a given linguistic community, children with very different grammararrive at comparable grammars, indeed almost identical ones, as faras we know. That is what requires explanation. Each child has adifferent experience, each child is confronted by different data – but inthe end the experience is essentially the same. As a consequence, wehave to suppose that all children share the same internal constraintswhich characterize narrowly the grammar they are going to construct.

 Nativists such as Noam Chomsky have focused on the hugelycomplex nature of human grammars, the finiteness and ambiguity ofthe input that children receive, and the relativelylimited cognitive abilities of an infant. From thesecharacteristics, they conclude that the process of languageacquisition in infants must be tightly constrained and guided bythe biologically given characteristics of the human brain.Otherwise, they argue, it is extremely difficult to explain howchildren, within the first five years of life, routinely masterthe complex, largely tacit grammatical rules of their nativelanguage.

Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with aninherited ability to learn any human language. He claims thatcertain linguistic structures which children use so accuratelymust be already imprinted on the child’s mind. Chomsky believesthat every child has a ‘language acquisition device’ or LAD whichencodes the major principles of a language and its grammaticalstructures into the child’s brain. Children have then only tolearn new vocabulary and apply the syntactic structures from theLAD to form sentences. Chomsky points out that a child could notpossibly learn a language through imitation alone because thelanguage spoken around them is highly irregular – adult’s speechis often broken up and even sometimes ungrammatical. Chomsky’stheory applies to all languages as they all contain nouns, verbs,consonants and vowels and children appear to be ‘hard-wired’ toacquire the grammar. Every language is extremely complex, often

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with subtle distinctions which even native speakers are unawareof. However, all children, regardless of their intellectualability, become fluent in their native language within five orsix years.

Noam Chomsky is the main proponent of the view thatbiological influences bring about language development. Chomskyargues that human brains have a language acquisition device(LAD), an innate mechanism or process that allows children todevelop language skills. According to this view, all children areborn with a universal grammar, which makes them receptive to thecommon features of all languages. Because of this hard-wiredbackground in grammar, children easily pick up a language whenthey are exposed to its particular grammar.

Evidence for an innate human capacity to acquire languageskills comes from the following observations:

The stages of language development occur at about the sameages in most children, even though different childrenexperience very different environments.

Children’s language development follows a similar patternacross cultures.

Children generally acquire language skills quickly andeffortlessly.

Deaf children who have not been exposed to a language maymake up their own language. These new languages resembleeach other in sentence structure, even when they are createdin different cultures.

Evidence to support Chomsky’s theory

Children learning to speak never make grammatical errorssuch as getting their subjects, verbs and objects in thewrong order.

If an adult deliberately said a grammatically incorrectsentence, the child would notice.

Children often say things that are ungrammatical such as‘mama ball’, which they cannot have learnt passively.

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Mistakes such as ‘I drawed’ instead of ‘I drew’ show theyare not learning through imitation alone.

Chomsky used the sentence ‘colourless green ideas sleepfuriously’, which is grammatical although it doesn’t make sense,to prove his theory: he said it shows that sentences can begrammatical without having any meaning, that we can tell thedifference between a grammatical and an ungrammatical sentencewithout ever having heard the sentence before, and that we canproduce and understand brand new sentences that no one has eversaid before.

There are a few factors that Chomsky has used to support histheory of language acquisition. First is that there is an optimallearning age. Between the ages 3 to 10 a child is the most likelyto learn a language in its entirety and grasp fluency. After thisage, it is hard and even considered impossible for the child tocompletely grasp the language. This is why school systems arecriticized for teaching foreign languages in high school and notin elementary.

The second factor is that the child does not need a trigger tobegin language acquisition, it happens on its own. The parentdoes not need to coax the child to speak, if it around languageproduction, the child will work to produce that language on itsown. Several things may help the child develop faster, such asthe parent producing baby talk, or being read to on a consistentbasis. But these things only have a small effect, and if they arenot done, the child will still eventually learn to speak withoutthem.

Another factor found was that it does not matter if a child iscorrected, they still grasp the language in the same manner andspeak the same way. During one stage, a child will make thingsplural that are already plural. For example, a child will saygeeses instead of geese. It does not matter how many times achild is corrected, the child still says geeses. In onedocumented case, a child, after being corrected several times by

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the mother to say feet instead of feets, looked at the mother,said "ohh," as if she understood and then proceeded to say feets.

Another fact is that children go through stages of languageacquisition in which they learn certain parts of the language.They all go through these stages at the same time, around thesame age. A child in China, will follow the same linguisticpatterns of language acquisition as a child in the United States.It is with these observations, along with knowledge aboutneurological structures that control linguistic communication andinterpretation that Chomsky argues that language is innatelyorganized.

Chomsky believes that if a child is placed in an impoverishedenvironment, innate abilities simply will not develop, mature,and flourish. To take an extreme case, a child who wears a caston its legs for too long will never learn to walk, and a childdeprived of appropriate nutrition may undergo puberty only aftera long delay, or never, though there is no doubt that walking andsexual maturation are innately determined biological properties.Similarly, a child brought up in an institution may have ampleexperience and nutrition, but still may not develop normally,either physically or mentally, if normal human interaction islacking.

It is a traditional insight that teaching is not like fillinga cup with water, but more like enabling a flower to grow in itsown way; but it will not grow and flourish without proper care.Language development, like all human development, will be heavilydetermined by the nature of the environment, and may be severelylimited unless the environment is appropriate. A stimulatingenvironment is required to enable natural curiosity,intelligence, and creativity to develop, and to enable ourbiological capacities to unfold. The fact that the course ofdevelopment is largely internally determined does not mean thatit will proceed without care, stimulation, and opportunity.

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Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the toolsneeded for processing an infinite number of sentences if thelanguage acquisition mechanism was dependent on language inputalone.

Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: anidea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a nouncategory and a verb category that facilitate the entire languagedevelopment in children and overall language processing inadults.

Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammaticalinformation needed to combine these categories, e.g. noun andverb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the wordsof her language. For example, according to the Universal Grammaraccount, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g.a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (Aboy eats).

Salient points on Noam Chomsky’s theory on how children acquirelanguage:

Native capacity to acquire a language: Language is acquiredbecause there is an environment that makes it easier to doit.

Interactionist: Language is acquired by the interaction withchildren’s surroundings.

Noam’s Chomsky’s Theory is a nativist Theory thatassumes that children are born with a language acquisition device (LAD) that allows them to create syntactic structureswith the new words they have learned, that means thechildren have an internalized knowledge of the language thatas native speakers of that language they possess. It is whatallows the children to be creative as language users.

Children do not need any kind of formal teaching to learn tospeak. Children are born with a natural capacity to learnlanguage. The brain contains systems for recognizingpatterns of sound.

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There is a critical period for language learning. Everyhuman is born with innate principles of language. Childrenlearn language spontaneously and speak creatively.

He also believed children have a natural need to uselanguage, and in the absence of formal language, childrenwill develop a system of communication to meet their needs. 

He observed that all children make the same type of languageerrors, regardless of the language they are taught. 

He believes that the Language Acquisition Device enableschildren to acquire any human language due to an innateknowledge of these rules.

Children do not simply copy the language that they heararound them. They deduce rules from it, which they can thenuse to produce sentences that they have never heard before.They do not learn a repertoire of phrases 

Montessori attests that “one must remember that in nature thespoken language is formed gradually; and it is alreadyestablished in words when the superior psychic centres use thesewords in what Kussmal calls dictorium, in the syntacticalgrammatical formation of language which is necessary to theexpression of complex ideas; that is, in the language of thelogical mind.” Montessori (1964: pp. 312).

The child’s psychic mechanism of learning a language beginsin the deepest shadows of the unconscious mind; there it isdeveloped and the product becomes fixed. Then only does it appearin the open. There is a mechanism at work causing all this tohappen.

According to Montessori, there are two periods in thedevelopment of language: “a lower one which prepares the nervouschannel and the cultural mechanisms which are to put the sensorychannels in relation with the motor channels; and a higher onedetermined by the higher psychic activities which areexteriorized by means of the performed mechanisms.” Montessori(1964: pp. 313).

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Montessori further explains that:

Small children, too, are, at the beginning, particularly sensitive to simplesounds of language, with which indeed, and especially with s, their motherscaress them and attract their attention; while later the child is sensitive tosyllables, with which also the mother caresses him saying: “ba, ba, punf, tuf!”Montessori (1964: pps. 313-314).

She gives an example of how children acquire language, thus

“We say that the spoken language begins with the child when theword pronounced by him signifies an idea; when for example,seeing his mother and recognizing her he says “mama;” and seeinga dog says “tette;” and wishing to eat says: ‘papa’”.

Thus we consider language begun when it is established inrelation to perception; while the language itself is still in thepyscho-motor mechanism, perfectly rudimentary. Hence, “…languagecontinues the process of perfecting in proportion as the hearingperceives better the component sounds of the words and thepsycho-motor channels become more permeable to articulation. Itis the simple word, dissyllabic words in most cases, whichattracts the child’s attention.” Montessori (1964: pp. 314).

Montessori points out that “the development of articulatelanguage takes place in the period between the age of two and theage of seven: the age of perceptions in which the attention ofthe child is spontaneously turned towards external objects, andthe memory is particularly tenacious.” Montessori (1964: pp.315).

Montessori explains how a child acquires language: “…for themother does not teach her child language. It develops naturally,like a spontaneous creation. Also, its development follows fixedlaws which are the same in all children. The various periods ofthe child’s life show the same stages in the level reached- athing repeated for children all over the world, regardless ofwhether the language be simple or complex. There are still manytongues of extreme simplicity spoken by primitive peoples, andthe children reach the same level in these as in the muchdifficult one. All the children pass through a period in which

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they can only pronounce syllables; then they pronounce wholewords, and, finally, they use to perfection all the rules ofsyntax and grammar.” Montessori (2007: pps. 100-101).

She gives a description of how language comes to a child:

The attention we have given to this problem- how this instrument becomesacquired by man- leads us to believe that it is the child who “absorbs”language. The reality of this absorption is something deep and puzzling, towhich not enough attention has yet been given. All we usually say is that,“children live with people who speak, so naturally they come to speakthemselves.” Montessori (2007: pp. 100).

This is not the result of conscious work. It is something done at unconsciouslevel in the mind. It begins and unfolds in the darkest depths of theunconscious, and when it emerges it is as a fixed acquisition. It is the idea ofnatural mechanisms, or rather of mechanisms superimposed upon nature,which act apart from consciousness, and these wonderful mechanisms orseries of them, develop at depths not directly accessible to our observation.Montessori (2007:pp. 101).

She gives a description of what to expect when a child is inthe state if acquisition. Hence, “at a certain time, for example,the power to pronounce syllables appears, and then for months thechild utters only syllables. Externally, he seems to be making noprogress, but all of a sudden, he says a word. Then for a longtime, he uses only one or two words, and seems discouraginglyslow to go any further.” Montessori (2007: pp. 103).

Montessori reported that some Belgian psychologists havefound that the child of two and a half has only two or threehundred words, but at six he knows thousands. And all thishappens without a teacher. It is a spontaneous acquisition. Shealso pointed that if the child’s circumstances are such that hehears very words, or nothing but dialect, he will come to speaklike this. But if he lives among cultures people with a widevocabulary, he takes it all in equally well. Circumstances,

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therefore, are very important, yet the child’s language, at thistime, becomes richer no matter what his surroundings.

She explains that before a child can produce speech, themovement for reproducing the words must be based on a substratumof sounds registered in the mind, because the movements he willmake depend on the sounds he has heard and which the mind hasretained.

Nature has constructed and isolated the organs of speech forthe purpose of language that is why the child ever learns tospeak. She gives a description of what propels children toacquire language, “within the child is a tiny teacher who workslike one of those old-fashioned teachers who used to makechildren first of all recite the alphabet, then pronouncesyllables and then words.” Montessori (2007: pp. 109).

She further explains the work of nature in the acquisitionof language for a child: “methodically, she (nature) teachesnouns and adjectives, conjunctions and adverbs, verbs in theinfinitive, then the conjugation of adverbs, verbs in theinfinitive, then the conjugation of verbs and declension ofnouns; prefixes, and suffixes and all the exceptions. Only thendo we notice what a good teacher has been at work in him, what adiligent pupil he has been, and how clever he was to learn allthis correctly.” Montessori (2007: pp. 109).

She describes how a child spontaneously acquires language:“… the baby watches the lips of a person speaking; he looks atthem most intently and tries to imitate the movements. Afterwatching the speaker’s mouth for two months, the child producessyllabic sounds, by then being six months old. Unable, beforethis, to make a single sound of speech, he wakes up one morningbefore you do and you hear him saying, “pa…pa…ma…ma.” He hasproduced the words “papa” and “mama.” We have a little man, nolonger a machine; a person who can use the machinery at hisdisposal. When we talk to him fondly, the baby realizes that

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these words are meant for him and he begins to grasp themintentionally. Montessori (2007: pp. 110).

E. M. Standing in his book Maria Montessori: Her Life andHer Work, further explains Montessori’s thoughts on how childrenacquire language.

Without the help of reason, without lessons, and without conscious effort helearns to pronounce the language he hears around him with perfection.

The child is endowed with a special sensibility towards a certain element(language) in its environment, which enables it to establish a new function-speech.

When the child is born the sounds in its environment form a confusion, ajumble, a chaos. Then suddenly this mysterious urge begins in its soul, thisinner flame of interest is lit up, and is turned outward as a light upon thisdark exterior confusion.

The child’s mind now listens voluntarily to the spoken language; whichbecomes as “a kind of music that fills the soul. Standing (1998: pps. 121-122).

Salient points on Maria Montessori’s theory on how childrenacquire language:

We can only use the machinery of our own language; noone but a child can construct his own machinery and solearn to perfection as many languages as he hearsspoken about him.

Complex languages are absorbed with the same ease assimple ones. No child finds it tiring to learn hismother tongue; “his mechanism” brings it into being asa single whole no matter what it may be.

The child must naturally hear the sounds in use amonghis people before he can repeat them.

Speech is produced by a natural mechanism and not bylogical reasoning.

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The human tongue has only the power to activate themachinery of speech.

Words are a kind of fabrication which the childproduces, thanks to the machinery which he finds at hisdisposal.

Only the human speech has the power to stir the child. Nature is the child’s teacher of language. Language refers to his surroundings and his wish to

master it becomes great. The child says “fusive” words or sometimes

“portemanteau” words- “one -word- sentences.” The child is able to discover that each thing has a

name when he is about a year and a half. The child reaches his knowledge of grammar by himself. A child can pick up language just by hearing it. The child imitates and does not know why; the words

penetrate as if drawn by a secret magnetism.

Piaget’s contribution to language acquisition of children isthat it is a cognitive and sort of emotional process that followscertain stages of human development. Piaget linked languagedevelopment to a child’s cognitive development meaning that thedevelopment of the child’s thinking determines when the child canspeak and what the child can say. He proposed the theory thatlanguage was just a way of reflecting a child’s thought processand that language didn’t contribute to the development ofthinking. He argued that cognitive development before linguisticdevelopment. Piaget saw language as the development of thechild’s ability to manipulate symbols which emerged near the endof the sensorimotor period.

According to Piaget, children learn their first initialconstructs by the environment i.e. interaction with other peopleand they construct language through a combination of schemas.(Biological given intelligence).

Jean piaget is of the opinion that:

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The child usually demonstrates a good grasp of spoken language by age five,independent of any formal instruction. This language development isreflected not only in the child’s growing vocabulary but also in the applicationof many language rules. Imitation plays an important role in the youngchild’s acquisition of language, however his speech does not have a simpledirect relationship with adult models the child hears. Without formal teachingof language the child is exposed to isolated instances of verbal application.From such an exposure he gains an intuitive understanding of the rules for aninvisible language system. In the gradual acquisition of grammaticalstructure in his speech the child demonstrates evidence of active constructionwithin the limits of the language. His use of “He goed” and “I taked it” aresuggestive of rule-governed behaviour.

Another example of the child’s active construction is reflected in his earlysentence structure; it doesn’t reflect mere parrotlike imitation but, rather, akind of selective imitation which involves construction of things he hasn’theard. In the gradual acquisition of grammatical structure, the child tends toreduce the adult sentence to a minimum of necessary information forconveying meaning. “Daddy’s fixing the car” is reduced to “Daddy car.” In hisspeaking his own thoughts, the child expresses intended relationships byorder in which he places the words; for example ‘poon cup’ has the intendedmeaning of “The spoon is in the cup.” The child’s abbreviated sentencessuggest that he is creating rules that relate to adult separate patterns. He iscreating meaning with his order of stating selected patterns. In addition toactive experimentation and construction of rules within his particularlanguage system the child also enriches that language by inventing newwords.

Labinowicz (1980: pps. 112-113).

Piaget believes that “language has roots in the child’scoordination of actions, which are deeper than language itself. Duringthe sensorimotor period the child discovers and coordinates hisactions to achieve goals of increasing complexity. These group actionpatterns and the general pattern of discover not only precede butalso seem to underly the child’s acquisition of language.”Labinowicz (1980: pps. 116).

Barry J. Wadsworth in his book “Piaget’s theory of Cognitiveand Affective Development”, points out Piaget’s thought on howchildren acquire language. Most children in all cultures begin to

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master their native language around age 2. Because languagelearning is universal, one is tempted to believe that theacquisition of spoken language is automatic or innate. Piaget’stheory suggests that this is not the case and that spokenlanguage is acquired (learned). Piaget (1963b) wrote:

It is fundamental that there is hereditary transmission of themechanism making this acquisition (spoken language) possible.Language itself is however, learned through external transmission.Ever since humans began speaking, there has never been an exampleof the hereditary appearance of a ready-made linguistic structure. (p.4). Wadsworth (1969: pp. 64).

Wadsworth further points out Piaget’s view on how childrenacquire language:

At 2 years of age children begin to master spoken language, a systemof arbitrary signs. Children receive no formal instruction in learningspoken language, though models are usually present. By and large,children master the use of the language fairly quickly.”

Piaget’s theory suggests that the motivation for learning spokenlanguage is the adaptation value of doing so. The child who learns oneword as representation (such as “drink” or “cookie”) thus is able tocommunicate more effectively with his or her caretakers and havepersonal needs met. Thus language learning has immediate and long-lasting value (adaptation value to the child). Wadsworth (1969: pp. 65)

Wadsworth then asks a question: how do children learn spokenlanguage? “Children acquire spoken language the same way theyacquire all other knowledge. The child constructs the language.At the outset all the child’s task is similar to code breaking.The child figures out (constructs) the rules of the language fromhis or her experience. With experience, children’s constructionsbecome refined (the code is more thoroughly broken). Muchprogress is made between age 2 and 4. Wadsworth (1969: pp. 65)

Salient points on Jean Piaget’s theory on how children acquirelanguage:

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The child’s acquisition of language is intimately linkedwith other forms of representation- imitation, symbolicplay, and mental imagery- that emerge simultaneously in hisdevelopment.

Language develops as part of a larger system of representingthe world.

Language develops in clear cognitive stages. As children develop language, they actively build a symbol

system, which helps them to understand the world. Children learn to talk naturally when they are ready without

any deliberate teaching by a teacher. Child language is egocentric.

The research of Chomsky, Montessori and Piaget on how childrenacquire language varies. Chomsky’s theory was that humans areborn with a special biological brain mechanism, called a LanguageAcquisition Device (LAD). This theory supposes that the abilityto learn language is inborn, that nature is more important thannurture and that experience using language is only necessary inorder to activate the LAD. Montessori is of the opinion thatspeech is produced by a natural mechanism and not by logicalreasoning.

Piaget’s theory on language was simply one of children's ways ofrepresenting their familiar worlds, a reflection of thought, andthat language did not contribute to the development of thinking.

All of the above studies have revealed afew universally accepted facts about child language acquisition:

Cognitive development is an essential prerequisite forlinguistic development.  But language acquisition doesn'toccur spontaneously because of cognitive development (asseems to be the case in animal systems of communication.

Repetition, imitation, structured input are all a part oflanguage acquisition.  Greater exposure to language mightspeed language acquisition up but is not essential.

Innate learning device.  All children exposed to language,regardless of environmental factors and differences in

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intelligence, are able to acquire very complex grammars at avery early age.  Something innate to the child--the LAD--allows for such rapid and successful language acquisition bychildren.

Child Language acquisition is a natural consequence of humansociety.  All children exposed to language acquire itnaturally without deliberate efforts of teaching orlearning.

The outcome of first language acquisition will be the sameregardless of individual differences in intelligence.  Twochildren with quite different intellectual abilities willboth acquire a highly complex native language by age six.

Although the basic ability to acquire language is innate tothe child, no specific structural property of language hasyet been proven to be innate.  Therefore, any infant isequally capable of acquiring any language.  Infants born ofdifferent racial stocks will acquire the same form oflanguage if raised in the same linguistic environment. There is no such a thing as a Russian language gene or aSwahili language gene.  An infant born of Russian parentsand adopted into an American family will acquire the sameform of English as his stepbrothers and sisters. 

Teachers of young children need to be good custodians oflanguage because they act as a major stakeholder in theacquisition of language of children. As it was discussed inthis essay, a child picks up language from his environment, sothere should be a conscious effort to make sure a youngchildren gets the right foot in language acquisition.

Montessori contributed to the role of a teacher in childlanguage acquisition, she says “one might arrange, as we do inour schools, for children of a year old to find intelligentpersons who would talk to them intelligently. The new “Helpersin the Home” for children from birth to two years must have ascientific knowledge of the development of language. Byhelping the child, we become servers and collaborators withthat nature which is creating him, and we find that his whole

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programme of studies has already been laid down.” Montessori(2007: pps. 111-112).

She further adds “so, once again, I urge the importance ofhaving a special kind of “school” for children of one to oneand a half, and I believe that mothers, and society ingeneral, far from keeping babies in isolation, should let themlive in contact with grown-ups and frequently hear the bestspeech clearly pronounced.” Montessori (2007: pp.115).

      She concludes by saying that there will never becivilization if a child does not spontaneously master hislanguage, “no effective work would ever have been done by theworld of men.” Hence, “This is the true perspective in which wemust see the child. This is his importance. He makes everythingpossible. On his work stands civilization. This is why we mustoffer the child the help he needs, and be at his service so thathe does not have to walk alone. Montessori (2007: pp. 104).

Teachers of young children can enhance language acquisitionin children through these means:

Talk about what you are doing: Daily activities, such ascleaning up toys or snack time, provide many opportunitiesfor language development. Talk with children about what theyare doing and what you are doing. This type of talkingexposes children to language in general, involves them inlearning conversation skills, and helps children acquire anduse vocabulary that is important in their everyday lives.

Tell Stories: Tell stories every day about things from thepast or things that will happen. The teacher can talk aboutsomething the class might do that day or the parent can talkabout an upcoming event. During a story, use prompts toencourage storytelling like, “Tell me a story,” “Whathappened next?” and “When did that happen?” or “Tell me whatyou did at school (Grandma’s house) today.”

Use Appropriate Levels of Vocabulary: When speaking withchildren we have to be careful to not use too many new wordsor too few new words. There is no magic formula for thecorrect number of words, so teachers and parents must be

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aware of each child’s abilities to figure out if thevocabulary is confusing to the child or if he/she is able tokeep up and understand.

Provide Prompts That Promote Oral Language: Includemicrophones, old telephones, puppets, flannel boards, andeven paper towel tubes in your child’s play area. Items toplay dress-up are big hits with children. Pretending to besomeone else encourages children to mimic the vocabulary,facial expressions, and body language that they see and hearfrom others. These types of prompts encourage oral languageinteractions. Make them available and encourage children touse them during their playtime.

Build an environment that helps language flourish. Buildinga language rich environment is about using every opportunityto use language, to interact, to share a focus, to talk, totake turns. Building a language rich environment is alsoabout building a nurturing environment, giving your childlove and affection and building their self-confidence. Andfinally, it is about building a learning environment,creating a place where love, language and learning can alltake place together. So what do you do to create thisenvironment? Well firstly look at yourself and how you arecommunicating:

Remember your language level - One of the biggest things tobe aware of when using language around younger child is thelevel and complexity of the language you use. Think abouttheir age and how much language they use. A young child willgenerally understand more words than he uses in speech. Youcan use a milestones chart to have a broad idea of thechild's language level. Assuming your child is developingalong normal lines think about where to pitch you language.For instance, if the child is aged 2 years and 6 months andis able to follow a short instruction containing 2 keywords, be mindful of this when you talk to her. If you uselong sentences she will not understand you. If the child

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does have difficulty understanding, just use key words, moreintonation, and gesture, or point as you say the words.

When talking to the child, try to talk about things that arein context or that the child can see, so they can use thesethings as a reference. Talk slowly and put emphasis on thekey words if they are in a sentence, and use lots ofintonation to help emphasize meaning. Give the child moretime to respond than you would with older children or anadult. Younger children may need a little longer to processyour speech and formulate an answer of their own. This iseven more important if your child has difficulties acquiringlanguage. If your child has language difficulties, orreceptive language delay, limiting your words, giving themlots of time to process language, and using lots of gestureis essential.

Be conscious of the language you use during play. Childrendo not learn language by having an adult continually askingthem to name various items. Children learn by hearing wordsand linking them to things. So it is a good idea to feedlanguage into play, rather than asking your child to nameevery toy they are playing with. Adding language is an easything to do and can be done in all types of differentsituations, not just play. The teacher can comment on whatthe child sees, commentate on what your child is doing, orexpand on what they have said e.g.:

Child: carAdult: that's right, it's a car, a fast car; orAdult: that's right, it's a car, a red car, and there is a bluecarChild: catAdult: yes, the cat is climbing (gesture the actions, andemphasize the key words cat and climbing).

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The teacher should name everything. Avoid using slang orpronouns. So instead of saying "please bring it here" --where "it" is vague -- say, "Please bring the book here."Name all the objects in your child's environment inmeaningful ways. Speak in full sentences as often aspossible.

The teacher should take advantage of every opportunity toenlarge the child's world because each new adventure brimswith language possibilities.

The teacher can engage the children with interactive readingencourages children to make comments, predict events, andask questions about the story and illustrations duringreading. 

This essay closely dealt with the works of Chomsky, Montessoriand Piaget on how children acquire language. In my opinion,adults should treat children as people who can understand andthey should truly listen to them which is the best way to promotelanguage development. Language cannot be over emphasized it istool which man uses every day to express his thought.

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BIBLIOGRAPHYMontessori, M. (1964). The Montessori Method. New York, SchockenBooks Inc.

Labinowicz E.D. (1980). The Piaget Primer: Thinking, Learning,Teaching. New Jersey, Dale Seymour Publications.

Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin,and Use. Westport, Connecticut, London, Praeger Publishers.

Wadsworth, B.J. (1989). Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive andAffective Development. New York and London, Longman.

Standing, E.M. (1998). Maria Montessori: Her Life and Her Work.New York, U.S.A, Penguin Group.

Montessori, M. (2007). The Absorbent Mind. Amsterdam, theNetherlands, Montessori- Pierson Publishing Company.

INTERNET REFERENCEShttp://www.forbes.com/2005/10/19/chomsky-noam-language-learning-comm05-cx_de_1024chomsky.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

http://www.slideshare.net/summerjucelyne/noam-chomskys-theory-by-summer-gomez-10610330

http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/chomsky/21

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/chomsky.htm

http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/languageandcognition/section2.rhtml

http://www.chomsky.info/bios/2001----02.htm

http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/cogrev_chomsky.htm

http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html

http://languageinstinct.blogspot.com/2006/08/noam-chomskys-black-box.html

http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/jean-piagets-theory-child-language-development-9170.html

http://www.education.com/reference/article/language-development-2/

http://www.slideshare.net/honeyravian1/first-language-acquisition-theories-malik-sahab

http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/ChildLangAcquisition.htm

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