How I Feel About Language Acquisition

My Beliefs Regarding Language Acquisition

I am almost certain that my beliefs about language acquisition are distorted by my own personal experiences, but I am also pretty sure that I am not the only one. During my tenure at Ashford I was afforded many opportunities in the form of resources. These resources have aiding my professional development as well as my personal development with regards to my family. Starting with the pragmatics of language, language attributes to the different theoretical perspectives on language acquisition and the effects of environmental influences on such, the knowledge I've learned as have had the pleasure to apply in my assistive positions have made me an ideal facilitator and advocate of early learning and language development. I have learned from my many afforded literature resources that opinions on this matter come a dime a dozen so I seek to offer a different theoretical perspective, one based on my personal experiences and observations; every child is different and learn or develop in different ways. Oddly it seems simple enough and I am sure I have heard it somewhere before, but it isn't often enough applied. Sure we can say that the child with a speech impairment will grow out of it and doesn't need professional help/ coaching, while another does because of their 'impoverished environment'. During the history of man stereotyping has never gotten us anywhere so why continually apply it to those too young and are incapable of defending themselves? 

What we know for certain is that children are born with the innate capacity to learn language and that the main requirement for doing so is exposure to language and opportunities to use it; we also know that although they are able to overcome physical and environmental challenges to learn language, there appears to be a critical period during which language learning is optimal (Piper,2012). It is certainly time we apply this mantra to every learner and recognize that speech and language disorders will continue to exist regardless of cultural disparities or environmental influences.

References

Piper, T. (2012). Making meaning, making sense: Children’s early language learning. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.