THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 26

C h a p t e r 4: LANGUAGE AND THE BRAIN

Objective: At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. Display basic knowledge on how the different parts of the brain fulfill
language- related functions

Are you into Arts ?

Are you interested in Research or even in Statistics?
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Source of the image: https://www.verywellmind.com/left-brain-vs-right-brain-2795005

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 27

The brain is considered the most complex organ of the body. Its surface is
called the cortex which is also called the ‘gray matter’ and is the decision-making organ
of the body. It receives messages from all the sensory organs and it initiates all
voluntary actions. Cortex is the storehouse of our memories and it is where grammar
that represents our knowledge language is found.
Generally, the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, whereas the
right hemisphere controls the left side. So when you point with your right hand, the left
hemisphere is in control, and vice versa (Fromkin,V.,Rodman, R., & Hyams, N.,2003).

► In 1864, Paul Broca related language specifically to the left side of the brain. When
he attended a scientific meeting in Paris, he mentioned that we speak with the left
hemisphere. He based his finding on the observation that damage to the front part of
the left hemisphere (now called Broca’s area or region) resulted in loss of speech. He
found out this by autopsy investigations of eight patients who had language deficits after
suffering from brain injury.
► Thus, language is said to be lateralized , a word that refers to any cognitive function
that is localized primarily on one side of the brain or the other (Fromkin,V.,Rodman, R.,
& Hyams, N.,2003).

Source of the image:

https://theconversation.com/what-brain-regions-control-our-language-and-how-do-we-know-this-63318

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 28

Lateralization: the process whereby one side of the brain becomes specialized
for particular functions

► It is stated that the following areas of the human brain are worth considering in
relation to language:

• It controls the speech mechanisms.

Broca’s area • Damage to this area results in aphasia characterized by
difficulty in producing speech.
• It involves receptive functions.
• It is the word receiver and selector. Words are selected
from the verbal memory. If the words are to be written,
Wernicke’s area hand muscle controls go into action. If spoken language
is required, signals are fired to Broca’s area.
• Damage in this area is characterized by an impairment or
a total loss of comprehension.
Angular gyrus • It is involved only when language depends in vision.
• It connects the visual cortex to the Wernicke’s area to call
up words for things seen and to permit the ultimate use of
language in reading and writing (Theories in Second
Language Acquisition, n.d.).

● Eric Lenneberg (1987) theorizes that the lateralization of the brain is a slow process which
takes place from age 2 up to puberty. The development of the brain’s Broca area, making
talking possible, the Wernicke area for perceiving/ responding verbal matters, the angular gyrus
for reading, and the motor cortex for speaking is crucial at this stage.
In cases of brain damage, a child may still have chances of re-learning his language
since during childhood, the brain is still in the state of “plasticity” wherein certain bodily
functions originally assigned to the cerebral hemisphere (Scovel as cited in Theories in Second
Language Acquisition, n.d.).
● Stephen Krashen contends that brain lateralization is already complete at age 5 and that the
child is capable of achieving an “authentic” pronunciation in the second language that he shall
be learning after age 5, since at this age, the child’s psychomotor skills are already fully
developed (Theories in Second Language Acquisition, n.d.).
● There are cases of children who experience difficulty in acquiring language or are slower in
doing so than the average child. They are not autistic nor retarded and have no cognitive
deficits or perceptual problems. But these children suffer from a Specific Language Impairment
(SLI). Only their linguistic ability is affected, and often only specific aspects of the grammar are
impaired (Theories in Second Language Acquisition, n.d.).

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 29

LANGUAGE AND BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

There is an intimate connection between language and the brain. Specific areas
of the brain are devoted to language, and injury to these areas disrupts
language. In the young child, injury to or removal of the left hemisphere has
severe consequences for language development. Conversely, there is increasing
evidence that normal brain development depends on early and regular exposure
to language.
The Critical Period
● Children need exposure to language in order to develop normally.
● Children who do not have linguistic input in their early years do not achieve nativelike
grammatical competence.
● The Critical Age Hypothesis is part of the biological basis of language. It says
that the ability to learn a native language happens within a fixed period, from birth to
puberty. During this critical period, language acquisition goes smoothly without external
intervention. After this period, individuals find difficult to acquire grammar. Others may
even never fully achieve to do it (Fromkin,V.,Rodman, R., & Hyams, N.,2003).

To emphasize critical age

hypothesis, sources have cited
children reared in environments
of extreme social isolation. The
most dramatic cases include
those described as “wild” or “feral” children,
who have reportedly lived with wild animals or
have stayed alone in the wilderness. In the year
1920, two feral children from India named
Amala and Kamala were said to have lived with
wolves. Another case involves Victor, “the wild
boy of Aveyron” . He was found in 1798 and it
was discovered that he had been left in the woods
when very young and had somehow survived.
His story was documented in Francois Truffaut’s
film The Wild Child.
Moreover, a child called Genie was
discovered in 1970. She had stayed in a small
room and had received only minimal human
contact from the age of eighteen months until
almost fourteen years.
These children, regardless of the cause of
isolation, were not able to speak or knew any
language at the time they were discovered.
The reason of this linguistic inability
could be the fact that the children have received
no linguistic input. This proves then that exposure
to language is needed to trigger the innate
neurological ability of the brain in order to Source of the image:
acquire language (Fromkin,V.,Rodman, R., & https://www.simonandschuster.com 1
Hyams, N.,2003)

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 30

C h a p t e r 5: STAGES IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Objective: At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:

1. Explain the stages of language acquisition;

Remember these pictures and terms from Chapter 3? What

specific details about these can you think of?

The Babbling Stage

The One-word Stage

The Two-word Stage

The Telegraph to Infinity Stage and

Functional Interpretation

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 31

Note: Discussion in this chapter is much related with the topic

‘Development of First Language Acquisition’ included in chapter 3. Ideas
are expanded and details are specified in this particular chapter though.

THE PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION OF SPEECH SOUNDS

● Based on experiments done, the sucking rate of infants will increase when various
objects or stimuli are presented to them. However, it will decrease when the same
object or stimulus is presented to them repeatedly. This means that when objects with
different colors and shapes are shown to them, they seem to respond and suck more
often compared to when they are shown one object only all the time.

Stimuli: 2 round
objects with different
colors; teddy bear

Effect: sucking rate

increases

Stimulus: 1
brown stuffed
toy given
repeatedly

Effect: sucking
rate decreases

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 32

● Infants will respond to differences between rigid and flexible physical properties of
objects, and to human faces rather than to other visual stimuli.
● It is stated that children can learn any human language to which they are exposed.
● Infants possess certain abilities to produce and perceive speech sounds.

Example:
They can perceive the differences between [pa] and [ba].

● It is believed that from around six months, infants begin to lose the ability to
distinguish sounds that are not phonemic in their own language.

Example:
Japanese infants can no longer hear the difference between [r] and [l].This
is because in Japan, the sounds [r] and [l] are accepted as the same.

However, English-speaking babies can still distinguish the difference between [r]
and [l] because the sounds are present in their own language.

● At around six months, babies begin to babble. The sounds created in the very early
stage are mainly of repeated consonant-vowel sequences like dada or mama. In the
later stage however, babbles are more varied.
● During the first year of life, an infant can only perceive and produce sounds that
occur in the language of his surroundings.
● When an infant babbles, it shows that he is ready to respond to linguistic cues. This
means that babbling is considered the earliest stage in language acquisition.

FIRST WORDS
● Sometime after the age of one, children begin to use repeatedly the same string of
sounds to mean the same thing.
● At this stage, children start to realize that sounds are actually related to meanings.
● The first utterances of a child differ from adult language. For an instance, a child
named J.P. who is 16 months old illustrates the point:

Utterances of a Words of an Adult Utterances of a Words of an Adult

Child Child
[da] “dog” [sa] “sock”

[baw] / [daw] “ down “ [sr] “shirt” , “sweater”

[ma] “mommy” [dae] “daddy”

● It was mentioned in Chapter 3 that in the holophrastic stage (from holo, “complete”
or undivided,” and phrase, phrase or “sentence”), most children utter only one word but
give more complex message.

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 THEORIES OF LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 33

J.P. says: He may be:

Requesting to be put down

“down” or
Pointing to a toy that has fallen

Naming the box of cereal in front of him

“cheerios” or
Asking for some Cheerios

● The examples above show that in this stage, children have a more complex mental
representation than their language (Fromkin,V.,Rodman, R., & Hyams, N.,2003).

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