2. Language acquisition

Language acquisition

The language is a system which enables to express intentions using articulated sounds. (García Fajardo, J., 2007)

For its learning and keeping, it is necessary some conditions:

·         A steady social group.

·         Living in a proper environment.

·         Ideas and thoughts exchange. (Crystal, D. 1976)

All the humans since their childhoods, acquire the language as a system for communication and expression, we acquire it with a process of imitation: hearing to other persons speak and we “copy” the information, and through interaction with people, we develop it trying over and over pronouncing some words, so in that way, humans acquire and learn their mother tongue. (Crystal, D. 1976)

We have an innate neurologic ability for speaking any language, and also a tongue, throat, vocal cords and other organs for making sounds, but we were not born talking, the children acquire the rules of a language (grammar, phonology, semantics, etc.) and improve it over the years. (Garcia Fajardo, J. 2007)

I am going to illustrate this process: first, a baby cries for communicate his feelings and wishes, after that, makes babblings; around twelve months, the baby can produce more articulated sounds and intonations, the ability for speaking his mother tongue is awakening.

Around fifteen to eighteen months, the baby pronounces his first words –in Spanish, it can be mamá, papá or agua- and the grammar structures begins to appear, the most common example that we can mention about it is when the child is trying to “fit” words producing short sentences, generally that sentences are disordered. Around two or three years, the child is able to make more specific sounds –or phonemes-, but he is still learning the grammar. (Crystal, D., 1976)

Conclusions

A child, in a biological, psychological and social normal conditions, can communicate his ideas to each other, and learning a second language.

As we have seen before, children acquire their mother tongue through listening and rendering the models made in their environment.

The alternation occurs when a person cannot find the correspondent word in a specific language due to a lack of knowledge about the structures or it is hard to express an idea in one language. (Appel R., Muysken P., 1996, p.177)

A bilingual person can alternate language codes for including or avoiding people in a conversation, this is a social issue. (Op. cit., p.178)