Reflection 11

In the article of McGlothlins, he looks at the acquisition of the first language of a child compare to that of an adult. He has heard of a theory that god gave children magic to learn languages but as they get older the magic runs out, so he begins to see if it is true or not. He uses one of his children and begins to write down every word that he learns till a certain age. And as the time passes he begins to notice that a child compare to an adult that is trying to learn a language has a lot of advantages that an adult does not, so it makes it easier for a child to learn. The child has an environment without pressure, time limit, and grammar. The child environment provides many opportunities to learn the language and the language is water down to their understanding. When the child is not interested in learning a word he/she just does not worry about learning the word, he/she focuses on their primary interest. The child is constantly repeating the word whether it is correct or not but the parents are not forcing the child to correct the word, instead the parents adjust to their words.
The experiment was very interesting seeing how his son from a certain age begins to develop language, but was not very scientific. There was only one child involved and it was his point of view of “normal” child. I agree with him in the fact that the environment and strategies used are important for both adult and children to have to learn a language, but it also has to do with the way the brain process. After a certain age the child stops using the Broca’s area of his/her brain to learn language and some scientist say that that is a reason why it’s easier for a child to acquire a second language because he/she is using the same to learn multiple languages. But I did enjoy a different perspective of language acquisition between adults and children.