How do humans learn language?

Bree Gaylor

How do we as humans learn language? There are a number of theories and there have been many experiments and research projects to learn how this amazing process happens. When do we start to learn language? Is it possible that even when a baby is just created and developing in the womb that they can listen and begin to familiarise the voice of their mother and once born start the process of distinguishing vowels, consonants and word patterns. There are many features of child language, young infants cry, throw tantrums, use body language, babble, start to say single words, then two words and after that quickly learn to string together sentences.

Some researchers theorise that we are naturally able to learn language and speak, that knowing how to use and understand language is in our genetics. While infants are still young (under around 6 months old) they can hear the differences between all vowels and consonants used by any language. By 6 months old we become culture bound listeners meaning we can only hear distinctions between the sounds used in our own language. There is another main theory they believe that the innate capacities are not most important in learning language. Instead they think that usage and experience are more important. They argue that adults play an important role in language acquisition by speaking to children, often in slow, higher pitched, grammatical and repetitious ways.

Some researchers believe that babies are listening while still inside their mother developing. When a baby is just born it is common that they will respond to their mother because the voice is familiar. Early in development the brain of an infant is mapping patterns of language, by 6 months individual vowels and consonants, by 9 months the pattern of words. Many studies show that the brain of an infant is unconsciously calculating information about language; they store millions of bits of information before they can speak just by listening. An interesting thing about the brain of an infant is when they are first born they have very few synapses which are the connections of neurons meaning the neurons can communicate to each other. Up to the age of 3 the brain is forming connections. New borns’ have relatively few, by 1 year they have many more and by the time they are 3 the infant has twice as many connections as an adult brain. These synapses create 3x the brain activity of an adult brain. Then the brain is fully wired and all the connections are formed, the brain prunes excess connections. This process continues until the end of puberty.

There are many features of child language, children use gestures, eye contact, body language, babbling, single, two words and full sentences’ as the child grows and develops. When children are still very young and can’t talk they cry, point, try and grab things to explain what they want.  Children start to babble and make sounds similar to the word they are trying to say, then eventually their speech becomes clearer and they begin to say words. On average at about 2-3 years, children start to say 2 words and then this quickly develops into sentences.

There is still further research needed on how children learn their first language, and why some children have language disorders and others pick up language very easily. Learning language is a very unique process and there are still many unknown things about language.