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Friday, October 25, 2013

Begging the question


The genes pack a lot of information, and for sure they pack information about when a person will begin speaking.  But, the genes don't know what country you are born in, so they really can't give you language.  It is curious that children all over the world begin speaking at about the same age no matter what language they are born into.  Yes, curious and amazing.


Sound production starts early, and meaningful speech starts between 9 and 14 months for single words and about 24 months for the two word utterance stage.  From there the development is not uniform for either vocabulary development or syntactic awareness.  The learning is rather ragged.


So, if learning is ragged but the stages happen at nearly the same time across the world, then it would appear that there is a genetic latitude in how a person learns language.  From 2 years old until the age of 6, children learn all the basics of the language they have been born into.  They have learned the basic sentence structure such as any order of the words, any changes to words manifested in tones, expressions that seem to have stock phrase status, and a vocabulary that represents everything utilitarian in their worlds.


That does beg the question of what formal education brings to the equation.

Formalizing or codifying language through reading and writing might be an obvious answer .  But, if that process is a function of language acquisition, then one would expect the same raggedness to continue.  If the process is, however, treated as a function of knowledge accumulation, then I suppose the expectation for the results changes.  Input and outcomes of the two processes, such as determining a foundation to build on in a step-by-step manner, measuring the outcomes, and adding steps one year at a time in a predetermined learning environment implies a rather uniform result, not the raggedness of the natural or genetically controlled language process.


I would definitely not be an advocate of formalizing a language process that genetics controls.  For one, genetically controlled personality controls the other contribuitng factors to language growth: interest, rapport with peers and adults, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.


It would be an endeavor equivalent to harnessing the weather.


I would still bring the question of what formal education could possibly bring to the equation.



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