How do Children Perceive and Comprehend Language?

     Since the dawn of history, it has been believed that there exists a process by which children develop the capacity to perceive and comprehend language in order to enable communication. Different theories emerged to prove how children actually acquire their first language. The controversial issue has been studied by the Behaviorist, The Innatist, and the Interactionalist/Developmental Theories.  

       All of the three perspectives are logical and open closed doors to have better understandings of language acquisition. I personally advocate the Interactionalist/Developmental Perspective as I view it as an amalgam of the other two theories, where it focuses on the child’s innate learning ability through cognitive developmental stages and the environment in which the child develops. With the assistance of this valid hypothesis I was able to understand how my cousin “Malak” acquired her English language as her mother spoke to her Portuguese in contrast to her father who spoke Arabic.

        Just like Skinner states due to the supportive interactive environment, Malak was able to advance in to higher levels of knowledge and performance in three different languages (Portuguese –Arabic-English). Malak who started speaking Portuguese at the age of 18 months acquired language so quickly due to the deep interaction with her mother in the early stages.  It first began when she started imitating her mother at the age of 2; Malak would say “Comida!Comida”  which meant “Food! Food” whenever she was hungry. Then she started assembling words and forming sentences in Portuguese. At the same time her father was speaking Arabic to her. But she decided to stick to Portuguese at the age of 2 with the use of some Arabic words. This was mostly because she spent most of her time with her mother who spoke Portuguese and listened to Portuguese songs out loud. This parallels with the Interactionist/Developmental Theory that agrees with the Behaviorist Perspective of how the environment plays a role in learning the language. As she entered Kindergarten at the age of 3 she started acquiring the English skills. She learned the basics in the English Language from school and peer interaction. This also portrays the fundamentality of the environment as a source of learning.

      When Malak hit the age of 4, her aunts who only spoke Arabic moved to their city.  The frequent interaction with her aunts and cousins allowed her to start forming Arabic sentences. This allowed her to master translation of Portuguese sentences into Arabic. Like her mother would tell her in Portuguese “Go call your father to come and have lunch” she would literally go to her father and cite her mother’s words but in Arabic. This linguistic potential indicates that Malak had the linguistic creativity that the Innatist Theory discussed where she was able to use her internal ability to deliver her mom’s message.

     Just like Piaget states, Malak’s first language (Portuguese) was acquired faster than her older brother where she partially understood the abstract time frame in the Concrete Operational Developmental Stage. For example, she wanted to go to the playground so her mother said “wait 5 minutes” , so she counted to five and said okay let’s go. Her mother then explained that 1 minute means counting to 60. So you have to count to 60 five times and we’ll move. After she finished counting, she was still confused why counting so many times is different from counting to 5.  This supports the developmental aspect of this perspective which highlights that if the child doesn’t cognitively understand a certain issue, he/she isn’t able to construct meaning related to this aspect.

       As a general conclusion, Malak is currently at the age of six who lives in a bilingual atmosphere where she speaks and understands the basic linguistic requirements in Portuguese, Arabic, and English.  Not to mention her brother who was only a year older didn’t acquire the skills Malak did. This proves that children acquire language differently because there exists diverse aspects related to the society and biology of the child’s cognitive development.