The current view of child language development is that it is an instinct. This language in
stinct is innate. But this prevailing view has not always enjoyed widespread acceptance.
In the middle of last century, experts of the time think that "habits" developed as young children were rewarded for repeating language correctly and ignored or punished when they used incorrect forms of language. Over time, a child would learn language much like a dog might learn to behave properly through training.
Even though the modern view holds that language is instinctive, Assistant Professor Eliot are convinced that the interaction a child has with his parents and caregivers is crucial to its development. The language of the parents and caregivers acts as models for the developing child. Given that the models parents provide are so important, it is interesting to consider the role of "baby talk" in the child's language development. Baby talk is the language produced by an adult speaker who is trying to exaggerate certain aspects of the language to capture the attention of a young baby. Dr. Golinkoff believes that babies benefit from baby talk. When using baby talk,people exaggerate their facial expressions, which help the baby to begin to understand what is being communicated. She also notes that the exaggerated nature and repetition of baby talk helps infants to learn the differences hetween sounds.
Professor Jusczyk has made a particular study of babies' ability to recognize sounds. A baby will listen longer to the sounds that occur frequently. An experiment at John Hopkins University, in which researchers went to the homes of 16 nine-month-olds, confirms this view. The researchers arranged their visits for ten days out of a two-week period. During each visit the researcher played an audio tape that included the same three stories. The stories included odd words such as "python" or "hornbill", which were unlikely to be encountered in the babies' everyday experience. After a couple of weeks, during which nothing was done, the babies listened to two recorded lists of words. The first list included words heard in the story. The second included similar words, but not the exact that were used in the stories. Jusczyk found the babies listened longer to the words that had appeared in the stories, which indicated that the babies had extracted individual words from the story. When a control group of 16 nine-month-olds, who had not heard the stories, listened to the two groups of words, they showed no preference for either list.
This does not mean that the babies actually understand the meanings of the words, just the sound pattern. It supports the idea that people have the capacity to learn language since their birth. This ability is enhanced if they are involved in conversation. And significantly, Dr. Eliot reminds parents that babies and toddlers need to feel they are communicating. Clearly, sitting in front of the television is not enough.
According to experts, in the middle of last century, ______.
A．children can learn their first language without being taught
B．language training is the same as the training of animals
C．parents should be strict with babies in their language development
D．the language development of a child is a process of learning through repetition
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