The External, Mechanistic View
The Development of Speech Earliest Sounds Babbling Lalling Echolalia True Speech
Implications of the External, Mechanistic View for Second-Language Learning
Internal, Mentalistic Views
A Neurophysiological Interpretation
Implications of the Neurophysiological Interpretation for Second-Language Learning The Nativistic and Cognitive Models The Development of Language
An Internal, Mentalistic Model of First-Language Acquisition How Children Learn Language
Implications of the Nativistic and Cognitive Models for Second-Language Learning
Error Analysis
Interlanguage Errors Intralanguage Errors
Implications of Error Analysis for Second-Language Learning
It has been common in second-language teaching in recent years to justify classroom procedures on the basis of first-language learning. As logical as this practice may seem on first consideration, such comparisons are somewhat tenuous due to the fact that the circumstances surrounding children below school age and children school age or older are dissimilar. Young children do not know how to read or write at the time they are learning their mother tongue; second-language learners do. Young children are surrounded by the language; second-language learners in the normal classroom situation are not. Young children are highly motivated to learn the language in order to communicate with their family and friends; second-language learners may not have such a strong incentive. Young children do not already know another language system; second-language learners do. Young children do not have a rather complete knowledge of the world around them; second-language learners often do. Young children have a long exposure time in which to acquire the language skills; second-language learners do not. Young children have not reached a high level of mental, social, and emotional maturity; second-language learners either have, or at least are more advanced.
Qualifying the premise that second-language learning is based on the first language should not, however, discourage further investigation in the area of first-language learning. Additional insights may be gained that will be of interest and of value to second-language teachers. The purpose of this chapter is to discuss first-language learning from both the external, mechanistic point of view and from internal, mentalistic points of view and to extrapolate certain implications from each for the second-language teacher.
THE EXTERNAL, MECHANISTIC VIEW
Van Riper (1950, p. 3) makes the following comment concerning speech: ". . . Mothers, as well as fathers, miss almost completely the most fascinating part of the child's entire development—the growth of his speech. More complicated than walking, more human than eating, the mastery of talking is probably going to be for all time his greatest accomplishment." Naturally, such an important process has been of great interest through the years. Although there is some disagreement as to which sounds are produced during certain stages of development, there are certainly broad areas of agreement among the writers on the subject. It is generally agreed that the acquisition of the mother tongue is a long process fraught with difficulties. Speech
46 Part One: Theory
is not an all-or-nothing ability. The Staats (1962, p. 836) speak of the "continued shaping of speech through successive approximation." Furthermore, the literature continually emphasizes the fact that children must be taught the language, and that parents must teach this most complex of human skills. At the same time, however, parents are cautioned not to be over- attentive to their children's speech. Young children progress best where the "happy mean" is applied. In short, although the process is long and difficult, given sufficient models to imitate and sufficient opportunity to practice, the child learns best by himself without having his attention focused on language as such or on his pronunciation. To him, language is a tool to use in order to communicate and to satisfy his needs, not to take apart and examine for errors or inconsistencies. Also commonly accepted among the various researchers is the fact that especially in the beginning, ". . . speech is a total physiological, psychological, and organismical development" (Richardson, 1959, p. 276).
There are various stages seemingly identifiable in theory, at least, in the acquisition of one's native language. It must be immediately pointed out that these different stages exist on a continuum much like the speech process itself and that there is no distinct break between them. The researchers also continually stress the importance of individual differences that affect the ages at which babies progress from one stage to another.
M. M. Lewis (1957, p. 14), a recognized authority on infant speech, has based the beginnings of the long speech process on ideas of Charles Darwin. According to Darwin, a baby's cry can be compared to the bleat of a hungry lamb. This cry of hunger is just one among several movements that the lamb makes in its urgent desire to attain nourishment. This cry is not deliberately produced but is part of the newborn's bodily struggle as it reacts to its discomfort. Therefore, in response to the question of when does a child begin to learn to speak, Lewis answers, "The answer is, if not at the moment of birth, then certainly the first day. For as soon as a child cries and someone pays attention to his cry, the first step has been taken; the essentials of language are there: one person makes a sound which another person interprets." Other writers agree with this statement. Most feel that the first vocalizations of the newborn baby, the first cries at birth, are the beginnings of language.
Earliest sounds The earliest noises that babies make are the discomfort sounds, and these sounds are the natural result of their agitated body state and their struggles for relief. These sounds are shrill, nasalized vowel sounds. These vowel sounds are produced in the front of the mouth with a tense facial expression as a result of the baby's discomfort. At other times the baby is quiet (Lewis, 1957). These early cries are involuntary responses to hunger, pain, etc. Toward the end of this early period, the cries begin to have differences in vocal tones, and the mother can begin to identify the reasons for crying (Ainsworth, 1950).
In addition to the discomfort sounds, babies learn to make comfort sounds. These sounds are relaxed, deeper, and without a nasal quality. Like the discomfort sounds, these sounds are produced naturally as a result of the body state of the baby. Unlike the discomfort sounds, they lack urgency and are relaxed and contented. Lewis (1957, p. 18) concludes, "From all this we see that discomfort cries and gurgling noises have their special forms and qualities from the very fact that they are expressive; and how all the world over they must be the same cries and noises."
Next, consonant sounds begin to be heard when the baby is uncomfortable. Since the need to cry in a state of distress is much more powerful than the comfort sounds, consonant sounds are first noticed when a baby is in a state of discomfort. The early consonants in discomfort cries are as follows:
"wa . . . wa . . . wa . . . wa
la ... la ... la ... la
nga . . . nga . . . nga . . . nga
ha ... ha ... ha .. . ha" (Lewis, 1957, p. 19).
Lewis (1957) explains the appearance of these sounds as being a result of the fact that distress cries come in bursts. Each pause for breath will cause a constriction of some part of the air passage. For example, if a child who has cried "a ... a ... a" from birth closes his lips with each burst, the sound now becomes wa. Later the child will add the sounds ma and nato his repertoire of discomfort sounds.
Babbling The second stage in the development of language is generally referred to as babbling. Berry and Eisenson (1942, p. 3) state, "The babbling stage may be considered a training and preparatory period for later articulate utterance." In other words, it is during this stage that the baby really begins to practice the variations of our sound system. Lewis (1957) emphasizes the relation of the babbling stage to the later comfort situations in which the baby, after a feeding and while lying on his back, begins to add consonants to his collection of vowel sounds used when he is comfortable. He has saliva in his mouth and is perhaps making swallowing movements. As a natural result of this situation, the baby begins to make some of the back consonant sounds such as gu, ga, ka, cha, and ru. The later consonant sounds of a satisfied baby include ma , pa, ba, ta, and da.
Van Riper has some interesting comments with regard to babbling. He points out that babies do not suck with their lips alone. The tongue is placed against the upper gum ridge behind the teeth and then pulled down. If the baby does this while exhaling, the t, d, /, or n sounds are produced. In fact Van Riper (1950, p. 17) states, "Sucking and swallowing are the parents of many of our consonants. Other consonants are illegitimate."
48 Part One: Theory
Up to this point, all babies everywhere make the same sounds. For example, the Spanish v sound, which is difficult for speakers of English, is practiced regularly. One investigator, by recording a baby's vocalizations during the first year, concluded that a baby makes all possible sounds and gradually loses them as he is reinforced by the sounds he hears in his environment (Staats & Staats, 1962).
The following quote from Van Riper (1950, p. 18) will illustrate why the babbling stage is so important:
Babbling is so vitally important in the learning of talking that adults with defective speech are sometimes taught to do it by the hour. If speech sounds are to be mastered, they must be felt and heard both simultaneously and successively. The child must imitate himself before he can ever imitate others. When the child's vocal play is prevented by illness or almost constant crying, the onset of true communicative speech is almost sure to be delayed. Deaf babies start babbling about the same time normal children do but they soon lose interest, and teaching them to talk correctly is a very difficult task. It is interesting that mirrors hung over the cribs of deaf babies prolong and increase the babbling.
Babbling occurs because the child is happy and contented. Happy, contented children babble more and talk sooner. This fact again emphasizes the important role that parents play in the entire speech process. For example, the fact that children reared in orphanages are generally slow in the speech- development process is probably due to lack of personal attention. Furthermore, babbling, which is a result of being happy, excites the baby, and he babbles even more. There seems to be a kinesthetic excitement created by the action of producing the sounds that induces repetition. The role of babbling and being content is demonstrated by the fact that by the end of the third month, babies are using twice as many consonants and vowels in "vocal play" as in discomfort states (Van Riper, 1950).
In general, the development of vowel sounds begins in the front of the mouth or perhaps with the middle vowel a and proceeds toward the back of the mouth. On the other hand, the consonants begin with the velar sounds due to saliva and swallowing movements. Next to develop are the labial and alveolar sounds as a result of sucking movements. The dental and palatal sounds develop last in the child's sound system. 1
Lading The next stage is that of falling. Berry and Eisenson (1942, p. 4) give the following description: "Lalling, which usually begins during the second six months of the child's life, may be defined as the repetition of heard sounds or
’These terms refer to the points of articulation or pronunciation. Velar sounds are made at the back of the mouth near the velum. Labial sounds are made with the lips, and alveolar sounds are produced at the ridge behind the teeth. Dental sounds involve the teeth, and palatal sounds are articulated at the roof of the mouth.
sound combinations/' For the firsftime then, hearing others becomes important in the speech-development process. However, the repetition of sounds heard is merely for the pleasure of oral activity and not as an environmental response. Beginning with this stage, the child's progress may be affected by defective hearing or an inability to discriminate among the various speech sounds.
Echolalia The speech-learning process soon develops into constant imitation of sounds in the environment. This stage, called echolalia by Berry and Eisenson (1942), is further practice in sound manipulation and preparation for actual talking. It is during this stage, which begins about the age of nine or ten months, that the parents hear the first dadas and mamas. However, as of yet children have no real comprehension of the significance of what they are saying. Smith (1960) states that by the end of the first year, the most important single factor in speech development is imitation.
Van Riper (1950) emphasizes repeatedly the importance of imitation in the speech-development process. Nonsense noises made by adults and children's responses to them are the beginning of children's social intercourse, and from this social intercourse speech is born. Van Riper feels that the imitation should start with movements and gestures rather than speech. According to Van Riper, the process of imitation continues through intonation patterns and finally words. However, the words should be very short at first and such that children are capable of imitating them. He disagrees with the theory that we should speak to children only in an adult manner. His point is that we should begin on their level because only in this manner will they be encouraged to imitate us. Gradually the syllables stretch into words, the words into phrases, and the phrases into sentences.
True speech Gradually, these sounds become associated with meanings, and the child progresses into the last stage of speech development, true speech, at the age of twelve to eighteen months. Berry and Eisenson (1942, p. 5) define this stage: "By talking we mean that the child intentionally uses conventionalized sound patterns (words) and that his observable behavior indicates that he anticipates a response appropriate to the situation and the words he is uttering." Babies learn their first words through a successive series of events: imitation, comprehension, gesture, vocal play, and expressive noises. According to Van Riper (1950, pp. 49-51) the earliest words spoken by children are as follows:
mama
dada
bah or ba-ba kaaka
(mother)
(father)
(bye-bye or ball or baby) (cake or crackers)
titta
puh-puh
ha
pitty
dih
wah or wa-wa pee or peek nanna nuh-nuh
(tick-tock or sister)
(puppy or papa or pipe)
(hat or here)
(pretty)
(drink)
(water or bow-wow) (peekaboo)
(nurse or substitute mother) (no)
Babies all over the world speak pretty much the same first words, but doting and anxious parents give their first words different meanings. For example:
Russian: mama (mother), tata (father), baba (grandmother), da (give).
German: dada (there it is!), baba (father), wow-wow (dog), mama (mother)
French: papa (father), mama (mother), non-non (no), wa-wa (dog)
This ready acceptance of the child's early speech demonstrates two points very clearly: (1) the stages of successive approximation the child goes through in learning to speak, and (2) the importance of parental encouragement.
In discussing the latter stages of a child's progress toward actual communication, Gesell (1940, p. 43) makes the following comment:
Jargon at eighteen months, words at two years, sentences at three years—such in outline is the order of growth. This outline, however, oversimplifies the developmental forces at work. Words at two years are different from words at three years. At two years, words are little more than lingual-laryngeal patterns, rooted in a total action pattern, or they are mere habit formations. Two acquires words. Three uses them. At three, words are more fully disengaged from the gross motor system and become instruments for designating percepts, concepts, ideas, relationships.
At the age of three, then, the child appears capable of true speech. However, he still makes many pronunciation errors. As Long (1957, p. 15) puts it, "The onset of the verbal stage is usually loaded with oral inaccuracies. . . ." The parent must keep in mind two important ideas: (1) that the goal is distinct speaking, not perfect articulation, and (2) that talking must be fun for the child. Mange (1959, p. 4) assures parents who have worries about their child's pronunciation when he says, ". . . most children have very little awareness of their own errors which are present during the speech development period. As
autocritical abilities develop, however, awareness and modification in the articulatory pattern follows rapidly until an essentially adult pattern is reached by eight years of age."
The preceding description of first-language acquisition outlines a process in which, from the onset of lalling, children imitate the speech they hear around them. In doing so they often make errors in their imitation. However, children's language gradually approaches the adult model as they are reinforced by the people with whom they come in contact, especially their parents. Those sounds and forms that are not needed or are incorrect are slowly extinguished due to lack of reinforcement. With the exception of Cesell and Mange, who refer to internal mental processes on the part of the learner at advanced stages, the quoted authors conceive of first-language learning as a mechanistic process in which the learners' language is shaped by the reinforcements they receive from their surroundings.
What are some of the implications from the above description of the process of learning our native language that may be applied to second-language learning? To repeat what was said in the first paragraph of this chapter, it should be obvious that the two processes are greatly different due to chronological time in the life of the individual and her situation at the time of learning the language, if for no other reasons. First, it must be kept in mind that the first-language learning process is a series of successive approximations to adult language. This entire process continues in most children for a number of years, in spite of the fact that they need the language in order to operate as others do in their environment, and in spite of being continually surrounded by the language. During these years of learning, the emphasis is on the ability to communicate.
The following is a list of possible extrapolations from first- to second- language learning.
1. Students and parents should be made aware of the length of time necessary to learn a language.
2. Imitation and reinforcement play an important role in first-language learning.
3. Teachers should continually keep in mind the length of the process as well as the fact that students approach language usage rather than suddenly acquire it. It is not an all-or-nothing process.
4. One common error is the insistence on a natural-speed rendition. The model is thus incomprehensible (and only after comprehension does learning begin), and it is impossible for the student to repeat it. All parents
slow down for their children; why not teachers? Liamina (1964) says that only by age two can a child repeat as fast as an adult. The teacher must remember, however, to speed up once the appropriate stage of ability is reached in order to aid in the students' successive stages approach to native speech.
5. The same principle is applicable to grammar and pronunciation as well. If the teacher spent more time concentrating on what the student is saying rather than how he is saying it, the process would be more rapid as well as more enjoyable. Ainsworth (1950) in "Speech in the Home" says, "All through the early years, the child must never be impressed with the fact that he has failed to respond correctly or to reproduce sounds accurately. The child's best efforts must be accepted as satisfactory." Later he adds, "Another practical suggestion is to refrain from making the correction at the time the error is made. Whenever you correct a child immediately after his mistake, you are throwing him completely off balance by interfering with his main concern, that of communicating with you."
6. Point number 5 leads to another concept, that of class content. Drills are needed, but too often they are accepted as an end rather than a means to an end—speech. The important goal in language is that of communication, even if there are some grammatical errors and the pronunciation is not perfect. Drills should be limited to the relatively minor role consistent with their function and purpose in language acquisition. Drills often lack meaning except to the linguist and the teacher. Students must be taught to convey meaning through speech. The speech itself, as in the native tongue, can be polished during the continuing process of speech expansion.
7. Motivation, the perpetual problem in language classes, should cease to be such an obstacle if the emphasis is switched from mechanics to practicality, from constant correction to continual encouragement. The students' confidence, usually shaky as they begin language study, must be carefully preserved.
8. During the complete process, abundant opportunity for practice along with an adequate model should be provided the students. If the teacher provides the model and the opportunity to talk, her role has been filled. The students then may learn a second language if they so desire. The quoted authors point out that, given a model and the opportunity to talk, children will learn their native language. This process should not be interfered with too much or language acquisition is more difficult. The same seems to be true in second-language learning. Many try to teach a language rather than provide a context in which the students may practice and learn a language.
9. Obviously, first-language learners communicate, and communicate quite
First-Language Learning
satisfactorily, although not perfectly in the beginning stages, from the onset of language to the point at which they reach the adult level of proficiency. Second-language learners, too, can operate at a multitude of functional levels that are suitable to their purposes, but that are not perfect models of native speech.
INTERNAL, MENTALISTIC VIEWS