Social Aspects of Language Acquisition

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2006 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1.3, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: There are many ways of talking to children and preverbal infants and also a great variety of opinions about how important the child's environment is or if it plays a role at all. The question is not only how and why children understand grammatical forms and language (Ochs & Schieffelin 1995: 73), but also which role other aspects, such as Parentese and Baby Talk, play. Are they necessary or totally unimportant? Should parents talk to their children at all or is it senseless because they do not understand what the parents say to them? Some people are of the opinion that Parentese only plays 'a minimal role' (Garnica 1977: 63) whereas other people think that the verbal environment is important. In how far is the acquisition of language 'the result of a process of interaction between mother and child' (Snow 1977: 31)? By explaining some aspects of talk to children, such as Parentese, Baby Talk, expansion, correction, imitation and by giving examples of children being socialized through language, the question about which role these aspects really play in first language acquisition should be answered.