Headline: Newly Born Baby Talks Pretty and Writes Memoir
In an essay by Steven Pinker, “Baby Born Talking—Describes Heaven,” he writes of how he read in a tabloid that a baby was born in Italy who started communicating verbally about the wonders of heaven and expressed confusion as to why he was brought back to Earth, which leads him into the topic of how infants learn to speak a language.
After reading Pinker’s essay I was reminded of Sedaris’ experience learning the French language as an adult in his essay, “Me Talk Pretty One Day.” According to Pinker’s theory, “children record some words parents use in isolation or in stressed final positions, like Look-at-the-BOTTLE. Then they look for matches to these words in longer stretches of speech, and find other words by extracting the residues in between the matched portions.”
Is this the same way Sedaris learned to speak French? Most say that learning a language is harder for people over the age of twelve than it is for an infant. I disagree with this. Sedaris was exposed to the French language not just in his adult education classroom but in the streets of France. He believed that he was not learning anything from the language then suddenly he realized he was picking up words and phrases others would say but he could not yet respond correctly.
This is the same way a baby learns to speak. Infants can understand but have not yet fully developed the correct grammar skills to respond properly.
This is an obvious example of why Rodriguez disagrees with bilingual education in his essay, “Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood.” Sedaris unknowingly learned a vast amount of information and did not even realize it until he saw the fruit of the teachings. I was pretty set on bilingual education being great idea but after reading the information in both Pinker’s and Sedaris’ essay, I am knocked slightly off balance on my stance. Do bilingual education’s advantages outweigh the disadvantages?
8 comments:
Tyler, i do agree with you when you say that adults can pick things up easily. There are many adults who can hear things completely new to them and pick it up. But it is a proven fact that children are able to pick things up more easily than adults, just because its new to them, and its stored in their brains from childhood throughtout the rest of their lives. When adults learn something new, it may take alot longer to actually pick up on what they're learning.
I agree with what Tyler and Rebekah. It is easier for children to pick up on foreign languages and other information because it is like Rebekah said "it is new to them". I know from experience in high school when I tried to take a whole new language (French) it did not go over so well because English is just so natural to me while French was new to me.
I agree that it is harder for older people to pick up a new language but there are always exceptions to the rule. The point Tyler made about Sedaris one day just being able to understand what was being said and how that is parallel to what Pinker was saying about the babies was very good.
I agree with you on Tyler B. It is hard trying to learn a new language. It's is like learning to speak all over again. You have to start from the basics and work your way back up the chain to the main words. But I do think that with children it is a little easier for them to understand better. Bilingual children have both the public and their families to help them understand. With their brain memory, it's easier for them to learn and catch on. Languages are a task but it is also another learning experience.
I admit that I don't know much about bilingual education, but it seems like it would make it easier for children to learn a second language if it were intermixed with their first language.
I had a hard time learning Spanish in high School mainly because I wasn't exposed to it in my everyday life. I had a specific time that I practiced verb conjugations and translated sentances, but it didn't stick because I didn't use it or hear it on a regular basis.
If Spanish had been sprinkled into my conversations, I may have picked up on it better.
I agree with Jordan, learning a different language at a younger age is probably easier because as a child you a learning the English language as well. Combining two languages might be overwhelming to a child but I believe being fluent in a separate language at a earlier age will give the child an advantage over other children that did not get the opportunity to learn a second language.
I have to agree with the fact that children are liable to learn a foreign language at a young age. I know for a fact that learning it as an adult is alot more difficult... I struggled in spanish 1 and 2!
I agree with Adam S. I believe that learning a second language would be slightly overwhelming to a child.
However, the advantages of learning a second language greatly outweigh the disadvantages. If a kid is learning two languages at once, then the kid will be able to make comparisons between the two languages which would make the learning process a lot easier.
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