INTRODUCTION
All people must agree that language is the most important thing for human life. The language is connecting people to the society, even the world. Without the language, the knowledge and the information have never been known by the people. When we wanted to express something , we will produce the sounds. It is called as language. The brain is the most important think to speak. When we study about the language, we have to know how the acquisition of the language. Why study language?.......language is mirror of the mind in a deep and significant sense. It is product of human intelligence, created anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond the reach of will or consciousness. (Chomsky, Reflections on language, 1975)
The acquisition is used as process to understand the first language. But, Soenjono Dardjowidjojo said that it is a process to understand the language is done by the children as natural when they learnt the native language (the mother tongue). Some Linguists said that the acquisition of language is started before the birth. This is proved that the baby to show the reaction when they heard the mother’s voice. So, the baby has known the mother’s voice since in the uterus.
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign. Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages.
Most of people learn more than 1 language in this world. A child can knows or learns two languages or more than the beginning of life: For example, when the parents use the different language in and out of home. The result is the children learn the second language after the first language is understood by them. The development’s child speaking skill is not only seen from phonology aspect. It’s seen from syntax, is a skill to arrange the sentence.: from semantic aspect; is a skill to understand or express the mean, the word, or the sentence; from pragmatic aspect; is a skill to use the language on the social context.
ANALYSIS
The children have various way to explore the nature of language. There has been enduring argumentation over the respective rules of environment and innate (or inborn) abilities in helping the child master language. Do adults gently “teach” language to children by using special kinds of language with them, and providing them with feedback when they used the language well or poorly. Linguist Noam Chomsky’s (1957) Syntactic Structures and (1958) critique of Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior caused both linguists and psychologists to view language in new ways. Linguists were challenged to enlarge the goals of linguistic inquiry beyond the description of structural regularities in a given language. Generative grammarians sought to include speakers’ intuitions about grammatical and tenses in a language (such as between actives and their corresponding passives), and the problem of language acquisition by children.
Some Linguists said that the acquisition of language is started before the born (birth). This is proved by the baby to show the reaction when they heard the mother’s voices. So, the baby has known the mother’s voice since in the uterus. For example, the baby’s weeping is communication sign. The mother will know the mean of baby’s weeping; may be, the baby is hungry, cold, even sick. In about 6 or 7 weeks, the baby will produce the sounds, it almost same with consonant and vowel. This development is called cooing. In 6 months, the baby produce the mix sound is almost same with consonant with the sound almost same with vowel. This development is called as babbling. After that, the child will speak the first word. Step by step, the child will combine two words to form the sentence. In about 3 or 4 years old, the child gets the base sentence which is used the adult. In about 10 years, the speaking skill is same like the adults. (Pesona Bahasa Langkah Awal Memahami Linguistik, 2007, 24)
Language in the baby develops through several general stages:
• Babbling (3-6 months)
• The first word is understood (6-9 months)
• understand simple instructions (9-12 months)
• The first word spoken (10-15 months)
• Increasing vocabulary and acceptance (more than 300 words at age 2 years).
• Next three years will develop vocabulary more rapidly again
• Babbling (3-6 months)
• The first word is understood (6-9 months)
• understand simple instructions (9-12 months)
• The first word spoken (10-15 months)
• Increasing vocabulary and acceptance (more than 300 words at age 2 years).
• Next three years will develop vocabulary more rapidly again
There are some problems because of bad acquisition. If the children get bad acquisition, they can’t get how to speak well.
The cases of bad acquisition language for the children :
In 1800, in Sain-Sermin, France, was found a son (11-12 years). Victor often came to the village. From the forest to looked for the food. He was arrested and educated by the Director of the Deaf Institution , Dr. Sicard, “Wild Boy of Aveyron”. Dr. Sicard is able to change the behavior of child, but not for the child language (the child is unable to speak).
In other time, 1970 there is a daughter (13 years old) in Los Angeles, California. She is an object of the research and named Ginie (Curtiss, 1977). Ginie was founding 1970, she was locked up by his father for 13 years. She was given the food, but never speaks. After she has been found, she was learnt to speak. For 8 years, she was learnt, but she is unable to speak like others.
On the contrary, Isabelle is a daughter 6 ½ years is cared by the dumb mother in Ohio, Columbus, America shows the different result. Because of her age was young, Isabelle was cared as normal by Marie Mason in the hospital. The result that she can speaks to other children. (Steinberg and friends 2001: 127-135)
From all cases prove that the children under 8 years old are able to change or develop their language. But, when the children up 8 years, it will impossible to change.
The Biology evolution is a base of language development. Noam Chomsky said that every children have language acquisition device (LAD), is the child’s natural skill to speak. When the introduction the language never happened before the teenager, so make the children are unable to use the good language for their life.
Chomsky (1999: 41):
……..language is learning is not something that the child does; its is something that happens to the child placed in the appropriate environment, much as the child’s body grows and matures in a predetermined way when provided with appropriate nutrition and environmental stimuli.
How the children understand the meaning
Way of the children understand the meaning isn’t easy thing. The children follow the universal base, the one is a overextension. The children prefer to take one feature from that concept, then the realize to other concept which has that feature. In brief, the overextension is based on form, size, act, sound, texture. Eve Clark (1975 in Clark and Clark 1997: 494) gives table and this example:
Word | First Referent | Domain of application |
Sch Ass Fly Em bebe fafer sizo bow-bow wau-wau va | Sound of train Toy got with rough hide on wheels Fly Worm Baby Sound of train Scissors Dog Dog White plush dog | All moving machines A few things that (e.g. animals, sister, wagon); all things that move; all things with a rough surface specks of dirt, dust, all small insects, child’s own toes, crumbs of bread. A toed flies, ants, all small insects, heds of timothy grass other babies, small statutes, figures in small pictures and prints steaming coffee pot, anything hisses or makes a noise all metal objects toy dog, fur piece with animal head, other fur pieces all animal, toy dog, soft house slippers, picture of an old man dressed in furs muffer plush dog |
CONCLUSION
Language is an integral aspect of our human existance. Whilethe ability to formulate and understand language underlies almost every activity, the mental operations which enable languageuse are still poorly understood.
These examples of language learning, processing, and creation represent just a few of the many developments between birth and linguistic maturity. During this period, children discover the raw materials in the sounds (or gestures) of their language, learn how they are assembled into longer strings, and map these combinations onto meaning. These processes unfold simultaneously, requiring children to integrate their capacities as they learn, to crack the code of communication that surrounds them. nce children begin to link words together, experiments using real-time measures of language processing can reveal the ways linguistic and nonlinguistic information are integrated during listening. Natural experiments in which children are faced with minimal language exposure can reveal the extent of inborn language-learning capacities and their effect on language creation and change.
In brief, the acquisition of language is important thing in speaking. If they got best acquisition, they would have good speaking skill. If not, they never get it. Because the acquisition determines how the children speak to others. All we know that the acquisition is used in the process to understand the first langusge.
