In the previous section we discussed the relationship between language and thought. In this section, we will examine how human beings acquire and use language in different age groups. Think for a moment: what would have happened if you did not have a language to express whatever you wanted to say? In the absence of language you will not be able to communicate your ideas and feelings, nor will you have the opportunity to know or have access to what others think and feel. As a child when you first started saying “ma..ma..ma.”, it not only gave you tremendous boost to continue repeating this activity but also was a great moment of joy for your parents and other care-givers. Slowly you learnt to say ‘ma’ and ‘papa’ and sometime later combined two or more words to communicate your needs, feelings, and thoughts. You learnt words appropriate for situations and also learnt the rules of putting these words in sentences. Initially you learnt to communicate in the language being used at home (usually the mother-tongue), went to school and learnt the formal language of instruction (in many cases this language is different from the mother-tongue), and were promoted to higher grades and learnt other languages. If you look back, you will realise that your journey from crying and saying “ma..ma..ma” to the attainment of mastery in not one but many languages, has been a fascinating one. In this section we shall be discussing the salient features of language acquisition.

You have been using language all your life. Now try to define accurately what it is that you have been using. Language consists of a system of symbols organised by means of certain rules that we use to communicate with each other. You will notice that language has three basic characteristics: (a) the presence of symbols, (b) a set of rules to organise these symbols, and (c) communication. Here we shall be discussing these three characteristics of language. The first characteristic of language is that it involves symbols. Symbols represent something or someone else, for example, the place where you live is called ‘home’, the place where you study is called ‘school’, the thing that you eat is called ‘food’. Words like home, school, food, and numerous other words do not in themselves carry any meaning. When these words are associated with some objects/events they attain meaning and we begin recognising those objects/events, etc. with particular words (symbols). We use symbols while thinking. The second characteristic of language is that it involves rules. While combining two or more words we usually follow a definite and accepted order of presenting these words. For example, one would most likely say “I am going to school” and not “school am going I”. The third characteristic of language is that it is used for communicating one’s thought, ideas, intentions, and feelings to others. On many occasions we communicate through the use of our body parts, called gestures or postures. This type of communication is called non-verbal communication. Some people who cannot use oral speech, like the ones with severe hearing and speech problems, communicate through signs. Sign language is also a form of language.

Language is a complex system and unique to human beings. Psychologists have tried to teach sign language, use of symbols to chimpanzees, dolphins, parrots, etc. But it is observed that, human language is more complex, creative, and spontaneous than the system of communication other animals can learn. There is also a great deal of regularity with which children all over the world seem to be learning the language or languages to which they are exposed. When you compare individual children, you find that they differ a great deal in the rate of their language development as well as in how they go about it. But when you take a general view of children’s acquisition of language all over the world you find some predictable pattern in which children proceed from almost no use of language to the point of becoming competent language users. Language develops through some of the stages discussed below. Newborn babies and young infants make a variety of sounds, which gradually get modified to resemble words. The first sound produced by babies is crying. Initial crying is undifferentiated and similar across various situations. Gradually, the pattern of crying varies in its pitch and intensity to signify different states such as hunger, pain, and sleepiness, etc. These differentiated crying sounds gradually become more meaningful cooing sounds (like ‘aaa’, ‘uuu’, etc.) usually to express happiness. At around six months of age children enter the babbling stage. Babbling involves prolonged repetition of a variety of consonants and vowel sounds (for example, da—, aa—, ba—). By about nine months of age these sounds get elaborated to strings of some sound combinations, such as ‘dadadadadada’ into repetitive patterns called echolalia. While the early babblings are random or accidental in nature, the later babblings seem to be imitative of adult voices.

How is language acquired? You must be wondering: “How do we learn to speak?” As with many other topics in psychology, the question of whether a behaviour develops as a result of inherited characteristics (nature) or from the effects of learning (nurture) has been raised with regard to language. Most psychologists accept that both nature and nurture are important in language acquisition. Behaviourist B.F. Skinner believed we learn language the same way as animals learn to pick keys or press bars (refer to Chapter 6 on Learning). Language development, for the behaviourists follow the learning principles, such as association (the sight of bottle with the word ‘bottle’), imitation (adults' use of the word “bottle”), and reinforcement (smiles and hugs when the child says something right). There is also evidence that children produce sounds that are appropriate to a language of the parent or care-giver and are reinforced for having done so. The principle of shaping leads to successive approximation of the desired responses so that the child eventually speaks as well as the adult. Regional differences in pronunciation and phrasing illustrate how different patterns are reinforced in different areas. Linguist Noam Chomsky put forth the innate proposition of development of language. For him, the rate at which children acquire words and grammar without being taught cannot be explained only by learning principles. Children also create all sorts of sentences they have never heard and therefore could not be imitating. Children throughout the world seem to have a critical period — a period when learning must occur if it is to occur successfully — for learning language. Children across the world also go through the same stages of language development. Chomsky believes language development is just like physical maturation - given adequate care, it “just happens to the child”. Children are born with “universal grammar”. They readily learn the grammar of whatever language they hear. Skinner’s emphasis on learning explains why infants acquire the language they hear and how they add new words to their vocabularies. Chomsky’s emphasis on our built-in readiness to learn grammar helps explain why children acquire language so readily without direct teaching.

As we have discussed earlier, language use involves knowing socially appropriate ways of communication. Knowledge of vocabulary and syntax of a language does not ensure proper use of language to achieve the purpose of communication in a variety of social situations. When we use language we have various pragmatic intentions such as requesting, asking, thanking, demanding, etc. In order to effectively serve these social goals, language use must be pragmatically correct or contextually appropriate besides being grammatical and meaningful. Children often have difficulty with choice of appropriate utterances for politeness or for requests and their use of language conveys a demand or a command instead of a polite request. When children are engaged in conversations, they also have difficulty in taking turns in speaking and listening like adults.