Name: Willyn Nicole J.

Martesano Course/Year: BSED-2

EVALUATION

1. Observe or consider how children learn their first language and figure out what some of the
children’s “secret” are, which enable them to acquire a language seemingly efficient. (30 pts)

• 1 year of age - children make specific attempts to imitate words and speech sounds
- they utter their first “words”

• 18 months of age – produce two-word and three-word “sentences,” commonly referred

to as “telegraphic” utterances (e.g., all gone milk, shoe off, bye-bye Daddy, etc.)

• 2 years of age – comprehending more sophisticated language

- forming questions and negatives
Examples: where my mitten? that not red, that blue why not me sleeping?

• 3 years of age – nonstop chattering and incessant conversation

Parents are the most important teachers during a child’s early years. Children learn language by
listening to others speak and by practicing. Even young babies notice when others repeat and
respond to the noises and sounds they make. Children’s language and brain skills get stronger if
they hear many different words.

Behaviorist position would claim that children come into the world with a tabula rasa, a clean
slate bearing no preconceived notions about the world or about language, and that these
children are then shaped by their environment and slowly conditioned through various
reinforcement.
Cognitivists claim that children come into this world with a very specific innate knowledge,
predispositions, and biological timetables, but that children learn to function in a language
through interaction and discourse.