English Language THE FACTS

• 7000 different languages spoken around the world
• The first words from a child are often to do with the words ‘mother’ or ‘father’
• Language develops naturally in children
• By the age of five, most children will have learned how to speak
• The natural world uses communication rather than language (animals)
• Language separates the human species from the rest of the animal world
• Language developed in humans from grunts and other noises to sentences and words
• Language is the foundation of human society
• 50/80% of the brain is language based
• Grim’s Law showed the link between pronounciation and different languages
• Fox P2 is the most modern theory of child language aquisition
• There is evidence to suggest that we all have a language aquisition device (LAD) – the WUG TEST shows evidence of this
• Pinker suggested that it is creativity to express a phrase such as ‘All gone sticky’ in a child
• Skinner – imitation and reinforcement