domingo, 26 de junio de 2016

Having discussed some of the topics related to First Language Acquisition, I have to admit that Chomsky's theory is the most understandable for me.
  The fact that children can produce some things that they have never heard before shows that language is really creative as Chomsky explained.
While being in contact with young children, we can notice it. They do not repeat phrases that their parents or sibilings have said. They are able to produce language, no just imitate it. For that reason, I do not agree with Skinner as he stated that language was behaviour.
  As regards Chomsky's explanation of the "black box" , I also agree. I believe that we are born with some knowledge in our mind and what we need is some exposure to activate it. Young children also demonstrate that.
  Some kids need more time, but I am sure that everybody has something in their mind to activate because otherwise , how can children produce something that is different from the input they  have reveived?
  Having said this, I have to add that it is interesting to read about different linguists so that we can analyse this topic from different points of view.

miércoles, 22 de junio de 2016

I think that Chomsky's theory gives us more than a hint on how we acquire our L1. I agree on the fact that we learn the most difficult thing we are going to learn at a very early stage and without any effort( and not even realizing too). I have two little nephews( 3 and 1 1/2 year old), and I could see and compare how they acquired language. Creativity is always present and also both of them did not react in the same way to the same stimulus. Although they were raised in the same house, they did not have the same input. However, the eldest one( who was the one who received more input) took more time to start talking than the youngest. For instance, I agree on the fact that one stimulus has a lot of responses, and that we do not need a lot of input to start talking or to acquire a language.
In addition to this, sometimes I do not know where the eldest one takes the words he says. For me this has to do with the different steps that are mentioned in the book and that language comes from the inside, which also is our internal language. 
One of the questions that comes to my mind( which is also connected with a video I recently watched about when babies are in the womb), is whether babies can listen from the inside what people from the outside tell them, and whether that has to do with the language acquisition process. What is more, I wonder when our ears are developed, the L1 acquisition process starts from that point.
Mercedes Sánchez



sábado, 4 de junio de 2016

Here is a useful site where you can find lots of pictures for your tests! We think it is always important to motivate our students and if we add some of these pictures in our exams, we show them they can do it :)
Hope you like it!! 

http://www.lovethispic.com/tag/exam