the Enlightenment to Children’s English Learning Based on APS and the Wolf—child

【Abstract】Argument from Poverty of the Stimulus put forward by Chomsky emphasizes built-in knowledge. The story of wolf-child indicate that environment is necessary. Actually both of them occupy an important position to childrens English learning.

【Key Words】 APS Wolf-child Childrens language acquisition Enlightenment

【中图分类号】G640 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2014）11-0002-01

One of core topics in linguistic research is how people acquire language. Nativists represented by Chomsky consider that people have the innate knowledge of language and one of the most significant argument is Argument from Poverty of the Stimulus. According to this argument， innate language faculty is the main reason why children can grasp the abundant and complicated linguistic knowledge system. However， the opposing sides of APS emphasize the role of the environment of language learning and the accumulation of experience. Based on APS and the wolf-child， this aritcle will demonstrate some enlightenment to childrens English learning.

1.APS （Argument from Poverty of the Stimulus）

Chomsky firstly put forward APS in his book in 1980. He points out that there is discrepancy between the highly impoverished language environment and the highly specfic and intricate linguistic knowledge system. Language input of children is limited and incomplete. Childrens ability of having linguistic knowledge ultimately depends on their innate knowledge of language. Peoples language competence is a formalized rules based system called Universal Grammar which defines all language. And Universal Grammar is linguistic function and it is determined by genes.

Poverty of the stimulus is ubiquitous. It is one of the essential attribute which all living beings have. For example， bees can dance without teaching. Chicken can peck as soon as they are hatched. Based on language faculty， language acquistion is an unconscious process which needs to grow and develop naturally. Children dont have to strive or with the help of others guidance. It has no relation with other cognitive competence. Poverty of stimulus is truism. The development of language is the performance of living beings evolution taking hundreds of years. Children have the characteristic of genetic guidance when they build the grammar. Acquiring and using language is human beingsparticular ability.

2.Story of Wolf-child

In a small town of India in 1920， people always saw that a kind of mysterious living beings haunted in the forest and they followed two wolves. Later people found the strange living beings in the wolf den. To their surprise， they were two girls grabbed and fostered by wolves from childhood. They were not able to speak and howl was their only language. The living habits they had were the same as wolf.endprint

According to the research， people taught one survival girl of the two to adapt to human beings living habits. The process was very difficult. The girl couldnt speak authentically until she died. She learnt 6 words and could understand a few simple sentences in four years. After seven years， she just grasped 45 words and spoke a few sentences reluctantly.

3.Experience and Enlightenment

From APS， language ability of children is innate. And environment does indeed act as some sort of trigger. In the light of the story of wolf-child， language of human beings is the product of social practice.

There are some enlightenment on the basis of APS and wolf-child.

3.1 Taking Stimulation of Childrens Acquisition Seriously

Parents should pat attention to arouse childrens language acquisition after they are born. At that time， the plasticity of brain is the strongest. It enjoys a significant edge on language acquisition. Parents can use some listening materials or something else to help children develop language abitities and interests. Make them be sensitive to English.

3.2 Drawing Srpport from Scenes of Life

Parents can cash in on scenes of life to make childrens English acquisition become easier. If children have perceptual knowledge， they will learn English more quickly. For example， when children learn to speak daddy and mammy， it is impossible for them to understand the words before there are some concepts about the two in their brain. As parents accompany their child， the child will know what daddy and mammy are. Then the two words can correspond to real concept and child can master them easily.

3.3 Transforming Language Learning to Language Acquisi-tion

If children have English environment after they are born， they can have the knowledge of English without any effort. Children will learn a kind of language which the environment provides for them. Children can acquire English during the cirtical period of language acquisition. This is like children of Chinese family living in English-speaking country.

3.4 Combining Inborn Knowledge with Acquired Environ-ment

Both inborn knowledge and acquired environment are very important. Its unreasonable to show partiality for one of them. There are interactions between them. Parents must pay attention to arouse childs inborn knowledge of language. At the same time， the surroundings of the child should not be ignored. With the joint effort of the two， child can perform well in the fields of English acquisition.

4.Conclusion

How children acquire language is a long running argument and this will be on in language research. APS attaches importance to inborn knowledge while the story of wolf-child values the importance of surroundings. It is significant to learn from the others strong points and close the gap. Both innate language ability and acquired environment should be taken seriously.

Reference：

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作者简介：

路香 （1989.11.19），性别女，籍贯：陕西汉中，单位：陕西师范大学，学历：2013级硕士，研究方向：英语教育。endprint