Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of TESOL
Second Language Learning Theories
Spring 2007
Week 2 - A response to `Milestones in Motor and Language Development` From Language Files 8, pp. 278-280.
This is an interesting thing to try to do on the second day of this second language learning theories class because trying to figure out what this data might mean is very similar to the process that SLA researchers actually engage in. Therefore this was intended to be an exercise in putting together ideas from simple observations. Now, while these observations refer to behavior in first language acquisition, we can still find some very important aspects which touch on second language acquisition as well. In fact, but the main ideas that were going to put forth in this class is that we need to seriously consider the option of the dynamic system of language which means that all renditions or versions of language whether first, second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. are all regulated by the same linguistic system. Based on this, what applies in first language acquisition should also has some sort of effect on second language acquisition.
In looking at the data we are struck by the strong correlation between motor development and linguistic development. We, therefore, need to come up with some sort of explanation for why this correlation exists. And again, this is what researchers often do. The first main idea that we can come up with to explain such a correlation is that motor development affects linguistic development in that it allows a child to interact more with the world. Based on this observation we come to understand that language and the world are extremely closely tied together. The purpose of language initially is to encode the world through a process called coding or naming. When children name things they come to understand them and, to a certain extent, own the concepts which accompany these physical items that have named. As a child physically develops they are more able to not only see the world and interact with the world but they can also affect the world. This bring more opportunities for language use. They interact with more different kinds of static objects, see more actions performed around them, and have more and more complex needs which require interaction (often linguistic in nature) with others to be fulfilled.
Looking at this we may posit that human babies are born knowing virtually nothing. In this view, and based on such evidence as we find here, we can claim that there is very little which is actually innate in children. Children need to learn to do almost everything and this includes movement. When a child experiments with moving and actually flutters around like a fish on land they are actually exercising the neurons related to movement and building neuronal connections which eventually allow them to better control their movement. Thus, it is possible to see movement as a being akin to a cognitive phenomenon. Movement is controlled by the brain and is made possible by certain cerebral structures. This is strikingly similar to language and researchers have recently proposed strong links between movement, cognition, and language.
When a person moves they do so based on a plan. Whenever someone enters a room they create a mental map and retain this mental map of the space around them as long as it is necessary. When they go to move they plan their movements on the mental map which they have in their head. These mental maps are part of a memory system, the same memory system which is required for language. Studies have shown that language, like movement, is mapped out in advance. Before we speak we need to make a mental map of what we are going to say based on concepts and intended need. In addition there are mental maps based on articulatory gestures, or what are called phonological maps. These mental maps, based on concepts and meaning are filled with the appropriate lexical items from the mental lexicon and arranged. Based on this phonological maps are made of the actual sound structure of the piece of language which needs to be produced. There are many different parts of the brain and which are involved in this process, and quite notably the cerebellum. The cerebellum is generally thought to be part of the mid brain structure. It is responsible for timing and therefore it's important both in movement and in language and seems to say or as a strong link between two.
Moving back a bit now we also can posit that the development of movement not only allows people to move through physical space better, thus allowing them to deal with the concrete side of the physical world, but motor development also would indicate a better overall control and understanding of the body in general. This understanding of the body both internally and externally in relation to the world is said to be the basis of human cognition expounded in a theory called embodiment. Embodiment basically claims that from these physical experiences, again internal and external, human beings are able to develop abstract concepts about the world but which don't actually exist in the physical world. It is these abstract concepts which really define the power of language. Language is powerful because it allows us to talk about and deal with things that do not actually exist in the world, like unicorns or love. At this point it is important to realize that all abstract concepts are really part of language and not part of the actual physical world. This idea of embodiment is extremely powerful and important in trying to explain how language might actually develop and effects from this can be observed in this data set.
The last thing that maybe we need to go over looking at this data set is the idea that the brain is constantly looking for stimulation. When confronted with such a data set people generally have two different views the first one is really simple and this is generally what mainstream linguists have come to think, namely that there is a biological program which determines the development of movement/motor development, and there's also a biological program which determines the development of language and the two of them to correlate simply by accident. Other people look and really don't think that this correlation could be accidentally so neat. Certainly it's possible, but it's improbable and therefore they look for other solutions such as the kind of we've discussed above. In order to explain why children would want to move we need to simply explain a simple truth which is that the brain is constantly searching for stimulation. Without stimulation the brain not only stops developing but actually atrophies, or becomes weaker. Thus, the brain is always looking for things at which it can draw its attention. It is looking for things to investigate and to develop so that more connections can be built and other connections will fade away without an atrophy of the brain.
How all this relates to second language acquisition is an interesting point to be considered. A subsequent language learner has already encoded one world when they're confronted with the new world of the second language. By taking some of the ideas gathered from from our observations above we can hopefully teach quite effectively. We need things to stimulate our students in the second language classroom. These stimulating items will arouse not only their physical bodies and emotion, thus enabling them to reenact, to a certain extent, the processes of embodiment, but they can also hopefully be able to build some concepts from a new world in congruence with the new language.