A cognitive approach to language acquisition 英语专业毕业论文.doc

A cognitive approach to language acquisition Abstract This paper is aimed at taking a close look on language acquisition.To elaborate it ,my thesis will develop as follows:In the first part ,I will make a brief introduction of language acquisition.In the second part ,two aspects of first language acquisition will be presented and in the third part of the paper,I will describe some theories related to the second language.In the end,I will draw a conclusion and clarify that language acquisition is one of the best examples of the indispensability of the multidisciplinary approach called cognitive science. Key words first language acquisition(L1),second language acquisition(L2), cognition,children,hypothesis,Krashen,capacities Introduction The term acquisition is often used to refer to first language acquisition which studies infants acquisition of their native language and second language which refers to the additional language after the leaner has acquired.Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words to communicate. The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes humans from other organisms. Although it is difficult to pin down what aspects of language are uniquely human, there are a few design features that can be found in all known forms of human language, but that are missing from forms of animal communication. For example, many animals are able to communicate with each other by signaling to the things around them, but this kind of communication lacks the arbitrariness of human vocabularies (in that there is nothing about the sound of the word dog that would hint at its meaning). Other forms of animal communication may utilize arbitrary sounds, but are unable to combine those sounds in different ways to create completely novel messages that are automatically understood by another. It is crucial to the understanding of human language acq