Se llama desarrollo del lenguaje (o adquisición de la lengua materna) al proceso cognitivo por el cual los seres humanos, haciendo uso de su competencia lingüística innata, aprenden a comunicarse verbalmente usando la lengua natural usada en su entorno social al momento de su nacimiento y durante su infancia hasta la pubertad. En efecto, este proceso está cronológicamente limitado ya que sucede principalmente dentro de lo que Jean Piaget describe como 'Período Preoperatorio' o 'período crítico' [Ver el caso de Victor de Aveyron], o sea durante los primeros 4 o 5 años de vida del niño. En la mayoría de seres humanos esto se da principalmente durante los primeros cinco años, especialmente en lo que se refiere a la adquisición de las formas lingüísticas y de los contenidos. Durante estos primeros años tiene lugar a mayor velocidad de aprendizaje y se adquieren los elementos básicos y sus significados y hasta antes de adolescencia se consolida el uso, la inferencia pragmática y la capacidad para entender enunciados no-literales (irónicos, sarcásticos, etc.). Los primeros años constituyen el período fundamental aunque el desarrollo del lenguaje se prolonga mucho más allá de los primeros años.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, because non-humans do not communicate by using language. Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language. This is distinguished from second-language acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages. The capacity to successfully use language requires one to acquire a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary. Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign. The human language capacity is represented in the brain. Even though the human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion. Evidence suggests that every individual has three recursive mechanisms that allow sentences to go indeterminately. These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation and coordination. Furthermore, there are actually two main guiding principles in first-language acquisition, that is, speech perception always precedes speech production and the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built up one step at a time, beginning with the distinction between individual phonemes.

Leer el artículo completo en Wikipedia · CC-BY-SA