rewrite essay

Term Paper: Language Development Hypotheses

Abrar Awadh

California State University Northridge

CD361

Professor Edward Hall

Abrar Awadh

Professor Edward Hall

CD361

12/6/14

Term Paper: Language Development Hypotheses

The language development is the complex process not only from the linguistic

standpoint but also from psychological and social one, because it occurs in the course of

the interaction and communication between people. Today, the language development has

multiple interpretations and different theories offer different interpretations of the

language development. Therefore, the language development may be viewed from

different perspectives. However, there is no homogeneous view on the language

development and different theories offer different explanation of the language

development. At this point, it is possible to refer to the social interactionist theory based

on works of L. Vygotsky, who developed the idea of the language development through

socio-cultural interaction between individuals. In fact, the development of the social

interactionist theory contributed to the development of the socially-oriented perspective

on language as the consequence of the social interaction between individuals.

The social interactionist theory holds the premise that the language development

occurs through the social development of an individual and his/her interaction with his/

her social environment. From the beginning of the life, people start interacting with their

social environment. Babies interact with their parents and start acquiring language from

their parents. As they start saying first words, they receive a positive feedback from their

parents that encourages them to use these words over and over again and learn new words

from their parents. Steadily, the scope of the social interaction increases and individuals

start interacting with other meaningful adults as well as their peers. As their social

interactions expand, they start learning from other people new language patterns and

words. Thus, they develop their language skills and abilities. In the course of their further

development and education, they enhance their language skills and abilities. For instance,

during professional training they learn specific language which they use in their work.

For instance, health care professionals learn professional terms and medical concepts

which they use in their work. Hence, they expand their language skills and abilities

during their learning and training through interaction with educators and other students.

From the social interactionist perspective individuals interact with each other and

they apparently need language to maintain their interaction effectively. Therefore,

language turns out to be a facilitator that contributes to the effective communication and

interaction between individuals. In fact, the social interaction occurs in the natural way

from the beginning of life since individuals are social beings and they interact with each

other. In such a situation, they use language to communicate with each other. The more

developed their language skills are the more effectively they communicate. This is why

people keep progressing and developing their language skills and abilities to maintain the

effective communication and interaction with each other. In such a way, the language

development comprises an integral part of the development of social relations of

individuals.

In this regard, the social interactionist theory justifies the dependence of the

language development on the social environment of individuals since people cannot

develop their language skills and abilities without the interaction with other people. At

this point, proponents of the social interactionist theory draw numerous examples, when

children, who were deprived of the possibility to communicate and interact with people

and grew up in isolation from the society had substantial problems in their language

development, while in many cases they just could not speak at all. These cases prove the

significant role of the social environment and social interaction in the language

development of individuals. At the same time, the social interaction determines, to a

significant extent, the language development of individuals because through social

interaction individuals learn new language patterns and create new language patterns that

help them to interact with other people.

On the other hand, the social interactionist theory does not provide the adequate

explanation of the steady progress of the language development of individuals. In fact,

the social interactionist theory links the language development to the further progress of

social relations of individuals in the course of their development (Gargiulo, 2006). Hence,

their communication skills and their language development become more and more

complex. In such a way, the social interactionist theory does not give the adequate

explanation of different stages in the language development in relation to the cognitive

development of individuals. Instead, the language development turns out to be the result

of the social experience of individuals (Gargiulo, 2006). The poor social experience leads

to the poor language development, while the rich social experience leads to the rich

language development.

However, the social interactionist theory does not take into consideration the

psychological peculiarities of individuals and fail to explain clearly why people may be

substantially different in their language development and language skills. Instead, the

theory just explains variations in the language development by different social

interactions of individuals and different social relations of individuals. In this regard,

researchers (Moerk, 1994) point out that the language development depends not only on

the social experience of individuals but also on their individual psychological

peculiarities and traits of character. In addition, the social interactionist theory fails to

explain the innate ability of people to use language for communication.

Nevertheless, the social interactionist theory has a number of strengths along with

the revelation of the social background of the language development (Vygotsky, 2011). In

this regard, it is worth mentioning the revelation of the progress of individual language

development through communication with other individuals. The social interactionist

theory stands on the ground that complex social interactions lead to the development of

complex language skills and abilities and, therefore, stimulate the enhancement of

individual language skills and abilities. In such a way, individuals can accelerate their

language development through the development of their social interactions.

Furthermore, the social interactionist theory helps to reveal the mechanism of the

language acquisition from parents to babies and children at the early age, when the need

to interact with parents and other people virtually forces individuals to use language to

communicate their ideas and desires to their social environment. In fact, the mechanism

of the language acquisition and development determined by needs of people to interact

with each other explains the further language development because needs of individuals

grow more and more complicated in the course of time and they develop more and more

complex social interactions that stimulate their further language development (Moerk,

1994). In such a way, the social interactionist theory offers the basic model of the

language development through the social interaction, when individuals developing certain

language skills to reach the target social interaction receive a positive feedback from

others, if they use the right language pattern, preserve it and use it over and over again.

Moreover, individuals develop more complex language patterns expecting receiving a

positive feedback from others. On the contrary, if they fail to receive a positive feedback

in response to certain language pattern, they abandon this language pattern and do not use

it anymore, unless they receive a positive feedback from others (Vygotsky, 2011). This

mechanism helps to understand how the language is acquired and how the language

development evolves in the course of the development of social interactions of

individuals. The social interactionist theory emphasizes the social background of the

language development which is one of the crucial elements of many other language

development theories. At the same time, the social interactionist theory offers its own

interpretation of the impact of the social interaction on the language development of

individuals.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis

on the fact that the social interactionist theory develops the socially-oriented perspective

on the language development. According to the social interactionist theory the language

development occurs through the social interaction between individuals and is fully

dependent on such interaction. Any breaches or failures to interact with the social

environment of individuals can cause substantial problems in the language development

as were many cases of children, who grew up in isolation from humans or lacking

communication and interaction with people.

References

Gargiulo, R.M. (2006). Special education in contemporary society: An introduction to

exceptionality. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Moerk, E.L. (1994). “Corrections in first language acquisition: Theoretical controversies

and factual evidence,” International Journal of Psycholinguistics, 10, 33-58

Vygotsky, L. (2011). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological

Processes. New York: Random House.

Appendix

In the course of the current study, ProQuest and Jstore were used as the main

databases to find each source in this paper. The search strategy included the online search

of the target sources on the ground of key terms, including “language development

theories” and “language development hypothesis”. Both primary and secondary sources

were used in the current paper. The primary source includes the book, which was written

by L. Vygotsky, one of the founders of the social interactionist theory. Secondary sources

include sources that relate to the language development and respective theories.

This the second one essay

Annotated bibliography

1- Kulesza, J. (January 01, 2014). Due Diligence in Cyberspace. Retrieved from

http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/due-diligence-in-cyberspace/80711

This book sheds light on the international legal issues, which are core to Internet

Governance, and advances the idea of developing a global solution to its problems. The

book incorporates a wide range of ongoing discussions surrounding the governance of the

internet and emphasizes on the issues which are urgent and require special attention from

the international community in order to guarantee effective running of the global network

that forms the backbone of our information driven society.

Joanna Kulesza has a Ph.D. in International Law and is an assistant professor at

the University Lodz in Poland. She has been honored for her exemplary research work on

International law.

2- Britz, J. J. (May 01, 2008). Making the global information society good: A social

justice perspective on the ethical dimensions of the global information society1. Journal

of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 59, 7, 1171-1183.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.20848/abstract

This article addresses ethical challenges facing the global information society

from a social justice’s perspective. In its scope the article also relates four characteristics

of the global Information Society. The article employs a moral tool, social justice, on

grounds of moral validity to address these ethical challenges.

Johannes Britz is currently Dean and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-

Milwaukee, Milwaukee, USA. He holds to doctoral degrees from the University of

Pretoria in South Africa. He is co-editor of the International Review of Information

Ethics (IRIE) and serves on the editorial board of the Library and Information Science

Research Journal of the University of Bucharest.

Dr. Britz has expansive international experience both as a researcher and

consultant. Dr Britz has a keen interest in social justice and information poverty and

works mainly in Africa on these areas.

3-Cheney, G., May, S., & Munshi, D. (2011). The handbook of communication ethics.

New York: Routledge.

This handbook acts as an all-inclusive guide into the study of communication and

ethics. It incorporates some of the issues discussed on the two articles quoted above. It

engages analyses and applications based on accepted ethical theories and further engage

unfamiliar ones. This blend brings to the surface important questions of power, equality,

and justice. The handbook distinguishes itself as a comprehensive resource for the study

of communication and ethics.

George Cheney (Ph.D., Purdue University, 1985) is the John T. Jones Centennial

Professor of Communication Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Steve May (Ph.D., University of Utah, 1993) is Associate Professor of

Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Debashish Munshi (Ph.D., University of Waikato, 2000) is an Associate Professor

in the Department of Management Communication at the University of Waikato,

Hamilton, New Zealand.

4-Hsieh, P., & Tze-Kuang, L. (2012). Does age matter? Students' perspectives of

unauthorized software copying under legal and ethical considerations. Asia Pacific

Management Review, 17(4) Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/

1323393284?accountid=7285

With the advancement in computing applications, comes some challenges,

intellectual property and associated software are some of the issues which redefine

information ethics. The study, unlike the rest quoted earlier, explores attitudes developed

by users in relation to unauthorized software copying (USC). These attitudes are

influenced by age, gender and ability to engage in USC activities. The findings of the

study indicate that the factors named influence differently ethical behavior.

The information in the study is verifiable and the investigations carried out are

clearly showed, to a certain degree it can be tagged as authentic.

Pei-Hsuan Hsieh is a member of the Institute of Information Management,

National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Tze-Kuang Lee is with the Department of

Child Care, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

5-Chan, R. Y. K., & Lai, J. W. M. (2011). Does ethical ideology affect software piracy

attitude and behavior? An empirical investigation of computer users in china. European

Journal of Information Systems, 20(6), 659-673.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ejis.

2011.31

Annual revenue loss due to piracy runs into billions of dollars. In the world’s most

populous nation, china is considered one of the largest markets. The study classifies

chines computer users can be classified into four ethical ideological types, form the more

susceptible to violating piracy laws to the least. Clustering them helps identify the group

that would be likely target audience for anti-software piracy communications.

The study in a way further explains the issue of intellectual property, an issue that

is yet to be fully resolved.