Of all mankind's inventions, none was more consequential than the birth of language.
Before its creation each person's knowledge was limited to what he or she
experienced directly. Afterward someone who learned something could share it
with anybody else. In this video, we'll look at four things known about language
learning in general, and then listen to the story of lucky Lucy and poor Pete to
understand the importance of language in everyday life. Our brains foundation is
built through experiences early in life. Pat Levitt from the center of the
Developing Child at Harvard University studied our brain development over the
course of our life extensively. He showed how the brain's ability to change
dramatically drops in the years of life, while the amount of effort such change
requires increases. Another research showed that at age five 90% of a kid's
brain has been formed. If during these years the child is blocked from
receiving stimulating experiences, the Language Center and other parts of the
brain are likely to remain weak for life. We learn language socially by observing
and imitating others. Some 1,000 years ago German emperor Friedrich II wanted
to prove the opposite and showed that we develop language naturally, all by
ourselves. He made his nannies raise some children.
they were allowed to feed and clean them, but not to interact socially, or ever
speak a word. Not one child learned to speak, but instead, they all died. For the
same reason toddlers can't learn language via tape
or technology. They need to be motivated through a human relationship, then they
pay attention and learn.
Our language brain growth is strongest in year one. If we study the brains
development by the rate of new synapse formation over the first 11 months of
life, and then the next 15 years, we can see how much the first five years matter.
The growth in the part of the brain responsible for language peaks between
birth and age 3. During this critical period children can learn a new word
every 90 minutes and several languages simultaneously. Our sensory pathways
responsible for vision and hearing peak before, which makes sense because we need
to see and hear to imitate language. Four month old infants for example, if raised
bilingual by a British mom and the Chinese dad can already differentiate
between two languages just by observing the lip movements of their caregivers.
Higher cognitive function such as logical reasoning peaks only once we
have the words and know the symbols to make sense of our world. Language makes
our world: Rich language skills allow us to really listen, to speak well, to enjoy
reading and master writing, they can create an entire world around us. As the
German philosopher Wittgenstein said: "the limit of my language is the limit of my
world". let's take for example the word "daycare center". Some people think of it
as a "preschool" the Irish call it "play school" and the Germans invented the word
"Kindergarten". Only if we know all three words can we understand what's possible.
Now let's listen to the story about lucky Lucy and poor Pete, two children
raised in two very different ways. Lucy is raised by her mother. The mother
is an average native English speaker who knows around 20,000 different words.
Pete's parents hire a nice nanny from a foreign country. Instead of speaking in
her native language the nanny is told to talk to Peter only in English. While her
everyday English seems okay she actually knows only around 5,000 words. One
fourth of what Anne's mom knows. Year one is when the language brain is developing
the strongest. iÍf Lucy is awake half of the time her mom speaks she will hear
around 10,000 words per day and maybe 2500 being directed at her. Directed
language is what matters. Whenever her mom connects a word with an actual
experience, Lucy learns its meaning. Pete hears
English only when the nanny deliberately speaks to him, around 1,000 words a day.
But not only is quantity lower but also the quality. As the nanny is not fluent,
there is a chance that many words come across broken. At their first birthday
both kids can say: "mama" and "papa". What we don't see is that Lucy actually
already knows many many words even though she can't say them. But Pete's
language universe is more limited. When Lucy and her mom look at picture
books, her mom points out what they see: a little monkey is also a gorilla, an ape,
a clever animal which uses tools, climbs trees and lives with his mama and papa
in the rainforests of Africa. When Pete looks at a picture book his learning is
limited by the language of the nanny. The same monkey is just cute and eats
bananas. To compensate he's given a language app, but as Pete lacks
the foundation he doesn't understand a word. To him, it's just a bunch of new sounds
strangely connected to colorful characters. On their second birthday Lucy
knows already well over 200 words, the amount where children start to learn
rules and apply grammar. Pete knows less. Sometimes he gets frustrated because he
can't express himself. Lucy likes to go with her mom into the park. Sometimes
they watch the old men play chess. She doesn't understand the game but knows
that there are pawns, rooks, knights, a queen and a king, a bishop and
a horse. One day she will learn the rules. It will be easy because she sees each
figure clearly. Her understanding of their special
skills is obvious. For a lack of language Pete sees just a big checkered board and
some wooden figures which all look quite the same: pawns, knights, bishops. To
understand the rules later will be hard for Pete. All figures look so similar. How
could they do different things? At their third birthday both can say their own
name and form sentences. Lucy's vocabulary now holds 1500 words.
Pete's got 500 to make sense of this world. In year 4 they enter kindergarten.
When Pete stands in front of the big shelf he sees different wooden blocks,
the ball, some old toy, a horse and the yellow digger. When Lucy stands in front
of the same shelf, she sees circles, triangles, squares, a basketball, the red
pinwheel, the beige rocking horse and the carton box of the lego technic digger.
At playtime, Lucy understands what others are talking about and often takes the
lead by suggesting a new idea. Pete often doesn't understand what she means.
If the group discusses something for longer, he zones out because he has
trouble following the conversation. By the end of the year Lucy knows 3,500
words, where Pete only knows 1000 words. Lucy now forms more complicated
sentences in perfect grammar. In the evening her mom reads bedtime stories
to her. Words she's missing, she learns out of context. As a native speaker, the mom
can raise and lower her voice, making the stories exciting. Fairy tales become
alive in her head and Lucy learns to imagine and to think creatively. Pete
still speaks in more simple sentences and his grammar is not perfect. When his
nanny reads to him the voice is more monotone. It's more boring and paying
attention is more difficult. Words he's missing, often remain missing. By the end
of the year Lucy knows 6,000 and Pete knows 2,000 words.
To understand why the actual difference in language abilities between
the two is even larger than it seems, let's imagine that words are nothing but
tools that help us encode the world, form thoughts, structure ideas and then
communicate with others. With 6,000 words compared to 2,000 words
Lucy's toolbox is now three times the size. Lucy has a huge head start as she
is entering elementary school. Einstein by the way as a child seldom
spoke one interesting anecdote goes like this: As he was a late talker and hardly
spoke at the age of seven his parents were worried and tried many things to
get him to speak. At one point they were afraid that he had learning disabilities.
At last, at the dinner table one night, he broke his silence to say: "the soup is too
hot!", greatly relieved his parents asked why he had never said a word before?
The young genius replied: "Because up until now, everything was in order.". What are
your thoughts about language learning? Can someone like Pete still catch up
later in life or maybe find other good ways to express himself?
Maybe our point of view is too narrow and Pete and Lucy actually balance each
other out with the different skills they have? Please share your thoughts in the
comments below!
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