Question:
I still didn't get an answer that makes any sense to me.
Concentration is required to memorize-focus. Then how does the baby
learn words and basic grammer by age three when they are too young to
focus narrowly?
How do they get all the words when adults studying a foreign language
must go over and over vocabulary lists to remember anything?
This seems to me a reasonable question. It's not to play with the list,
as some insulting person wrote when I posted it before, and nobody is
selling anything.
Answer:
Kids are programmed to acquire their first language naturally, their
whole learning process is completely different to adults. They don't
memorise, they internalise language and meaning through everyday
interaction,and have the capacity to absorb an amazing amount of
vocabulary in a short period of time. I read a little about it as an
undergrad, but was blown away by watching the actual process as my son
(now 7) acquired the vocabulary, phonology, grammar and now spelling,
reading, writing.
A few people have said it; your original assumption that children's
first language acquisition and adults' second (or more) language
acquisition operate in the same manner is flawed.
There has been a lot of debate about the methods of teaching kids how
to read in Australia (phonics vs whole word). I was always heavily
geared towards phonics until I watched him recognise whole words
effortlessly after seeing them once or twice, now I am a proponent of
both techniques. It's a miraculous thing to observe yet we all did it.
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