Tarzan Short Response Sample 1

How plausible is the story of Tarzan in terms of an infants cognitive

and language development? How would it play out in real life?

It is possible that Tarzan can learn English within a short period

of time, but his proficiency of the English language will be greatly
compromised due to his little contacts with human beings.
Since the language of apes is highly similar to that of human,
Tarzans language acquisition device can be used to explain how he
has the ability to learn a human language in a short period of time. It
is possible that the pronunciations have overlaps, which makes it
easier for Tarzan to make accommodations of his existing schemas
than to create brand new ones. Also, different from infants, Tarzan
owns the cognition of the world, so his only task is to piece a language
system together to match with his existing view of the world.
Moreover, Tarzans mother passes away when he is one year old,
showing that she is present for several crucial periods during a childs
language development. Tarzan experiences his first sound and gesture
with his mother at 1-2 months, and he is able to recognize words and
gain receptive language by 9-10 months. The time spent with his
mother shows that Tarzan has built a foundation of English language
before his adoption by the apes.
However, Tarzan may never achieve the English proficiency as a
normal British child does. The critical period of language development
for human beings is the first couple of years of their lives. Since
Tarzan is adopted by apes after his parents died, he misses a lot of key
factors in obtaining a new language. According to Jean Piaget, infants
learn languages through imitating the adults around them. While
Tarzan loses his parents at a very early age, it is hard for him to learn
human language when he grows up with apes. Infants all start
building their language system with babbling, and by analyzing the
positive or negative reinforcement from adults, they thus understand
what is right and what is wrong. Tarzan, however, does not have the
opportunity to obtain feedbacks. When teaching the infants, Adults
often generate infant-directed speeches that possess high pitches and
emphasize the key syllables in a certain language. This infant-directed
speech is crucial for childrens grammar development, which Tarzan
lacks in speaking English.
Tarzan can learn English in a short period of time due to his early
exposure to the English language, the similarity between human
language and apes language, and his existing worldview that can
match up with the language he obtains. He, however, cannot possibly
master the language because some crucial periods of language
learning are missing in his life.