Short Answer Questions
a) How do individuals acquire and develop language?
The development of language in individuals happens systematically in a manner that only a few parents understand. It begins from when and the individual is young, and people become proficient communicators as early as three years. They do not only learn through the communications from their parent’s but through the body language including facial expression and sign language too. To understand how individuals acquire and develop language, the language theory explains that language development is influenced by factors such as sensitive parents and other older children around them. Individuals acquire and develop language only through one way, and that is by listening to language their parents speak and talk to it. The more a parent speaks to a child often enough repeating the same words and phrase over time the sooner the child learns the language. Parents play an instrumental role I language development in individuals. Other ways through which individuals acquire and develop language is by imitation, reinforcement and active construction of grammar.
b) How do you communicate your thoughts and how did you learn to do that?
Communication of thoughts is another aspect related to language acquisition and development. People have different ways of communicating their thoughts, and they learnt them in different ways. Communicating effectively differs from good communication skills because good communication skills are influenced by personality. To communicate thoughts effectively, one must gather their thoughts before they are ready to air out their intended opinions. One must have a clear impression of their thoughts before they talk. Another way is to choose their words wisely to create a flow of expression of their thoughts. The choice of words highly depicts ones thoughts because what one thinks is what they speak. The body language is also another way to communicate because it reflects on the thoughts of the individual. People learn them the same way I learnt language. How an individual communicates is learnt during the early years of growth through imitation and watching how parents do it.
c) What are the written symbols we use to communicate?
Communication is not only done through verbal means and written symbols serve the same purpose of communicating. There are many symbols used for the purposes of communications between individuals and they include pictures drawn and contained in written documents, arrows, expression marks and other signs used in punctuating written documents. When a picture is drawn in a document, it serves to communicate a certain message. For example, when a picture can best illustrate a situation where one is communicating the state of a person after being infected with a deadly disease. Using pictures as a symbol here shows communicates the state of a person before and after the infection. Arrows pointing forward communicate progress while those pointing backwards communicated retrogressions.
d) What roles do written symbols have in critical thinking?
Symbols play a prominent role in critical thinking because they help substantiate and explain the basis of the communication. Critical thinking involves conclusive and explanatory thoughts and written symbols serve to bring out the communication clearly. One does not need to communicate verbally before the message is brought out. Written symbols may serve the same purpose of verbal communication and even better, in terms of critical thinking because, wide minds open to thoughts can easily get the essence of communication without hearing. A critical thinkers mind is open to grab communication from whatever perspective other than verbal communication and written symbols act to communicate the message in the same way depending on the interpretation.
