UNIT13

1	It is hard to know what babies want.  They canft talk, walk, or even point at what theyfre thinking about.
2	Yet newborns begin to develop language skills long before they begin speaking.  And, compared to adults, they develop these skills quickly.  People have a hard time learning new languages as they grow older, but infants have the ability to learn any language easily.
3	For a long time, scientists have tried to explain how such young children can learn complicated grammatical rules and sounds of a language.  Now, researchers are getting a better idea of whatfs happening in the brains of the tiniest language learners.
4	This new information might eventually help kids with learning problems as well as adults who want to learn new languages.  It might even help scientists who are trying to design computers that can communicate like people do.
5	Most babies go ggoo gooh and gma mah by six months of age, and most children speak in full sentences by age three.  For decades, scientists have wondered how the brains of young children figure out how to communicate using language.  With help from new technologies and research strategies, scientists are now finding that babies begin life with the ability to learn any language.
6	They get into contact with other people, listen to what they say and watch their movements very closely.  That is why they quickly master the languages they hear most often.
7	Studies show that, up to about six months of age, babies can recognize all the sounds that make up all the languages in the world.
8	There are about 6,000 sounds that are spoken in languages around the globe, but not every language uses every sound.  For example, while the Swedish language has 16 vowel sounds, English uses eight vowel sounds, and Japanese uses just five.
