How children learn language

 Why you shouldn't Troll people who speak English with a "First Language" accent. 

I have seen people troll prominent individuals who speak English with a First language accent. I saw many people making fun on how the CJ would pronounce "elect" as "erect" . Among other educated prominent people who still struggle pronouncing English words without the interference of another accent. 

Let me educate you why this happens. According to a Naturalist theorist Noam  Chomsky, children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) . LAD is the innate ability of a child's brain to learn a language. Children are born with the natural ability to comprehend and organize grammatical rules of a language. This explains why it is so easy for a child to learn a native language without being taught. 

A child does not need to imitate people to learn a language (That is why a child raised by deaf parents can speak). They inherently have that ability. Just exposure to a language and the LAD makes it easy for them to learn. 

However , the ability to inherently learn a language decreases with age. Children can learn languages more naturally if they're exposed to those languages before the age of 16 to 18 years. However, to be completely fluent in a language, the language needs to be taught before the age of 10.

Back to the English with accent. Most people who were in school in the 60s 70s 80s especially local schools, started school late. A child is taken to school at the age of 8 or 10 and the only language they have been exposed to is their first language (vernacular) . They then go to a local school where the teachers used Native language. By the time English is introduced to them, they are beyond 10 years when the natural ability to learn language has decreased. So the English that they learn at this time will be highly affected by the language that they learnt when the LAD was strong. That's where they start incorporating the grammar of the first language to this new English they're learning. 

This is why most people who school in rural areas where teachers use vernacular in lower classes find themselves struggling with English pronunciation. However, those kids who are taken to private schools with diverse tribes have less issues with pronunciation. They're introduced to the English language early. The children become fluent English speakers despite their parents struggling with the same.

The same reason why those foreigners who try to learn Swahili sound funny to us. The same way your English will sound funny to a native English speaker if you learned the language in school. This is because, a child born of native English speakers is introduced to the language right at birth when the LAD is the most strong. 

Above all, English is just a language like your Native language. It is not a measure of intelligence or academic excellence. Even those prominent people we troll, they're are highly educated and others intelligent but struggle with this foreign language. 

Be proud of your language. Stop using English to measure the intellectual capacity of people. In Linguistics we say, NO LANGUAGE IS SUPERIOR!  EVERY LANGUAGE IS BEAUTIFUL!

#joyinsights