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Subject:Re: spoken & written usage From:Karen Kay <karenk -at- NETCOM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 11 Nov 1994 13:43:20 -0800
Michael Keene said:
> This sounds like an early (and wrong) version of the "critical age
> hypothesis for language acquisition"--are you sure you got it right? I
Not all linguists believe in the critical age hypothesis. Those that
do link it with puberty (and others go further to link it with
possible chemical changes in the brain).
> That is, in most cultures this "helper speech" (aka
> babytalk) phenomenon occurs, and however "set" our language ability is by
> the time people stop doing it around us, we seem to recover pretty well.
I'd agree with that.
Btw, I'm not opposed to speaking whole sentences to children. But
written language is NOT the same as spoken language. I didn't see
anything wrong with the sentences in the original post *as speech*.
