NAME: RAIMI SYAZWAN BIN RUZAIDI CLASS: TESL 2

Question: Human needs some conditioning during critical period. Discuss this in relation to Mowgli
in The Jungle Book.

Language can be defined as the method of human communication, either spoken or written,
consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. It is also a system of
communication used by a particular country or a community to converse amongst them. Language
can then be divided into two types which are first language (L1) and second language (L2). L1 is
actually one’s native language or language that one learnt first and speaks best while L2 can be
defined as a language that is not the native language of the speaker but that is used in the locale of
that person.

According to Noam Chomsky, every human being is equipped with Language Acquisition
Device (LAD) that enables us to learn every language that we come across. The Language Acquisition
Devise (LAD), according to Chomsky, is an inborn mechanism facilitating the learning of language,
consisting of neural wirings and brain structures unique to human beings. A child does not need to
be taught language formally, but simply needs to be exposed to adult speech. Therefore, it is not
impossible to learn every language from all around the globe!

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits, because non-humans do not
communicate by using language. Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition,
which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whether that be spoken language or
signed language as a result of prelingual deafness. This is distinguished from second-language
acquisition, which deals with the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages. In
addition to speech, reading and writing a language with an entirely different script compounds the
complexities of true foreign language literacy.

In my case study, I have found out that Mowgli in the Jungle Book is best to explain this
concept. In the movie itself, it has been portrayed that Mowgli was not able to speak human
language as he was taken by the “wolf-pack” when he was still a baby, because of this, the animals in
the jungle called him “man-cub”. This also affects his speech production greatly. For example, he was
seen of not being able to understand the human language as the language that he has acquired was
the “animal-language” and not English nor human language. Because of this, when Mowgli was seen
trying to communicate with the villagers, all they could hear were inaudible sounds coming from
Mowgli.

Next, we can see the concept of conditioning in the Jungle Book when Mowgli was trained
by the wolves in order for him to be accustomed by the way of the wolves. He was trained to
communicate in the language of the animals and live among them. Conditioning is best defined as
the process of training or accustoming a person or animal to behave in a certain way or to accept
certain circumstances. Through time, Mowgli was able to catch with the rest of the wolves and able
to live with them. We can also see the process of conditioning took place when Mowgli was caught
by the hunter. He was imprisoned inside a cellar and left with nothing. This was meant to train him
mentally by the hunter in order for him to behave and listen to his orders. After quite some time,
Mowgli was able to partially communicate with villagers but only limited to basic comprehension
and sign language. He was seen of still not being able to utter a word.

Critical period is a vital period where every child should be exposed to languages by their
parents as this is where they will absorb everything and it will fossilised in their head. One of the
roles of critical period is where it helps the brain to learn to segregate the sounds, as it stores more
data in the language processor.