Comparison between the theories of language acquisition in the Arab heritage and modern studies: an analytical study

Abstract

The issue of explaining how humans acquire language has occupied the attention of scholars, philosophers and thinkers, both ancient and modern. Our early Arab scholars have made significant contributions in this field, as many of their opinions and ideas converged with the theories that scholars have reached in modern times that sought to provide a vision for the process of language acquisition.                                                

This research aims to shed light on these efforts of the two teams and compare them, in a research entitled: A Comparison between Language Acquisition Theories in the Arab Heritage and Modern Studies: A Descriptive Analytical Study. The descriptive analytical approach was adopted, and it came in an introduction, a preface, three chapters and a conclusion. The preface was devoted to providing a definition of language, acquisition, and linguistic acquisition, and the first chapter was devoted to Arab theories of language acquisition, the second to modern theories of language acquisition, and the third to comparing them.                                                                  

The research concluded that there are many similarities between them, represented in the convergence of the theories with which they explained this phenomenon in general, and that there are aspects of difference between them, represented in the methodology of study and research, and the difference in the two teams' view of the phenomenon of language and its sanctity.

Keywords: acquisition, agreement, imitation, instinct, difference, stimulus.