From childhood to old age, all of us have to use language as a means of broadening our knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. When humans first
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, they were like newborn children, unable to use this
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tool. Yet once language developed, the possibilities for human kind"s future
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and cultural growth increased.
Many linguists believe that evolution is
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for our ability to produce and use languages. They
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that our highly evolved brain provides us
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an innate language ability not found in lower
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. Proponents (支持者) of this innateness theory say that our
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tor language is inborn, but that language itself develops gradually,
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a function of the growth of the brain during childhood. Therefore there are critical
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times tot language development.
Current
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of innateness theory are mixed, however, evidence supporting the existence of some innate abilities is undeniable.
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, more and more schools are discovering that foreign languages are best taught in
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grades. Young children often can learn several languages by being
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to them, while adults have a much harder time learning another language once the
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of their first language have become firmly fixed.
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some aspects of language are undeniably innate, language does not develop automatically in a vacuum. Children who have been
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from other human beings do not possess languages. This demonstrates that
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with other human beings is necessary for proper language development. Some linguists believe that this is even more basic to human language
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than any innate capacities. These theorists view language as imitative, learned behavior.
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, children learn language from their parents by imitating them. Parents gradually shape their children"s language skills by positively reinforcing precise imitations and negatively reinforcing imprecise ones.
【答案解析】[解析] 考查上下文语义逻辑关系。in a word意为“一句话”，用来总结上述观点；in a sense意为“在某种意义上”；indeed意为“确实”，用来进一步说明上述观点；in other words意为“换句话说”，用来解释上述观点。根据句意，很多人支持天赋论，越来越多的学校发现，最好在低年级开始教授外语。后者是对前者的进一步解释说明。