Language Acquisition of Children - Article Example

Language Acquisition of Children By + Language Acquisition of Children Introduction Language Acquisition of Children Naturally, a solid relationship exists between play and language. The capacity to mentally embody the world to oneself involves language, as well as symbolic play. It is, therefore, obvious that the language and play progressive patterns are parallel; while the deficiency of language is associated with deficiencies in symbolic play. The learning English as a secondary language is a process that has been experienced by various global communities and even those English is their first language. However, there are several misapprehensions associated with the process of learning English as a second language, besides, the varieties of instructional support essential to the students in order to realize the standard of English necessary to enable them succeed in school (Ainsworth-Vaughn 1990). Statistically, individuals agree learning English as a second language can happen swiftly if students maintain complete submergence in the practice. Heavy exposure to a new language by young migrants can help them attain complete fluency in the language. Through research, instructors appreciate that most students require sufficient time, as well as support in order to master the English language (Pandey 2012). This article will examine the methods in which play can expedite the development of children’s language; the relevance of various languages in creativity of the children, as well as the process through which children acquire language. Aspects of language The human language is a conglomeration of various aspects associated with the construction of instructions relating to respective fields of language production. These aspects are classified as the syntactic, phonological, pragmatic and sematic (Menn 1995). Syntactic aspects The syntactic aspects include the rules considered during formation of sentences. For example, in English, adjectives are typically placed before the nouns, while other languages have diverse orders; for example, in French, the rule of placing the adjectives before the noun is normally reversed, such that the nouns appear before the adjective. Phonological aspects The phonological aspect basically involves sound production. The phonological skill allows an individual to put words together as they pronounce while properly stressing the sound system of a particular language. For example, in English, questions are always asked with a rising intonation at the end of the sentence; therefore, the children will master the aspect of asking for anything through that skill (Carter 2004). Pragmatic aspect The rules that oversee the behavioral aspect of effectively engaging in communication are known as the pragmatic aspect of language. They include the acknowledgment that the significance of any language to some extent is determined by the social context. For example gestures and facial expressions and individual characteristics of the narrator must be considered during interpretation of the speech; equally the features of the social background must be taken into account (Pandey 2012). Sematic aspects of language These are those aspects that involve the selection of the appropriate words suitable to deliver the exact meaning of the words. For example, a child may have the ability to come up with words and correctly construct a sentence, but still fail to convey the correct meaning of the words in the sentence (Mclaughlin 1985). Types of language play There are four aspects of the human language structure that children play with; these aspects correspond with the aspects of language discussed above. The types of aspects are; playing with linguistic arrangements such as grammatical constructions and finding the meaning of word; playing with sound and noises; playing with rhyming words and lastly, playing with speech agreements. Playing with grammatical constructions There is a massive language play during the second year of growth of a child, that is during the time the children are able to utter a couple of words (Reich 1986). As toddlers continue to play with sounds, they similarly experiment with the syntactic, as well as sematic basics of language such as the use of various parts of speech and word order. In this case, children repeat same sentences and as they do so, they replace one word within the sentence with new words within the same grammatical classification. The toddlers ask questions and then provide answers for the same questions. This is the stage where children recite letters and numbers engage in conversations and make comments regarding one other’s behaviors. Suggestions have been made that during the private experimental period where the toddlers play with words taking into account the rules of word arrangement, foundations for the development of the grammatical systems of language may be born (Philip 2008). The children are given the perfect opportunity during the solitary monologue to experiment on the aspects of speech. On the other hand, language social interaction lacks the element of playfulness as it is goal motivated. Playing with sound and noises During the initial year of a child’s growth, there is impulsive blathering of the infant as they play with sound and noises. This element of language development has an intrinsic motivation as it is a freely elected activity that lacks external objectives; nonetheless, the parents should accord the toddlers a good deal of pleasure and let them be. Sound play is a vital element in language development. Although, the psychologists do not believe that it is the parents who train the children to speak using reinforcements, there is a possibility that social fortification arise in response to toddler babbles. By the expiration of the first year, children produce a number of playful sounds through; humming, bubble blowing and so forth. The language sound play does not only occur to the children between the first and two years, but it can even stay around the older children. At three and four years, the children develop massive fascination with chants, songs and rhymes; therefore, they enjoy producing meaningless rhyming patterns. Early reading achievement correlates with the capability to rhyme play in children (Rocca 2007). Some words particularly amuse the preschoolers, therefore, they continue repeating the words until they lose their amusing effect; their voices get distorted during the attempt to communicate in high-pitched sound or any other sound that they cannot naturally produce. Language apprehension and symbolic play In the words of Wegrif, Mercer and Dawes (1990), symbolic play is also very important as it plays a central role in the linguistic development of children. For example, stories are read to children and then they are asked to represent characters in the story and assume their roles. Under a tender direction from the teacher, the children assume the roles with great enthusiasm; the instructor later takes time to ask the toddlers questions in order to apprehend how the children understood the story. There is a high likeliness that the children will understand the story because of their experience in performing out the characters in the story. Linking play with language apprehension is not a simple task to undertake; however, it is not a mandatory practice that the children should play roles in stories in order to understand them (Philip 2008). Many stories do not require the children to act them out since it is easy for the children to understand them. In the primary phases of development, children begin by distinguishing the main categories of vowel, as well as consonant. They later in the process obtain distinctions amid the features of those classifications. During development, toddlers primarily use the accurate form of the past tense in place of irregular verbs. After learning about the universal rule governing the past tense, the children often use irregular verbs in the wrong manner. Such conduct points out a denial of previously learnt forms in place of more universal morphological instructions. According to Saville-Troike (2012), the course of acquisition of language possesses a number of aspects which are fascinating; for example, as children learn a set of words and the means of pronouncing the words, they are making a progress towards developing their language power. The toddlers then they pass through a stage and suddenly they can no longer use the properly use the words. It will look as if the toddler has made a reversing step in their linguistic development; however, psychologists suggest the opposite; that the retrograde step is a positive leap, since they now use universal rules instead of the memorized cases. At the school level, acquisition of a second language is not an automatic procedure nor does it rely on the enthusiasm and determinations of the learner. Second language learning is compound and multidimensional, such that the only way to acquire it is by expressive interactive experiences with instructors and resources that offer access to the systems and the purposes of the language itself. Although the students may reach a certain level of learning and without proper support, achieving the expertise required for true literacy (Pandey 2012). There are materials written for young readers; there is no much variance from the language toddlers hear pronounced in the classroom. At the third grade level, the writings are made for those toddlers who are learning to read. The writers keep their language simple with the belief that children are not able to appreciate and handle more intricate language until their proficiency is mature enough in reading. Technical jargons are inevitable; therefore, writers provide appendices or give definitions of the words in context. At fourth or fifth grade, nonetheless, the writings appear to be a bit complex, as they take different appearance, as well as function. Their sole purpose is to serve as instructional apparatuses meant to teach, enhance or support education. At this level, the learners are expected to have the capacity to properly read and the written texts by themselves as instructional resources. In essence, this is the stage at which the learning to read turns out to be reading to learn (Ainsworth-Vaughn 1990). This is still the stage at which the authors start to make use of more difficult forms and structures than the vocal discourse. The readers are expected to learn from contents that are particular and explicit. The purpose of the writer in that case is to introduce new ideas and display linkages amid the facts and concepts. For the learners to undertake proper interpretation the writers must include sufficient background information to provide enough content for interpretation; the consequences will be heavy writings in terms of information with the content loaded in packs of words, clauses, phrases and sentences (Rocca 2007). Conclusively, the most important objective of such texts is purposefully meant to expand the knowledge background of the learners on various fields of knowledge regarding the world such as; people, historical events situations and experiences and so forth. Children can only supplement their knowledge background when they read if the can see sense in what they read. Children who are not able to appreciate the language that is used to convey information are meshed from both the information the writings carry and the means to learn the type of language carried in the writings. 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Amsterdam, John Benjamin’s Pub. Co.Top of Form Saville-Troike, M 2012. Introducing second language acquisition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Wegrif, R. Mercer, N. and Dawes, L 1999. ‘From social interaction to individual reasoning: an empirical investigation of a possible socio-cultural model of cognitive development’, Learning and Instruction, 9(5),Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More