Language Development - Essay Example

Language Development

Introduction

Language is probably one of man’s greatest inventions since it has enabled them communicate in an easier way than any other creature on the universe. In education in general and in educational psychology in particular, studying language acquisition plays a major role in understanding and planning of the education process. Language is the main vehicle through which the content is delivered to the learners at any level of the learning cycle, and has been focused on by educational psychologists in their attempts to understand the learning process. This essay explores why language is a central tool in the education cycle, and why it has become one of the main concerns of the educational psychologists. The way language develops the learning aspects of the child and the way acquisition of language influences the acquisition of knowledge is explored.

A Theoretical analysis of language Acquisition

A human being is said to have acquired language when he can perceive and make meaning of the words and sentences he hears, and can in turn produce his own meaningful words and sentences to express the ideas and concepts he wants to put across. The way a human being acquires his first language of communication continues to be a subject of discussion among linguists and educational psychologists, although with globalization, second language acquisition is beginning to receive attention too. The first language is mainly acquired in informal settings, while the second language is mainly acquired in formal settings, usually the classroom set up.

The fact that every human being has been able to acquire language regardless of their environment and intelligence level has intrigued scholars for a long time. There is no scientifically proven explanation, but a number of theories exist to try to explain this ability of human beings to acquire knowledge. There are two theories that have been put forward by linguists to explain the language acquisition process. The first one is the Learning perspective and the second one is the nativist perspective; and a summary of each is briefly discussed below.

The Learning Perspective

The proponents of this theory argue that a child learns language through interaction with the environment by imitating others and copying what they hear, eventually acquiring the language over time. A number of behaviorist psychologists have studied this approach and come up propositions about how this process works. Edward Thorndike, for example, suggests that the process of trial and error aids a lot in the initial stages of the language learning process. Piaget was another psychologist who studied this school of thought, and he says that a child acquires language in four stages: the sensorimotor stage, at which the child starts being aware of their surroundings and reacting to stimuli (Emeling 139). It is during this stage that the child makes the first attempts to learn language. The second stage is the preoperational stage, at which the child talks a lot, but not necessarily to communicate. The child may be found talking to self, or sometimes describing what they are doing even when the one they are telling can see it. The third stage is the concrete operational stage, and it is at this stage that the child learns to use language to refer to and describe concrete facts, not just mental concepts. The final stage is the formal operational stage, and it is said that at this stage, the child can use language to do abstract things such as debating, comparing, contrasting, and evaluating situations (Emeling 139). Educational psychologists utilize these stages in designing the curriculum and assigning the appropriate content for the children at various stages of the educational ladder. The language developmental stages in a child are a good way to gauge their ability to master certain concepts depending on their level of complexity.

The Nativist Approach

This approach argues that the language acquisition process and cycle is innate, and that human beings are born with a biologically programmed ability to acquire language. Interactions with the environment simply put this ability into reality and the child begins to learn language automatically. They argue that this is the reason any child, regardless of the mental status or level of intelligence, is able to acquire language. Chomsky calls this inborn ability to acquire language the Language Acquisition Device (LAD), and says it has four qualities, which are its ability to single out speech patterns, single out sounds of speech, and organizes the language data or words into classes such as nouns, verbs adjectives and many others (Ambridge and Lieven 169). Both approaches point to the need for the educationist to be aware of what is involved in the language acquisition process. Whether one believes in the learning or the nativist approach, it must be noted by the educator that acquisition of language is the first type of learning a child gets and that it will influence any future learning that the child will need.

Children and Language Acquisition

Understanding the way children acquire and internalize language is one of the most important steps in understanding the leaning process among children. Language is central to educational psychologists because it is the first education a child receives. The moment a child starts associating the abstract forms and shapes around them with names is the moment they begin to form meaning and thus the learning process will have kicked off. The language acquired is important in the life of the child as it is the only way they can communicate with other people in life. As the child starts the educational journey, the ability to communicate well, which forms a big section of the language as a subject of study, becomes one of the most important goals of the academic life. The ability to communicate fluently especially in the languages that are considered national of official languages are considered an important asset. Many careers are focused on the languages, such as mass communication, journalism, and information sciences among others.

Secondly, apart from the acquisition of language to competent levels being an end in itself, it becomes the tool through which other subjects are taught, and poor acquisition of language affects the proper mastery of the other subjects. According to educational psychologists, when Children are brought up in a linguistically stimulating environment, they become faster learners than those brought up in a less stimulating linguistic environment (Vygotsky 90). A linguistically stimulating environment includes one that has a high number of items the child is interested in playing with and exploring on. It also includes one in which the child has a large number of playmates and even adults who take interest in the child and use language in his presence (Vygotsky 91).

Learning is faster, better, and pleasant to the child when the instructor (teacher, parent, or caretaker) makes a linkage between what the child is learning and the environment. Before a child acquires language, most of the items around them remain abstract, without meaning. Such items begin making sense when the child begins naming them, and such an opportunity should be used to stimulate the child’s interest in learning (Vygotsky 94). There is a lot of learning that takes place through social interactions. A child gets many details from his peers, from the teacher, siblings and anybody that they interact with regularly. Such knowledge is greatly enhanced through language, which is the main tool of interaction among human beings (Vygotsky 98).

Vygotsky defines the person who transmits knowledge to the child as the “more knowledgeable other” (MKO). For a long time, educationists named the teacher as the only MKO. However, the role played by other people that are in the environment of the child is continuously becoming understood. With advancement in technology, the MKO may be a computer, a Smartphone, or even a television. As the children grow, books, and the internet play the role of the MKO. The language level and organization of the content by the MKO needs to be child friendly in order to maximize the acquisition of knowledge by the child. Children should be taught using linguistically stimulating techniques such as children’s songs, whose styles include singing, repetition, poetry, and paintings (Woolfolk and Margetts 24).

Language as the main teaching tool

The greatest role of language is communication, which is the most important aspect of the leaning process (Chomsky 60). Even after the children have grown, language continues to play the most important role in the education process. In educating a human being, language is all the instructor has to pass the knowledge to the learner. It has been argued that one of the main reasons why there is a mismatch between the learner and the instructor leading to poor performance is poor use of language. In one study analyzing the reasons for poor acquisition of mathematics skills among learners, language was cited as a major reason why the students fail to grasp the concepts. There were errors such as giving unclear instructions, failing to distinguish or understand the keyword or phrase in a question and use of the wrong directional verb (Kaur and Khoon 241). Thus, while language is itself usually a subject of instruction, with English being taught in many countries, it is also a means through which all other subjects and areas of instruction and training are taught.

Therefore, poor mastery of the language of instruction by the learner or poor use of it by the instructor contributes to poor mastery of all other subjects (Kaur and Khoon 266). In other subjects, use of terms such as explore, discuss, evaluate, critic, comment on, state and explain have been found to give students a challenge in the comprehension or expression of the information in question (Hayes 107). The designers and drafters of the curriculum should take a keen interest in the language of the material and content they deliver. The instructors should also be made aware of the role of language in the communication process. The choice of words, their combination, order, and sentence structure should be carefully thought out and planned with both the content type and the level of the learners in mind. Language permits the speaker (or the writer) to communicate or pass information form one person to the other, which is one of the main preoccupations of the learning process.

Language and Culture

Language is an expression of culture and the relationship between the two can be looked at from two angles. To start with, language is an expression of culture. In addition, language greatly influences culture (Mooij 59). Culture can be defined as the collective manifestation of the arts, values, and other forms of intellectual achievement that an individual or a society holds with a lot of value (Branine 51). Only the ability to speak is what has been found to be a universal human trait, and if there is anything that can be said to be universal culture, it is language (Mooij 59). Every society has a language, and the language diction is usually a reflection of the experiences they go through on a daily basis. In many societies across the world, education is a tool for the preservation, transmission, and development of their culture.

Cultural values and the aspirations of the society or the country shape the content of the education system, and language being the main tool through which culture is expressed, becomes the only avenue through which the cultural values of a society can be implanted in the education system. This is the reason there are major problems in comprehension when instruction is done in a second language that the learners have not completely internalized. The words, symbols, idiom, proverbs, and metaphors of the new language usually carry the cultural experiences of that language. Conversely, these may sometimes differ significantly from the cultural experiences of the learner’s own culture, for example, in the US, a dog is a pet, a loved and adored animal, perceived as a member of the family, and giving a young child a dog as a gift is seen as a positive gesture.

However, in the Muslim and Arab countries, the dog is a vile creature that deserves a quick kick. The teacher in the US teaching a student from the Muslim culture must be aware of this difference before they use the dog to illustrate affection; in which case, unless fully explained, the student can get a different meaning from the one the teacher indented to put across. Training of teachers must emphasize that language carries much more than the meanings associated with words, but also carries connotative meanings that the culture of the speakers have attached to those items (Lowenstein and Bradshaw 115). The association of language to culture dictates that the instructor of a second language learner should be more careful than if they were teaching a child in his native language.

When a child acquires a first language, he also acquires the culture the language is associated with. Therefore, it is easier for the teacher if instruction is done in this first language, since the associations and idioms they have formed in their head can be those of this language. The second language teacher has to learn the cultural background of the learner’s first language for them to anticipate the overgeneralizations and confusions the learner is likely to have from associating images and idioms in their first language with those of the second language. However, with proper explanations and practice, the learner can internalize these and appreciate them better, so that when the language is used for instruction, not just the words of the speaker, but also the intended message are conveyed to the listener.

Conclusion

Language acquisition is the first step in the lifelong education of a child, and there is a need to ensure that this stage of child development is guided in a good way so that the educational cycle of the child is not interfered with. The language itself is an important asset of the educational process, since the children will need language more than any other knowledge in their interaction with other human beings. However, it takes an even greater role in the educational process because it is the tool through which any other subjects or knowledge is transmitted to the learners. This is the reason educational psychologists take a keen interest in the language learning process of a child. The most important aspect that educationists need to know is that language levels must be in agreement with the learner’s ability and level so that they can then grasp the concept. The words chosen to explain a certain concept must be the easiest possible so that the learners do not struggle to understand the concept. In addition, the educators have to consider their culture as well as those of their students into consideration to avoid any misunderstanding between them, which can happen. There is a need to ensure that teachers get proper training for them to not only understand the importance of proper teaching approaches, but also to enhance language development among children.