Language Development - Research Paper Example

Introduction: Language is made up of socially shared rules that include -What words mean , How to make new words , How to put words together, What word combinations are best in what situations. Wheras, Speech is the verbal means of communicating, including Articulation: How speech sounds are made , Voice and Fluency. Langauge develoemnt and speech improvement are a part of the child development till the age of 18 years. And children prsent different skills of language acquisition at differetn age levels. Language development is observed under two phases - one is receptive language (language comprehension) and productive language (language expression or speaking). Children show more receptive than productive language. Speech Disorders Speech therapy Articulation disorders, Fluency disorders, Resonance or voice disorders Language disorders, Expressive disorders are the common forms of disorders that can be recognized when a child is delayed in the language improvement and these can be cured by the speech training and speech therapy. Speech-language therapy is the treatment for most children with speech and/or language disorders. A speech disorder refers to a problem with the actual production of sounds, whereas a language disorder refers to a difficulty understanding or putting words together to communicate ideas. EdwardG.Carr observed that a combination of simultaneous communication training and separate vocal training may have a synergetic effect on speech development. Hence while planning language intervention programs, providing ideal situations and contexts for language learning that supports the use of various effective approaches is of utmost importance. The context or type of activity (e.g., play-dough, book reading) can strongly influence level of caregiver responsiveness (Girolametto & Weitzman, 2002) during the speech training. This suggests that different child learning levels require different teaching methods of language learning. This opinion is heightened by recent evidence demonstrating that some teaching strategies by themselves may not be sufficient to ensure optimal language outcomes (Warren & Yoder, 1997; Yoder & Warren, 1998), various approaches may be more effective at different points in a child's development (Yoder, Kaiser, Goldstein, Alper, Mousetis, Kaczmarek, et al., 1995), Hence the current study observes various approaches of speech training tools at different stages of child development. The study observes different speech training tools like, drama, mime and improvisation for the language development in different age group children from 3 years to 18 years. As children make a deliberate effort to master the sounds and sound patterns of the adult language, Ferguson and Farwell (1975) noted that children work simultaneously at mastering the sound system of the language as a whole and the sound patterns of individual words. So linguists caution against assuming that the correct adult pronunciation always underlies a child's mispronunciation (Waterson 1981). So this advises for careful speech training during the speech storage during the early childhood and in school going children. As children mature, their articulation approximates ever more closely the adult system as they develop a fairly sizeable productive vocabulary with which they can relate words to each other and to the adult system (Ingram 1976). This suggests for the need of speech training during the teens for language acquisition. From a functional perspective, language in children develops from the desire to communicate, to be social. This tendency increase from childhood to adulthood and hence the language acquisition. Many grammatical structures, particularly those involving coordination and subordination, are not fully mastered until adulthood (Kies 1985 and 1990). As Halliday (1978: 16) describes, the individual's language potential is interpreted as the means whereby the various social relationships into which he enters are established, developed and maintained. Different stages of Language development: Some of the language skills that can be characterized by different age level of children are as follows: Ages 3: Rapid language development, very active, short attention span illustrated by following skills and attitudes: Use pronouns I, you, me correctly; usage of some plurals and past tenses; Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under; Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name; Handles three word sentences easily; Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words; About 90% of what child says should be intelligible; Verbs begin to predominate; Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities; Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason; Able to reason out such questions as "what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty"; Should be able to give his sex, name, age; Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected Age 4: Knows names of familiar animals; Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when given commands; Names common objects in picture books or magazines; Knows one or more colors; Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly; Can usually repeat words of four syllables; Demonstrates understanding of over and under; Has most vowels and diphthongs and the consonants p, b, m, w, n well established; Often indulges in make-believe; Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities; Understands such concepts as longer, larger, when a contrast is presented; Readily follows simple commands even thought the stimulus objects are not in sight; Much repetition of words, phrases, syllables, and even sounds. Age5: Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs; Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc; Has number concepts of 4 or more; Can count to ten; Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems; Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y (yellow); Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words; Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair); Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions; Should know his age; Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while; Tomorrow, yesterday, today; Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences; Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct Ages 6 Continued language development, increasing attention span, trying adult skills, continued reliance on firsthand experience characterized by language skills like- the mastery of t: f, v, sh, zh, th,1, He should have concepts of 7; Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful; Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing relationships; Between objects and happenings. Age 7: Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r, voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George; Should handle opposite analogies easily: girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp short-long, sweet-sour, etc; Understands such terms as: alike, different, beginning, end, etc; Should be able to tell time to quarter hour; Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words Ages 8 Can relate rather involved accounts of events, many of which occurred at some time in the past; Complex and compound sentences should be used easily; Should be few lapses in grammatical constrictions-tense, pronouns, plurals; All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established; Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions; Social amenities should be present in his speech in appropriate situations; Control of rate, pitch, and volume are generally well and appropriately established; Can carry on conversation at rather adult level; Follows fairly complex directions with little repetition; Has well developed time and number concepts Age 9 Wide variation in reading ability, some completely absorbed, peer group acceptance, begins to see others' viewpoints, questioning death, empathy for others, flexible and reversible thought, appreciates imaginary adventure, enjoys slapstick humor, increasing ability for problem-solving and word play, proficient in sports and crafts and hobbies, interest in collecting, classifying and categorizing with new clarity, seeks specific information to answer questions. Ages 10 and 11 Growing understanding of social roles, peer acceptance very important, exclusion of others and prejudice, likes complex puzzles, seeing many dimensions to problems, understanding of chronology, developed sense of justice, searching for values, understands abstract relationships. Ages 12 and 13 till 18 Teens comprehend abstract language, such as idioms, figurative language and metaphors. Explanations may become more figurative and less literal. Literacy and its relationship to cognition, linguistic competency, reading, writing and listening are the primary focus in this age group. Teens should be able to process texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings and contexts, understand punctuation, and form complex syntactic structures. Speech training However speech training supports to speak the language clearly and expressively for all children irrespective of the concept of disorders. Speech training helps in building self confidence to make perfect presentation and helps in delivering the speech with style, and influence. Grammar Acquisition: Halliday (1975) hypothesized that children develop their language potential in three phases: Phase I (Proto-language) , Phase II (Transition) , Phase III (Developing the Adult Language). Halliday dubbed the child's language in Phase I a proto-language since he found no evidence of either grammatical structures or words like those in the adult language. In Phase II, the child simultaneously develops a level of form (vocabulary and grammatical structure) and engages in dialog. Phase III witnesses the expansion and grammatical encoding of language functions and the expansion of language uses through social interaction. The learning of grammar is also influenced, like vocabulary learning, by the quality and quantity of talk with the child (Farrar). There are many ways in which various aspects of grammar can be taught - games to teach singular/ plural, possession, pronouns and prepositions, are not difficult but we would argue that reading is the most powerful way to teach grammar (Buckley, S.J., Bird, G. and Byrne, A. ) once children have reached a two-word stage in comprehension. Vocabulary: From 19 to 24 months, children learn about 25 words per month. At 5 years of age, the average child's vocabulary is around 2,000 words. It is important to remember that vocabulary learning then continues throughout childhood and that it accelerates during school years. It has been estimated that children typically learn about 3,000 words each year between the ages of 7 and 16 years (Bates). It has been argued that children with a productive vocabulary of 300 words or less have very restricted grammatical abilities and that this vocabulary size is a 'critical mass' necessary for productive grammar to develop (Bates). Once a child has a comprehension vocabulary of about 40 to 50 words (which usually happens after 2 years) and can play picture lotto games, that is match, select and name pictures in speech or sign, reading should be introduced (Bird, G. and Buckley, S.J.) Methods that aid the language development: Drama Using dramatic activities as an instructional tool in the language arts classroom is based on the principle that drama directly involved the child, and an involved child would be interested in learning (Smith, 1972). According to McMaster (1998) drama can be an effective medium for literacy development in nine areas like students participation and students' responses in reading instruction, rich background experiences for future reading, symbolic representation, practice oral reading repeatedly to develop fluency, acquire the meanings visually, aurally, and kinesthetically, acquire the knowledge of word order, phrasing, and punctuation that contribute to the meaning of a written sentence, students read different forms of discourse, especially in familiarizing children with nonfiction. as an assessment tool since it provides immediate feedback about students' understanding of new reading materials.(McMaster). For adolescents, dramatic activities provide meaningful contexts and motivation to practice literacy use. Other forms of learning outcomes of Drama: In children drama training develops the vocabulary, projection, pronunciations skills of language, speaking way in public, interact with others, imagination and writing skills. Drama training has positive impact on socialization of children, the written skills of language especially classroom writing is improved through drama - SPEECH AND VOICE Projection and pronunciation, Speech and Emotions, Direct and Indirect Speech Modulation - IMPROVISATION Improvise with familiar characters Create imaginary situations Build improvisation (speaking spontaneously) Miming Miming is another skill training technique that can be easily trained through, - Instances from own real everyday events, situations that rise from observation, Imaginary characters in imaginary fantastic situations. Mime helps with student's confidence, awareness of gesture and body language, students will come up one at a time to front the front of the class, pick up a task (writing face down) and act it out. The rest of the class has to guess what the person is doing. Learning outcomes: Student shows awareness of movement and body language, Interpreting of mime will improve language skills Awareness of voice, movement and body language while speaking. Organize ideas effectively when preparing a speech. Sharpen and practice skills like precision, detail, imagination and consistency encourages co-operation, communication and team work Improvisation Improv is an excellent method of script-development. Through continual "re-improvisation" students will be able to create scripted work with solid characters and premises. Improv is a form of collaborative play-making. Improvisation of speech represents the highest level of participatory competence. Some writers call improvisation as 'spontaneous conversation'. The unscripted nature of improv implies no predetermined knowledge about the props that might be useful in a scene. Hence improv actors may be required to play a variety of roles without preparation, and also they must work together responsively to define the parameters and action of the scene, in a process of co-relation. Th act of endowement and blocking needs attention of each spoken word or action in the scene, an actor makes an offer by giving another character a name, identifying a relationship, location, or using mime to define the physical environment. Learning outcomes of the Improvisation Improvisation seems to be frightening to adults, but it is freeing to children as it doesn't place any rules. The teacher sets up boundaries in which the child can create his or her own rhythm, melody, or dance. Listening will be improved through agreement, acceptance, no saying no and Heightening will be developed while practicing on how to agree as improvisers while having a conflict in the scene. Enrolling the Character this will bring out the advantages associated with relationship which can be voiced out. Student uses, Improvise scenes from cartoons playing different characters. Improvise scenes involving characters learners are familiar with (e.g. at school, in their street, in their families, public figures, etc.) Use the above characters in different situations that the learners have never seen but could be easily imagined, (e.g. in everyday action/activity). Improvise with the same characters in imagined situations (e.g. living inside an apple, in space, etc.) Experiment different ways of handling a prop. Create a character using a prop. Use props to represent anything the learners can imagine them to be. Handle different props to reflect on the character handling them. Findings & Conclusion: By observing the above literature it can be concluded that speech training has an at all levels of language development in children. But there are certain types of speech training tools that are appropriate to particular levels. The storytelling, reading etc can enhance the vocabulary during the early child hood and preschoolers, where as Improvisation is a technique where adolescents have to recognize their sense of responsibility in the play, and builds the language. Drama is found out to be a very dramatic tool in improving the language development skills in all levels of children corresponding to the level of complexity. Mime is a technique that can enhance the skills in the children where character association will takes place. References: Bates, E., Bretherton, I. and Snyder, L. (1988). From first words to grammar: individual differences and dissociable mechanisms. New York: Cambridge University Press. McCune, L. (1992). 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