Family Is an Important Role in Language Development - Case Study Example

Impact of Family Structure in Language Development Introduction: Family structure plays an important role in the language development. The first school of the child is his home. A child starts the learning from his home. Family structure can make this development process very easy. We will discuss this issue in detail; first we will see the language and the theories of language development or learning. Language: Language is basically a speech. Its written form developed later on. It is universal among human beings who use it for carrying out various activities of life. It is such a common phenomenon that we always take it for granted. We never bother to think about it. We never try to into the depth of the meaning of this word. Definitions of language are not difficult to find. Almost all well-known linguists have tried to define language in their own way. A simpler definition may be: “Language is a system of arbitrary symbols which help the people of particular community to communicate and to interact.” It means every language operates within its own system. Every language has its own arbitrary symbols. The words “communication and interact” mean to understand and speak. Learning or Development: Learning is a very common phenomenon. Everybody, whoever he may be or wherever he may be, is learning something. Even animals are no exceptions to this observation. Learning or development is a continuous process. Throughout the life man goes on learning and development. One of the famous definitions of the learning given by Robert Burns is “A relatively permanent change in behavior with behavior including both observable activity and internal processes such as thinking attitudes and emotions.” Theories about Language Development or Learning: When a teacher teaches a second language to his students, he uses the prescribed text books, different methods and techniques. This act of language development or learning a new language is quite clear. But what about a child learning his mother tongue. Nobody consciously attempts to teach him. He himself does not consciously attempts to learn his mother tongue. Some psychologists have given theories about the language development and learning lets discuses these theories in detail. 1. Behaviorism: It says language development is a matter of behavior. According to Watson and Skinner the learning or development refers to a persistent change in behavior and it is a response to a given stimulus. So Development of a language must be explained with reference to change in behavior. 2. Mentalism: The behavioristic view of development of a language was strongly challenged by Noam Chomsky who is exponent of Mentalism. Mentalism refers to something which involves the mind and the process of thinking. According to Chomsky, language is not merely verbal behavior; it is a complex system of rules. The knowledge of these rules is our linguistic competence. A child is born with a mental capacity for working out the underlying rules of language. This means that the child’s language development is not being simply shaped by external forces: it is being creatively constructed by the child as he interacts with those around him. Kinds of Language Development: How we learn our own or second language is still not completely certain. More than fifty theories have been presented by the psychologists. But by our observation we do know that there are three different kinds of learning or development of a language. These are development of language by heart, forming habits, and acquiring rules. 1. Development by Heart: Many people still attempt to learn languages by learning set sentences, dialogues, and texts by heart. It is useful in learning things which are fixed and limited, and it is often found to be useful way of mastering certain fixed items in a language. Learning set sentences by heart may enable us to give a few fixed responses, but it is not likely to prepare us for this great variety of language that we need to understand and use in life. 2. Forming Habits: A language can be learnt by developing a set of habits which we learn by imitation and which gradually become automatic. Central to this view is the belief that children learn their first language by imitation their parents (family) and by the reinforcement on the part of the parents. Research has suggested that that children do not learn their first language only, or even mainly, by imitation; they frequently produce sentences which they could never have heart from adults and so must have developed independently. A simple example of this is children’s use of a plural nouns: when English speaking children first begin to use plurals, they often say phrases such as ‘two mans’, ‘three sheeps’. It is clear that they have not learnt to produce these by imitation; rather it appears that they have acquired a rule of the language, which at this stage they are applying to all plural nouns. 3. Acquiring Rules: This suggests a third view of language development process, which sees language as a system of rules. Learning a language is involves being expose to samples of language that we can understand. From this we can acquire the rules of the langue and apply them to make and unlimited number of original sentences. During a process of development of a language, it is possible that we may apply a rule wrongly. This will lead to errors. In this view, therefore, errors are natural part of the acquisition process and need to be completely avoided.1 Impact of Family Structure in Language Development We have studied deeply about language development and also the kinds and theories about it, now we will discuss impact of family structure in Language development. Children are shaped by the world around them. For children under 6 years of age, nothing has greater influence on their development than their family. Families filter children’s experiences with others and provide look after and care that strongly influences early child development. Families determine the quality of a young child’s world and shape the foundations for later development. Family structure refers to how well family members talk with each other, work together, and care for each other. While the greater part of children grows up in families that are well structured, there is a small percentage that do not. Children living in this type of family structure are about 40% more likely to display signs of complicated behavior such as aggression or difficult temperament than their counterparts living in families that are functioning well. Children who experience parental mistreatment or ignorance are more likely to show negative child outcomes that carry forward into mature life. These children are more likely to demonstrate troubles with emotional regulation, self-concept, social skills and academic motivation. These children may have troubles getting along with others, meeting challenges, regulating their emotions, attending to tasks, or learning new concepts or skills or new languages. Over time, studies have reported that children who experience abuse often show serious learning and adjustment problems, including academic failure, severe depression, aggressive behavior, peer difficulties, substance abuse, and criminal behavior. According to An American longitudinal study “mothers’ sensitivity to their infant’s signals (cries, smiles, coos and gazes) is a strong forecaster of positive outcomes including a child’s emotional health, ability to get along with others, increased vocabulary and ability to regulate awareness. Not only Style of parenting plays an important role in the language development, but also parents’ involvement in their children’s development for a new language. Research shows that the amount of time in which parents interact directly with their children is positively related to child outcomes and gives best results in the development process. However research did not show how much time should be given to a child. The amount of time that parents spend in reading with the children plays an important role in the development process of a child. And child learns reading from their parents when they see parents reading books. Studies also show an association between early and everyday reading and social growth. Daily reading seems to decrease the probability of behavior problems. Research has shown that the problems with mothers can be cause of childhood weakness. Young children living with their mothers who are unhappy are more likely to have behavior and learning problems. In this case the language development will be slow down. Infants of unhappy mothers are less thoughtful, more touchy, and fussy. Research has shown that children of five years of age were two times expected to have poor verbal skills if their mothers were unhappy.2 The education level of the mother also has a major impact on language development. Recent research has confirmed a strong association between mother’s education and levels of vocabulary development in children. If mother is more educated then of course she will speak language with high vocabulary, when child will hear this vocabulary then he will try to learn and speak. Below figure shows the relationship between mother’s educational level and children development. Figure 1 shows relationship between mothers education and children development Mothers with higher levels of education are more expected to talk with their children and use a broader variety of words. As Figure 1 demonstrates, in 2000–2001, children of mothers with college/university education were more expected to have average to advanced language skills. Studies have shown that the impact of single- and two-parent families on children’s developmental results, including measures of educational success and social emotional well-being. They have demonstrated that children growing up in single-parent families are more likely to repeat grades, to possess poorer language skills, and to be less healthy than children living in two-parent families. These children are also less likely to get along well with friends and parents than children living in two-parent families. Figure 2 problems with single and two family structures As figure above illustrates children in single-parent families are slightly more expected to show signs of awkward behavior such as emotional disorder/anxiety, hyperactivity/inattention and physical aggression/conduct disorder than children living in two-parent families. The sound effects of family structure on child growth are mitigated by such factors as family performance and parenting. In addition, the results for children from single-parent families differ with the division of other factors affecting the family such as the level of the mother’s education and family income.3 Numerous young children practice changes in family structure before they go into Grade 1 because of separation or divorce of their parents. In fact, approximately 30% of children now experience parental separation before the age of 6 compared to only 6% in the 1960s. Parental separation and divorce often effects in lower family income and changes in a child’s residence—both of which are related with negative impacts on child outcomes. Children seem to be most at risk for experiencing difficulties in the period immediately following their parents’ separation. The overall conclusion from research studies is that positive parenting practices and continued contact with both parents seem to mitigate the negative developmental consequences of separation and divorce for young children.4 Conclusion: From above discussion we can conclude that for the development of a language in the children family structure plays an important role. We have deeply studied the problems with different family structures. So impacts of family structures are very high in language development peocess. References: Read More