Basic Language Skills and Language Acquisition and Development

Language development: Letter recognition- The children will identify upper case letters by corresponding the letters to familiar objects.

Isn’t it amazing that a baby starts to learn language before birth? Newborns are actively developing language skills, yet they cannot talk fluently at the very beginning. Adults are unintentionally communicating with babies in a different way than they talk to other adults. People tend to talk to babies using simple and repetitive words, and exaggerated tones. This term is being called as child-directed speech. We can always see an adult talks to baby in this way. For instance, parents tell the kid “you are great” in a lighter voice, use simple words, increased tone. Moreover, all babies do babbling, even babies with listening problems. Babbling is when a baby says repetitive syllabus, and most likely, no one could understand except the baby herself. Bubbling is a must-have experience for all infants to stimulate language skills, so that they can develop normally.

He is both tired from jet lag, and he is irritated by the long waiting lines.

Yesterday, I went to the mall and I have observed few babies in the children center, and I saw the babies mostly talked out the right side more than the left side. Before I went to the mall, I predicted babies will move the mouth of right side more than the left side because I think it like handedness that most people is right handed because the right side always make people feel comfortable when do something. However, that is just my opinion because in the textbook third paragraph on page 138, it says, "The infant's brain has a generalized set of tools that it employs across all of the subdomains of cognitive development. These tools allow infants to extract general principles from all kinds of specific experiences, including language" this is means when babies talking, the left or right mouth side move is depend on the brain function. In addition, I also researched more information about talking babies, and I found when the emotion and language are connected to the brain function.

At 18 months, the virtual child had over 50 words at her command that she was able to use to make two-word sentences such as “Mama up” and “Doggie outside.” In their effort to further encourage the child’s development of her language skills, the parents applied B.F. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory (Berk, 2012). They would respond, using slightly longer sentences such as “Yes, the doggie is outside” before introducing descriptive and useful new words. The parents would encourage imitation and respond with positive reinforcement, which would further enthuse the child to develop her language skills (Berk, 2012). When the child was 2 years old, the parents would converse with the child at any given opportunity and would read books of her choice which further influenced her language development. Research has found that when mothers are more responsive during the first few years of a child’s life enable their children to achieve language development milestones at an earlier stage than children whose mothers were less responsive (Leigh, Nathans & Nievar, 2011). The mother had a more influential role in the virtual child’s language development as she would allow the child to explore the surrounding environment through daily walks and teach the child new words as they did. It was due to parental involvement and an encouraging, safe environment, the virtual child developed her language skills not only due to influence but to a desire to learn new

The acquisition of language forms a fundamental basis for a child’s development, it is an essential social skill which children need for communicating, building relationships with others, and learning (Brock and Rankin, 2008). As a general rule acquisition of language follows a systematic sequence (Boyd and Bee, 2009), however some children experience atypical language development and are developmentally delayed with certain characteristics of language (Hawa and Spanoudis, 2013). In the case of Marcus, a contributing factor towards his speech delay may have been psychosocial deprivation and a lack of interaction and infant directed speech from his Mother (Hill and Saffran, 2005). It appears there are many theories relating to the discourse about how children acquire and develop language, and there have been many notable contributions and concepts offered across the decades; however no one theory is able to offer irrefutable evidence as to how language is acquired (Otto, 2006). Historically there is some dissension amongst psychologists about the origins of language acquisition, and whether this is due to nature or nurture (Hulit and Howard, 2002); however neuroscience research supports the idea that children possess a biological predisposition to detect and process language signals (Slater, 1998). Piagetian theory offers an outline of child development in terms of language acquisition and cognitive processing (Heo et al., 2011); however Piaget’s theories neglect

Language is crucial in an elementary classroom. Language is used in every aspect of the teaching realm whether it is speaking, reading, or writing. There is some sort of communication present at all times. Immediately upon thinking of language within an elementary classroom the first thought is generally the subject of language arts. Within this domain students learn how to read, write, and speak. In reality, there is not a single subject in elementary school in which a student is not using language in some way. Because of this we, as teachers, need to be precise and predetermine what it is we teach and how we teach it. Many instructors lean towards

In the flourishing days of communication era, an important need for human beings ,as key elements of each community, has been raised.The need to communicate with others has got such a priority that satisfying it would prepare the ground for satisfying other necessities ,such as working to make a living.The need to communicate has itself some requirements.In addition to having enough knowledge, the way to communicate still plays a crucial role.Listening, speaking, reading ,and writing as four basic skills of language, each plays a significant role in order to meet this need.Among these four elements,speaking has got a kind of conspicuous value by nature.

Language acquisition is the way in which humans perceive and understand a certain language, as well as producing and using words and sentences in order to communicate with one another. The way in which people learn another language is known as Second Language Acquisition, this refers to someone learning a language other than their mother tongue. A very important aspect within this process is cross-linguistic influence. Cross-linguistic influence is a term used to describe the various ways that certain language systems in the brain interact with and influence one and other. It explains how they can affect either the linguistic performance or the linguistic development of the learner, if not both. This most commonly refers to two separate languages, for example the effect that French has on a native speaker trying to learn another language such as Italian.

Language is the system by which people express their perceptions of the world using symbols, gestures and sounds that are shared and understood in their specific groups or locations. The way people communicate those ideas is totally influenced by the culture. The concept of culture encompasses all the characteristics that define a specific group in terms of values, traditions, beliefs, history, etc. expressed through language. Culture and language are, therefore, two concepts whose interconnection cannot be denied or neglected, even more when one is learning a new language. Over the years, researchers have concluded that foreign languages are learned considering the grammar structures and/or the linguistic skills that students have to develop to be effective when communicating. However, Widdowson (1978) argued that “Someone knowing a language knows more than how to understand, speak, read and write sentences. He also knows how sentences are used to communicative effect” (p.1). In this sense, the development of cultural understanding in language learning also remains to be essential for the acquisition of it.

First and second language acquisition have been a topic of interest in linguistics for decades. Researchers have been approaching these topics from many points of view, angles, and models (Gass, 2013). Regarding second language acquisition, and especially English as a second language, the most researched topics include the effects of the Critical Period on second language learners, age of acquisition, age of onset, and individual differences (i.e. L1, motivation, aptitude) (Gass, 2013). Even though it is possible to find a wide variety of research on L2 acquisition, researchers are still debating on which elements affect learners more. Furthermore, while there is plenty of research on gender differences in the field of first language acquisition, there seems to be a lack of studies on said topic in regards to learning a second language. For said reason this research paper will focus on gender and first language influences on English as a second language acquisition, with the goal to comprehend whether one, both or neither of those factors contributes or hinders L2 acquisition and why. Furthermore, the current research paper is a follow up of Chiamenti (2016).

In the affective filter hypothesis, Krashen (1985) suggests that not only understanding the information being put forth is important, but places significance on the environment in which the information is being received. Krashen saw the student emotional state as an “adjustable filter that freely passes, impedes, or blocks input necessary for acquisition (1985, pg 130). The affective filter controls the amount of input that is received by the learner; the lower the affective filter, the more input and therefore meaningful learning can take place (Liu, 2015).

The development and acquisition of language skills in a child’s early years is critical to his/her development (Otto & Otto, 2013). During a child’s first five years of life the brain goes through a sensitive period in regards to language development, making many synapses and connections that leads to communication (Otto & Otto, 2013). There are many factors that contribute to the development of language such as innate neurobiological factors and cognitive capabilities (Sylvestre, Bussieres, & Bouchard, 2015). However, in order to put these capabilities into motion, they must be combined with social interactions (Sylvestre, Bussieres, & Bouchard, 2015). Children become a part of a social environment from the moment they are born. Each social interaction a child experiences plays a crucial role in developing and shaping his/her language skills (Sylvestre, Bussieres, & Bouchard, 2015). The deprivation of these social interactions at a young age, which can be seen in children who have been abused and/or neglected can lead to severe language delays across multiple areas of development.

more used to the words, like mom, milk, dad, no, that are recited to them frequently. At this stage,

The acquisition of language and speech development takes place over a period from birth to around three years of age and in early childhood from the ages of four to six. The development is quick and passes through similar stages in all children not depending on the language that you acquire. The process of language development is therefore universal, namely the development of sounds to words and grammar of the language (Bates and Goodman, 2001).