Child–Adult Differences in Second-Language Phonological Learning: the Role of Cross-Language Similarity

The United States is becoming more and more bilingual every day. It is important for students of the United States of America to keep up with the advancing world. The easiest way to learn a second language is when a person is young. This is why it would be beneficial for schools to start teaching a foreign language in kindergarten and continuing it through twelfth grade. Students are more likely to learn and remember a foreign language if they are introduced to it at a young age. A majority of other countries teach foreign languages to their students throughout their school lives. Most students coming out of high school in other countries are totally

This paper will be revisiting the article PreK-3rd; Challenging common myths about young English language learners written by Linda Espinosa. In this article Espinosa provides us with some common myths that people believe about dual language programs and the effects that it has on children. Therefore, in my previous reflection paper two myths were chosen which were myths one and six. Thus the two myths are “myth 1: Learning Two Languages During the Early Childhood Years Will Overwhelm, Confuse, and/ or Delay Acquisition of English (Espinosa pg. 5).” The second myth is “myth 6: Native English Speakers May Experience Academic and Language Delays in Dual Language Programs (Espinosa pg. 15).” In the previous reflection paper, I discussed the two myths based off of my prior knowledge. Thus since the course is coming to an end, I will be stating if my opinion has changed or remained the same towards these two myths. Therefore, this paper will be providing more evidences that was been provided for us throughout the quarter.

I have taken four whole years of Spanish and the only thing I know how to say is, “¿Hola, cómo estás?” Research shows that the best time for a person to learn a second language is during the early years of childhood, before the child hits puberty. If this is the case then why do most schools start teaching a foreign language in middle school, after most kids have hit puberty. Some believe that there is not enough money and time to start teaching foreign language during early childhood, but others say this isn’t the case. In order for a person to become fluent in a second language and help us succeed as a nation the person should start learning a second language in elementary school.

The communication with your child starts way before the youngster can speak. From their cry, smile, and the responses they give you to help you understand his or her needs. Language developments have different stages that children pass through to assist them in the development of speech and languages. There are a plethora of factors which can inhabitants’ a child language development. However, these are amongst the top causes for language development such as a child’s inborn ability to learn language and the language the child hears.

As this research was based on the Cross- Sectional design, only the information relevant to the age group the child belongs has been stated. The history of each subject’s language development from birth has not been discussed. The names of the participants have been changed to maintain their anonymity. All other details are accurate and factual.

The first myth of the monolingual brain means that infant’s brains are monolingual and treat two different languages as the same language. This, however, is untrue; infants can learn two languages at the same time and will not get confused between the two. Evidence for the myth of the monolingual brain comes from developmental milestones, differentiated use of two languages, and grammatical constraints on bilingual code mixing. In regards to developmental milestones, bilingualism versus monolingualism has no known consequences for phonological

When talking about the language development of children it consists of four domains, which are the phonological development grammatical development, lexical development and pragmatic development. Phonological development focuses on the development of speech sounds which deals with the pronunciation of the words. At my field site, which is located at Brooklyn College, I noticed two students’ phonological development. I was observing the ones class. One of the students, Nathanial was given the object ball and the teacher kept repeating herself and said, “Ball, this is a ball. Ball.” N tries to repeat after her and trying to tell he me, he lends against me and said, “ba”. Nathanial could only pronounce the beginning of the word. Then

The language acquisition in childhood development is interesting because this is how we as humans learn to communicate with each other. While doing research to see how it is we are able to communicate with each other. Children are able to learn languages very quickly especially since young kids learn languages right away. Kids learn the differences between concepts and objects because that is what their language allows them to use their concepts and how much they will utilize their

The second belief stated was that exposure to a second language in early years may confuse a child and affect their language development.

The critical period of child language acquisition remains of most interest, as this is where the brain is most malleable and receptive to change – however, later language development will also be addressed. Interpretations of findings and results in this essay stem from a nativist

There are several theories regarding language development. Work by Chomsky, Piaget and Kuhl are critical. Studies by Chomsky, as examined by Albery, Chandler, Field, Jones, Messer, Moore and Sterling (2009); Deloache, Eisenberg & Siegler (2003) argued for the innateness of language acquisition due to its complexity. Development is assisted by a language acquisition device (LAD) and universal grammar both of which holding the propensity for commonalities throughout all languages. LAD is the key to the Syntax rule. The knowledge to master the rules is held unconsciously. Chomsky concludes exposure through auditory channels as being the only requirement for learning. Arguably Kuhl (2010) writes infantile exposure to language through auditory channels only, does not contribute effectively to learning indicating the importance of human interaction. Piaget, as discussed by Ault (1977) postulated language as not being part of the earliest stages of development. Signifying within sensorimotor stage, between birth and two years, the child’s development is too reflexive. Gleitman, Fridlund and Reisberg (2004) discuss the critical period hypothesis and suggest the young brain being more suited to acquisition than the adult brain. Lenneberg (1967) (as cited in Gleitman et al 2004) advocates, brain maturation closes language acquisition capacity window. Kuhl (2010) identified, within the critical period babies develop

Children learn their phonological system of native language even since as young infant. They first year of an infant’s life which is before they can utter their first word are known as prelinguistic stage. Children do not utter their first word until they are about one

The first area of difference between first (L1) and second (L2) language learning is input – specifically the quality and quantity of input. It is the idea of the "connectionist model that implies... (that the) language learning process depends on the input frequency and regularity" (5).. It is here where one finds the greatest difference between L1 and L2 acquisition. The quantity of exposure to a target language a child gets is immense compared to the amount an adult receives. A child hears the language all day everyday, whereas an adult learner may only hear the target language in the classroom – which could be as little as three hours a week. Even if one looks at an adult in a total submersion situation the quantity is still less because the amount of one on one interaction that a child gets for example with a parent or other caregiver is still much greater then the adult is receiving.

Children acquire language since they were born. They communicate with their parents. Furthermore, children and parents interact with each other using a language that we often call the first language or mother tongue. At an early age, children are only learning one language that is the mother tongue. By age and speech development, children improve to acquire a second language from the school or the environment around them. In terms of speed of langgauge acquisition, children are factorized by both the child and the child’s learning environment. Therefore, it is important to understand how children acquire second language. This paper is provided

There are various theories and hypotheses concerning second language learning which explain how learners obtain the language in many aspects. Even though not one of them is accepted by researchers broadly, they are illuminating the progression of the second language learning. Most of them are related to branches including linguistics, neuroscience, education, sociolinguistics, and psychology. And all of them have their differences and similarities. In this essay those similarities and differences will be covered.