Language is one of the essential skills we all require to live in our society, it enables us to communicate, obtain and transfer information and provide personal expression. All children begin a journey from an early age in learning and developing these skills. This essay will describe the four main components of language development being phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic. Within each component a discussion will be conducted on what roles nature and nurture have on these, this will be done through discussion of different theoretical perspectives of language acquisition. This essay will explain what roles do nature and nurture play in children’s language development.
Phonological language development is the beginning of how language is formed, its consists of making sounds and recognising the differences in these. Common first words spoken by children are “mama” or “dada”. Maturation of a child’s vocal tract and their ability to problem solve are largely responsible for phonological errors (Berk, 2013, p.375). As adults tend to simplify speech to aid in child comprehension, this explains when children begin to talk they use more simplified words. Once children progress into their preschool years their pronunciation continues to improve. Berk (2013, p. 375) mentions that children’s “rate of phonological progress depends on the complexity of a language 's sound system and the importance of certain sounds for conveying meaning”. Maturationalists state that
There are 4 theoretical perspectives. The different theoretical perspectives vary in their focus on the role of nature and nurture as well as the emphasis on one or more of the five aspects of language knowledge. Throughout this chapter, the focus will be on recognizing how nature and nurture interact and can be related. It provides a framework for understanding the complex ways children develop language as they interact with people and objects in their environment, school and home
“Oral language is a skill that is acquired naturally by the young. The importance of its development in early childhood cannot be overemphasised. It underpins the whole scope of learning and is employed to question, to seek information and to proffer ideas. A child who has a well – grounded ability in oral language will usually be nicely poised to cope with reading and writing. Anyone who lacks this will be at a disadvantage.” (J.Fellowes & G.Oakley, 2010, pp4) It is a vital component of every human beings life as it is a means of communication and interaction with their family, friends and
Nature and nurture both play various roles in children’s language development. Nature is a child’s inherited genetics and characteristics. Nurture is the persuasive influence a child develops from their environmental surroundings. The two have created many debates on whether one has more influence on a child’s language development than the other. In this essay I will discuss, the roles nature and nurture play in children’s language development, how they structure communication and the theoretical debate of their impact.
Nature and nurture both play a significant role in language development. Language development refers to how children understand, organise, speak and use words in order to communicate at an effective, age-appropriate level (Karen Kearns, 2013, P.105). For centuries, theorists have been debating the roles of nature versus nurture. Although, each child’s language will develop at their own pace and there will be many individual differences based on culture, ethnicity, health and ability. As well as physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in which will contribute to a child’s language development.
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.
Three practices that support the language development of all children is that of “communicating and Sharing” (Lally, 2006, p.32) in which a caregiver is observant of the infant and follows the infant's cues in that “Babies show us from the beginning that soothing words and lullabies can calm them.” (Lally, 2006, p.32) thus forming a bond of communicating what the infant's emotions are and sharing them in their reaction to a caregiver.
In literacy, there are about three key areas as far as language is concerned. These include reading, writing, speaking, and listening. All of these areas are instrumental in developing children in relation to literacy. Literacy aims to develop the abilities of children in areas such as speaking, reading, writing, and listening for different purposes. This is instrumental in helping children to demonstrate themselves imaginatively and creatively. Primary Framework aims at increasing and supporting the ability of children to access the excellent teaching hence helping Children progress in education.Listening and Speaking: These aim at developing, anticipating the sensitive listeners. Another aim is to develop the thoughtful, sensitive, and critical listeners.
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.
The debate between many researchers is the argument of whether nature or nurture play a more important role in development. In this essay I will be looking into both aspects of nature and nurture focusing specifically on their influence towards language development in children. A main controversial question I will be looking into is the question of whether are we born already equipped with mechanisms which help us to learn language, or is language learned throughout a child’s environment by, for example, imitation and repetition? Studies done by some opposing researchers claim to show that nature and nurture promote language development
Language is a communicative system of words and symbols unique to humans. The origins of language are still a mystery as fossil remains cannot speak. However, the rudiments of language can be inferred through studying linguistic development in children and the cognitive and communicative abilities of primates as discussed by Bridgeman (2003). This essay illustrates the skills infants have that will eventually help them to acquire language. The topics covered are firstly, the biological aspects, the contribution of the human brain to language development? Secondly, key theories of language development will be considered. Is the development innate? Is there a critical period? Thirdly, what must be learned? What are the rudiments infants must
In the other hand, behaviorists view language as complex and leaned skill, much like playing piano and dancing. B.F. Skinner argued that language represents nothing more than chains of responses acquired through reinforcement. Putting differently, children learn though process of reinforcement. For example, baby babbles “mama” the mother happily reward the baby with a hug and kisses and eventually will push the baby to say “mama” more and more; due to these reward children are motivated to repeat the behavior, thereby shaping their language and ensuring their development. Children’s language is being built up, this describe a way in which children environmental experiences influence and improve their language skills. Also that’s why parents
From a baby 's first word to their first complete sentence, there 's a lot to debate with their language development. The average child has a vocabulary of up to six-thousand words by the time they turn five years old (Brighthubcom, 2016). Language development is one of the most critical roles for an educator in both early childhood and primary settings. It is this ability of language development that is particularly interesting in the nature vs nurture debate. In order for educators to provide effective communication, it is important that they have the knowledge and understanding of the four key concepts of language, such as phonological, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic development and the underlying theoretical perspectives that explain the processes of language acquisition and development.
Linguistics has impacted cognitive psychology as the quest to understand language acquisition and the structure of language itself is undertaken. Linguistics is a complex and multifaceted; it includes language structural patterns and language development (Barsalou, 2005). The process of language development is complicated and dense, as the study of language is examined; the role of cognition is inherently examined and analyzed. Sternberg (2006) also explores language as an innate process and presents the idea that humans are born ready for language as a biological and cognitive process.
According to Zukowski (2013), language development refers to the process of learning in early life where infants acquire various forms, meaning and word usage. In addition, language refers to the different utterances in regards to linguistic input. Language development in childhood focuses on major arguments in
This portion of the Play Project was done back at Wendell Johnson. We met with Jihan and the teacher aides to discuss what we thought was working well in their classroom, and our suggestions to further facilitate language development. Since the last reflection, our goal was to come up with strategies the teachers could use to continue to promote language development for their children. Me and my other group members tried to attain this goal by providing handouts and examples of strategies that we thought would be helpful for the teachers. We used the acronym FIGS (Fill in the blank, Interactive Play, Gestures, and Speak) to help them remember the strategy. They seemed to respond well to this and thought it was a good way to remember the strategies.