Everybody
uses language to communicate. It might be to communicate a thought; to give
directives or command or to make a request or complaint. Language is so
important in our lives; it differentiates humans from non-humans.
Human
beings are said to be social animals primarily because they are able to
communicate in diverse ways. We trace how language develops from childhood to
adolescence. We discuss the major factors that influence language development.
We also examine the educational importance of language.
Meaning of Language
Language
is a form of communication. It
is a systematic, meaningful arrangement
of symbols which provides the basis for communication.
Language
may be spoken, written, or signed.
All
human languages are generative. This means that there is no end to the ways in
which new meaningful or novel sentences can be generated using a finite number
of words and rules. It is for this reason that human languages are said to be
very creative.
Language
serves a number of purposes. It enables the child to express their thoughts and
understanding of the world. It enables the child reflect on people, objects,
and events. That is, language is involved in thinking, memory, reasoning,
planning, and problem solving. Through language, a child can convey their
thought to others.
Language
has three main characteristics. These are phonology, morphemes and semantics.
Phonology: refers to basic sounds of the language. The
basic sounds are called phonemes.
The phonemes of a language are combined to produce words and sentences.
Morphemes: refer to the smallest
language units that have meaning. Words are examples.
Semantics: refer to the rules that
govern the meaning of words and sentences. The arrangement of words in a
meaningful sentence follows a certain order.
Children
must master these language characteristics as they achieve linguistic
competence. We note, however, that children do not necessarily master these
characteristics of the language in the sense that they have the knowledge as a cognitive object. They do not know
that they know these characteristics. They master these characteristics only as
a cognitive vehicle; an
instrument for manipulating language for effective communication.
There
are two aspects to language development. They are linguistic comprehension, and linguistic production. Linguistic comprehension refers to the process of understanding speech. The process of using language to communicate is
known as linguistic production.
Comprehension
of speech appears before speech production. Children begin to understand
instructions and directions long before they utter their own words. During
infancy, comprehension proceeds more rapidly than speech production.
Trends in Language Development
Language
development follows, more or less, a predictable trend or sequence of
increasingly more complex levels of comprehension and production of speech.
Thus, the following stages of language development are identifiable:
(1) The Pre-linguistic Stage
The
earliest sounds infants produce are non-speech utterances like whimpers, cries,
grunts, burps, gestures, imitations. Children use them to communicate
discomfort, satiation, or positive emotions. They are termed pre-linguistic communication. Thus,
children communicate linguistically through crying, cooing, gurgling and
babbling long before they say their first word.
Babbling
is a speech-like but meaningless sound. It involves repetition of vowel sounds,
example ee-ee, aa-aa, oo-oo. These sounds may appear meaningless. However, they
are the most obvious manifestation of pre-linguistic communication. They play
an important role in linguistic development.
(2) The One-word Stage
The
child’s first words are generally spoken between 12 months and 18 months. A
child is said to utter their first word when they give a clear, consistent name
to a person, event, or object. For example, mama is to first word if the child uses it consistently to label
the same person in a variety of circumstances.
One-word
utterances are called halophrases.
They are one-word but they express complex intentions and meanings. Usually,
the one-word is a label for a person, an object, or acts. For the child, the
one-word stands for naming the person, or object; for describing an action; to
serve as an imperative, or a request; or even to express an emotional state.
The actual meaning of a child’s one-word depends on the context of use. For
example, the word mama may mean
any of these:
Mama
is back; Mama is going out; Mama beat Johnny; Mama See, Johnny is crying. The
word ball may also mean any of
these: See, I have a new ball; My ball has rolled into the mind; Johnny has
taken my ball; Let us play ball.
The
one-word stage ends around 18 months of age. Once children begin to produce
words, vocabulary expands methodically. The one-word stage is followed by a
sudden spurt in vocabulary expansion.
(3) The Two-word Stage
The
build up of vocabulary towards the end of the one-word stage brings about
linking or combining of words. Children usually form their first sentences by
linking two words. The two-word sentence conveys a single thought. Two-word
utterances are referred to as telegraphic
speech. They are telegraphic
because they are coded like telegrams.
They
contain only keywords – no articles, and no prepositions. However, they convey
a meaningful thought. Examples are: Mama come; Mama eat; Mama water; See Dadi.
We
note that two-word utterances follow the rules that govern grammatical
construction. The subject, verb, and predicate in the two word phrase follow
the correct order of arrangement in complete sentences.
(4) Complete Sentence Stage
By
the time most children reach 48 months, they have acquired the rules of
grammar. They are able to make complete and correct sentences.
They
generate their own sentences; and not merely repeat or imitate other persons’
sentence. Language development reaches its peak at adolescence. Adolescents are
able to manipulate language for all kinds of abstract thinking, inferences and
judgements.
It
is important to note that children vary enormously in their rate of language
development. Therefore, chronological age may not be a good index of a child’s
linguistic level. Psychologists use Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) in a
morpheme that is the average length of morphemes in utterances, to assess the
index of language level of children.
Ordinarily, an infant should exhibit some of these abilities as an indication
that language development is progressing normally:
·
Understanding of at least some things the child hears. This indicates that the
child has some receptive language, and that the child can hear.
·
Production of some sounds around six or seven months of age. Children who are
deaf cease production of pre-linguistic speech around this age.
·
Using gestures such as: pointing, and babbling. These are forerunners of
language.
Factors that Influence Language Development
Language
development does not just occur. It is influenced by some factors. We discuss
here some of the major factors that influence language development:
Maturation
Somebody’s
structures and organs facilitate speech production. The vocal cords, the lips,
and the brain centre that controls speech must be sufficiently maturationally
ready before the child can engage in speech production. The rate of maturation
of these organs and tissues are genetically wired. When there is delay in the
development of these organs and structures, speech production might be
retarded. In this sense, maturation delimits language development.
Also,
Chomsky (1978) argues that there is a genetically determined, innate mechanism
that directs the development of language. According to Chomsky, the human infant
is born with an innate capacity to use language. The human brain is wired with
a neural system called the language-acquisition
device (LAD). This device permits the child to automatically understand
the language structure, and provides them with a set of strategies and
techniques for learning language. The language acquisition device unfolds with
increasing maturation. This explains why children at specific ages show amazing
facility to understand and learn different languages without formal instruction.
Language Background or Language Model
Early
exposure to language, in terms of quantity variety, and structure or language
code plays a significant role in language development in the child. Different
families use different language codes. The two major language codes are: the elaborated,
and the restricted. The
elaborated language code is more mature and advanced, involving explanations
for actions, directives, instructions, prohibitions, and rules. It is a
conversational speech in which children are spoken to and with. The elaborated
code is richer and encourages more robust language development.
On
the other hand, the restricted language code resembles military language. It
involves top-down speech. In such a language background, children listen to instructions
and carry them out. Language development is thereby hampered. In a nutshell,
the available language model influences language development.
Family
Income
According
to Hart and Risley (1995), the rate at which language was addressed to children
varied significantly accordingly to the economic level of the family. Their
findings indicated that the greater the affluence
of parents, the more they spoke to and with their children.
There
was also significant difference in the language code used by the affluent and
impoverished families. While children from the affluent families were engaged
in conversations with their parents, children from impoverished families heard
more of prohibitions – do’s and don’ts or imperatives. The quality time spent with children also
varied. Children of the affluent parents had more quality time with their
parents. In essence, the family psychodynamics favoured language development of
children from the affluent families but hampered it among children from
impoverished families.
Bilingualism
Bilingualism is the use of more than one
language. Most Nigerian children are exposed to more than one language. The
language that is spoken in most homes is vernacular, the language of the
immediate community, or the ethnic language. The language spoken in the school
is English – the medium of instruction. This can pose a great challenge both to
the teachers and the children themselves.
Bilingualism
poses a challenge to the teacher and the children in situations where most of
the children are not fluent in the language of instruction. If the children
have not yet mastered the structure of the language of instruction,
communication is hampered. For example, the child who speaks English haltingly
is forced to think in vernacular,
and then to transliterate and
communicate in English. The result is slow progress in the mastery of the
language.
However,
if children are allowed to gain mastery of the first language before they are
exposed to the second, they gain from the experience.
There
is increasing evidence that there are some cognitive advantages for bilingual
children. According to Romaine (1994), children who speak two language show
greater cognitive flexibility than
their one language peers. They have a wider range of linguistic possibilities to chose from as they assess
any situation. For this reason, they are able to solve problems with greater
creativity and versatility than their one language peers. Also, according to
Genesse (1994), bilingual children often have greater meta-linguistic awareness. They, therefore, understand the rules
of language more explicitly.
Thus,
whether bilingualism facilitates or hampers language development will depend on
the timing of the exposure. Children who are exposed to a second language after
mastery of the first are likely to have their language development facilitated.
However, haphazard exposure of children to different languages will most likely
slow down language development.
School
Experience
The
school language environment will also play a significant role in language
development. A school with adequate library resources for language teaching,
and a school with good language model will foster language development.
Conversely, a school with impoverished language environment will not encourage
fast rate of language development. In a second language situation, teachers are
strong models for language development. If teachers are inefficient in their
use of language, there will be a ripple effect on the children’s language
development.
Educational Implications
The
educational implications for language development are as follows:
·
Language is the means by which the child expresses complex information about
their thought and understanding of the world. A child with good language facility is able to
communicate more effectively than the child with poor language facility.
Effective communication results in more fruitful social intercourse.
Fruitful
interpersonal experience helps in confidence-building.
Self-confidence is related to self-esteem. Self-esteem is related to
self-efficacy beliefs. Indeed, adequate language facility should help the child
develop appropriate sense of values,
and a healthy attitude towards people and life.
These are important cognitive
variables that are related to school
adjustment and academic
achievement.
·
Language is involved in thinking, memory reasoning, planning, and
problem-solving. Therefore, adequate facility in language usage will also
engender faster development of these cognitive abilities. These cognitive
abilities are positively related to school achievement.
·
Since children understand language before they speak the language, teachers are
reminded that concrete experiences enhance children’s interaction with their
environment. Adequate experiences provided early in the child’s life stimulate
schema elaboration. The child’s understanding of things and events in their
immediate environment will facilitate language development.
·
The language model in the child’s immediate environment influences language
development. The school authorities are advised to provide rich language
environment to foster language development of school children.
·
It is important that early childhood education providers implement the National
Policy on Education provision that the language of instruction should be the
vernacular, and that the second language should be taught as a subject. This
will ensure that children master the first language before being exposed to the
second language. In this way, children will reap the benefit of bilingualism.
Language
capacity distinguishes human beings from all other animals. When the child
utters their first word, a new world opens. With language, the child is able to
communicate thought, request, command, intentions, emotions, and all manner of
complicated processes involved in social intercourse.
Human
beings acquire language by reason of living in a language environment and
community. The language model in their environment significantly influences the
child’s own language. Your duty, as a caregiver, is to provide a rich language
environment to enable the children under your care to gain effective use of
language to communicate efficiently.
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