Mary Klaire Reena M.

Calma
MAED ECE
______________________________________________________________________
ECE 504
Activity B
1. I agree with what Christie et. al, or Machado, or Masland suggest about how language ability
develops because universally, these are milestones and the timetable for mastering the skills in
language. Although, language development may vary greatly among children. Some children are
considered as late-bloomers and some may gain control over language earlier than others, this is
because of the biological and environmental factors. One example of this is when the child reaches
the age of two to five, the child can form multi-word sentences. As they age they continue to learn
new words every day, and their vocabulary can reach up to 10,000 words or more. However, if the
child reaches this stage and did not show any of this behavior there might be some learning
difficulties or impairment.

2. Language Development at an Early Age: Learning Mechanisms and Outcomes from Birth to Five
Years
By: Erika Hoff, PhD
Reference:
http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/sites/default/files/dossiers-complets/en/language-developmentand-literacy.pdf
The research by Erika Hoff and the suggestions of Christie et.al, Machado and Masland are
very similar, because they both suggest that language development have different milestones in
specific developmental stage and age. The only difference is that the research by Erika Hoff
describes language development into three domains which are the phonological development (the
sound system), lexical development (the words) and the morpho-syntactic (grammar). These
domains describes that from birth infants learn language and communication skills and are able to
react to different sound through babbling and cooing, when they reach the age of 5 months to 21
months, the infants can produce words and can reach at least 50-100 word milestones in
vocabulary. When the child reaches the age of 24 months or 2 years old, he/she can put two, three
or four words together into short sentences, and when the child reaches the age of two to four
years old, he/she can be able to produce long and grammatically complete sentences.

3. Yes, because according to research, the first language (L1) generally needs to be reinforced and
developed for 12 years in order for successful second language (L2) learning and academic
success to take place. The use of mother tongue or the native languages in early childhood
education can boost the learners confidence and academic performance. The drawback of using
the childs mother tongue is the adjustment of the school, teachers and law-makers in creating an
effective curriculum in learning the first language and the second language.
According to the research of Lalaine F. Yanilla Aquino of University of the Philippines entitled
The Effects of Bilingual Literacy to Young Learners, the implications of this are; The results
suggest that the kind of language used in beginning literacy instruction does have an effect on the
preschoolers literacy skills and that instruction is more effective in a language that the children are
more familiar with. Beginning literacy instruction (preschool to the early grades), therefore, is better

done in the childrens L1. Once the children have learned literacy skills in this language, the results
of this study suggest that it is easier for them to transfer such learning to their L2 if and when they
are taught in this language and; The results likewise suggest that for English Language Teaching
(ELT) to be effective, policy makers and educators have to invest in mother tongue-based
instruction.