How children learn language

A. The development of speech production 1. Vocalization When babies a few months old do not speak, they do make sounds through their mouths, such as: cry, coo like pigeons, gurgle, babbling, etc. 2. The one word utterance Children utter their first word around the age of 10 months. A single word, even the same one, can be used for many different purposes, such as; to name an object (mama for mother, nana for banana), to request something (mama for I want my mother and nana for I want a banana), to emphasize actions (hi with the wave of the hand, and bye-bye with a different wave of hand), to express complex situations (peach+daddy+spoon in a situation where her father had put a piece of peach onto a spoon). 3. Two and three-word utterance Children start to produce two and three-word utterance at the age of 18 months or so. They use language to refuse (no sleep), warn (my cup for this cup is mine), brag (big boy for I am a big boy), request (give candy), inform (red car) and request (want cookie). 4. Function words and inflections Function words like prepositions, the articles and auxiliaries are then acquired, as are the inflections like the plural and tense markings. 5. Developing complex sentences Children start t make negatives, questions, relative clauses and other complex structures. For example: Period 1 No singing song; Period 2 You cant dance; Period 3 Donna wont let go

B. Speech understanding and its importance In order for a child to learn the meaning of the sound form of a word, the child must first hear that word spoken by others, for example: dog. At the same time that word is spoken, some relevant environmental experience must occur (a dog or a picture of a dog). These being the necessary conditions

Astri Natalia P.

PPS English Education (Class A) 2011/2012

Page 1

for learning, it is clear that the child must learn to understand speech before he/she is able to produce it (meaningfully). In other word, the speech understanding precedes speech production. C. Learning abstract words What the child must do in order to learn the meaning of the abstract words is to observe speech, along with the situations and events in the physical environments and the relate them to experiences and processes in the mind, for example: considering hurt, perhaps the child falls and is bruised n the knee, the father might say, Does it hurt? D. Memory and language acquisition In the course of learning to identify the words of the language, devising rules for their use, and relating speech to the environment and mind, the child utilizes a phenomenal memory capacity.

E. Parentese and baby talk 1. Parentese: sort of speech that children receive when they were young. When sentences are spoken to children, the speech tends to be slower, the pitch higher and more pauses inserted than would occur if the same sentences were spoken to mature speakers. Also more words are given stress and emphasis, in order to highlight and focus the childs attention on importance sentence constituents, for example: The dogs want water 2. Baby Talk: involves the use of vocabulary and syntax that is overly simplified and reduced, for example: bow-wow (dog), choo-choo (train) and pee-pee (urine).

F. Imitation and correction 1. The role of imitation: imitation play an important role in language acquisition, although it is limited one, because some rules must be learned, such as in pluralizing nouns (mice and not mouses) and in making the Past Tense (went and not goed). 2. The role of correction: children naturally correct their own mistakes over time, without the intervention of others.

Astri Natalia P.

PPS English Education (Class A) 2011/2012

Page 2

Astri Natalia P.

PPS English Education (Class A) 2011/2012

Page 3