By : Candy RobertViena Simon

Jeniffer Annie AliGrace William Bali

Chapter 1 : Language learning in early

childhood

THEORETICAL BASES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH

First Language Acquisition

- Language acquisition is the process by which human acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

The first three years: Milestones and developmental sequences

1. The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying that babies do when they are hungry or comfortable.

2. They distinguish the voice of their mothers and other speakers, and seem to recognize the language that was spoken aorund their mother before they were born.

3. Babies are capable to hear the difference between sounds as similar as ‘pa’ and ‘ba’. They will continue to respond to these differences for a longer period when they hear more than one languages.

The first three years: Milestones and developmental sequences

Stages in Grammar Morphemes

Stages Features of LA (Negation) Examples

1 Negation is usually expressed by the word ‘no’, either all alone or as the first word in the utterance.

No. No cookie. No comb hair.

2 Utterances grow longer and the sentence subject may be included. The –ve word appears just before the verb.

Daddy no comb hair. Don’t touch that!

3 The negative element is inserted into a more complex sentences. (Adding forms of the –ve other than ‘no’.

I can’t do it. He don’t want it.

4 Children begin to attach the –ve elements to the correct form of auxiliary verbs such as ‘do’ and ‘be’.

You didn’t have supper. She doesn’t want it.

The first three years: Milestones and developmental sequences

Stages in Questions

Stages Features of LA (Questions) Examples

1 Children’s earliest questions are single words or simple two or three word sentences with rising intonation.

Cookie? Mommy book?

2 Children use the word order of the declaratve sentence, with rising intonation.

You like this? I have some?

3 Children notice that the structure of questions is different and begin to produce questions;

Can I go?Are you happy?

4 Some questions are formed by subject-auxiliary inversion. They also add ‘do’ in questions in which there would be no auxiliary in the declarative version of the sentence.

Are you going to play with me?Do dogs like ice cream?

5 Both wh- and yes/no questions are formed correctly. Are these your boots?Why did you do that?

6. Children are able to correctly form all question types, including –ve and complex embedded questions.

The-pre school years

1. At the age of four, most children have aquired the basic strucures of the language. (ask questions, give commands, give reports)

2. Children (3-4 year olds) begin to learn vocabulary at the rate of several words a day.

3. They develop their ability in using the language in a widening social environment and variety of situations.

4. Children also begin to develop metalinguistic awareness. E.g, the ability to treat language as an object separate from the meaning it conveys.

The school years

1. Children develop their language as they grow up.2. Reading gives a major boost to metalinguistic awareness

(language are form as well as meaning).3. Metalinguistic awareness also includes the discovery of such

things as ambiguity. It leads them to access to word jokes, trick questions, riddles, etc.

4. In the school years, children also develop vocabularies.(Reading assignments, for pleasure whether narrrative or non-fiction). However, the amount depends on how widely they read (Nagy, Herman and Anderson 1985).

The school years

Language registers.1.Children learn how written language differs from spoken language, how the language used to speak to the principal is different from the language of a narative.

Explaining First Language AcquisitionExplaining First Language Acquisition

The Behaviorist Perspective

Analyzing Children’s Speech

•Imitation and practice alone cannot explain some of the forms created by children. •Children appear to pick out patterns and generalize them to new contexts. •Their new sentences are usually comprehensible and often correct.•Behaviorism – offer a reasonable way of understanding how children learn some of the regular and routine aspects of language, especially at the earliest stages.

The innatist perspective

• Often linked to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) • CPH

– suggests that children who are not given access to language in infancy and early childhood will never acquire language if these deprivations go on for too long

– Language acquisition begins at birth and possibly even before, as the child’s brain is shaped by exposure to the language(s) in the environment.

The innatist perspective

• Based on evidence that there is a critical period for language acquisition.

• Also seen as an explanation for the logical problem of language acquisition that is the question of how adult speakers come to know the complex structure of their first language on the basis of the limited sample of language to which they are exposed.

The innatist perspective

Interactionalist / developmental perspectives

• language acquisition is as similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds of skill and knowledge, rather than as something that is different from and largely independent of the child’s experience and cognitive development.

• Dan Slobin (1973)– Have a long emphasized the close relationship

between children’s cognitive development and their acquisition of language

Intteractionist/developmental perspective

Language Disorders and Delays

LDO AMONG CHILDREN

Causes and Consequences OF LDO

DEFINITION

Language impaired Language delays

Clinicians use the terms “specific language impairment”

Significant delay in the use and understanding of spoken and written language.

Affect children in speaking, writing, and reading. (Clark & Kamhi, 2010)

CAUSES & CONSEQUENCES IN LDO

CAUSES CONSEQUENCES

- Children have difficulty in language learning.

- Due to mental, sensory & physical deficits.

- Severe emotional distrubance

- Environmental factor

- “children with cognitive weaknesses” (Clark &Kamhi, 2010).

1. Affect comprehension

- receptive language- how children receive, process and

respond

2. Production

- expressive language- difficult to produce oral language

- difficult to construct sentences and convey the meaning.

LDO AMONG CHILDREN (Lightbown & Spada, 2013)

YOUNG CHILDREN OLDER CHILDREN

- Normal case: able to produce 1st recognizable words at the of 1-year old.

- Abnormal case: children have problem producing 1st words towards the age of 3.

- Language delay

- Affect speaking skill

- Normal case: 5-year old child is able to read and understand simple sentences.

- Without / less direction from adults.

- Abnormal case: child can't read, cannot make sense of words in a text.

- Affected by social factors, health factors, environmental factors.

- give impact to reading and writing skills.

Childhood bilingualism

• Children’s acquisition of languages start from the first moment of their childhood and add to its variety during school and develop multifacets of personal, social, and economic opportunities.

• There is no evidence that learning a 2nd language has negative effects on developments.

Childhood bilingualism• Without an age-appropriate knowledge of a particular

language or languages, these children are often misdiagnosed as encountering language delays and disorders (Jim Cummins & Ors.)

• Concerns suggesting that children confusions in learning multiple languages from their earliest childhood (simultaneous bilinguals) and children acquiring knowledge of another language at later stage of their childhood (sequential bilinguals) might hamper both their linguistic or cognitive development is frivolous.

Childhood bilingualism• The inability to attain high levels of proficiency in multiple

languages is highly influenced by environmental situation rather than limitation in the human capacity to educate themselve (Ellen Bialystok (2001) & Ors).

• Ellen Bialystok added in 2009 that proficiency in multibilinguals render cognitive flexibity as in the ability to combine the usage of two different languages in a daily conversation (code switching).

• Wong-Fillmore (1991) – children must develop age appropriate mastery of home language before being submerged in English.

• Lambert (1987) – Subtractive vs Additive bilingualism

Childhood bilingualism

Interactionist / developmental• Perspective that take both nature and nurture

into account are the most plausible.

• Teachers and educators need to be aware that knowing another language is not a disorder and also that additive bilingualism is important for both children and parents to maintain their self esteem and experience cognitive development in a language that they are familiar with.