Emergence of Language
Language Development: One of the most natural and amazing parts of human development. Children go through several milestones in language development, however the rate at which they reach each milestone differs from child to child.
1. Babbling 3-9 months
2. Single Words 10-13 months
3. Two Words- up to 18 months
4. Multi-Word Sentences -2 years old
5. Vocabulary - ongoing
Four Aspects of Language:
1. Phonology
-Child’s ability to attend to sound sequences
-Produce sounds
-Combine them to understand words and phrases
-To simplify the pronunciation of adult words
Examples: Delete unstressed syllable: "Banana" becomes "nana"
-Replace hissing sounds with stop consonant sounds
“sea” becomes “tea”, “say” becomes “tay”
-Delete the final consonant of a word
“Bike” becomes “bai”, “more” becomes “muh”
2. Semantics
The way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations
Say first word at 12 months
-By age 6, have vocabulary of 10 000 words by learning 5 new words a day
-5 month lag between comprehension of 50 words (language understood) and production of 50 words (language they use)
Fast – mapping (attaching meaning to words)
Connect a new word with an underlying concept after only a brief encounter
3. Grammar
Consists of two parts:
Syntax: rule by which words are arranged into sentences
Morphology: use of grammatical markers (e.g., endings- sand –ed) indicating number, tense, case,
person, gender, active or passive void and other meanings
Telegraphic Speech (18 months)
Two word utterances focus on high content words and omit smaller, less important ones
such as can, the, and to
E.g., “Get Ball” or “Mommy shoe”
Simple 3-Word Sentences (3 Years)
Create sentences with adjectives, nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases
Begin to conform to adult structure and master grammar categories of their language
E.g., “It is broken”
Adults correct mistakes for word meaning but do not provide direct feedback on grammar
They do correct indirectly through continuing the conversation with the child
Recasts: Restructuring inaccurate speech into correct forms
Expansion: Elaborate on child’s speech, increasing its complexity
Example of Recast and Expansion:
Child: “I got new red shoes”
Parent: “Yes, you got a pair of new red shoes”
4. Pragmatics
- Rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication
- Recognize the importance of turn-taking by age 2
Turnabout (3-4 years): Speaker not only comments on what was just said, but also adds a request to get the partner to respond again
E.g., “Yeah, I like soccer too. What’s your favorite position?”
Illocutionary Intent (3 years)
-What the speaker means to say, even if the wording is not perfectly consistent
- Understand meaning not directly expressed
E.g., I need a pencil! (Get me a pencil)
Shading (5-9 years)
- Change topic by gradually modifying focus of conversation
Referential Communication Skills (begins at 3 years)
- Ability to produce clear messages and clarify others’ messages by asking for more information
Initially easier in face-to-face interactions
- Improves with age
Speech Registers (begins at 3-4 years)
- Language adaptations to social expectations
- Important for social routines like politeness
E.g., differences in talk and body language when speaking to your boss vs. speaking to your friends
Learning to speak requires time for development and practice in everyday situations; They often formulate their own rules, but ultimately adapt to conventional forms (i.e. past tense errors)
Constant correction of a child’s speech is unproductive because children do not learn only by imitating others.
The point of learning language and interacting socially is to make connections with other people and to make sense of experiences.
Children who do not have more prior knowledge and lack of experiences, have difficulty making connections with newly learned vocabulary.
Activities:
Educators and parents must nurture language development.
Some activities to develop language and vocabulary in children are through:
- Read alouds
- Adjective Games (Put different items in a box and have children put their hands in the box to touch and describe what they are feeling without looking, to try and guess what it is they are touching)
- Create your own story
- Games such as Taboo, Scattegories, Pictionary
-Open ended questions
1. Babbling 3-9 months
2. Single Words 10-13 months
3. Two Words- up to 18 months
4. Multi-Word Sentences -2 years old
5. Vocabulary - ongoing
Four Aspects of Language:
1. Phonology
-Child’s ability to attend to sound sequences
-Produce sounds
-Combine them to understand words and phrases
-To simplify the pronunciation of adult words
Examples: Delete unstressed syllable: "Banana" becomes "nana"
-Replace hissing sounds with stop consonant sounds
“sea” becomes “tea”, “say” becomes “tay”
-Delete the final consonant of a word
“Bike” becomes “bai”, “more” becomes “muh”
2. Semantics
The way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations
Say first word at 12 months
-By age 6, have vocabulary of 10 000 words by learning 5 new words a day
-5 month lag between comprehension of 50 words (language understood) and production of 50 words (language they use)
Fast – mapping (attaching meaning to words)
Connect a new word with an underlying concept after only a brief encounter
3. Grammar
Consists of two parts:
Syntax: rule by which words are arranged into sentences
Morphology: use of grammatical markers (e.g., endings- sand –ed) indicating number, tense, case,
person, gender, active or passive void and other meanings
Telegraphic Speech (18 months)
Two word utterances focus on high content words and omit smaller, less important ones
such as can, the, and to
E.g., “Get Ball” or “Mommy shoe”
Simple 3-Word Sentences (3 Years)
Create sentences with adjectives, nouns, verbs, and prepositional phrases
Begin to conform to adult structure and master grammar categories of their language
E.g., “It is broken”
Adults correct mistakes for word meaning but do not provide direct feedback on grammar
They do correct indirectly through continuing the conversation with the child
Recasts: Restructuring inaccurate speech into correct forms
Expansion: Elaborate on child’s speech, increasing its complexity
Example of Recast and Expansion:
Child: “I got new red shoes”
Parent: “Yes, you got a pair of new red shoes”
4. Pragmatics
- Rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication
- Recognize the importance of turn-taking by age 2
Turnabout (3-4 years): Speaker not only comments on what was just said, but also adds a request to get the partner to respond again
E.g., “Yeah, I like soccer too. What’s your favorite position?”
Illocutionary Intent (3 years)
-What the speaker means to say, even if the wording is not perfectly consistent
- Understand meaning not directly expressed
E.g., I need a pencil! (Get me a pencil)
Shading (5-9 years)
- Change topic by gradually modifying focus of conversation
Referential Communication Skills (begins at 3 years)
- Ability to produce clear messages and clarify others’ messages by asking for more information
Initially easier in face-to-face interactions
- Improves with age
Speech Registers (begins at 3-4 years)
- Language adaptations to social expectations
- Important for social routines like politeness
E.g., differences in talk and body language when speaking to your boss vs. speaking to your friends
Learning to speak requires time for development and practice in everyday situations; They often formulate their own rules, but ultimately adapt to conventional forms (i.e. past tense errors)
Constant correction of a child’s speech is unproductive because children do not learn only by imitating others.
The point of learning language and interacting socially is to make connections with other people and to make sense of experiences.
Children who do not have more prior knowledge and lack of experiences, have difficulty making connections with newly learned vocabulary.
Activities:
Educators and parents must nurture language development.
Some activities to develop language and vocabulary in children are through:
- Read alouds
- Adjective Games (Put different items in a box and have children put their hands in the box to touch and describe what they are feeling without looking, to try and guess what it is they are touching)
- Create your own story
- Games such as Taboo, Scattegories, Pictionary
-Open ended questions