LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
Language
- thesystematic and conventional use
of sounds, signs, or written symbols
for the intention of communication
or self-expression
❖ Acquiring a language implies
developing expertise in the “form” of the
language (phonology and the structure
of words and sentences), the “meaning”
of language (as accomplished both thru
semantics and grammar), and the “use”
of language (pragmatics).
Components of language
1. Phonology
2. Semantics
3. Grammar
4. Pragmatics
Phonology
- the actual sounds that speakers
produce
semantics
- underlying abstract meaning
of language
- the definition of words and
concepts
grammar
- the linguistic rules for tuning
words and putting words
together into phrases/sentences
pragmatics
- how people actually use language
in a social context
- ability to use language to get
things done in the world
Example:
Semantics – Grammar – Pragmatics
• Semantics: green = go
• Grammar: green (bottom);
yellow; red
• Pragmatics: green = go; red =
stop
Theoretical views of
language development
1. Behaviorist View
2. Innatist View
3. Interactionist View
a) Cognitive Interactionist
b) Social Interactionist
Behaviorist view
- sees language as
primarily influenced
by external factors
ex. modeling,
reinforcement of
parents
b. F. • how children learn language
skinner is that it is shaped by the
environment
• language acquisition is a
learned behavior (thru
conditioning)
• parents reinforce language
development when they
respond by:
– smiling
– cuddling the baby
– verbalizing
• positive feedback as
reinforcement
ex. encouraging the baby
to repeat
sounds
❖ Children learn that
language helps them achieve
their goals.
Innatist view
- considers the capacity for
language as “inborn”
Noam • he said that children are
chomsky born with a linguistic
structure that makes it
possible for them to
acquire language as
quickly as they do
during the preschool
years
• DEEP STRUCTURE: • SURFACE STRUCTURE:
- inborn understanding - specific aspect of
or underlying rules of language that vary
grammar and from one language to
meaning that are another
universal across all
languages
- children are “wired”
to know without
being taught that
communication has
meaning
• Language is linked to BIOLOGICAL
MATURATION and follows an internal clock,
needing to emerge during the “critical age”
for language acquisition
• Children who do not learn language in EC
have a much more difficult time later
• Language does not emerge automatically; it
is triggered by exposure to verbal
communication in the environment
Interactionist view
- “nature and nurture”
- there is an interplay between
inborn and environmental factors in
children’s language learning
Factors in the development
of language:
• social environment
• maturation (readiness)
• biology
• cognition
2 major approaches:
1. COGNITIVE INTERACTIONIST
VIEW
- Piaget and other cognitive
theorists
- children’s understanding of
language is rooted in their cognitive
development
- language is one way of expressing
representational/symbolic thought
2. SOCIAL INTERACTIONIST
VIEW
- language is intimately tied to
social processes
- language must emerge within
the social environment
provided by the parents
- Vygotsky
- the young child’s primary
social tool is language
Early language
development:
• language has been developing in babies
from their earliest days
–newborns prefer the human voice
over other sounds
– can distinguish their mother’s voice
from another
• COOING: • BABBLING:
– baby’s early - occurs in the second
communication half of the 1st year
form - strings of consonants
– throaty vowel and vowels that are
sounds, later repeated in a form of
combined with play with sounds
laughter ex. ma-ma, da-da
bilingualism
- ability to use two languages
❖ Children generally have little difficulty
learning more than one language.
dialect
- is a regional variation of a language
different in some features of vocabulary,
grammar, and pronunciation
DIALECT DIFFERENCES – differences in the
way words are pronounced or grammar is
used
linguists
- scholars who study languages
Language activities:
• book reading
• poetry
• storytelling
• flannel board stories – storytelling with props
• lap board stories – includes both children
and the teacher (uses play dough)
• story enactment
• puppets
Emergent literacy
• the ongoing dynamic process of learning
to read and write which starts in the
early years
• to become literate is a dynamic,
ongoing, emerging
process
Aspects of language for
literacy development:
• Listening
• Speaking these are intertwined and
• Writing develop concurrently, not
• Reading sequentially
Reading and writing
– reading for graphic language must be
nurtured
– a child’s language proficiency will
determine readiness for reading
– make connections between what is said
and what is written
READING – translating print to spoken
language
decoding
- ability to translate literally signs and
symbols on a printed page
- to translate a coded message into
ordinary language
