Language Development Language Development What is

							 Language
Development
   What is Language?

• A form of communication
  based on symbols (spoken,
  written, or signed)

• One of the basic units of
  thought
                Phonology
• A language’s sound system

• (the “c” in cat)

• Children first have to learn a language’s
  sound inventory and permissible
  sequences of sounds.
             Morphology
• The rules for combining meaningful strings
  of sounds

• (“help” is one morpheme, “helper” has two)
                Syntax
• Proper ways that words can be combined
  and sequenced together to form phrases

• (Improper syntax Yoda used.)
              Semantics
• Meanings of words and sentences

• A sentence can be syntactically correct,
  but semantically incorrect: The dog
  suggested that its owner take a
  psychology course.
             Pragmatics
• How to appropriately have a conversation,
  spoken or written or signed.

• What to say to whom; how to say it; and
  where and when to say it.
    Biology vs. Environment
• Chomsky

• Behavioral Theory
Language Aspects that Teachers
         Work With:
• Pronunciation
• Grammar
• Vocabulary and Meaning
• Pragmatics
• Metalinguistic Awareness
• Students begin to use
  language for their own
  purposes. They move from
  talking aloud when doing
  something to inner speech.
  Vygotsky said that children
  use inner speech to guide
  behavior.
• From about age 7 on,
  children use their language
  to help them recall things.
  Language becomes an
  important unit of thought.
• Language during middle
  childhood becomes less literal.
  Students learn to use
  language figuratively. (On
  going to bed, an 11-year old
  may say,” Time to hit the
  sack.”)
• Children develop and use
  metalinguistic awareness
  (that capacity to think about
  and talk about language.)
• Students become able to
  communicate with others more
  effectively. They learn about
  relationships; they also learn to
  express these relationships
  accurately, using appropriate
  language.
• Language becomes an
  effective tool in adapting
  to the environment
  (especially the
  classroom).
•Tips on helping
 children learn
 language in the
 classroom:
• Strategy- Encourage children to make
  place associations. Tell pupils for the
  next minute to name everything they
  can think of that they might find in a
  grocery store, on a farm or in a sports
  shop. Encourage children to use
  specific names for people and
  objects.
• Strategy- Pose problems for children to
  solve on their own by writing. For
  example, give pupils the following
  scenario: Four friends want to go on a
  picnic, but it starts to rain, and they
  have to stay inside. What can they do
  to have fun?
• Insist children use complete
  sentences and provide
  complete verbal detail and
  information (no “and
  everything” or “stuff” or “you
  know”).
• Strategy- See how well students
  listen and understand what they
  hear by giving them verbal
  directions for drawing a mystery
  object on paper. Have a picture of
  the object ready for them to check
  their own drawings against.
• Strategy- Check problem-solving
  abilities and language skills by giving
  pupils a story problem and omitting
  vital information needed to solve it.
  Ask the children to pinpoint what else
  they need to know before they can
  figure out the answer.