History of Language Development and Concepts Bilingualism: Lesson 1

LESSON
History of Language Development

1 and Concepts Bilingualism
Learning Outcomes
1. Explain the language development of children.

2. Identify the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism.
INTRODUCTION
Cognitive development refers to the development in the way a person thinks until he grew up.
This includes his/her language, communication and exploration skills. For infants and toddlers, examples
of cognitive activities include paying attention, remembering learning to talk, interacting with toys and
identifying faces. For adolescent, the cognitive development process of language is fluent due to primary
influence and environment where he acquired and learned.
ACTIVITY
1. Observe a child aging 1-5 years old. Take note of your observations about how the child talks.
Does he/she has difficulty in his/her pronunciation of words? Observing my 3 years old brother on the
way he talks, he has struggles on pronouncing some words.
2. Ask his/her parent or primary caregiver at what age the child learned/started to talk. Were
there any difficulties the child encountered? Take note.
According to my mother, my 3 years old brother started to talk when he was 1 year and 3 months old.
He started to utter some words that he finds familiar in his daily basis.. for an example is the lullaby that
my mother sings for him and he recalls it in a phrase based on the lyrics that he usually hears from the
song. Same goes with the other things in his routine at that age back then.
ANALYSIS
1. Using the data you gathered in doing the activity, do you believe children have innate capacity
to learn language even if they are not taught by their parents or primary caregivers? Yes or No. Why or
Why not? Explain.
Using the data I gathered in doing the activity, I believe that children acquire language through
interaction - not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children. All normal
children who grow up in normal households, surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language that
is being used around them. And it is just as easy for a child to acquire two or more languages at the
same time, as long as they are regularly interacting with speakers of those languages.
ABSTRACTION
I. Natural History of Language Development
Noam Chomsky (1965, 1972), noted linguist, claims that humans have an innate Language
Acquisition Device (LAD). This LAD is a “metaphorical organ that is responsible for language learning.
Just as a heart is designed to pump blood, this language acquisition device is preprogrammed to learn
language, whatever the language community children find themselves in.” This means that we, humans
seem to be biologically preconfigured to be ready to acquire language early and quickly.
Jerome Bruner emphasizes the critical roles of parents and other early caregivers play in
language development. Bruner proposes the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). This can be
done by playing nonverbal games with them, using technique of expanding children’s statements and
recasting children’s incomplete sentences in grammatical form.
II. Bilingual Language Development
It has been established that bilingualism where children learn two languages simultaneously,
puts children to an advantage in terms of language proficiency. It affords advanced cognitive skills,
flexibility of thought and greater acceptance of peers from other cultural backgrounds (Bee, Helen and
Denise Boyd, 2002. Lifespan Development, 3 rd Edition).
Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism
1. Bilingualism does not impact on early language milestone like babbling
2. In bilingualism homes, infants readily discriminate between the two languages

phonologically and grammatically.
3. Learning a grammatical device as using as to denote plurals in one language facilitate
learning corresponding devices in the other language.
4. Bilingualism is associated with an advantage in metalinguistic ability, or capacity to

think about language among preschool and school age children.
5. Most bilingual children manifest greater ability than monolingual children when it comes
to focusing attention on language tasks.
Cognitive Disadvantages of Bilingualism
1. Limited vocabulary. Infants in bilingual homes have expressive vocabularies that are as
large as those of the monolingual, but the words they know are divided between two languages
resulting into a more limited vocabulary which continues into the school years.
2. Think more slowly in the language in which they have the lesser
fluency.
3. Parents who choose bilingualism should consider whether they
can help their children achieve fluency in both languages.
4. Children who speak their immigrant parents’ language tend to
be attached to their parent’s culture of origin and therefore are able to
speak the language.
Teaching Implications
Language and culture have important implications for how children learn language in school and
how teachers teach language.
1. Children use the four language system at the same time in the process of communicating.
2. Children bring their unique backgrounds of experience to the process of learning.
3. Children’s cultural and linguistic diversity impact on the students’ learning process.
APPLICATION
1. Interview your neighbors (parents/guardians) who have children ages 1-3 years old and 4-6 years old.
Inquire about the language development of their children. Identify the language learning abilities and
the language learning difficulties of each child.
NAME (Cedrikk) NAME (RJ)

1-3 years old 4-6 years old
 Language Learning Abilities  Language Learning Abilities
1. speaks second language 1. doesn’t stutter
2. learn new phrases fast 2. speaks fast
3. say new phrases 3. say new phrases
 Language Learning Difficulties  Language Learning Difficulties
1. struggles pronouncing some words 1. struggles on pronouncing some words
2. mix up words 2. forgets a word
3. stutters when trying to mention a difficult word 3. struggles when trying to mention a difficult
 Interventions done by parents/teachers word
- interact with the child  Interventions done by parents/teachers
- provide vocabulary learning videos - interact with the child
- being taught with new phrases - giving assistance when answering given tasks in
the module
- being taught with the phrases he finds difficult
2. Given the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism, are you in favor of teaching children two
languages in the early stages of life? Yes or No. Why or why not?
Given the advantages and disadvantages of bilingualism, I am in favor of teaching children two
languages in the early stage of life because it is important to feed their brain with knowledge. Research
shows that learning a second language boosts problem-solving, critical-thinking, and listening skills, in
addition to improving memory, concentration, and the ability to multitask. Children proficient in other
languages also show signs of enhanced creativity and mental flexibility.
CONGRATULATIONS! You finished Module 4 Lesson 1! I hope you enjoyed and learned
from this lesson. Kindly proceed to Lesson 2.

History of Language Development and Concepts Bilingualism: Lesson 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

History of Language Development and Concepts Bilingualism: Lesson 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

History of Language Development and Concepts Bilingualism: Lesson 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LESSON

History of Language Development

1. Explain the language development of children.

I. Natural History of Language Development

II. Bilingual Language Development

Cognitive Advantages of Bilingualism

1. Bilingualism does not impact on early language milestone like babbling

2. In bilingualism homes, infants readily discriminate between the two languages

4. Bilingualism is associated with an advantage in metalinguistic ability, or capacity to

Cognitive Disadvantages of Bilingualism

3. Parents who choose bilingualism should consider whether they

can help their children achieve fluency in both languages.

4. Children who speak their immigrant parents’ language tend to

be attached to their parent’s culture of origin and therefore are able to

speak the language.

2. Children bring their unique backgrounds of experience to the process of learning.

NAME (Cedrikk) NAME (RJ)

You might also like