International Diploma in Teachers Training Program: Chapter 4 - Importance of Language Learning

International Diploma in Teachers Training Program
Chapter 4 -Importance of Language Learning
Copyright 2015 @ International Training Academy Page 1

Children will come up with the most extraordinary things when they begin
using language. Cute things, hilarious things and, sometimes, baffling
things that may make us wonder whether we should worry about their
language development. This chapter summarizes about the knowledge we
have about typical child language acquisition. Language is a cognition that
truly makes us human. Whereas other species do communicate with an
innate ability to produce a limited number of meaningful vocalizations
(e.g. bonobos), or even with partially learned systems (e.g. bird songs),
there is no other species known to date that can express infinite ideas
(sentences) with a limited set of symbols (speech sounds and words).
Language is a very important part of life. Communication between people

not only enables us to understand one-another, but aids in developing
relationships and allowing us to communicate our problems, suggestions
and plans. I'm sure you can all agree that language is a crucial part of
everyday life. Language Acquisition is something that can often be
misunderstood, or simplified, or even forgotten. Yet from the word GO,
acquiring language and using language is an amazing ability we, as
human-beings, have.
Is the language acquisition process the same for all children?
All children acquire language in the similar way, regardless of what

language they use or the number of languages they utilize. Acquiring a
language is like learning to play a game. Children need to learn the rules
of the language game, for example how to articulate words and how to
put them together in ways that are acceptable to the people around them.
In order to comprehend child language acquisition, we require keeping
two very important things in mind:
First, children do not make use of language like adults, because children
are not adults. Acquiring language is an ongoing, lengthy process, and
one that involves a lot of apparent 'errors'. These 'errors' are in fact not
errors at all, but a necessary part of the process of language acquisition.
That is, they shouldn't be corrected, because they will disappear in time.
Second, children will learn to converse the dialect(s) and language(s) that
are used around them. Children usually commence by speaking like their
parents or caregivers, but once they begin to mix with other children
(especially from the age of about 3 years) they start to speak similar to
friends of their own age. You cannot control the manner your children
speak: they will build up their own accents and they will learn the
languages they think they require. If you don't like the local accent, you'll
either have to put up with it or move to somewhere with an accent you

like! On the other hand, if you don't like your own accent, and prefer the
local one, you will be happy. A child will also learn the local grammar: ‘He
has done it'; 'She never go there'; 'my brother happy' and so on are all
examples of non-standard grammar found in some places where English
is spoken. These may be judged wrong in school contexts (and all
children will have to learn the standard version in school) but if adults in
the child's community use them, they are not "wrong" in child language.
These examples explain that different dialects of English have their own
rules. The same is of course true of other languages and their own
dialects. In what follows, examples are in English, because that is the
language in which this article is written, even though the child strategies
illustrated in the examples apply to any language and to any combination
of languages that your child may be learning.
We begin with a number of observations regarding child learning in

general, about speech and language, and about how children themselves
demonstrate us how they learn, before turning to children's acquisitional
strategies. These also tell us that children follow their own rules, and that
they require plenty of time to sort these rules out.
How do children develop?
Like the rest of us, children are individuals. What makes them different
from adults, as a whole, is that children are brought up in adult worlds
according to adult expectations. Children learn to mould their behavior on
what goes on around them, be it dress codes, body language, table
manners or language uses, generally first through their caregivers and
later through peers in their family, neighbourhood or school. That is,
children are learning how to function adequately in their environment,
and a great deal of this learning takes place through language itself. We
talk to children to inform them about our adult world and they learn about
the world from what we tell them. But they also learn about our language,
from how we use it to tell them about other things. This means that
language learning is taking place whenever language is used around
children.
Do children copy adults exactly?
Children do not merely reproduce as-is whatever they are exposed to, for
two reasons: First, they are developing physically. Just as it may take
years to be able to develop the fine motor skills required for sewing on a
button, it will take years to be able to utilize speech organs in equally
precise ways. Second, children are developing cognitively. They have to
find ways to make sense of their environment, so that they can fit in

comfortably with it. They do this by progressively adapting the input they
get to their own emerging cognitive and linguistic abilities, and by
screening out, as it were, what is as yet too complex for them to
understand. Let's see why this difference between physical and cognitive
ability matters for child language acquisition.
Are speech and language the same?
Speech and language are two quite different things. Speech is a physical
ability, whereas language is an intellectual one. The dissimilarities
between children's language abilities and speech abilities becomes clear
from a classic illustration, reported by researchers Jean Berko-Gleason
and Roger Brown in 1960. One parent imitates the child's developing
pronunciation of the word fish as 'fis' and asks the child: Is this your 'fis'?
To which the child responds: No! It's my 'fis'!
The child identifies that the pronunciation 'fis' is not up to par, but cannot
reproduce the adult target 'fish'. That is, the language item fish, complete
with target pronunciation, is clear to the child, but speech production
doesn't match this awareness. Children of deaf parents give us further
proof of the difference between these two abilities: if these children are
exposed to a sign language early in life, they will build up that language
whether they are deaf or hearing, even though they might not use it. The
'fis-phenomenon' is what explains why children can get very angry at
someone who repeats their own baby productions back to them, whether
in pronunciation or in grammar.
Since speech and language are independent abilities, emerging language

does not reflect emerging speech in any straightforward way, or vice
versa. There's nothing necessarily wrong with someone's language
abilities if they stammer, lisp or slur their words together, but these
features of their speech may require correcting if they impair intelligibility
beyond childhood. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with someone's
speech if they can't say She sells seashells on the seashore by age 6,
although their language ability may need checking if they don't
comprehend what this sentence means, in any language, at the same
age.
What speech and language development have in common is that they

advance through stages and that their progress takes time. In speech, it
is quite normal for English-speaking children, for example, to have
difficulties pronouncing the sounds at the beginning of words like thank
and then throughout their first 8 to 10 years: the precise coordination of
the many different muscles involved in pronouncing any speech sound
want a lot of practice. In language, it is also normal that children have

serious trouble throughout many years, for example sorting out the use of
pronouns like I vs. you (if people say I of themselves and you to everyone
else, what can these words mean??) or following complex instructions
(which involve several clauses in one same sentence): children well into
their early school years may not have acquired the meaning of words like
or, before, after, or the cognitive ability to process complex sentences
yet. As with the 'fis-phenomenon', in many cases these (typically
temporary) child production problems are identified as such by the child,
who can simultaneously understand an adult using the correctly
pronounced words in complete utterances. The child chooses to apply
other forms of expression, or to omit certain forms, so as to avoid using
what they know will be badly produced.
Some children will take longer than others to sort out some speech or
language issue, or will have problems in areas which other children will
have a breeze sailing through -- even among siblings, including identical
twins. These observations teach us to respect children's learning in two
complementary ways: the time it takes, and the individuality of each
child's learning.
How long does it take to acquire language?
Language acquisition takes time, a long time, because all learning

requires time to digest and make ours what we experience around us; it
cannot be hurried. Many caregivers want to see 'results', and in double-
time, according to adult expectations, and then worry that 'nothing is
happening'. Give yourself some time too: children learn language through
natural interaction with caring people in everyday settings. The rule here
is 'the more, the better': interact with your children in as many different,
engaging, fun situations as possible, so that they understand that
language permits all that we do in all sorts of different ways. Give your
children also plenty of time to 'do nothing': let them play around doing
nothing in particular, speculate on their own about intriguing things like
what the moon eats or why dogs don't wear clothes, or throw serious
tantrums to learn how to deal with other people and themselves, and do
all this by means of language. It is important to keep in mind that, as the
child learns and acquires more and more language, each step in the
process becomes less and less visible, to adults as well as to the child.
The same is true of adult language learning: it may sometimes seem, to
adult learners, that they are making progress very slowly or not at all; at
some point they may suddenly realize that they have indeed made
progress.
Do all children learn at the same rate?

Language acquisition is not a competitive sport either. Children are not

aiming to attain or surpass some level of language or some time frame
that someone else set for them. They are competing only with
themselves, on their own terms. The child whose speech is most
advanced at the age of 2 is not necessarily going to be a higher achiever
at age 20 than the child who was slower to learn language. Language is
only part of what children have to learn and a child who seems slower
might be learning in a different way, or focusing on other things.
Children won't learn anything if they are not ready for -- they may imitate
things if you or someone else tries to 'teach' them, but a parrot only
learns to parrot. What your child is prepared for is not found in books. It's
found in your child, and to learn about your child you must also provide
yourself -- and your child -- time. Your children are as new to you as
everything they are learning about is to them.
How do children handle the language acquisition process?
Respecting children means learning to understand them. Children will

build up their own strategies for learning whatever they find appropriate
to learn around them, including language. Children are much more
resourceful, resilient and creative than we are often prepared to give
them credit for. Besides, and probably most significantly, your worries will
reflect on your child. Children are very good at picking up distress signals
from adults, and if they learn to associate your worry with their speech,
then you may start having a real problem on your hands.
Children have no idea that 'language' is something that adults worry

about for its own sake. Language is just a tool that gets things done for
them: it's much more helpful for a child to ask daddy for a toy that is out
of reach than to simply shout in anger because they are unable to grab it.
So let your children experiment with their language(s), their way. They
will discover the right ways to make language work for them, just as you
yourself did when you were growing up. There is nothing to worry about if
your child doesn't sound like an adult or like your friend's child or like the
'prodigy' children you may hear about through the media. There may be
reason to be concerned only if your children don't sound like themselves.
No one knows this better than you, because no one knows a child better
than a caregiver.
Your children have no idea what is 'expected' of them either. That is, you
may be looking for things that are there, or not, in their language. The

reality is that many of us caregivers forget to look for what is there, in

our children's language(s), and tend to focus on what we consider is
missing instead. A lot of people believe that only 'grammatical' language
is language, with lots of words and lots of syntactic sophistication.
Language is much more than this: your child may desire to be expressive
through intonation, for example, the melody of speech without which any
language makes sense. Or may rely on invented words, complemented by
expressive body language. Children recognizes that there is a model
around them that they must learn to follow. But they don't know what the
model looks like, so they approach it by trial and error
What strategies do children use in learning language?
All human beings, young and old, follow two kinds of learning strategy.
One, drawing on physical ability, is that we learn in stages (we make sure
we can walk before we run). The other, drawing on intellectual ability, is
that we generalize from past experience (if you see an insect that you
never saw before and that looks like a cockroach you're likely to think it
may be a cockroach). These strategies help us clarify child productions in
the whole of language, from pronunciation through vocabulary and
grammar to skills like how to hold a conversation. A child's physical and
cognitive progress is best assessed against the child itself, so that specific
age ranges matter less than the child's progress from one stage to the
next.
How do children acquire pronunciation?
The basic insight that we achieve from children's developing pronunciation

is that there are complex sounds and easy sounds, and complex and easy
distinctions between sounds. We can tell which are which by looking at
what children do, because children cannot articulate what their vocal
tracts are not developed enough to tackle yet. We can for example
conclude that, for the 'fis-phenomenon' child above, the sound at the end
of the word fish is more difficult than the sound at the end of the word
fis.
Children start using speech sounds when they begin babbling. The sounds
that they utilize in babbling are easy sounds and these will be the sounds
children will use in their first utterances too. Children usually replace
difficult sounds with sounds that are easier for them to articulate, or they
may drop difficult sounds altogether. They may call Sam 'Tam', for
example, and they may want to 'pee' potatoes with a potato-'peewah', or
ask you why strawberries are 'wed' and not 'boo'. Although sounds tend

to be acquired in the same order across languages, we should keep in

mind that different children may find different sounds easier or more
difficult: each child will have their own individual learning strategies. The
important thing is that there is growth in their development. Children's
spontaneous play also shows a succession from gross to sophisticated
control over their body: they usually begin by hitting toys, and hitting
things with toys, because it's easier to do this whilst fine motor skills have
yet to be acquired. This is also why in virtually all languages the baby-
words for 'mummy' and 'daddy' sound very similar. It's not that the
children 'know' the words for mum and dad, it's simply that these are the
kinds of words that children can say (they say them to us, to the cat, to
their toys, to themselves), but parents choose to believe that the children
are calling them 'by name', and so reinforced the children's use of these
words to them from time immemorial!
Vowels (the sounds usually spelt a, e, i, o, u in English) are easier than

consonants and are usually learned first. This is because vowels are the
sounds that carry, and those we therefore perceive most clearly. If you
want to shout for someone named Eve or Archibald you prolong the
vowels in their names, not the consonants. So children are expected to go
through some stage where all or most vowels are target-like in their
speech, but all or most consonants may still be funny. English is
particularly child-unfriendly, in that it has words like splash, with three
consonants at the beginning, or like texts, with four at the end (the letter
x represents two sounds, 'k' and’s’). If your child is bilingual in a tricky
language like English and a straightforward one like Hawai’i an, where
only single consonants are allowed before vowels, you shouldn't be
surprised if she sounds right in Hawai’i an much earlier than in English. Or
if a proud Hawai’i an parent tells you that his monolingual children started
'speaking much earlier' than all the English monolingual children he
knows. It's the languages' fault, not the children's.
This same strategy also tells us why children leave out certain words and
not others in their utterances. They may say things like 'Mummy big glass
table' but not 'My own if the'. These are two quite different types of
words, the former being more salient to children because they give stress
in connected speech, and therefore much easier to recognize and
produce.
How do children acquire words?
Suppose you show a banana to a group of children who are at the one-
word stage, when all their utterances contain single words only, and
suppose you ask them "What's this?" Some children will say 'nana', others

will say 'mama', and others still may say 'bana'. Child words like these
demonstrate children's use of generalization: children modify words,
replace, add and remove word bits to make them conform to a general
pattern that they find easier to deal with.
But suppose now one child in the group replies 'moo' to your question.
Before you start worrying about this child's linguistic (or cognitive)
abilities, make an effort to think about your question and the child's
answer on the child's own terms, not yours. You are expecting a word
that sounds like 'banana', but how does the child know that? And how do
you know what encouraged the child to give you this answer? In
particular, why should the sound of the word be more important to the
child than, say, the shape of the object you're holding? It may well be
that this child has lately been fascinated by the night sky, and all shiny
things in it whose names he's just learned. And a banana does look like a
waxing moon. This child is also generalizing, although in a different way
from his friends. He is moreover showing you that he knows how to relate
what he learned before to whatever activity is required of him now, which
is a very good thing to have mastered indeed. (On a side note, it is this
kind of generalization that makes young children, sometimes very
embarrassingly, calls all adult males 'daddy'.)
How do children acquire sentences?
Once the first words are in place, children are fast to understand that
saying several words together in one same utterance is the next step. So,
just as they will try to run as soon as they are able to stand up unaided,
and will then stumble and fall because of lack of practice walking, they
will take effort to say too many words in one go, and will end up jumbling
them all together. Many children start stuttering or stammering at this
multi-word stage of their development exactly for this reason: lack of
practice. Other children may even fall silent altogether for a while, until
they've worked out the very difficult skill of coordinating breathing with
speaking in long utterances. Professional speakers require practice in this
skill too, so that speaking for long periods of time does not wear them out
totally, or impair their delivery. Yet other children won't bother at all
about the way they sound and will just go on producing meaningless
speech until things fall naturally in place for them, even those children
who may have had perfect single-word articulations before.
Other examples of child acquisitional strategies surface in ways that

would also appear to give reason for concern, if we didn't know better.
Say your child uses so-called irregular past tenses like came, drove or
slept with no problem, as well as regular ones like baked or cried. Then
one day he starts saying things like 'Mummy drived me to school today',

or 'I sleeped so well'. What is happening here is that your child has
understood that there is a pattern in some part of the language: some
words (linguists call them 'verbs') can have extra sounds at the end to
show events that happened before the time we are talking about them.
Most verbs are regular in this way, so productions like catched or
swimmed prove that your child has in fact learned a general rule and
immediately started using it to any verb. The same happens with noun
plurals, and your child may start talking about foots or even feets
whereas he talked about feet before. Child language researcher Jean
Berko-Gleason used an ingenious experiment to explain that children are
in fact learning rules of language. For instance, she showed children a
picture of one imaginary, cuddly animal and told the children that the
animal was called a 'wug'. Then she showed a picture with two of these
cuddly beings and asked the children: "Now there are two of them. There
are two ___". The children had to complete her sentence, and they used
the exact plural form 'wugs', showing that they could use the plural rule
to words that they had never heard before. Apparent 'errors' like foots (or
catched) thus mean that learning is making progress as it should: the
previous, 'correct' production of irregular and regular forms was simply
due to imitation.
When should you worry about language development?
The entire child productions described so far is natural, part of typical

language acquisition. But occasionally there can be difficulties in the
process of language acquisition. If a child has not said a recognizable
word with a clear meaning (such as 'mama' for mother) by the age of 18
months, it is advisable to make sure that all is well. It is normal for some
children not to say their first word until the age of 2 years, but at times
there are problems that would benefit from early help, so it is worth
checking things out a little sooner. If your child has not said the first
sentence (such as 'Dere mama', meaning 'There is mama.') by the age of
3 years, it is also worth checking that all is well. If you feel at any time
that your child's speech has become less than it was, or that learning has
stopped, that is another reason for checking it out. The most common
reason for late or deteriorating speech is a hearing problem.
If you suspect that something is amiss with your child's linguistic

development, the first thing you must to do is to consult with your doctor
to be sure your child's development is otherwise normal. The doctor will
find out that your child has (or has not) normal hearing and normal
cognitive and motor skills, among other things, and will guide you about
necessary follow-up to any issues arising from non-language related

problems which may be disturbing language itself. A child may require

hearing aids or medication for ear infections, for example. If your doctor
finds that everything else except language is as it should be, the usual
procedure is to refer the child to a speech-language clinician, who will be
able to diagnose and remedy specific problems in language and/or
speech. Children with hearing problems will also profit from help from a
speech-language clinician and/or an audiologist.
In case if you are in need of a speech-language clinician, take some time

to decide about which clinician to consult with. Assessing child language
in order to diagnose possible problems proceeds through comparison with
developmental norms that have been established for children using
particular languages and particular dialects. These norms may not match
the language(s) or the dialect(s) used by your child. For example, Texan
children (and adults) speak in a different way from New York children
(and adults). By the same token, developmental norms that apply to
English may not apply to Spanish or Mandarin, and developmental norms
accounting for monolingual children will not be relevant to multilingual
children, and vice versa. A competent speech-language therapist, whether
monolingual or multilingual, will recognize this and will be able to address
your child's specific problems accordingly.
Language developmental stages
Language development in children is astounding, and it’s a development

that many parents in reality look forward to. The secret to helping your
child learn language is very simple: talk together lots and listen lots.
 Language development in children: what you need to know

 How to encourage your child’s language development
 Language development: the first six years
 Speech and language: what’s the difference?

Language development in children: what you need to know

Although the first year is really essential for language development in
children, major learning continues throughout a child’s early years. And
let’s not forget, learning language is a lifelong process.
In their first 12 months, babies develop many of the foundations that

support speech and language development. For the first three years or so,
children comprehend a lot more than they can say.
Language development helps your child’s ability to communicate, and

express and identify with feelings. It also supports thinking and problem-
solving, and developing and maintaining relationships. Learning to
understand, utilize and enjoy language is the significant first step in
literacy, and the basis for learning to read and write.
How to encourage your child’s language development

The best way to encourage your child’s speech and language development
is to talk together regularly and naturally.
Talking with your baby

Talk to your baby and treat her as a talker, beginning in her first year.
Think she is talking back to you when she makes sounds and babbles,
and even when she is just paying attention to you. When you finish
talking, give her a turn and wait for her to answer – she will!
When your baby begins babbling, babble back with similar sounds. You
will possibly find that he babbles back to you. This keeps the talking going
and is great fun!
Responding to your baby

As your baby grows up and starts to make use of gestures and words,
respond to her attempts to communicate. For example, if your child

shakes her head, treat that behavior as if she is saying ‘no’. If she points
to a toy, respond as if your child is saying, ‘Can I have that?’ or ‘I like
that’.
When you tune in and respond to your child, it helps him to communicate.
You’ll be shocked at how much he has to say, even before his words
develop.
Everyday talking
Talk about what is occurring. Talk to your baby even if she doesn’t
understand – she soon will. Talk about things that make sense to her, but
at the same time keep in mind to use lots of different words.
As your baby becomes a toddler, keep talking to him – tell him the things
that you’re doing, and talk about the things that he’s doing.
From the time your child starts telling stories, support her to talk about
things in the past and in the future. At the end of the day, talk about
plans for the next day – for instance, making the weekly shopping list
together or deciding what to take on a visit to Grandma. Likewise, when
you come home from a shared outing, talk about it.
Introducing new words

It’s essential for children to be continually exposed to lots of different
words in lots of different contexts. This helps them learn the meaning and
function of words in their world.
Reading with your baby

Read and share books with your baby and go on using more complex
books as he grows. Talk about the pictures. Use a variety of books and
link what’s in the book to what’s happening in your child’s life. Books with
attractive pictures are a great focus for talking.
Read aloud with your child and point to words as you say them. This
shows your child the connection between written and spoken words, and
that words are distinct parts of language. These are important concepts
for developing literacy.
Your local library is a great source of new books.
Following your child’s lead

If your child begins a conversation through talking, gesture or behavior,
reply to it, making sure you stick to the topic your child started.
You can also repeat and construct on what your child says. For
example, if she says, ‘Apple,’ you can say, ‘You want an apple. You want
a red apple. I want a red apple too. Let's have a red apple together’.

Language development: the first six years

Here are just a few of the important things your child might achieve in
language development between three months and six years.
3-12 months
In this period, your baby will most likely coo and laugh, play with sounds
and start to communicate with gestures. Babbling is a significant
developmental stage during the first year and, for many children; words
are beginning to form by around 12 months.
Babbling is often followed by the ‘jargon phase’ where your child will
create unintelligible strings of sounds, often with a conversation-like tone.
This makes his babbling sound meaningful.
First words also begin by around 12 months. Babbling, jargon and new
words might appear together as your child’s first words continue to
emerge.
12-18 months
During this time, first words generally appear (these one-word utterances
are rich with meaning), and by 18 months babies use around 50 words.
Babies can understand more than they say, though, and will be able to
follow simple instructions. In fact your baby can comprehend you when
you say ‘no’ – although she won’t always obey!
If your baby isn’t babbling and isn’t using gestures by 12 months, talk to
your doctor, child and family health nurse or other health professional.
18 months to 2 years
In his second year, your toddler’s vocabulary will almost certainly grow to
around 300 words, and he’ll begin to put two words together into short
‘sentences’. He’ll identify with much of what is said to him, and you’ll be
able to understand what he says to you (most of the time!).
Language developments varies hugely, but if your baby doesn’t have

some words by around 18 months, consult your doctor, child and family
health nurse or other health professional.
2-3 years
Your baby will be capable enough to speak in longer, more complex

sentences, and use a greater variety of speech sounds more accurately

when she speaks. She might play and talk at the same time. Strangers
will most likely be able to understand most of what she says by the time
she’s three.
3-5 years
Now your child is a preschooler, you can imagine longer, more abstract
and complex conversations. He’ll perhaps also want to talk about a wide
range of topics, and his vocabulary will continue to develop. He might well
show that he understands the basic rules of grammar, as he experiments
with more complex sentences. And you can look forward to some
entertaining stories, too.
5-6 years
During the early school years, your child will learn more words and start
to recognize how the sounds within language work together. She’ll also
turn out to be a better storyteller, as she learns to put words together in
a various ways and construct different types of sentences.
Children grow and develop at different rates, and no child accurately fits a
description of a particular age. In each area of development there is a
fairly predictable order or sequence of events, but there is also a wide
difference in what’s normal. If you have any concerns, ask your child and
family health nurse, GP (General Practitioner) or pediatrician or see a
speech pathologist.
Speech and language: what’s the difference?

Speech means to produce the sounds that form words. It’s a physical
activity that is controlled by the brain. Speech requires coordinated,
precise movement from the tongue, lips, jaw, palate, lungs and voice box.
Making these precise movements takes a lot of practice, and that's what
children do in the first 12 months. Children learn to correctly articulate
speech sounds as they develop, with some sounds taking more time than
others.
Language refers to the words that your child comprehends and uses as
well as how he uses them. Language includes spoken and written
language. The parts that make up language comprise of vocabulary,
grammar and discourse:
 Vocabulary is the store of words a person has – like a dictionary

held in long-term memory.

 Grammar, or syntax, is a set of rules about the order in which

words should be used in sentences. These rules are learned
through the experience of language.
 Discourse is a language skill that we use to structure sentences
into conversations, tell stories, poems and jokes, and for writing
recipes or letters.
Language and the brain
Parents of young children and professionals working with young children

watch with anticipation the developmental milestones signifying a child is
picking up the skills expected at a certain age. In the first year of life that
concentration is usually on motor skills, in the second year attention shifts
to language development.
The development of communication through language is an instinctive

process. Language is our most common means of interacting with one
another, and children begin the process naturally. According to
Neurobiologist Dr. Lise Eliot: “the reason language is instinctive is
because it is, to a large extent, hard-wired in the brain. Just as we evolve
neural circuits for eating and seeing, so has our brain, together with a
sophisticated vocal apparatus, evolved a complex neural circuit for rapidly
perceiving, analyzing, composing, and producing language”.
The experiences provided in a child's environment are critical for the

development of language. It is this interplay of nature and nurtures that
result in our ability to communicate, but the process of learning language
begins with how the brain is structured.
The brain is structured for language

According to Neuroscientists baby is born with millions of brain cells, all

he or she will ever need. Each brain cell has branching appendages, called
dendrites that reach out to make links with other brain cells. The places
where brain cells connect are called synapses. When electrical signals
pass from brain cell to brain cell, they cross the synapse between the
cells.
When synapses are stimulated over and over, that pattern of neural
connections is “hard-wired” in the brain. It becomes an efficient,
permanent pathway that allows signals to be transmitted rapidly and
accurately
New technology has allowed us to see the physical differences in a child's

brain that has been appropriately stimulated, versus one that has suffered
lack of stimulation. We know that reorganization of the connections
between brain cells after birth is highly influenced by experiences
provided by the child's environment. Parents play an important role in
influencing the child's cognitive, language, motor, and social emotional
development. It is through providing repeated, positive experiences for
their child that parents have a lasting impact on his or her child's brain
development.
Beneficial habits
Good nutrition and healthy routines are essential to the brain's

developmental process. Infants must receive sufficient fat in their diets
provided by breast milk or formula prepared in the proper strength.
Babies need a lot of sleep, because their brains have to experience both
deep sleep and rapid eye movement sleep for proper development.
Establishing routines for eating and sleeping are among the most vital
things parents can do to support healthy brain development in their child.
Critical periods for learning language
Critical periods in brain development accommodate the development of

specific skills, language being one of these. During certain period in the
child's life, the brain is energetic in forming connections for specific
abilities.
While critical periods are prime times for the development of specific
neural synapses, skills can still be learned, but with greater time and
effort. It is during these critical periods that lack of stimulation or
negative experiences can have the most impact. Parents can help their

child's brain development for language by providing experiences that

allow the child to practice emerging skills.
One of the first windows of opportunity for language comes early in life.
We know that infants start out able to distinguish the sound of all
languages, but that by six months of age they are no longer able to
recognize sounds that are not heard in their native tongue. By six months
of age, infants will have difficulty picking out sounds they have not heard
repeated often.
Language development begins early
Researchers tells us that an infant is able to react to sound 10 weeks

before birth, learning the mother's voice and the sound pattern of the
language she speaks prenatally through bone conduction. A baby takes
comfort in hearing his mother's voice after birth; therefore a mother's
lullaby can be very soothing, particularly if the mother sang to the baby
during pregnancy.
While a newborn does not use words, he is definitely able to

communicate. For young children, crying is a way of communicating.
Responding to the child's cry by holding and/or talking soothingly to her
or him will help establish a sense of trust and security.
This kind of early bonding and attachment to the mother, father or other
close caregiver helps a child develop a broad range of abilities to use and
build upon throughout life. These include the ability to:
 learn
 be self-confident and have high self-esteem
 have positive social skills
 have successful relationships at later ages
 Develop a sense of empathy.
Parents provide the means of learning language
The development of language is tremendously influenced by parent-child

interactions. In the first year, it is important to talk, sing, and read to the
baby often so he is able to learn the sounds of his native language.
During the first six months a child's brain begins to learn which mouth
movements go with the sounds. That is the reason it is essential to have

lots of face-to-face conversations with the baby as the parent interprets

the world around him.
Cooing and then babbling are milestones in language acquisition. Babies

like to mimic what they hear. By talking to the child and imitating the
child's sounds, a parent not only teaches the child sound patterns but
encourages taking turns, a process crucial for conversation. Studies have
revealed that children whose parents spoke to them frequently are
familiar with many more words by age two and scored higher on
standardized tests by age three than those whose parents did not.
In the second year of life, the brain organizes the connections for
language when the child sees pictures in a book and hears the parent give
names for the pictures at the same time. Parents and other primary
caregivers can help language development at this age by reciting nursery
rhymes, songs, and poems throughout the day. Activities such as by
means of a mirror to point out and name facial features are also useful at
this age. Ideal times for story -telling and reading are before bedtime.
Between 24 and 35 months of age the brain is getting better at forming

mental symbols for objects, people, and events. This is directly connected
to the growing ability to use many more words and short sentences.
Delays in language can be due to several of reasons. When parents

suspect such delays it is always sensible to check with a professional.
Repeated ear infections in the first few years delay expressive language.
It is always essential to watch for signs of ear infections in a young child,
such as not reacting to sound, pulling one's ears, unwillingness to suck,
resistance to lying down, or having an upper respiratory infection.
Speaking two languages at home
Hearing two languages spoken at home is a real gain to the child. If a

child hears two languages from birth, he or she will retain the ability to
hear the sounds of both and be able to speak each language with the
accent of a native speaker. If, for example, the mother is a native English
speaker and the father a native Spanish speaker, it will be less confusing
for the child to hear each parent speak in his or her native language.
The child might mix the languages in his or her own speech initially, but
will naturally sort it out by approximately two and one-half years of age.
Then he or she will separate the words belonging to each language and

know which language to use with which parent. By seven years of age,
the child is likely to be able to cope with the two language systems
without any difficulty, using both vocabulary and grammar suitable for his
age.
If a child enters a pre-school and is first exposed to a second language

after the age of three, she will be able to attain the second language
without any difficulty because she knows the rules of communication. In
three to seven months the child will begin to comprehend the second
language. After about two years she will be able to carry-on a fluent
conversation.
Young children learn second language more effortlessly than adults

because the window of opportunity for learning language is still open for
them. Helping the child build her self-confidence during the time she is
learning a second language is very significant.
Music is a great way to help the child learn words and phrases in the new
language. Talking slowly, clearly, and simply is also useful. It is also
essential for parents to continue speaking to the child at home in her
native language because it continues to lay the base for the second
language by providing the basic rules of communication. Also, the parent-
child interaction might suffer if the parents talk less to the child in an
attempt to use the second language.
Support for parents
Parents play a key role in helping their child learn language. Programs
that give parents child development information can help parents
recognize how to nurture their child's growing language skills. These
programs also offer research-based suggestions for parents at each stage
of development.

Second Language Acquisition
What is second language acquisition?

Second language acquisition, or sequential language acquisition, is
learning a second language after a first language is already established.
Children have an easier time learning a second language, but anyone can
do it at any age. It takes a lot of practice!
What is the best way to teach a second language?

There are a lot of different things that factor into the decision about how
to train a person a second language, including the following:
 language spoken in the home

 amount of opportunity to practice the second language
 internal motivation of the learner
 reason that the second language is required (e.g., to learn at
school, to talk to a friend, or for work)
There are different ways to introduce the second language:
 by setting (e.g., English is spoken only in the school, and Urdu is

spoken only at home)
 by topic (e.g., French is spoken only during meal time, and Spanish
is spoken during school/work activities)
 by speaker (e.g., Mom will speak only in German, and Dad speaks
Russian only)
The capability of a person to utilize a second language will depend on his

or her family's ability to speak more than one language. It is significant
for parents/caregivers to provide a strong language model.
How can a speech-language pathologist help?
Speech-language pathologists can help with:

 Speech delays and disorders including articulation, phonology and
motor speech disorders.
 Language delays and disorders, including expression and
comprehension in oral and non-verbal contexts
 Fluency disorders, including stuttering.
 Voice and resonance disorders.
 Swallowing and feeding disorders in adults and, children and infants.
 Cognitive-communicative disorders including social communication
skills, reasoning, problem solving and executive functions.
 Pre-literacy and literacy skills including phonological awareness,

decoding, reading comprehension and writing.
 Communication and swallowing disorders related to other
issues. For example, hearing impairments, traumatic brain injury,
dementia, developmental, intellectual or genetic disorders and
neurological impairments.
Stages of Second Language Acquisition

Judie Haynes:
All new learners of English progress through the same stages to
acquire language. However, the length of time each student
spends at a particular stage may vary greatly.
Stage I: Pre-production
This is the silent period. English language learners may have up to 500
words in their receptive vocabulary but they are not yet speaking. Some
students will, however, repeat everything you say but they are not really
producing language but are parroting.
These new learners of English will listen carefully will be able to copy
words from the board. They will be able to respond to pictures and other
visuals. They can understand and duplicate gestures and movements to
show comprehension. Total Physical Response methods will work well with
them. Teachers should focus attention on listening comprehension
activities and on building a receptive vocabulary.
Stage II: Early production

This stage may last up to six months and students will build up a
receptive and active vocabulary of about 1000 words. During this stage,
students can generally speak in one- or two-word phrases. They can use
short language chunks that have been memorized even though these
chunks may not always be used correctly.
Here are some suggestions for working with students in this stage of
English language learning:
o Ask yes/no and either/or questions.

o Accept one or two word responses.
o Give students the opportunity to participate in some of the whole
class activities.
o Use pictures to support questions.
o Modify content information to the language level of ELLs.
o Build vocabulary using pictures.
o Provide listening activities.
o Simplify the content materials to be used. Focus on key vocabulary

and concepts.
o When teaching elementary age ELLs, use simple books with
predictable text.
o Support learning with graphic organizers, charts and graphs. Begin
to promote writing in English through labeling and short sentences.
Use a frame to scaffold writing.
Stage III: Speech emergence

Students have developed a vocabulary of about 3,000 words and can
speak with simple phrases and sentences. They will ask simple questions
that may or may not be grammatically correct, such as “May I go to
bathroom?” ELLs will also begin short conversations with classmates.
They will comprehend easy stories read in class with the support of
pictures. They will also be able to do some content work with teachers
help. Here are some simple tasks they can complete:
 Sound out stories phonetically

 Read short, modified texts in content area subjects
 Complete graphic organizers with word banks
 Understand and answer questions about charts and graphs
 Match vocabulary words to definitions
 Study flashcards with content area vocabulary
 Participate in duet, pair and choral reading activities
 Write and illustrate riddles
 Understand teacher explanations and two-step directions
 Compose brief stories based on personal experience
 Write in dialogue journals
Dialogue journals are a conversation between the teacher and the

student. They are particularly useful with English language learners.
Students can write about topics that interest them and advance at their
own level and pace. They have a place to express their thoughts and
ideas.
Stage IV: Intermediate fluency

English language learners at the intermediate fluency stage have a
vocabulary of 6000 active words. They are beginning to use more
complex sentences when speaking and writing and are ready to express
opinions and share their thoughts. They will ask questions to make clear
what they are learning in class. These English language learners will be
able to work in grade level math and science classes with some teachers
help.

Student writing at this stage will have many errors as ELLs try to master
the complexity of English grammar and sentence structure. Many
students may be translating written assignments from native language.
They should be expected to produce what they have learned and to make
inferences from that learning. This is the time for teachers to concentrate
on learning strategies. Students in this stage will also be able to
understand more complex concepts.
Stage V: Advanced Fluency

It takes students from 4-10 years to achieve cognitive academic language
proficiency in a second language. Student at this stage will be near-native
in their ability to perform in content area learning. Most ELLs at this stage
have been exited from ESL (English as a second language) and other
support programs. At the beginning of this stage, however, they will need
constant support from classroom teachers particularly in content areas
such as history/social studies and in writing.
The factors that influence the acquisition of a second language
Introduction
Some students learn a new language more quickly and effortlessly than
others. This is known by all who have themselves learned a second
language or taught those who are using their second language in school.
Some language learners are successful by virtue of their sheer
determination, hard work and persistence. However there are other
important factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control
of the learner. These factors can be categorized as internal and external.
Internal factors
Internal factors are those that the individual language learner brings with
him or her to the particular learning situation.

 Age: Second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the

learner. Children, who already have solid literacy skills in their own
language, appear to be in the best position to acquire a new
language efficiently. Motivated, older learners can be very
successful too, but generally struggle to achieve native-speaker-
equivalent pronunciation and intonation.
 Personality: Introverted or anxious learners usually make slower
progress, mostly in the development of oral skills. They take less
advantage of opportunities to speak, or to look for such
opportunities. More outgoing students will not worry about the
inevitability of making mistakes. They will take risks, and thus will
give themselves much more practice.
 Motivation (intrinsic): Intrinsic motivation has been found to
associate strongly with educational achievement. Students who
enjoy language learning and take pride in their improvement will do
better than those who don't.
Extrinsic motivation is also a significant factor. ESL students, for
example, who need to learn English in order to take a place at an
American university or to communicate with others, are likely to
make greater efforts and thus greater progress.
 Experiences: Learners who have acquired general knowledge and
experience are in a stronger position to learn a new language than
those who haven't. For example, student who has already lived in 3
different countries and been exposed to various languages and
cultures has a stronger foundation for learning a further language
than the student who hasn't had such experiences.
 Cognition: In general, it seems that students with greater cognitive
intelligence will make the quicker progress. Some linguists believe
that there is a specific, innate language learning ability that is
stronger in some students than in others.
 Native language: Students learning a second language which is
from the same language family as their first language have, in
general, a much easier task than those who aren't. So, for example,
a Dutch child will learn English more quickly than a Japanese child.
External factors
External factors are those that characterize the particular language

learning situation.
 Curriculum: For ESL students it is important that the totality of

their educational experience is appropriate for their needs.
Language learning is less likely to place if students are fully
submersed into the mainstream program without any extra help or,
on the other hand, not allowed to be part of the mainstream until

they have reached a certain level of language proficiency.
 Instruction: Language teachers are better than others at providing
proper and effective learning experiences for the students in their
classrooms. These students will make faster progress. The same
applies to mainstream teachers in second language situations.
 Culture and status: There is some evidence that students in
situations where their own culture has a lower status than that of
the culture in which they are learning the language make slower
progress.
 Motivation (extrinsic): Students who are given appropriate
encouragement to learn by their teachers and parents will generally
do better than those who aren't
 Access to native speakers: The chance to interact with native
speakers both within and outside the classroom is an important
advantage. Native speakers are linguistic models and can provide
suitable feedback. Second-language learners who have no access
to native speakers are likely to make slower progress, particularly in
the oral/aural aspects of language acquisition.
Literacy through Play
Literacy Learning
The daily interactions of young children with their environment add up to

their language learning. Literacy develops concurrently with oral
language. Children make associations between things they hear or see
with what they read. Oral language encounters provide data for written
language encounters and vice versa. One way children experience social
interactions with their family members and peers is through play.
Play

Play is the way children learn what we, as adults, are unable to teach
them. It is an activity that is self-directed, open-ended, free,
spontaneous, and creative or unique. According to Vygotsky, "play acts as
a tool of the mind enabling children to master their own behavior".
Playing helps children discover their world and become familiar with
people and things in relation to themselves. Play is derived from a child's
intrinsic motivation to understand his/her own needs. Play, like the
development of language, is natural and essential to a child's life. In
addition, play engages children in the process of an activity, as opposed
to the product. Literacy through play is a resource for preschool and
primary teachers who are looking for proven methods for preparing young
children to become confident and flexible readers and writers.
Enhancing Literacy Development through Play
"If one views literacy as an object of the world rather than one of
schooling, and if one asks, 'How do children come to have knowledge of
"significant" objects in the world?,' then it becomes possible to see
the emergence of literacy as something intellectually constructed and
controlled by children, something beginning long before formal instruction
occurs". This principle may also be applied to children's play, evidently
forming a link between play and literacy.
Many parents and teachers still think that in formal academic schooling,
reading, writing, and arithmetic for preschoolers is of greatest
importance. They do not believe play may be useful to a child's learning.
If adults come to see play as a child's way of naturally exploring his or her
environment and seeing how he or she fits into the web of reality,
perhaps their view and perceptions of play will change. Play, like the
development of language, is developmentally appropriate, intellectually
stimulating, child-initiating, socially adaptive, and unique. Bruner claims
that "it is not so much instruction in either language or thinking that
permits the child to develop his powerful combinatorial skills but a decent
opportunity to play around with his language and to play around with his
thinking that does the trick."
Play - based approaches to literacy and numeracy
Play provides a significant ‘context for learning’ where children are able to
discover ideas, solve problems make connections and engage with others.
Play-based learning plays a vital role in the development of literacy and
numeracy. Both literacy and numeracy are forms of communication; ways
in which we represent and share information with others about our world.
Because literacy and numeracy are essential life skills, children need
opportunities to use them (and to see them being used) in real life

situations. Worksheets and other ‘formal’ teaching strategies tend to

make learning abstract and dry. As Marcelle Holliday argues, such ‘de-
contextualized’ approaches can, for many children, make ‘learning more
difficult’. In contrast, when children are exposed to literacy and numeracy
learning through hands-on, practical and play-based experiences, they
are more likely to connect meaningfully and successfully with them. As
children play at shopping in the home corner, using play money and a
cash register, they begin to engage with counting, addition, subtraction
and various other mathematical concepts. Similarly, when children ‘read’
a recipe and measure out ingredients as part of a cooking experience,
they are working with ideas about volume, quantity and measurement
and learning how procedural texts work. Such experiences allow children
to connect with literacy and numeracy at their own pace and to use their
ideas and language in contexts that mirror real life.
Incidental learning
In the early childhood classroom much literacy and numeracy learning is

incidental—meaning it occurs as a result of being in environments rich in
language and mathematics without the need for direct instruction. When
children see language and number concepts used around them in
meaningful ways and as part of their everyday experience they begin to
internalize them. They begin to identify words, letters and numbers and
use language and ideas that they have seen educators or other children
use. An environment that is rich in literacy and numeracy possibilities is
therefore an important starting point. Literacy and numeracy are about
more than just the three R’s—‘reading, writing and arithmetic’. While
these are obviously significant, a broader definition of literacy
incorporates all forms of communication, including the visual and
performing arts as well talking, listening and storytelling. An environment
that encourages all of these plays an essential role in developing
children’s sense of themselves as effective communicators and is likely to
lead more naturally to an interest in reading and writing. Similarly,
numeracy is about more than just counting, recognizing -patterns, sorting
and categorizing objects, talking about time and the patterns of the day,
measuring and calculating amounts, arranging objects in space and
identifying shapes, are all examples of mathematical thinking that
contribute to numeracy. Materials and resources that permit children to
problem-solve and explore the world ‘mathematically’ are therefore key
elements in the development of numeracy. Blocks and other construction
materials, puzzles, and opportunities for patterning and sorting using, for
example, found materials such as shells, seeds or leaves, all provide
experiences that encourage mathematical thinking and the use of
mathematical concepts and language.
Intentional teaching

While incidental learning is an important strategy in a play-based program

it is important to identify that not all learning will happen in this way.
Incidental learning can be powerful but it can also be haphazard. For
every child who develops a clear understanding of a particular idea or
concept there is potentially another who may not. This is particularly true
for complex ideas such as those involved in literacy and numeracy. If we
want children to make important associations and to transfer knowledge
and understanding between experiences, then we need to think beyond a
purely incidental approach. It can be easy to assume that the educator’s
role in a play-based program is always hands off we prepare the
environment, provide the resources and stimulus and then sit back to
watch the result. Sometimes we will take this approach. But sometimes
we also need to be involved. When educators engage with children as
they are learning they are able to support, extend and challenge their
thinking. They can provide language to describe what is happening and
help to scaffold children’s learning and understanding. This involvement,
when it is deliberate, thoughtful and purposeful, can be thought of as
intentional teaching. Being intentional about literacy and numeracy means
taking an active role in promoting it—through the experiences we provide
and also through the way that we interact with children and deliberately
focus on literacy and numeracy concepts. This will involve spontaneous
responses to children’s play where we take advantage of opportunities to
talk about literacy and numeracy as they arise, as well as more carefully
planned experiences that we have deliberately designed to introduce or
extend an idea or concept.
Literacy and numeracy from birth
While our focus on literacy and numeracy will often be stronger in the
preschool years it is imperative to remember that literacy and numeracy
learning begin from birth. For those who work with children under four
there is still much to be done. Although it may not look much like the
literacy and numeracy work we engage in with older children, these
interactions give the foundation for children’s later learning. The use of
language in all its forms is crucial for literacy development. Singing,
talking and reading with babies and toddlers, as well as older children, is
important. The more children hear language used, and the more
opportunities they have to use it themselves, the more they learn about
how it works. When the time comes for written literacy this understanding
of oral or spoken language is very useful. For infants and babies, nursery
rhymes, songs, picture books and to-and-fro conversations are all good
examples of ‘literacy experiences’. As they become mobile and more able
to explore their world children also begin to comprehend spatial
relationships and distance—key mathematical concepts. Opportunities to
climb over, under and through, as well as to look at the world from
different perspectives, all add up to the development of spatial
awareness. Incidental counting and measurement experiences help to

introduce children to the concepts of number and quantity. Cumulatively,

such experiences add up to something significant. When they become
part of everyday, and when we realize their potential as learning
experiences and take advantage of our opportunities to observe and
support children’s developing understandings, they form a critical basis
for later learning.
Understanding literacy and numeracy
Effective literacy and numeracy learning is not just about providing

children with opportunities to use their developing skills. It is also
essential that educators have a strong understanding of the concepts that
they are seeking to teach. As the EYLF (Early Years Learning Framework)
points out in relation to numeracy: Educators require a rich mathematical
vocabulary to accurately describe and explain children’s mathematical
ideas and to support numeracy development. Without such knowledge it
is doubtful that we will be able to identify and capitalize on opportunities
for literacy and numeracy learning when they present themselves. Nor
will we be able to effectively plan for the ongoing development of this
learning.
Children gain an understanding of the different elements of

literacy practices via talking, listening and
expressing themselves creatively.
Four Skills Activities:
Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening
When a teacher makes use of activities that have been particularly

designed to include several language skills simultaneously (such as
reading, writing, listening, and writing), they provide their students with

situations that allow for well-rounded development and progress in all

areas of language learning.
What are the four skills?
 Reading (comprehension skill)

 Listening (comprehension skill)
 Speaking (production skill)
 Writing (production skill)
How are the four skills used in the language classroom?
Through daily activities, teachers give learners with opportunities to

build up each skill: students listen(to the teacher use the target
language, to a song, to one another in a pair
activity), speak(pronunciation practice, greetings, dialogue creation
or recitation, songs, substitution drills, oral speed reading, role
play), read (instructions, written grammar drills, cards for playing
games, flashcards) and write (fill-in-the-blank sheets, sentences
that describe a feeling, sight or experience, a dialogue script, a
journal entry).
How can the four skills be used together effectively?
The four skills work in partnership when the activities that require their
use are designed to support learners in the process of learning, creating
and producing a specific product. Four approaches in particular are
structured so that the four skills can be used simultaneously. These
approaches are: the focal skill approach, content-based instruction, task-
based instruction and the project-based approach.
The Focal Skill Approach

The object of the focal skill approach is studying in the SL in order to
acquire it. This second language curriculum emphasize on the balanced
development of listening, speaking, reading and writing by measuring
competency in each skill and then focusing on the development of the
weakest skill. Resources like those developed by the International Center
for Focal Skills (ICFS) exercise placement tests to identify weak skill
areas.
Content-based Instruction (CBI)

Oxford (2001) describes approaches to CBI, which comprise theme-based
& adjunct learning. Theme-based CBI focuses on a theme of high interest
to students and develops a wide range of language skills around that
theme. The learning of the content needs considerable exposure to a

variety of forms of information, which, in turn, requires the use of all four
modalities.
In the adjunct form of CBI, language and content courses are taught
separately but are carefully coordinated so that literacy, oral language
development and thinking skills are positively enhanced. In this approach,
the content teacher presents content to students while the language
teacher brings vocabulary, grammar and sub-skill development to
students’ attention through typical exercises, all of which focus on the
lexicon of the content.
Task-based Instruction (TBI)

According to Nunan (1999), task-based instruction (TBI) uses tasks or
stand-alone activities which need comprehending, producing,
manipulating or interacting in the target language. The amount of
listening, speaking, reading and writing involved to complete the problem
posed by the task is dictated by the task itself; however, most complex
(multi step) real-life tasks that take learners into the world outside the
classroom will make use of all four skills. TBI helps learners discover the
multitude of communication opportunities provided in their environment.
The tasks themselves are scaffold according to the cognitive demand
requisite to complete them and can be carried out individually, in pairs or
in small cooperative groups.
Project-based approach
This approach concretizes the integration of not only the four skills but
also language, culture, experience and learning strategies. With the
careful selection of a final project that need learners to exhibit what they
have learned through both oral and written production, the teacher plans
backwards to recognize what aspects of language, culture, experience and
learning strategies are required to complete the end project.
What are some examples of activities that integrate the four

skills?
Two activities that make use of all four skills in tandem are Self-
introduction and Reading and Retell.
Self-introduction takes the answers to a series of personal questions

(name, age, grade level, where you live, members of your family, favorite
sports, animals, colors, subjects, etc.) and sequences them into a self
introduction. Students are given large visuals to trigger each component
of the self introduction. The teacher can point to each picture while
modeling a self-introduction (students are listening) and then invite
learners to introduce themselves (speaking) to one or two of their peers.
Some of the visuals can then be changed and the students can be invited
to introduce themselves to others in the class to whom they have never
spoken. This activity can be adapted to become a regular (daily, weekly)
warm-up activity to get learners talking in the target language. Having

covered listening and speaking in the oral self-introduction, a situation
can then be created wherein learners must write a self-introduction to a
potential home stay host. The same picture clues can be used. The
picture clues provide learners with support without giving them a text to
memorize.
In multilevel SL classes, graded readers can be excellent springboards for

another activity that integrates the four skills- a reading and retell.
First, learners select a book or story at their own level and read it.
Learners are then given a template to follow to summarize their thoughts
about the story (writing). The summary is designed to help learners
measure the amount of detail required in a retell. After additional
practice reading the summary silently and aloud several times, learners
are asked to choose two or three illustrations from the book to help them
tell the story. They then practice telling the story by using the pictures
and remembering what they wrote in the template. Students find a
partner who has not read the same story and retell (speaking) their story
to one another using the selected illustrations. Partners not only listen to
the retell but also complete a feedback checklist (writing) about the retell.
After reading the feedback, partners switch roles.
Why are four skills activities useful?

Four skills activities in the language classroom serve many important
purposes: they give learners scaffold support, opportunities to create,
contexts in which to use the language for exchanges of real information,
evidence of their own ability (proof of learning) and, most essential,
confidence.
To have full mastery of a language, individuals need to be proficient in

reading, speaking, listening and writing. These four skills, as they are
referred to, are interconnected because using a language usually requires
using more than one skill at a time. However, learners can be more
competent in one skill than another. Language teachers must teach
students in a way that encourages mastery of all four skills. The research
on the skills draws from linguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology and
cognitive science.
Overview
In the field of English as a second language, language is frequently

discussed in terms of its four component skills:
• Reading,
• Speaking,

• Listening and
• Writing
To have complete mastery of the language, individuals must be proficient

in these four skills. Yet the four skills do not exist as separate entities
within the language; to the contrary, all of the skills are interconnected.
When students are in a conversation, they are not just speaking, but also
listening. When students listen to a lecture in class, they may also take
notes. At the same time, it is possible for students to be more competent
in one skill than another. Students from some language backgrounds may
have no trouble reading and writing in English, but find the sounds of the
language harder to produce. On the other hand, students from orally-
based cultures may find it easier to speak than to write. Some students
can speak a lot, but cannot comprehend much of what they hear. The
task for the language teacher is to give instruction that facilitates the
development of all four skills.
While the four skills are inseparable in terms of their use, research on the
teaching of the four skills typically focuses on one component skill with
the aim of better understanding the processes involved in the acquisition
of that specific skill. The research draws upon developments in the fields
of psychology, linguistics, psycholinguistics, and cognitive science. In the
sections that follow, the research and theories related to each of the four
skills are presented.
1. Listening comprehension is the receptive skill in the oral

mode.
When we speak of listening what we really mean is listening and

understanding what we hear.
Listening, one of the means of language communication is used most

widely in people’s daily lives. In addition, teaching the learners a lot of
listening activities is a good way of enlarging their vocabulary. On the
other hand, it also helps the learners develop their listening
comprehension. For instance, people know that the largest difference
between mother language learning and foreign language learning is the
environment. For a foreign language, we can meet it only in formal places
and classes. Training and practicing the oral reading is not a day’s work.

Practice is essential. Only through the practice can the learners improve
their listening comprehension.
2. Speaking is the productive skill in the oral mode. It is like the

other skills, is more complicated than it seems at first and
involves more than just pronouncing words.
Interactive speaking situations comprise of face-to-face conversations and

telephone calls, in which we are alternately listening and speaking, and in
which we have a chance to ask for clarification, repetition, or slower
speech from our conversation partner. Some speaking situations are
partially interactive, such as when giving a speech to a live audience,
where the convention is that the audience does not disrupt the speech.
The speaker however can see the audience and judge from the
expressions on their faces and body language whether or not he or she is
being understood.
Some few speaking situations may be totally non-interactive, such as

when recording a speech for a radio broadcast.

Speaking is often connected with listening. For example, the two-way

communication makes up for the defect in communicative ability in the
traditional learning. Two-way means the relationship of the
communication between the teacher and the students at school. This
relationship is associated with the communicative activities between two
people. It can make a fresh environment for speaking language. The two-
way communication can extend the dialogue limitlessly. This is its
advantage. At the same time, if the speakers want to give the correct
response, he has to think hard, the sentence is not easily forgotten which
is created by themselves through thinking, sometimes with the teacher’s
hint. They can talk freely and express themselves as well as they can.
3. Reading is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can

develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often
develops along with them, especially in societies with a highly-
developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary
that helps listening comprehension at the later stages,
particularly.
Reading is a significant way of gaining information in language learning

and it is a basic skill for a language learner. There are a lot of reading
exercises in an examination today. But all these readings must be done in
restricted time. So learners are asked to read them appropriately and
with a certain speed. For instance, someone reads word by word.
Someone reads with his finger pointing to the words or with his head

shaking. Those are all bad habits. They should read phrase by phrase. Do
not blink eyes so often and shake head. Just move the eyeball. That is
enough. If they want to get more word information, there must be a
proper distance between their eyes and the reading material.
4. Writing is the productive skill in the written mode. It, too, is

more complicated than it seems at first, and often seems to be
the hardest of the skills, even for native speakers of a
language, since it involves not just a graphic representation of
speech, but the development and presentation of thoughts in a
structured way.
Writing is one way of providing variety in classroom procedures. It

provides a learner with physical evidence of his achievements and he can
determine his development. It helps to strengthen their grasp of
vocabulary and structure, and complements the other language skills.
Sentence is the base of an article. So he should begin his writing with
sentences. For example, translation, sentence pattern exchanging, and
text shortening and rewriting. It helps to comprehend the text and write
compositions. It can foster the learner’s ability to summarize and to make
use of the language freely.


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International Diploma in Teachers Training Program

Chapter 4 -Importance of Language Learning

Copyright 2015 @ International Training Academy Page 1

Language is a very important part of life. Communication between people

Is the language acquisition process the same for all children?

All children acquire language in the similar way, regardless of what

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We begin with a number of observations regarding child learning in

How do children develop?

Do children copy adults exactly?

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Are speech and language the same?

Since speech and language are independent abilities, emerging language

What speech and language development have in common is that they

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How long does it take to acquire language?

Language acquisition takes time, a long time, because all learning

Do all children learn at the same rate?

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Language acquisition is not a competitive sport either. Children are not

How do children handle the language acquisition process?

Respecting children means learning to understand them. Children will

Children have no idea that 'language' is something that adults worry

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reality is that many of us caregivers forget to look for what is there, in

What strategies do children use in learning language?

How do children acquire pronunciation?

The basic insight that we achieve from children's developing pronunciation

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to be acquired in the same order across languages, we should keep in

Vowels (the sounds usually spelt a, e, i, o, u in English) are easier than

How do children acquire words?

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How do children acquire sentences?

Other examples of child acquisitional strategies surface in ways that

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When should you worry about language development?

The entire child productions described so far is natural, part of typical

If you suspect that something is amiss with your child's linguistic

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problems which may be disturbing language itself. A child may require

In case if you are in need of a speech-language clinician, take some time

Language developmental stages

Language development in children is astounding, and it’s a development

 Language development in children: what you need to know

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Language development in children: what you need to know

In their first 12 months, babies develop many of the foundations that

Language development helps your child’s ability to communicate, and

How to encourage your child’s language development

Talking with your baby

Responding to your baby

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Introducing new words

Reading with your baby

Your local library is a great source of new books.

Following your child’s lead

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