Topic: Brief Introduction on the Role of Interaction in Early Second Language Acquisition
A. Introduction
Various hypotheses have been made by scholars to study the second language acquisition (SLA) in order to benefit the understanding of the language learning process. According to Beller (2008), most hypotheses focus on the successive SLA, such as the behaviouristically oriented ‘contrastive hypothesis’, the nativist-oriented ‘identity hypothesis’, as well as the interlanguage hypothesis, while few of the studies have paid attention to the SLA of bilingual pre-school-aged children. With the increasing immigrants and importance of SLA realized by the bilingual parents, their children tend to learn the second language (L2) together with the first language (L1) at an early stage. As the limitation of the cognition and maturity, children learn language mostly from the outer environment stimulation created by their parents, educators and peers. The quality and quantity of language input, functioning as the stimulation, by interacting with the people around the children have a positive influence on children’s language learning (Bradley and Caldwell 1976; Clarke-Stewart 1973; McCartney 1984; and NICHD 2000). Therefore, it is beneficial for both parents and teachers to know how the interaction can improve the children’s English proficiency.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the role of the interaction in early L2 development and the implication of the interaction of children in education. This paper is going to introduce the topic in three aspects. In the first part, the literature review will include the interaction with the parents, the teachers and peers respectively. The second part is the implications of the int...
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...e language proficiency of pre-school children. The previous researches show that through interaction with parents, especially mothers, teachers and peers, the grammar, semantics and lexis of the L2 have been improved in certain degree. Given the positive effect of the interaction to the language proficiency, parents and teachers should apply the interaction skills in teaching the young children L2. Parents should pay attention to the use of open questions and take up different positions to stimulate communication with children, while the teachers should focus on creating a social interaction context to encourage verbal interaction of the children with teachers and their peers. However, due to the limitation of the author, the importance and methods of interaction may not be fully introduced. The present findings may also provide some advice for parents and teachers.
The research intervention was developed and based on the theoretical ideas of Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky theory states the importance of social interactions and assistance from an experienced adult, while the child is learning. (Driscoll, 2005). The research question was created with the idea that parental involvement and social interactions will have a positively affect in a students language development.
The Interactionist Perspective focuses on the primary role of sociocultural interaction in children’s development of language knowledge. This perspective contends that children acquire language through their attempts to communicate with the world around them. This perspective encourages teachers to focus on providing many social interactions in which oral and written language are used. Teachers should provide students with many “talking: opportunities, so children can begin to understand the ways in which language functions. Adults play an important role as they support children’s language development by serving as an expert who often creates conditions that make for effective communication. Adults can use the zone of proximal development by
It is important to maintain children’s home language as it may help them learn and understand a second language. Barratt-Pugh (2000) discusses the benefits of bilingualism and maintaining it through early childhood settings, also mentions the concerns families have for their children maintaining two languages through schooling. Research within the article states that children who speak more than one language will have a higher level of understanding literacy content, form, genre, as well as understand the differences and translating within both languages. This demonstrates a contrast of strengths and experiences with literacy (linguist...
These include the Transitional Model, Subtractive Bilingualism, Additive Bilingualism, the Separate Underlying Proficiency (SUP) Model, the Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP) Model, the Thresholds Theory, and the Developmental Interdependence Hypothesis. The models show the relationship between a language learner’s L1 and the language being learnt (L2).
Most people who grow up with a foreign language spoken in there house grow up with an advantage in society. This advantage can only occur once the individual learning that foreign language also learns the dominant language spoken in that country. Once both of these languages are learned and mastered, the individual has now placed them se...
Child development language is a process by which children come to communicate and understand language during early childhood. This usually occurs from birth up to the age of five. The rate of development is usually fast during this period. However, the pace and age of language development vary greatly among children. Thus, the language development of a child is usually compared with norms rather than with other individual children. It is scientifically proven that development of girls language is usually at a faster rate than that of boys. (Berk, 2010) In other terms language development is also a crucial factor that reflects the growth and maturation of the brain. However, this development usually retards after the age of five making it very difficult for most children to continue learning language. There are two major types of language development in children. These include referential and expressive language development styles. In referential language development, children often first speak single words and then join the words together, first into –word sentences and then into th...
...interact with their caregivers and through interaction not only their cognitive abilities are shaped by also their personality and behaviour in later stage of their life (Triandis & Suh, 2002). The essay is considering the background that social relation flourishes, namely interaction child – adult and peer relations. Through their early experiences with others, children develop their understanding of the world. By simple activities that are carried out on daily basis between children and caregivers, children are able to gain the meaning of new techniques and learning strategies, they expand their existing knowledge and experience new things. The interesting aspect is to elaborate on social interaction within different groups of children. Although the cognitive abilities may not fully develop in every child, social interaction encourages and prompts the progress.
This essay is going to illustrate the different stages in language acquisition that children pass through and elicit the theories in accordance.
Language is a multifaceted instrument used to communicate an unbelievable number of different things. Primary categories are information, direction, emotion, and ceremony. While information and direction define cognitive meaning, emotion language expresses emotional meaning. Ceremonial language is mostly engaged with emotions but at some level information and direction collection may be used to define a deeper meaning and purpose. There is perhaps nothing more amazing than the surfacing of language in children. Children go through a number of different stages as language develops. According to Craig and Dunn, (2010), “Even before birth, it appears that infants are prepared to respond to and learn language” (p. 112). Children develop these skills quickly with nature and nurture influences. Researchers have proposed several different theories to explain how and why language development occurs. This paper is an overview of the process of early childhood language development with research evidence supporting the information stated.
The aim of this essay is to explore language acquisition and compare and contrast different theories of language acquisition and language development. Language in its most basic form is used to communicate our needs and wants. It encompasses a range of modes of delivery including signing, spoken and written words, posture, eye contact, facial expressions and gestures. So how do we learn ‘language’? Are we born with the skills for communication, or is it something that we have to learn or have taught to us? Four theories are looked at in this essay to determine how children acquire and then develop language. These theories include behaviourist, nativist, cognitivist and sociocultural. This essay will highlight some similarities and differences in each theory and what impact these have on a child’s acquisition and development of language. Lastly we will look at the implications of these theories when working with children. Can a classroom teacher deliver a quality literacy program based on just one of these theories or does it need to incorporate components of all four? Sims, (2012) pp. 21 states ‘’High-quality learning experiences in the early years of life enhance children’s cognitive and language skills’’. This places a great responsibility on educators and teachers alike to provide an environment which is rich in learning opportunities that will encourage both the acquisition and development of language.
Long, M. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W.Ritchie and T.Bhatia (eds.) Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (San Diego, CA: Academic Press), 413-68.
In order to understand Bilingual education it must first be defined, as the compilation of multicultural views through which diversity is enriched and bilingualism becomes an ability to communicate with two or more languages with similar degree of proficiency language (Gallo, Pinuelas and Youngs 2008). Other perspectives state that the process of bilingual education is a process which educates students to be effective in a second language while maintaining and nurturing their first (Necochea and Cline 2000). In this process of educating students in a bilingual education many students do not completely acquire both languages. We would also have to consider the meaning of language acquisition, the process where children acquire their first language. Some children may attain one or more first languages depending on their environment children grow up in for example if a child grows up in an environment of only English they will only acquire that language, but a child that is exposed to both Vietnamese and English and are heard equally will acquire both languages. Other considerable research found that “young children do not learn another language effortlessly” that they do not learn faster with more exposure to the new language, that their oral fluency outstrips their academic competence, and that they require many years of grade level academic ability in the new language”(Berman, 1997.p17). It is important to understand the effectiveness of bilingual education in schools setting to better sever students in acquiring both languages and to smoothly transition to all English instruction.
There are three main theories of child language acquisition; Cognitive Theory, Imitation and Positive Reinforcement, and Innateness of Certain Linguistic Features (Linguistics 201). All three theories offer a substantial amount of proof and experiments, but none of them have been proven entirely correct. The search for how children acquire their native language in such a short period of time has been studied for many centuries. In a changing world, it is difficult to pinpoint any definite specifics of language because of the diversity and modification throughout thousands of millions of years.
When a child is first born, they are catapulted into a world of language. They are exposed to varying vocabulary, grammar and intonation and depending on where they live in the world, they will acquire the language of their care givers. The world around them is an external factor that carves First Language Acquisition into a child so young. Language is thought to be “the central factor in the social life of infants”. (Eve V. Clark, 2009)
According to (Wisniewski, 2007), second language learning process differs from first language acquisition, with the latter taking place usually from infancy in a community using a specific language and affected mainly by neurological developments in the brain (McCain, 2000) while the former taking place usually in schools or later in life and affected by age and associated characteristics (McCain, 2000).