The Antecedents of Language Development

What is the meaning of antecedent?

It means that which precedes or goes before. So therefore, antecedents of the language development talks about the ways or means which help the child to prepare him/her in learning the language. Just like in going to school you prepare yourself. Now here are the following devices that makes up the antecedents.

PSUEDODIALOGUES

This is one of the early training devices. Characterized by the give and take of the conversation between the child and the mother or other person. Adults maintain the flow of conversation. Example: oooglie oooglie googlie googlie

PROTODECLARATIVES

The child uses gestures to make a description about the statement.

PROTOIMPERATIVES

The child still uses gestures but these gestures are used to let someone do for him/her. Make statements about the things and let someone do it for him/her.

Bilingual Language Development

• Bilingualism is the ability to speak or write fluently in two languages. • It refers to those children who

speak/have been spoken to in two languages in the home since birth and who are spoken to in only or both of those two languages at daycare or school

Aside from the obvious advantage of being able to speak more than one language,it impacts the child positively in the sense of self esteem ,future job opportunities and ability to live and travel abroad.

There are two major patterns inbilingual language acquisition:

• Simultaneous Bilingualism• Sequential Bilingualism.

• In simultaneous bilingualism,the child acquires two languages at the same time before the age of 3 years• In the first stage they may mix

words or parts of words from both languages in the first stage.

• Stage 2 occurs at 4 years and older when distinction between the two languages takes place ,and the child uses each language seperately

e.g. I like ice-cream. Gusto ko ng sorbetes.

• Sequential bilingualism also occurs before the child is 3 years old, but the child can draw on the knowledge and experience of the first language while acquiring the second language

Ages of bilingual acquisiton One way of categorizing types of bilingual acquisition is by the age at which the two languages are acquired- infants, child, adolescent, and adult.

Infant or early bilingual acquisiton involves the child learning two languages virtually simultaneosly from the outset. Sometimes this results from having parents who have different native languages, but also speak the other parent’s language.

• Early age of bilingual exposure has a significant impact on multiple aspects of a child’s development: linguistic, cognitive and reading.Children who experience early and extensive exposure to both of their languages quickly grasp the fundamentals of both of their languages and in a manner similar to that of monolingual language learners

Child bilingual acquisiton may start quite early in life, but involves the successive acquisition of two languages, as do adolescent and adult bilingualism.

This may be occasioned by the family moving to another country, the arrival of a caregiver who speaks a different language, or the child starting a nursery class or school is taught in a different language from the one used at home.

Adolescent bilingual acquisition refers to the acquisiton of a second language after puberty, while adult bilingual acquisition refers to acquisition after the teen years.

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES

Monolingual children can differ in the types of strategies they use when first to start to

talk.

Analytic learners Gestalt learners(left brain dominant) (right brained)

Analytic Learners

• learn single words and later string them together in multiword uttereances.

learn more quickly in large part because things are usually taught in an analytic manner in the public school

Gestalt learners

• Concentrate on acquiring multiwords expressions(You know what? I wanna do it, etc) , which they initially treat as a whole, and only break down into their constituent parts.

A comparison between analytic and gestalt modes in language acquisition

Analytic Mode Gestalt Mode•Basic units of language are single words.

•Basic units of language may be words, multiword utterances, phrases, and/or clauses

Analytic Mode Gestalt Mode•Early language acquisition involves movement from single words to two and three-words utterances

•Early language acquisition involves acquisition of multiword utterances functioning as single units.

COGNITIVE ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUALISM

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

2. In bilingual homes, infants readily discriminate between two languages phonologically and grammatically.

3. Learning a grammatical device as using “s” to denote plurals in one language facilitate learning corresponding devices in other language.

44. Bilingualism is associated with an advantage in metalinguistic ability or capacity to think about language among preschool and school age children.

5. Most bilingual children manifest greater abiliy than monolingual children when it comes to focusing attention on language skills.

Bilingual children have been shown to have:

1. better metalinguistic awareness (ability to identify and describe characteristics and features of language); 2. better classification skills; 3. better concept formation; 4. better analogical reasoning; 5. better visual-spatial skills; 6. better storytelling skills; 7. better semantic development.

COGNITIVE DISADVANTAGES OF

BILINGUALISM

1. Limited Vocabulary Infants in bilingual homes haveexpressive vocabularies thatare as large as those of the monolingual, but the words they know are divided between two languages resulting into a more limited vocabulary which continues into the school years.

2. Think more slowly in the language in which they have the lesser fluency.Bilingual children are fluent in both languages and thus, encounter fewer problems,But they, do not attain equal fluency.

3. Parents who choose bilingualism should consider whether they can help their children achieve fluency in both languages.

4. Children who speak their immigrant parents language tend to be attached to their parents culture of origin and therefore are able to speak the language.

aLanguage and culture have important implications for how children learn languages in school and how teachers teach language.

Some Implications are:

1. Children use the four language system at the same time in the process of communicating.

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

3. Children’s cultural and linguistic diversity impact on the student’s learning process.

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