1.
Identification and
description of the stages of language development.
It is generally accepted that children learn
language in two phases: The pre-verbal stage (first four) and the grammatical
(the last four stages). The first four stages consist of sounds, babbling,
holophrases and two word sentences. The last four stages consist of telegraphic
sentences, joined sentences, generalizations and overgeneralizations. In an
excerpt from “'Stages of Language Development' from Early Childhood Education," the
authors carefully present 7 stages (Driscoll & Nagel, 2008).[1]
Although scholars do not agree on the stages of language development, they do agree that children go through stages in their acquisition
of a language. One such scholar is Stephen Krashen.
Krashen believes that teaching grammar does not help in language
acquisition except if the students are interested in the subject and the target
language is the medium of instruction. When students become aware of their
lacunas and the teacher is able to teach them, then grammar will help in
language acquisition. For example, each time I wanted to teach a grammar lesson
like past tense or sentence structures, I used immigration or love topics that
rile them up. At that very moment, the classroom becomes the perfect place to
teach them those concepts.
Krashen divided his into 5 stages, Stage 1-
The Silent/Receptive or Pre-emergent Stage in which the student starts to learn
the alphabet, phonemes and allomorphs. Children are given the alphabet to practice
with. He called his stage II-The Early Production or Emergent Stage. At
this stage, the student will improve their reading skills. Kids use
the alphabets to build worlds and then read them aloud to their parents or
closest person around them. Stage
III: The Speech Emergence or Basic Stage is actually when the child will be
able to read aloud and construct sentences. In Stage IV: The Intermediate
Language Proficiency Stage, the student will be able to differentiate between
spoken and written language. Stage V: The Advanced Language Proficiency Stage
showed how the student was able to apply the knowledge in contemporary times. He
went further to He went on to describe 5 hypotheses.
The Acquisition-Learning
Krashen proposes two systems under the
Acquisition –learning hypothesis. Acquisition is subconscious while learning is
conscious. In other words, the learner does not really care if they are
speaking or writing well, in so far as they speak or write. In learning system,
they are careful of what they speak or write. The learning here is more
organized than in the acquisition system.
The Monitor hypothesis
The monitor hypothesis shows that while the
learner is learning the new language, he or she monitors it as they learn
because they do not do so during acquisition since acquisition is done
subconsciously. Krashen thinks that monitoring should be minor except in
situations of deviations from normal speech.
The Input hypothesis
It explains how people acquire a second
language. Language is acquired when we understand what is being taught or what
we learn.
The Natural
Order hypothesis
It states that all learners acquire language
naturally the same way. They pick up the things that are simple to understand.
It does not matter the age or native language.
Affective Filter hypothesis
People learn language better when there is no
filter during their acquisition. Those filters are things like motivation,
positive self-esteem and level of anxiety
The conclusion is that in language development, the social interaction plays
a great role in proper language development. This correlates with the Social
Learning Theory which posists that learning occurs only in social context
and can occur through observation or direct instruction, and the Social
Cognitive Theory which theorizes that part of human acquisition of
knowledge will come from social interactions and observations.
For example, when children are born, their
brains start to study the speech patterns and words they hear by social
interaction. Since their parents are the closest to them, what they say and how
they say it is very crucial because of the children’s mimicry which will start
with the holophrases and telegraphic speeches. Children will be learning more
through imitation because they target social skills: effective communication
with people because the child does not know how to interact with others yet.
The child will exhibit some comorbidity. There is that abstract modeling
whereby she has been seeing the same thing that it has become some normalcy.
In language development, behavior is sometimes developed too in a social
context of violence through observations and direct instruction according to Bandura’s
Social Cognitive Theory.
2.
Activities
that elicit language acquisition at home and in school.
There
are a lot of activities that elicit language acquisition both at home and in
school. One of them is simulation.
Thirumalai underscores it in this article, “Simulation
in language learning acquisition” in these words, “Simulations very
openly promote effective interpersonal relations and social transactions
between participants (Jameel, 2011).”[2] In other words, when you present language learning
patterns, the exchange and interactions thereof will be based on the proclivity
of the learner. As they learn, their worldviews, feelings and actions are very
strongly influenced.
A.
Teaching Strategies that work.
There are various strategies for getting student
involvement. Student involvement is paramount in boosting their
self-confidence. One of the ways we could do that is by employing physical
activities. It will hype the tempo of the class and bring out the personality
of each student which will help them in feeling free in the classroom. Each
time we participate in an activity, we remember it better than the one we just
read or saw. It keeps most people at the same pace on the same stage. Research
has proven that physical activity involves left and right brains.
Another way we could get student
involvement is by paring them in groups i what is generally called " Group Study." Most students come from different
cultures. By working in pairs, it may reduce cultural differences because cultural
differences could summon a subjective implementation of classroom rules and
mean different things to different students. That can impede the apprehension
of content material. I usually called it Community Learning or Communal
Studies. However, it has its own disadvantage in that a disruptive student may
hijack a whole group, escheating them from the lesson of the day. Group studies
also reduce anxiety. The indefatigable students serve as boosts to the languid
ones.
Further activities to get more
student involvement for language learners is by using bilingual books. Firstly,
most books with bilingual labels are less culturally restrictive. As such, students easily identify themselves
with the language. Secondly, it refreshes their minds as they look at words in
their native language in other languages. This will encourage writing in
the second language because it gives the students a ready word pool to select
from. It turns the word from being abstract to concrete. That is because
they are seeing the word not only in a language they do not know but a language
they know especially when it is accompanied by visuals. Visuals will create a
mental picture in the learner that will reinforce the theoretical abstraction
you have been giving them. Some of the most effective visuals are visual aids
in progressive disclosure, overhead foils and slides because they catch the
attention of the learner, push them to anticipate what you are bringing next
and that includes them in the teaching and learning processes.
B.
Proper
Planning and Preparation. When a lesson is well planned and prepared for, it
will elicit acquisition.
To plan well, you use the student’s background
knowledge because language acquisition becomes natural, reducing the stress. By
using previous background, we come into contact with habitual and existent
knowledge and cognates that will facilitate understanding.
Clarifying a lesson to a child by explaining key
vocabulary which will catch their interest more than if they were looking at it
like a dog is watching a TV. We have inbuilt positive attitude in the students.
It is important to constantly ask probing questions as they read to create
understanding, and also to constantly make flashbacks and allusions. Lessons
should be by applying it to their everyday life. Language acquisition should
always have inherent study of literature by designing elements of literature (plot,
setting, themes, characters and life lessons) chart to explore the deeper
meaning. Finally, the lesson should always end with an imaginative writing
exercise to spell out their point of view.
C. Conducive
Learning Environment.
Another element to elicit language acquisition is to
create a conducive learning environment. Every learner needs to feel
comfortable to learn, whether at home or in school. When most of my students
came, they were not able to read. Now at least I am looking forward to putting
some of them into AP classes because they can read, write and interpret literature.
I had an Indian student who was failing a class because she misjudged the
teacher did not like her. I spoke with her and assisted her in her lesson, and
now she is making a hundred percent- hse is an "A" student. Every human being wants to be in a place where he
or she is loved, accepted and valued to perform at their maximum capability.
It advisable to use strategies like Interactive Read
Aloud because by giving the students opportunities to participate, speak and
write, they turn to build their self-confidence. The biggest difficulty from
the initial stages that language learners-kids and adults have to surmount from
the initial stages is the fear of not sounding right. By reading and mimicking what they hear, they find the environment a better place to learn. More so, as
they read aloud at times in class, they themselves become the teacher to one
another, and that reduces the fear of failure too. In addition, it increases
the animation of the class to a point that even kids who are not used to
speaking want to speak. There are a couple of reasons why anxiety becomes a
major factor when acquiring a language. The fear of not succeeding or the fear
of a teacher who is always correcting you and drawing your attention to better
pronunciation and the lack of support structures to facilitate apprehension:
cultural interpretation, accommodation techniques and teaching strategies may
not elicit language acquisition. Interactive read aloud will cancel that
because they are their own teacher.
D.
Building
vocabulary and fluency at home and in school will elicit language Acqusition.
One way to increase vocabulary and
fluency is by Modeled Talk: “the use of gestures, visuals and demonstrations as
explanations are made“. It is great for learners of not only English language
but anyone learning a language. Language on its own is abstract and arbitrary, but with the use of gestures, it moves into a more concrete and interpersonal
level. Meanwhile, the visual modality will enhance the auditory capacity and
provide understandable cues.
Another strategy to upsurge
vocabulary is by role playing. Role playing could expand vocabulary and even
enhance apprehension. Some of the activities to employ could be making the
students select various characters when reading a play, dividing the class into
groups and let them consider themselves as a renowned group in the world
competing against another, saying that they are the teacher for the moment and
would like to teach the class the words they think no one knows what they mean or at times imitating their parents’ style they used to counsel them at home while they
teach the word to others. By doing so, the word sticks with them. They remember
it better, especially because by explaining to classmates it becomes an integral
part of them and shifts from abstract to concrete.
Another way we could enhance
vocabulary is by using word walls. These are a set of words alphabetically
arranged on the wall or board of a classroom that students can easily see and
read. At times they could be categorized in High -Frequency word, literature
word walls or content area word walls. I used them and they helped the students a great deal.
3. Accommodations in the general education classroom for students with
language impairments
To
better accommodate a child, one must look at least 5 factors. The environment 5,
the teacher, the teaching technique, the amount of work and the efforts of the
child. If the child has difficulties understanding the content, then we will
design special instruction for him/her. If the child merely has a low speed in
coping with the rest of the class, then we adapt the instruction. You could
reduce the work or ask the child to submit a reduced amount of work. Instead of
using the grade level textbook, he or she could use a simplified version or a
lower grade level textbook for the same concept.
We
look at their needs for assistive technology. For example, if the child cannot
type, we may ask them to read their answers to an aide to type them or just
read the answers to the teacher. In other words, accept oral answers for the
student. According to the article, “Aspects Concerning “Play” for the Promotion
of Preschool Children with Severe Speech- and Language Impairment,” Ullrich and
Marten concluded that, “Therapy at a specialized ‘Speech therapy kindergarten’
can improve speech-/ language (SL) abilities of SL-impaired preschool children
to a great extent (Ullrich & Marten,
2016).”[3] In other words, we could
accommodate some kids with therapy- speech therapy or occupational therapy for
them to succeed in their classes. Some students could also be provided
counseling services.
Some kids cannot take a certain amount of work, so we may look at their schedules. Instead of giving them general education classes, we could give them, resource courses; the same courses taught by special education teachers. Then we could put them into a study skills class.
Some kids cannot take a certain amount of work, so we may look at their schedules. Instead of giving them general education classes, we could give them, resource courses; the same courses taught by special education teachers. Then we could put them into a study skills class.
Some
students might do well during classes, but they will falter during testing. At
that time, we look at the testing environment, the test administrators and the
test itself. Sometimes, to accommodate them, we have the student test in a
place they feel very comfortable or with whoever they feel comfortable. At
times, we would look at the nature of the test to see if we need a shorter
version of the test. That is how we could accommodate the student.
Works
Cited
1.
Nagel, A. D. (2010, July 20). Stages of
Language Development. Retrieved June 02, 2017, from https://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-language-development/
2.
Jameel, Altaf. "Simulation in
language learning acquisition." Language In India, Nov. 2011, p. 745+.
Academic OneFile,
ezp1r.riosalado.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezp1r.riosalado.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=mccweb_riosalado&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA276186740&sid=summon&asid=5da74da2e6138c2e18804911510c207f.
Accessed 2 June 2017.
3.
Ullrich , D., & Marten, M. (2016).
Aspects Concerning “Play” for the Promotion of Preschool Children with Severe
Speech- and Language Impairment. Retrieved June 02, 2017, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1116875.pdf
Bibliography
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Jameel, Altaf. "Simulation in
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Academic OneFile, ezp1r.riosalado.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezp1r.riosalado.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=mccweb_riosalado&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA276186740&sid=summon&asid=5da74da2e6138c2e18804911510c207f.
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Ullrich , D., & Marten, M. (2016).
Aspects Concerning “Play” for the Promotion of Preschool Children with Severe
Speech- and Language Impairment. Retrieved June 02, 2017, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1116875.pdf
[1] Nagel,
A. D. (2010, July 20). Stages of Language Development. Retrieved June 02, 2017,
from https://www.education.com/reference/article/stages-language-development/
[2] Jameel, Altaf.
"Simulation in language learning acquisition." Language In India,
Nov. 2011, p. 745+. Academic OneFile,
ezp1r.riosalado.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezp1r.riosalado.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=mccweb_riosalado&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA276186740&sid=summon&asid=5da74da2e6138c2e18804911510c207f.
Accessed 2 June 2017.
[3] Ullrich
, D., & Marten, M. (2016). Aspects Concerning “Play” for the Promotion of
Preschool Children with Severe Speech- and Language Impairment. Retrieved June
02, 2017, from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1116875.pdf
