Children’s Oral Language Development – Assessment Answer

Introduction

Oral language refers to the system through which an individual uses spoken words for the expression of ideas, knowledge and feelings. The development of oral language, therefore, constitutes the development of the knowledge and skills that are involved in listening and speaking all of which have a robust linkage to reading, comprehension and writing (Wahyuni, 2018). This essay aims to discuss the development of the oral language of a child through various components. In the later sections, the essay will also explore the oral language development of a child from the nature perspective as well as the nurture perspective. The thesis statement will encompass a multidisciplinary approach to the development of oral language in children (in the context of theoretical perspectives).

Components of Language Development

This section encompasses the four components of the language development of a child, namely semantic, phonological, syntactic and pragmatic. Firstly, the phonological component comprises the familiarity with sounds and their patterns in a language. In early stages, children make an attempt of speaking by babbling and using simple sounds for ex[pression. This is later followed by the gradual learning of words followed by the formation of sentences. This component of the development is essential in the early stages since it acts as a foundation and helps in the development of other language skills (Yule, 2022). The next form of development is syntactic development which is characterised by the learning and application of grammatical rules for the formation of sentences that sound cohesive.

This usually starts by structuring simple sentences in the beginning and later moves on to complex sentence formation (Diessel et al., 2019). This is followed by semantic development which includes the phase during which children tend to assign meaning to words and sentences and are able to make a comparison between different words. It usually begins before children have the knowledge of reading and speaking (Floyd & Goldberg, 2021). The last form of development is pragmatic development, and can be considered to be the most advanced of the other forms. It entails the child being able to comprehend communicative competencies and using language to enable effective communication and understanding with respect to social contexts (Falkum, 2019).

Language Development Through Nature Perspective

A theory that can be considered to understand a child’s oral language development from the nature perspective is the Innateness Theory proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1960s. This theory is the belief that children have an innate ability for learning a language from the time of their birth. He termed this as the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and believed this to be a mechanism of cognition that was language-specific and allowed children to unconsciously and rapidly acquire language and its rules (Barbieri, 2020). The theory postulates that the LAD is responsible for enabling children to form mental images of grammatical structure involved in a language without any feedback or instructions.

The theory also strongly believes that LAD is sensitive to the patterns present in a language and that the activation of LAD necessitates a child’s exposure to language input and social interaction. In addition to this, Chomsky believed that this process of learning a language is similar to the process of walking which is also exhibited by a child due to innate ability and not any prior instructions (Ciuciuc & Cistal, 2021). Studies of children exposed to simplified forms of language known as pidgin languages, used for communication between people not sharing a common language act as points of evidence supporting the Innateness Theory. For instance, a study by Raviv & Arnon (2018), has shown that children when made familiar with pidgin languages are more likely to create a creole language consisting of structure and grammar of higher complexity. This suggests that LAD can be triggered when exposed to any type of language input.

Language Development Through Nurture Perspective

One theory that can be used to explain the development of language through the nurture perspective is the Social Interactionist Theory, first proposed by Lev Vygotsky in the 1920s. This theory finds its basis in the fact that language learnt by children is through the social interactions that they have with their caregivers and other different members present in their social environment. This theory believes that the process of language development of a child is collaborative in nature and that it transpires through a series of continuous and regular interactions taking place between a child and his or her caregiver, and the caregiver is responsible for the structuring and development of the child’s language learning process (Nor & Ab Rashid, 2018). As a part of this theory, Vygotsky also introduced a concept known as the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which defines the range of tasks that can be carried out by a child under the guidance of a more experienced individual (Eun, 2019).

Moreover, according to this theory, the ability to communicate and interact with others plays a major role in motivating children to learn a new language. Unlike the Innate Theory, it does not take into consideration the biological elements necessary for learning a language. Moreover, in contradiction to the Innateness Theory, studies of children raised in environments that provided language input to a limited extent act as evidence for the Social Interactionist Theory (Pathan et al., 2018). For instance, a study by Hall et al. (2019) has shown that deaf children when exposed to sign language or other types of communication, as language input, have resulted in noteworthy advancements related to their language development.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the process of oral language development in children is complex in nature and constitutes various elements, encompassing phonological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic development. Different theories such as the Innateness Theory and the Social Interactionist Theory offer distinct standpoints regarding the development of a child’s language. On one hand, the Innateness Theory states that the acquisition of language in children is an innate process, the Social Interactionist Theory in a contradictory fashion, emphasizes the value of the interactions that a child has in his or her social circle; along with the language input affecting the development of a child’s process of learning a language. All said and done the oral language development of a child is an amalgamation of both nature and nurture which acts as a principle component in the development. Comprehending the different perspectives can assist parents, caregivers, and educators in promoting the efficient and effective development of language in children.

References

Barbieri, M. (2020). The semantic theory of language. Biosystems, 190, 104100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104100

Ciuciuc, D. V. E., & Ciltan, D. A. L. (2021). Chomsky’s Universal Grammar Theory. Annales Universitatis Apulensis. Series Philologica, (2), 409-418. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1004456

Diessel, H., Dabrowska, E., & Divjak, D. (2019). Usage-based construction grammar. Cognitive linguistics, 2, 50-80. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110626452

Eun, B. (2019). The zone of proximal development as an overarching concept: A framework for synthesizing Vygotsky’s theories. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 51(1), 18-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1421941

Falkum, I. L. (2019). Pragmatic Development: Learning to use language to communicate. In International handbook of language acquisition (pp. 234-260). Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315110622-13

Floyd, S., & Goldberg, A. E. (2021). Children make use of relationships across meanings in word learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 47(1), 29.

Hall, M. L., Hall, W. C., & Caselli, N. K. (2019). Deaf children need language, not (just) speech. First Language, 39(4), 367-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723719834102

Nor, N. M., & Ab Rashid, R. (2018). A review of theoretical perspectives on language learning and acquisition. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 39(1), 161-167. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjss.2017.12.012

Pathan, H., Memon, R. A., Memon, S., Khoso, A. R., & Bux, I. (2018). A critical review of Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory in second language acquisition. International Journal of English Linguistics, 8(4), 232. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/78810400/41343-libre.pdf

Raviv, L., & Arnon, I. (2018). Systematicity, but not compositionality: Examining the emergence of linguistic structure in children and adults using iterated learning. Cognition, 181, 160-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.08.011

Wahyuni, A. (2018). The power of verbal and nonverbal communication in learning. In 1st International Conference on Intellectuals' Global Responsibility (ICIGR 2017) (pp. 80-83). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/icigr-17.2018.19

Yule, G. (2022). The study of language. Cambridge university press. https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mhOUEAAAQBAJ

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