Role Of Environment In Language Development Essay Example for Free

Role Of Environment In Language Development Essay Language development refers to the process of acquiring a language during a person’s early stages of development. The process involves language acquisition through learning or by mimicry. As a child continues to develop, the language development in turn moves from simple to complex (Barrett, p 13). For instance, infants do not use a language to communicate after they are born. However, by four months of age, babies are able to use speech sounds and can read lips. This language is referred to as â€Å"gibberish†. As the child continues to develop, he or she learns language by recalling simple words which is then followed by the acquiring of words together with their meaning. Much later a child can be able to join words to form sentences that form a logical meaning. As the child continues to grow older, new associations and meanings are created and language acquisition is characterized by more vocabularies. The environment that surrounds a child during development affects his or her language learning process. The environment may impact negatively or positively on a child’s language development. In both children and adults, an individual’s environmental experiences therefore play a very important role in language skills acquisition (Polinsky, p 15). In this paper, the role of environment on language development in children will be discussed. The paper will focus on the different environments an individual interacts with and how they influence language development. The different environments that will be looked at include; home environment, social, school environment, and child care environment. Discussion Research findings indicate that an individual’s environmental experiences have a great impact on language development. Researchers in the field of language acquisition argue that language learning results from the interactions that the learners have with their surrounding communities. In addition, the cognitive abilities of an individual is important in language learning (Berk, p 24). This hypothesis has been supported by researchers such as Michael Tomasello, Catherine Snow, Elizabeth Bates, and Brian MacWhinney. One of the most important environments in language development is the home environment. Within the family unit, every child interacts with the parents and the other family members. An individual during the early stages of development is able to interact with his or her members of the family at home. According to the Nativist theories, a child is born with an innate propensity for language acquisition. This ability plays a very important role in language acquisition because it makes the task of first language learning in a child to be much easier. Because language is a fundamental part of a human being, then language acquisition becomes a natural part of maturation. The environment that a child experiences at home aims at ensuring that a child through language acquisition reaches maturity (Brian, p 18). Infants begin learning language at home. In addition, adults also continue to learn a language within the family environment. Infants communicate their dispositions, wants, and needs by using their vocal cries, bodies, and preverbal vocalizations. Children learn their first language from the caretakers and the parents they interact with at home. This means that parents, caretakers and other family members through interaction can assist a child to acquire a language. A comfortable and safe environment becomes very important for proper language development. When there are caring and warm relationships at home, then a healthy environment for a child to acquire language is present because a good home environment provides a child with proper environment for learning. On the other hand, a family that experiences conflicts and disagreements deny a child a good learning environment and this undermines the process of language development in the child. For example, the phonological and semantic developmental stages during a child’s language development relies on the environment at home (Ingram, p 75). A healthy home environment ensures that a child’s phonological and semantic developmental periods of language acquisition are not hindered. During the phonological development, a child is able to make speech sounds which are characterized by cooing, babbling, and repetitive constant-vowel combinations. A child depends on a good home environment to make the speech words and to get response from the family members. As the child develops, he or she can pronounce words and can master syllable stress patterns. The semantic development in language acquisition also requires a good home environment. For example, this stage makes a child listen to the mother’s voice, recognize familiar words, and show the use of preverbal gestures. Learning of vocabulary follows and by the time a child reaches between 6 to 10 years of age, they can use words precisely. A good home environment promotes adequate parent participation in language development. Language learning apart from the phonological and semantic stages also includes the grammatical and pragmatics development. In order for a child to undergo these developmental periods appropriately, parents or guardians and other family members should ensure that they provide a good learning environment for the child and to assist a child in language development. Providing support and engaging a child in activities that enhance language acquisition becomes possible in a good home environment. Children who lack a good home environment may experience poor language learning because the home environment affects the normal patterns of language acquisition. Furthermore, a child who fails to receive support from his or her family members may take longer to learn a language. Parent’s responsibility in child language development is well practiced in a good home environment, whereby the baby talk or â€Å"motherese† as a tool of early communication in children is strengthened in a healthy home environment (Pinker, p 52). Apart from the home environment, the school environment influences language development in an individual. A child spends most of his or her time in school when parents or caretakers are engaged in other activities. This makes it very important for the school environment to be favorable for a child during language development. Much of a child’s language development and learning occurs at school. When the school environment is favorable for learning in a child, then it impacts positively to language development. To begin with, a good school environment ensures that a child gets a good learning environment. At school, a child interacts with both the teacher and other classmates and just like parents, teachers are very important in language development. For example, research findings indicate that when parents and teachers speak to children using complex sentences, the children’s ability to comprehend complex sentences increases. Apart from comprehending complexity of language, individuals are able to learn language comprehension. A good school environment encourages a child to learn more about a language and apply the acquired knowledge to communicate. The phonological, semantic, grammatical and pragmatics developmental periods in language learning are influenced by the school environment. All these stages are witnessed in children between 6 and 10 years of age, and this makes it necessary for schools to assist the children to undergo the language learning process successfully. When the school environment is good for language learning, language development in a child becomes possible. Poor learning environment at school on the other hand impacts negatively on . language acquisition. For adults, learning institutions such as universities and colleges allows one to acquire more knowledge and skills in about a certain language. A positive language learning environment at school or other education institutions is due to a teacher’s great experience and knowledge. When the school environment cannot provide children or the learners with the necessary skills in language use, then language learning becomes poor in a child. In this case, interactions that enable children to acquire a language are not provided. At school, interactions and communication between children or students promotes language acquisition since it enables them to apply what they learn in class. Teachers offer assistance to the children as they learn how to pronounce and use words in a given language, and they are able to identify difficult areas in language acquisition. The teachers can then concentrate on teaching in these areas. An unfavorable learning environment at school may result from poor interactions, poor communication and lack of assistance from teachers or tutors. These impacts negatively on the process of language acquisition in individuals (Santrock, p 37). The social environment refers to the environment in the society in which an individual lives in. A social environment can either promote language development or impact negatively on the language acquisition process. A society allows a person to interact with other people whom they share with similar values and culture. Due to the common beliefs, values and traditions that the members of a society may share, interacting with each other promotes socialization which is a very important process in development. Language is used in this process. The social environment affects the cognitive ability of a child as well as the language learning process. The cognitive ability of an individual determines his or her reasoning capacity and intelligence level. An environment in the society that increases the cognitive ability of a person impacts positively on language development. For example, a good social environment increases the intellectual and verbal ability of a person. This makes it easy for one to learn the various aspects of language use (Pan and Snow, p 236). When other members of the society interact with a learner, they are able to enhance the language speaking skills. In addition, new vocabularies and words can be learned through the socialization process and language use is well learned when a person or learner is able to converse with other members of the society. An environment that encourages socialization and sharing of ideas promotes language development. On the other hand, a social environment where members of the society show a minimum level of interaction slows down the process of language acquisition. For instance, children learn different definitions of words by interacting with the members of a community and when an environment prevents this interaction, lack of knowledge and skills about a language undermines language acquisition. Many working parents are unable to spend most of their time with their children since they take their children to child care facilities. These facilities are meant to take care of the child while the parent is absent; hence the child ends up spending a lot of time in such facilities. There is need for parents therefore to realize that a child care facility can either hinder or promote language development in a child. When the child care environment is positive, then a child has the opportunity to develop a language appropriately (Kail, p 43). An environment that undermines language acquisition in a child acts as a setback to language development. Some of the factors that determine whether a child care environment is positive for a child’s language development include; the physical environment, the teacher’s experience and educational background, involvement of children in plays or games, and the presence of warm and caring relationships in the facility. Teachers who are able to listen, talk, and read to the children more often encourage language acquisition in a child. Good relationship in the child care facility prevents quarrels and conflicts that result to a poor learning environment, and a child care facility that introduces a child to real life experiences and to new words contributes positively to language development. For instance, a child care facility that offers learning, exciting and fun activities offers children a great opportunity to learn a language since it encourages a child to listen and speak about their experiences at the facility. Playing is very important for language development and a child care environment that support creative games and fun for the children promotes a child’s language development. Playtime of a child with other children benefits a child’s language environment and it emphasizes on the importance of friendship and sharing. Playing time promotes listening and talking in children, hence skills that are acquired can be used to promote language development. Conclusion Language development is very important for proper child development since it enables an individual to acquire skills and knowledge to communicate with the others. In child development, the first three years of development are very critical in language acquisition and the environment that surrounds an individual during the process of language learning affects language development. The home environment, school environment, social environment, and child care environment all affect language development in a child. It is therefore very important that parents participate in language development by ensuring that these environments impact positively on the language learning process of a child. Works Cited Barrett, Martyn. The Development of Language, London: Psychology Press, pp. 229–50, 1999 Berk, Laura. Child Development. 8th ed. United States of America: Pearson Education, Inc,2009 Brian, MacWhinney. The Emergence of Language. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1999 Ingram, David. 1999. Phonological acquisition, in Barrett M, The Development of Language, London: Psychology Press, p. 73–97 Kail, Robert. Children and Their Development (4 ed. ). Prentice Hall, 2006 Pan, Barbara and Snow, Catherine. The development of conversational and discourse skills, in Barrett M, The Development of Language, London: Psychology Press, pp. 229–50 Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct; How the Mind Creates Language. London: Allen Lane, 1994 Polinsky, Maria et al. The atlas of languages: the origin and development of languages throughout the world. New York, 2003 Santrock, John. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development. New York, NY: McGraw- Hill, 2008