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Language Development In a Child

Name:Nawwaf Alfayez

Professor:Edward Hall

Class: CD 361

California State University, Northridge

Date: 1/10/16

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Imitation Plays a Role in Child Language Development

Language development is a slow process in children. It takes time because it is all new

for them to understand the language. Firstly, a child sees an environment that is unfamiliar. The

people around a child play a role in language development. It can either be consciously or

unknowingly. The first five years are very important for children’s language development.

Language teaches the way of communication and it is the source through which ideas, emotions

and meaningful thoughts can be shared. Further it also makes children sociable and makes a base

of academic start-up. Language development is the access to the better future. Language

development has been the subject of numerous exploration papers written in the past however in

all the past papers, researchers had clashing thoughts regarding a few issues involving it. One of

the argumentative issues about it is whether imitation assumes any part in language development

or not. So many researchers have voiced their assessment about this issue; however they are yet

to achieve a consensus. Imitation is a propelled behavior whereby an individual watches and

reproduces another's behavior.

We often hear the words “speech” and “language” used interchangeably. There is a

wrong concept about language that it is similar to speech which is not true. Speech alludes to

genuine sound and it is different from language. Hamaguchi in 1995 said about speech that, “the

sounds that come out of our mouth and take the shape in the form of words”. A person uses the

muscles of the tongue, lips, jaw and vocal tract in an extremely exact and facilitated approach to

create the conspicuous sounds that make up speech. Language on the other way is symbolic.

Language means to an entire arrangement of words and images—composed, spoken or expressed

with signals and non-verbal communication—that is used to communicate meaning. Two

different fields of language exist receptive which alludes to all that we hear and comprehend

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from other individuals' signals or addresses, and expressive which alludes to our utilization of

words to pass on a message that will be caught on in a way that makes sense and is

grammatically accurate. At some points these two points may covers each other but they are

different in sense and exist independently identified linguists concepts. As it is defined they have

different meanings.

How children acquire their first language is the question that is never answered properly.

It is difficult to decide that which factors makes children to pay attention towards a language.

They can be entertained the whole day, week, month or year but still this thing has no clue that

how they seek the knowledge of their very first language. It cannot be even asked by children.

Many researchers are working on it and many consider it as a mystery. Liebberman talks about it

in 1991 that language acquisition and development is one of the mysteries of human life, and it

happens effortlessly in any environment. Well it does not refer to this fact that environment has

no effect on language development of a children. It is obviously and definitely true that

environment and people around children are the source of language development. During the

growing stage of children, they have ultimately source of language development is the use of

language around them. However, it is believable and understood that imitation plays a major role

in children’s life. When children sees and notices the use of language around them then they tries

to imitate it. Might be it is the way through which children know their first language but it also

emphasizes to think that children do not know the meaning of imitated language. It may develop

with the passage of time. Well, language and imitation has no any other connection far away.

Even according to some researchers the former may create an influence on latter. Some

researchers further explain that imitation cannot help to learn language and they do believe that

children cannot be forced or trained to imitate (Jean, 1989). Yes, it is also true a little because

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children have no sense of being forced or being trained by others. On the other hand, some

researchers believe that children already knew the concepts before they even encounter language

and them only learn the labels for existing concepts (Chomsky, 1988). Later, it is argued by

Jackendoff in 2002 that language is a human adaptation and acquiring skill thing. In all the

previous researches and theories of different researchers did not show any relation between

intimation and language development but in 2003 it is created. Robin thought that imitation and

language development are correlated. He argued that children learn language through the process

of unconscious imitation. That means children do not know the imitation but it is done by them.

Robin concludes that it is natural process through which children goes by. One thing that till yet

all the researches skipped that how children learn from the speech and use of right grammatical

area of language i.e. rules and words.

The main thing rises in all researches is the environment of children. That plays major role in

development of a language because children only develops that language which id frequently

used around them. There are so many languages in the world but children only learns the

environmental language that suspects the fluency of them language and the fast learning tool is

environment. The environment of children is referring to those people who mostly live around

them. The parents are most often. Parents play a vital role in children’s development. As they

have same genes so they have attraction and children unconsciously like to imitate them.

Children copy their language patterns and used to communicate with them. They use the same

expressions of language as they learn. Children tend to be imitating mostly because it is the only

way through which they communicate. Parents also help them while imitating. Parents create the

best sources through which children can learn the imitation of them and their skills can be polish

and allows them to practice the imitation again and again and it becomes aid for them in

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language development. There are so many things that only parents can teach to their children.

Children even also only responses to their parents at some places. This refers to that children

imitate for their need and they do not like to interact with each other’s behavior and they do not

want to imitate them without any reason. In many places children do not know the meaning of

words which are frequently uses around them but listening again and again pinch them to learn

that word and they tries to use the word. This is experienced by so many people that sometimes

when children uses the meaningless words and they do not even supposed to know the meaning.

This is because of their unconscious imitation.

The next thing after environment is very important to language development is memory. During

the learning and growing stage of children they use both short-term and long-term memories.

Imitation also has a role in exercising of memory. In language development, it often requires to

memorize things like context and tone for short-term period and as well as for long-term period.

And both play very important role for children. Once a child imitate something by some action

and find correlate them that this particular thing will only be repeats with the same action then

next time it is difficult to learn again with some other action. Here both memories has clash and a

difficulty rises for children to remembering objects.

Building up the capacity to symbolize is essential in child language development. Having a

mental photo of an item is one thing however it is insufficient. A child should have the capacity

to know how an article looks like furthermore symbolize its significance or acknowledgment of

it. Every one of these originates from what the youngster accumulates from his/her

encompassing, and this underlines the significance of the earth to child language development. A

child should understand that language is a tool and they need it to learn accurately. Imitation is

only a way through which children can learn language and it is not the ultimate destination for a

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children. The proper use of language and the basics regarding it a child cannot learn by imitation.

It is that children learns to imitate the adults around them and find the relation between words

and actions or incidents and then children create an image in their mind that this thing only

regards to some specific manner or some specific pattern. In this way children cannot build the

real meaning of language development. They only learn the ways through which they

communicate with their adults. It is further depends on adults that how much sharply they treat

their children and forces them to learn the language or develop it for more purposes even. We do

not expect to learn the whole language literature but at least the proper use of language is

mandatory for their benefit. They not only need to communicate for their needs but also the

complaints or the physical weakness or illness and so many other reasons can also be required

for them to learn and develop language.

As we know that human uses language to show their personal emotions, feelings, opinions,

views and thoughts. It is bigger than the images that children experienced and memorized. It is

what people acquire the knowledge of your needs and benefits. They can respond with it. There

is a certain point comes where children start the understanding the meaning of things. When they

start acquiring the meaning they become able to analyze the situations of them. Also they make

decisions that where they have to use the specific words as they have specific meanings and they

only use with the particular situations. Imitation is pointless at this point. Pointless imitation

cannot also leads to them at this point. They have to manage efficiently. It is the point where

actual language develops and the unconscious imitation starts ending. Children start observing

and the observations give them learning of the real meanings. The observation leads to the

meaningful pictures of reality and builds children language development and promotes it. When

a child learns how to express themselves they practice it again and again to make it sure. When

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others interact with children they understand their acts and respond according to the best

knowledge of them and choose the right direction.

There are critics who have voiced their assessment to counter this theory. They contend that just

mimicking what adults are stating can't offer children some assistance with learning any

language or gain any ground in their language development. One reason that critics finders give

is that children regularly make a few mistakes that adults don't. Children often mispronounce the

words whereas adults don’t. If they are copying adults then they should do not make any

mistake. For instance, an adult say ‘good’ and child repeats ‘gool’. Such mistakes that children

make imply that they don't simply emulate, however they attempt to construct a grammatical use

and apply the rules. Another reason that critics frequently give is that children can deliver

sentences and utilize words that they have never known about. Children might pick words from

what they hear however when developing sentences, sooner or later they regularly consolidate a

few words they heard and built grammatically and semantically amend sentences. This

discerning repudiates the theory that imitation could assume a part in language development in

light of the fact that children, regardless of the possibility that they are unconsciously imitating,

would have just to create sentences they have known about before which is never the case.

Despite the fact that these things have exceptionally substantial focuses, a child's manner of

thinking ought to likewise not be disregarded on the grounds that at one point in a child's

improvement, they begin drawing in their contemplations, and this regularly prompts the creation

of new sentences from what the words they unconsciously imitated.

Language development in children can't be said to be a matter of imitation just. Imitation

assumes a part as appeared previously. Analysts have not yet go to an agreement on this issue,

and subsequently numerous speculations thoughts still surface from new papers. Numerous

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specialists, however concur that impersonation and retaining words and the comparing protest or

meaning absolutely is helpful in second language development. While taking in a moment

language, even adults end up retaining and mimicking things like pronunciation. Stern (1978)

turned out emphatically and said that language learning is about imitation yet the same number

of specialists has finished up, it may not be all things considered. One can't deny that imitation

was and still is an unfinished point in child language development and more knowledge into this

phenomenon discovered.

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References:

Aitchison, J. (1989). The Articulate Mammal: An introduction to psycholinguistics. London:

Unwin Hyman.

Chomsky, N. (1988). Language and Problems of Knowledge. MIT Press Cambridge MA 1988.

Hamaguchi, Patricia A. (2001) Childhood Speech-Language & Listening Problems- Second

Edition. What every parent should know. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Pages 7 – 11.

Hobson, P. (2002). The Cradle of Thought: Exploring the Origins of Thinking. London:

Macmillan.

Lieberman, P. (1991). Uniquely Human: Speech, Thought, and Selfless Behavior. Harvard

University Press.

Robin, A. (2003). Imitation in Language and Speech. University of Aberystwyth, Wales.