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Children who are never spoken to will not acquire language. And the language must be used for interaction with the child; for example, a child who regularly hears language on the TV or radio but nowhere else will not learn to talk.
Children acquire language in stages, and different children reach the various stages at different times. The order, in which these stages are reached, however, is virtually always the same.
An excellent guide to this moment in life is linguist Dr. Charles Yang's book The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World. Dr. Yang, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, ably reveals the complexities of the process while also showing us why these complexities are mastered so naturally—and so beautifully—by children all over the world, regardless of the language they're learning. Following his guided tour of language learning, we can even begin to appreciate the astonishing truth that, as he says, "Children are infinitely better at learning languages than we …show more content…
No one teaches the child to talk. His language, “. . . develops naturally like a spontaneous creation. “Of all the auditory stimulation surrounding the baby, it is the human voice that he deeply hears and imitates. By six months, he's uttering his first syllables, by one year his first intentional word. By one year, nine months he uses a few phrases, and by about two years old he "explodes" into language.26 He talks and talks non-stop. By the time he is three years old he is speaking in sentences and paragraphs with proper syntax and grammar. He can fully express himself to get his needs met. During the period of the conscious absorbent mind he will expand his vocabulary immensely. He wants huge words and funny words and rhyming words and words in songs. Our Montessori environments, rich in vocabulary, meet his word hunger
Children acquire language in stages, and different children reach the various stages at different times. The order, in which these stages are reached, however, is virtually always the same.
An excellent guide to this moment in life is linguist Dr. Charles Yang's book The Infinite Gift: How Children Learn and Unlearn the Languages of the World. Dr. Yang, who teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, ably reveals the complexities of the process while also showing us why these complexities are mastered so naturally—and so beautifully—by children all over the world, regardless of the language they're learning. Following his guided tour of language learning, we can even begin to appreciate the astonishing truth that, as he says, "Children are infinitely better at learning languages than we …show more content…
No one teaches the child to talk. His language, “. . . develops naturally like a spontaneous creation. “Of all the auditory stimulation surrounding the baby, it is the human voice that he deeply hears and imitates. By six months, he's uttering his first syllables, by one year his first intentional word. By one year, nine months he uses a few phrases, and by about two years old he "explodes" into language.26 He talks and talks non-stop. By the time he is three years old he is speaking in sentences and paragraphs with proper syntax and grammar. He can fully express himself to get his needs met. During the period of the conscious absorbent mind he will expand his vocabulary immensely. He wants huge words and funny words and rhyming words and words in songs. Our Montessori environments, rich in vocabulary, meet his word hunger