Introduction:
Language can be seen and heard; it can be diverse or standard. With this in mind, discuss the different roles that language can have in a child’s life.
Language is an essential part of being human and it is unique to humans alone. Language is not one simple, single thing, it is a complex array of elements. The way we speak language has ‘grammatically correct’ rules , it has shared meaning, it is something that is physically present in the world (written word, speech) and it is social convention within a group of people on how to communicate. (Hayes & Gee 2011 p.7). Language is social, cognitive and physical all at the same time. It shapes our social environment, our cultural ties and is still very individual and unique to every …show more content…
Language is uniquely human. It is a sociocultural practice, all language - spoken, written and visual are derived from social and cultural context (Green 2006). Language is understood in terms of each individuals backgrounds, both social and cultural. This gives rise to context, which in turn, is influenced by each persons social and cultural background, and the social situation that they are in.
According to Ethnologue (Lewis, Simons & Fennig 2016) there are currently 7097 known languages in the world today. Chinese (and its many dialects) is the most commonly spoken language in the world, it is spoken by 1,302,000,000 people, English is far less at only 339,000,000 (Lewis et al 2016). As Australia is a multicultural country, it is reasonable to suggest, given these statistics, that English is a second language for many people. Whilst children have an instinctive desire to learn language and have the brain set up to achieve this, (Fitch 2011), many elements are required for this to be successful. Children need to hear the spoken word, see the way that a person uses their mouth to say a word and also the physical - pointing at something and saying what it …show more content…
Many cultures don’t traditionally use written words to communicate cultural and family history. Australian Aboriginals tell stories of ‘The Dreamtime’ to explain how and why things have happened in their history. The Chinese have stories of Dragons that protect the people from drought or flood. Then you have written stories of the Bible that are handed down through generation in much the same way as non written history.
Children start very early on their journey into becoming literate. Babies are learning about language, by listening to the people around them. And so, by around six months of age they start to use the sounds that they have been hearing and put them together to start forming words. Baby ‘babble’ is the beginning, trying out how to make sounds and eventually
Language can be seen and heard; it can be diverse or standard. With this in mind, discuss the different roles that language can have in a child’s life.
Language is an essential part of being human and it is unique to humans alone. Language is not one simple, single thing, it is a complex array of elements. The way we speak language has ‘grammatically correct’ rules , it has shared meaning, it is something that is physically present in the world (written word, speech) and it is social convention within a group of people on how to communicate. (Hayes & Gee 2011 p.7). Language is social, cognitive and physical all at the same time. It shapes our social environment, our cultural ties and is still very individual and unique to every …show more content…
Language is uniquely human. It is a sociocultural practice, all language - spoken, written and visual are derived from social and cultural context (Green 2006). Language is understood in terms of each individuals backgrounds, both social and cultural. This gives rise to context, which in turn, is influenced by each persons social and cultural background, and the social situation that they are in.
According to Ethnologue (Lewis, Simons & Fennig 2016) there are currently 7097 known languages in the world today. Chinese (and its many dialects) is the most commonly spoken language in the world, it is spoken by 1,302,000,000 people, English is far less at only 339,000,000 (Lewis et al 2016). As Australia is a multicultural country, it is reasonable to suggest, given these statistics, that English is a second language for many people. Whilst children have an instinctive desire to learn language and have the brain set up to achieve this, (Fitch 2011), many elements are required for this to be successful. Children need to hear the spoken word, see the way that a person uses their mouth to say a word and also the physical - pointing at something and saying what it …show more content…
Many cultures don’t traditionally use written words to communicate cultural and family history. Australian Aboriginals tell stories of ‘The Dreamtime’ to explain how and why things have happened in their history. The Chinese have stories of Dragons that protect the people from drought or flood. Then you have written stories of the Bible that are handed down through generation in much the same way as non written history.
Children start very early on their journey into becoming literate. Babies are learning about language, by listening to the people around them. And so, by around six months of age they start to use the sounds that they have been hearing and put them together to start forming words. Baby ‘babble’ is the beginning, trying out how to make sounds and eventually