Child Language Development: From Phonetics to Semantics
Theme 4: The Organization of Phonics
The educator is interested in the evolving structures and cognitive patterns that determine the child’s phonetic learning. An important fact is the whole process: the acquisition of phonemes is not a question of units being added to each other. We must distinguish between the perception system the child utilizes for the language of others and the production system he uses for his own language. The laws of the perceptual process are not well known, not so with the production system that allows an ex-post analysis. There is an order of appearance and a very definite development pattern, although the speed of acquisition is highly variable from one child to another. Studies by Lewis and Jakobson say the boy starts from certain oppositions: pronunciation, maximum oral opening, and point of articulation. Articulatory capacity is settled by a series of changes within a learning scheme for feedback. The basic oppositions found in baby talk and the more subtle are produced by successive corrections. Acquisition of a phoneme is the prior acquisition of another that is prior and which will leave the new opposition.
Developmental Patterns
Between the ages of 2 and 4, the child acquires the Spanish phonological system. The acquisition rate is variable, and it is common to have difficulties in complex syllables up to 5 years and the correct pronunciation of the “r” sound up to 6.
- Initial Group: p, b, m, t; direct syllables only
- Group I: l, n, ñ, d, j, k, g; new syllables are added and mixed with n and m
- Group II: s, f, ch, ll, z; invosas syllables added, mixed with two consonants followed by s
- Group III: r, rr; invosas syllables are added and mixed with l
- Group IV: r, y; augers are added with a combination of 3 consonants.
Semantic Organization
Mechanisms of Learning
Language is the most complex and differentiated expression of a general function. The symbolic function is the system that represents a meaning through a signifier of the decoupled nature of meaning. The semantic organization is done by a number of changes between the child or the world from the viewpoint of the representation that the child gets from the world of communication.
Essential Work Data
The mechanisms of action are exercised before reflection. The integration of external data is done through three functions: assimilation, generalization, and differentiation. The child at 3-4 years old has a certain baggage of sensorimotor experiences. There is a need to remove generic words, giving a name to each thing at a time and in context. It may be that the child uses a generic word to describe the components of a semantic class. Watson stated that an aphasic cannot tell directions. Color as a concept did not exist, only the red object, and the word emerged when viewing a color object that became part of the substance.
Evolutionary Pattern
Development Between 0 and 3 Years
First SMS: First words, phonetic constancy issue tied to a specific situation and in relation to a string of adult language. Once reciprocal, repeat acts, conditional modeling, primitive production until the exact word.
The stage of perceptual-motor syncretism favors the acquisition of language. Children begin to talk at 18-24 months who have a need for expression. The central problem of the emergence of language is due to very general capabilities that mature. Some authors think that if the main function of language is communication, it is based on an assumption of discontinuity; others go through a continuity hypothesis.
Development from 3 to 6 Years
At 3 years old, the communicative dimension of language has been included. Between 3 and 6 years, there is an increase in vocabulary from 2000-2200 words to 2500-3000. The vocabulary is becoming more accurate, but the role of information exchange is reduced. According to Piaget, his language is egocentric thought. At 4-7 years, egocentric speech is 40-48%. In socialized speech, the child communicates drives or needs to meet or play. It does not mean that you save your ideas; all he thinks, he says, to reinforce their thinking. The egocentrism of child language is the lack of social life of the child before age 5. From 5-7 years of forming groups of 2 or 3 people, then get a true team effort. The language difference between children age 6 who are admitted for the first time in school and those who have been in preschool is significant. A particular point of language are the questions and especially that of “Why?”. The usual answer “because” does not help much but to give a formula to be repeated later. What the child is waiting for is an explanation; the answer matters little, sometimes he does not even hear it. What interests him is knowing that there is an answer.
Vygotsky: Language as a form of communication with adults later becomes a way for the child to organize their own behavior.
Piaget: Defends the idea of a functional language as an instrument far more significant in the course of intellectual development when language and practical activity converge.
Jakobson: Proposes 6 language functions: expressive, referential, conative, phatic, poetic, and metalinguistic.
Halliday: Is the most influential and distinguishes the following functions between 9 and 18 months:
- Instrumental – ask
- Regulatory – send
- Interactional – interact
- Personal
- Heuristic – ask, say, play
- Imaginative
Phase II (18-36 months): Functions are grouped into 1, 2, 3 pragmatic functions, and roles in the function Matete 3, 4, 5, and further: 7.
Phase III: Information-reporting statements are grouped into the interpersonal and ideational functions, most of the text function.
Saussure: Grammar is a process for improving primary logical structures that develops parallel to the adaptation process of these structures.
The child acquires morphosyntactic structures by 2 procedures: imitation using the units of prayer and remembered, and learned by analogy: analogical errors “I break” instead of “I broke”.