Linguistics and Child Essay

Language is a human tendency to communicate with others and this could underlie the emergence of language. Montessori said, â€Å"To talk is in the nature of man. † Humans needed language in order to communicate, and soon, the powers that come with language were revealed. The evolution of the human language began when communication was done through pictograms or pictures and drawings. It then developed into ideograms when pictures began to turn into symbols. Later, these symbols became words, words involved letters, vowels emerged, one symbol came to represent one sound, an alphabet was created, and then came the alphabet we now use today. And just as language evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago, it also changes with each generation. The importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives. We use language to inform the people around us of what we feel, what we desire, and question / understand world around us. We communicate effectively with our words, gestures and tone of voice in a multitude of situation. Communication drives our lives. The Language Development of the Child To help the child in his development in language, the Montessori classroom is designed to help the child reach the 3rd period of consciousness. Because the learning of language is not done through subjects as in a normal classroom, the child is learning at his own rhythm. This allows the child to concentrate on the learning of each important step in language so that each progressive step is done easily and without any thought on the part of the child. The special material also plays an important role in aiding the child develop the powers of communication and expression, of organization and classification, and the development of thought. But the most important tool in the child’s learning of language lies within the directress. She must support the child in his learning; give him order to classify what he has learned, to help the child build self-confidence, and to provide the child with meaningful activities. The directress is the child’s best source in language development As the child leaves the Montessori classroom after the age of six, he will have become an articulate person, being able to communication his feelings in well-formed sentences and in writing. He will be able to write these thoughts and feelings in a skillful handwriting. He will have the ability to write in different styles and about a variety of subjects. The child will have total reading and a sense of the home language at a level where he will be the master of his words. How do children acquire language? Number of Children acquires language quickly, easily, and without effort or formal teaching. It happens automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not. Although parents or other caretakers don’t teach their children to speak, they do perform an important role by talking to their children. 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, â€Å"Children are infinitely better at learning languages than we are. † -Dr. Charles Yang Montessori Prepared Environment | | | | | The â€Å"prepared environment† is Maria Montessori’s concept that the environment can be designed to facilitate maximum independent learning and exploration by the child. In the prepared environment, there is a variety of activity as well as a great deal of movement. In a preschool classroom, for example, a three-year-old may be washing clothes by hand while a four-year-old nearby is composing words and phrases with letters known as the movable alphabet, and a five-year-old is performing multiplication using a specially designed set of beads. In an elementary classroom, a small group of six- to nine-year-old children may be using a timeline to learn about extinct animals while another child chooses to work alone, analyzing a poem using special grammar symbols. Sometimes an entire class may be involved in a group activity, such as storytelling, singing, or movement. In the calm, ordered space of the Montessori prepared environment, children work on activities of their own choice at their own pace. They experience a blend of freedom and self-discipline in a place especially designed to meet their developmental needs How Is Language Encouraged In Montessori Prepared Environment Language is a communication that human beings have cooperated with each other to solve common problems. This is through communication based on written and oral language in particular that each generation has passed on its accumulated wisdom to the next. â€Å"Language, we may say, grow with human thought. -Dr. Maria Montessori The learning of language is truly the child’s most amazing intellectual achievement, and is remarkably skilled rapidly in a very short period of time. â€Å"By merely living and without any conscious effort the individual absorbs from the environment even a complex cultural like language. † -Elizabeth G. Hainstock .The language explosive happenings and eruptions in his powers of expression the baby is aware that human voices from the mouth and they will cries differently for different needs and smiles when sees us, this things all will happen from birth till 3 months old . While at about 4-6 months old they will start to babbling sounds more speech-like with many different sounds, including p, b and m While they will chuckles and laughs vocalizes excitement and annoyance. At about 10 month old, Montessori believe that children may understood that there is purpose for the voices which coming out from mouth of a human. In conclusion we can say that as the child leaves the Montessori classroom after the age of six, they will have become a communicative person, being able to communication his feelings in well-formed sentences and in writing. He will be able to write these thoughts and feelings in a skillful handwriting. He will have the ability to write in different styles and about a variety of subjects. The child will have total reading and a sense of the home language at a level where he will be the master of his words. The Montessori Teacher and Her Role â€Å"The teacher, when she begins to work in our schools, must have a kind of faith that the child will reveal himself through work. She must free herself from all preconceived ideas concerning the levels at which the children may be. The many different types of children . . . must not worry her. . . . The teacher must believe that this child before her will show his true nature when he finds a piece of work that attracts him. So what must she look out for? -Dr. Maria Montessori The Montessori teacher is known as a directress because of her role within the setting. She will guide and direct the children through their studies, and observation is paramount to the approach. She plays more of an active role with the younger children, demonstrating the use of equipment and presenting opportunities for development. She intervenes less and less as the child’s independence grows as he develops. The relationship between a Montessori teacher and a child is very important. Her qualities should consist of a calm, warm, friendly manner and a pleasant appearance. Although we do not aim to be perfect, a lack of self-awareness in a teacher can put barriers between herself and a child, such as anger and pride. Of course we are human and do feel angry at times, but it is down to the teacher to deal with her emotions and put those feelings away safely. Children need to know what to expect from a teacher and feel secure if she is firm, but kind. The Montessori teacher waits patiently, watches the child, anticipating his needs, but neither fusses or interferes; she only does what is appropriate. She must give the child opportunity to lean through doing himself; through this he can construct independence. The teacher becomes a direct link between the child and his environment. She will show him how to use the materials and how to wait to have a turn. The Montessori teacher must care for the environment and uphold a safe, loving atmosphere. She must watch and direct the children down spontaneous learning paths and be responsive to a child’s changing needs, assisting him to acquire independence and self-discipline. The Absorbent Mind and the Sensitive Periods Montessori saw the absorbent mind in two phases. During the first phase, from birth to three years old, the young child unknowingly or unconsciously acquires his basic abilities. She called it the period of unconscious creation or the unconscious absorbent mind. The child’s work during this period is to become independent from the adult for his basic human functions. He learns to speak, to walk, to gain control of his hands and to master his bodily functions. Once these basic skills are incorporated into his schema, by about three years old, he moves into the next phase of the absorbent mind, which Montessori called the period of conscious work or the conscious absorbent mind. During this period, the child’s mathematical mind compels him to perfect in himself that which is now there. His fundamental task during this phase is freedom; freedom to move purposefully, freedom to choose and freedom to concentrate. the physical baby developed in utero, the mental or psychic baby must complete his embryonic growth outside the womb. Montessori said that a man, â€Å". . . is like an object turned out by hand. â€Å"6 Once he is born, the baby’s specific interaction with his surroundings casts his mental life and uniquely shapes him. It is now that he absorbs his mother tongue and comes to love his place of birth. Thus, this spiritual embryo needs a concentrated relationship with his parents and milieu to form his individual self. Montessori observed that adults often fail to do what is essential at this time, † . . . because of the habit we have of thinking the child has no mental life. † -Dr. .Maria Montessori The sensitive period for movement is most intense during the first year of life. Montessori reminds us that, â€Å"(n) o other mammal has to learn to walk. â€Å"18 The baby, unable at birth to control any of his movements, doesn’t even know he has hands and feet. But by about twelve months many babies take their first steps. Walking develops without it being taught. An infant’s need to walk is so strong that he becomes upset if he is impeded. The final sensitive period is that for language. No one teaches the child to talk. His language, â€Å". . . develops naturally like a spontaneous creation. â€Å"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 â€Å"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 perfectly. . How do the language materials prepare the child and which language materials prepared for writing and reading? Montessori uses to develop these cultural skills are to build on the sounds of which speech is made. The earliest language activities prepare the child for writing and reading by first augmenting the toddler’s existing speaking skills. These preparatory language activities may Begin as soon as the child is talking with meaning in phrases and short sentences. The language activities enhance the child’s attention to and use of words in every speaking and train the child to hear the component sounds in all spoken words example I SPY GAME, at this point, the child is provided with the bridge between the spoken word and the written word: the component sounds in spoken words are individually associated with particular visual and tactile images, that is letters example SAND PAPER LATERS. After this early preparation, the activities that actually introduce writing and reading are conducted simultaneously. The key activities that introduces writing is the use of the MOVABLE ALPHABET, the child applies the lessons of the sand paper letters – that is, the association of specific sound with particular images – to make words. A word is sounded out as in the I SPY activity, and plastic letters, shaped exactly like the sand paper letters, are lined up on a mat represent the sounds. The presentation of the movable alphabets stresses that writing is used to record a thought, and that thought can be written instead of spoken. Introducing writing by means of pre- formed plastic letters allows the child to begin to express thoughts in written form the before fully developing the manipulative skills needed to write with pencil and paper. While the child becomes familiar with the act of written expression, the manipulative skills of handwriting are gradually developed through the tactile tracing of the sand paper letters and the creative use of the METAL INSETS, and other later activities facilities the transition from Movable Alphabet to blackboard writing and then to pencil and paper. It is important to note that at this early stage of learning to write, words that the child writes spelled phonetically, as best as the child can. The adult must refrain from making spelling corrections to the child’s composition in these activities. The child is allowed to misspell because correct spelling will come naturally with reading, and because the effort anxiety connect with learning to spell may be enough to cancel the simple pleasure of expression. In these early stages, it is plenty of time later for refining basic skills. The key activity that introduces reading is the presentation of the OBJECT BOXES. The ‘objects’ these refer to are placed out on a mat, and the child is invited to guess which of these objects you are thinking about. Then the child is given the object’s written name as a clue. This approach clearly stresses that the purpose of reading is to find out another person’s ideas. What makes this first instruction to reading easy for the child is that there are only a few things that you might be thinking of, and all of them are on mat. So when it’s time to sound out the word, the sounding need not be entirely accurate, since the child is all the while looking over things, and looking over things of their names. Staring to read is normally so difficult because the word which the child is struggling to pronounce could be virtually and word in the English language. So writing and reading are introduced as fun and a useful activity to children’s with the language materials, which can also help us understand and appreciate the world, and share ideas and experiences with other people.