TEFL Makhachkala

How children learn languages is determined by various factors influenced by internal factors (mental/psychological, emotional, and physical developments) and by external factors (the people children’s lives, the learning environments, the community, and the media). These factors encompass the continuous development of children’s learning of languages. children’s learning processes are complex and delicate when it comes to learning to listen, speak, and read languages (Morrison, 2007). According to recent neurological studies, the first few years of life are crucial for the learning development of children. In the first year of life, children’s brain developments literally have once in a lifetime connections and these connections can be missed which would lead to a lifetime of developmental delays. The acquiring of a language starts at infancy. children in general are quick and motivated learners, but infants and toddlers are definitely natural born and extremely quick learners that absorb the constant information around them. Infants won’t be able to speak logical words until nearly the first year of life, but they’re able to understand many vocabulary and vocalize sounds. Infants often use one or two syllable words to express desires and to address people and objects (for example, baa baa for bottle, maa or daa for a parental figure, ooo to express happiness). These vocalizations are important milestones in developing the skill to speak a language. Parents and caretakers must continuously repeat and slowly vocalize words in order for the infant to pick up the settle vocal and tonal sounds of words. Toddlers will begin to communicate in two or three word sentences (usually occurs between the first two years of life). Toddlers’ first sentences are often grammatically incorrect (for example, verbs are not used, article removed, incorrect pronouns used, and so forth). Even with these grammar issues, toddlers are able to communicate their wants effectively. Before young children are able to even recognize and understand letters in their mother tongue, children learn to identify environmental symbols. Environmental symbols are pictures and objects of children’s environment (for example, the McDonald’s M sign, the Pizza Hut red roof sign, the duck crossing sign, the bee on the yellow Cheerios box, the skull and cross bones sign, and so forth). The learning of environmental symbols actually is a part of the language development process for children. For the first three years, children continually pick up a huge amount of vocabulary and learn through trial and error on how to use verbs, nouns, articles, and pronouns correctly. The television, movies, music, and the radio are also ways children pick up vocabulary and learn tonal sounds of words. children tend to copy tonal speech and repeat words of the people and media around them; all of this is vital to the learning process of acquiring a language. The learning of language is a continuous and multipath process for children (Morrison, 2007). The people in the children’s lives help them learn and practice their language skills. It is scientifically proven that mothers and caretakers that spoke a lot to their children during infancy and toddler years have a higher vocabulary than children whose mothers and care takers rarely spoken to them in the first two years of life. Parents and caretakers that use gentle tones and positive words have children more likely to be encouraged to use language more openly and expressively. Early exposure to books (having books in the environment and reading to children on a regular basis) greatly increases the chances of children reading and writing words at early ages than children who were not exposure to books in their environments. For children to learn a second language aside from their mother tongue, children must be exposed to the new language continuously through spoken words, positive verbal tones and body gestures, children’s books with enjoyable, colorful pictures, and repetition of words (Morrison, 2007). In conclusion, learning languages is a settle, complex, and continuously learning process for children. So many factors are involved in the children’s developmental processes and caretakers and parents must be diligent in assisting the process of communication skills (speaking, reading, and writing) of children (Morrison, 2007). References Morrison, George. Fundamentals of Early Childhood Education. Ed. 5th. (2007). Pearson.