Annotated bibliography, Language development in children

                 Language development in children

     Speech and language are tools humans use to communicate with and therefore it is crucial to understand how we acquire it.  Children start developing the knowledge of the language very early on and it is important to know how, in order to help them do so most efficiently. This research will try and investigate and observe different ways in which children can acquire language.

Mashburn, A., Justice, L., Downer, J., & Pianta, R. (n.d.). Peer Effects on Children's Language Achievement during Pre-Kindergarten. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29738647?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

     This article is talking about the study that was conducted among 1,182 4 year olds enrolled in pre kindergarten programs. The study was done in order to see whether children learn the language from its peers.  Children had to meet the criteria of having a parental consent, meet the age criteria, and speak Spanish or English well enough to understand the simple instructions. The measures included were child and family characteristics, program characteristics and quality of emotional interaction. Results indicated that peer expressive language ability was positively related to children’s expressive and receptive language achievement during the pre kindergarten year.

     I think this study is very important as it indicated that children could benefit from interacting with each other. It showed that classrooms could be managed in a different way and that teachers should encourage more child-child interaction rather than just teacher-child.  Obviously, this might be hard to manage in certain situations, especially in public schools with a lot of unprivileged children whose knowledge of language is much poorer. Nevertheless, I found this study very useful, as it was very well conducted and gave promising results from which children could benefit if encouraged to engage more with each other.

Gathercole, V. (n.d.). Some Myths You May Have Heard about First Language Acquistion. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3587287?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

     The article is discussing three hypotheses about the relation of first and second language acquisition in children. It focuses on the fact that recent studies on second language learning challenge the assumptions made about the first language development. It states that the problem with the assumption regarding the first language is that the relationship between comprehension and production is a complex one, in which comprehension sometimes precedes production, but also in which production precedes comprehension. Moreover, it argues certain myths about first language learning and discusses how a great deal of evidence show that children acquire first language in a rather systematic way.

     I found this article useful from the point of first language learning, as it refutes certain myths and assumptions. It also shows the importance of first language learning, as acquiring second language more often than not depends on the knowledge of the first language. The conclusion of the article that states that is not always the case that comprehension necessarily precedes production or that not all learning is systematic was rather helpful in this research. I believe that this could help the quality of both first and second language teaching.

Colona, K. (2008). Language Development. Research Starters Education.

     This article discusses various factors that can influence language development in children. The article mentions factors such as relationships parents and caregivers have with a child in the early years of his or her life and the school environment.  It argues that the development of oral language comes to us naturally and that even though children do not normally begin to form their first words until they reach 10 or 12 months, humans are designed to speak even before birth. Moreover, it states that language development occurs because of a combination of nature and nurture.  The involvement of adults and the general environment and culture in which a child is raised does affect a child's ability to learn and develop language skills.  The article continues discussing other relevant factors such as psychology, application, classroom and preschool.

     I found this article the most interesting of the lot, as it explains and discusses each one of the factors that could have a direct influence on child’s language development. It gives an insight into each aspect and elucidates the reasons why each and one are so important. Even though it gives just a general overview, this article was most helpful as it explained potential problems and made me understand the general overview of the topic. 

Lucija Malnar