Child-directed speech and its influence on language development

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Child-directed speech and its influence on language development

Kenzhetayev H.M.

Keniskhanova A.S.

Duysekenov D.S.

Pavlodar State Pedagogical Institute

Pavlodar, Kazakhstan

Language development is ordinary process of learning in which children acquire the forms, meanings and uses of words and utterances from the linguistic input. The method in which they develop language skills is universal anyway. The major debate is in what way the rules of syntax are acquired. There isone of the major approaches to syntactic development named as the“empiricist theory” by which children learn all syntactic rules from the linguistic input.

The empiricist theorysupposes that there is pretty sufficient information in the linguistic input children receive. Empiricists believe that general brain processes are sufficient enough for language acquisition. During this process, it is necessary for the child to be actively engaged with their environment. In order for a child to learn language, the parent or caregiver adopts a particular way of appropriately communicating with the child; this is known as childdirected speech (CDS). Child-Directed Speech is used so that children are given the necessary linguistic information needed for their language development. Language acquisition, which goes under empiricist theory, suggests that infants acquire language by means of pattern perception.

child language learning speech

This leads us to the idea of “comprehensible input” theory by Stephen Krashen. This theory according to S. Krashen supposesthatsimple codes, input that the acquirer understands, are not deliberately grammatically sequenced or controlled. Rather, the speaker is only concerned with whether the listener understands the message.

This focuses on the question of simplified input, both inside the classroom (i.e. teacher-talk) and outside the classroom (i.e. foreigner talk), asking whether such simplified input is of use to second language acquisition. The conclusion is that such input is not only highly useful, but it is possibly essential. Simple codes may provide for the second language acquirer what "caretaker speech" provides for the first language acquirer, comprehensible input with a low "affective filter".

The "caretaker" speech, also as (CDS), is addressed to young children acquiring their first language, contained a high proportion of intake, and suggested that by examining the essential properties of caretaker speech we could arrive at some definition of intake. As many researchers have pointed out (Snow and Ferguson, 1977), caretakers do not consciously intend to teach language; their concern is communication. Nevertheless, there is reason to suppose that caretaker speech is an excellent teaching language, even though it may not always seem to be at first examination. According to the literature on caretaker speech caretaker speech has the following characteristics:

1. It obeys the "here and now" principle: caretakers talk about what is going on in the immediate environment of the young child at that moment. I think that what is significant about this principle is that the child is given extra linguistic support to aid in his comprehension of what is said to him.

2. It is syntactically simple, and becomes complex as the child gains in linguistic maturity. This characteristic is not as simple as that, however, Caretakers do not simply aim their input at the "next" structure, the one that the child is due to acquire next. Rather, caretaker input appears to be "roughly tuned" to the child's linguistic ability--we see positive, but not strikingly high correlations between linguistic input complexity and linguistic competence in children

3. Caretaker speech is communication. As mentioned above, the purpose of caretaker speech is not language teaching, it is to convey messages and often to get the child to behave in a certain way. It turns out to be the case that caretaker speech is effective in encouraging language acquisition.

From these characteristics, Stephen Krashen hypotheses that intake is first of all input that is understood. In fact, comprehension may be the major core of the language acquisition process: therefore we acquire by understanding. So, undoubtedly that the environment provides language input for the child to process. Child-directed speech to children helps provide the child with correct language usage repetitively.One component of the young child's linguistic environment is child-directed speech (also known as baby talk or motherese), which is language spoken in a higher pitch than normal with simple words and sentences. Although the importance of its role in developing language has been debated, many linguists think that it may aid in capturing the infant's attention and maintaining communication. When children begin to communicate with adults, this CD speech allows the child the ability to discern the patterns in language and to experiment with language.

Child-directed speech will also catch the child's attention and in situations where words for new objects are being expressed to the child this form of speech may help the child recognize the speech cues and the new information provided. Data shows that children raised in highly verbal families had higher language scores than those children raised in low verbal families.

So this can be concluded that children exposed to extensive vocabulary and complex grammatical structures more quickly develop language and also have a more accurate syntax than children raised in environments without complex grammar exposed to them. With child-directed speech, the caretaker talks to the child and responds back to the child, whether it is a babble the child made or a short sentence. While doing this, the adult is prompting the child to continue communicating which may help a child develop language sooner than children were raised in environments where communication was not fostered.

Continuously hearing complicated sentences throughout language development increases the child's ability to understand these sentences and then to use complicated sentences as they develop. Studies have shown that students enrolled in high language classrooms have two times the growth in complex sentences usage than students in classrooms where teachers do not frequently use complex sentences.

Child-directed speech as was mentioned above concentrates on small core vocabulary, here and now topics, exaggerated facial expressions and gestures, frequent questioning, paralinguistic changes, and verbal rituals. An infant is least likely to produce vocalizations when changed, fed, or rocked. The infant will more likely produce vocalizations when a nonverbal behavior such as touching or smiling is directed at the infant. Adults use strategies other than child-directed speech like recasting, expanding, and labeling:

1. Recasting is rephrasing something the child has said, perhaps turning it into a question or restating the child's immature utterance in the form of a fully grammatical sentence. For example, a child saying "cookie now" a parent may respond with "Would you like a cookie now?"

2. Expanding is restating, in a linguistically sophisticated form, what a child has said. For example, a child may say "car move road" and the parent may respond "A car drives on the road.

3. Labeling is identifying the names of objects. If a child points to an object such as a couch the mother may say "couch" in response. Labeling can also be characterized as referencing.

One also ought to acknowledge that children have a great influence on the language development from their parents, what means the active interaction with the child by his/her parents in order to develop his/her language competence.

Studies have shown that infants actually prefer to listen to this type of speech rather than standard adult-directed speech. Some researchers, including Rima Shore, believe that baby talk is an important part of the emotional bonding process between the parents and their child that helps the infants learn the language.Infants pay more attention when parents use infant-directed language, which has a slower and more repetitive tone than used in regular conversation.This has been found that children who had spent more time with their caregivers had well understanding and their speech had been developed better than those children who had not had interaction.

One can separate child directed speech onto three milestones: Primarily, the parents will use repetition and also variation to maintain the infant's attention. Secondly, the parent will simplify speech to help in language learning. Third, any modifications in speech will maintain the responsiveness of the child. These modifications develop into a conversation that provides context for the development.

Furthermore, one of the "fact" of interest to us here is that according to scholars working in the area of child language acquisition, the relative "simplicity" of caretaker speech is probably not due to any conscious effort on the part of the caretaker to teach language. Rather, caregivers modify their speech in order to communicate with children, in order to control their behavior, in order to make them understand what they are saying.

In modern linguistics, there are many theories as to how humans are able to develop language ability. According to Stephen Krashen'sacquisitionlearning hypothesis, there are two independent ways in which we develop our linguistic skills: acquisition and learning. This theory is at the core of modern language acquisition theory, and is perhaps the most fundamental of Krashen's theories.

Acquisition of language is a natural, intuitive, and subconscious process of which individuals need not be aware. One is unaware of the process as it is happening and, when the new knowledge is acquired, the acquirer generally does not realize that he or she possesses any new knowledge. According to Krashen, both adults and children can subconsciously acquire language, and either written or oral language can be acquired. This process is similar to the process that children undergo when learning their native language. Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language, during which the acquirer is focused on meaning rather than form.

Learning a language, on the other hand, is a conscious process, much like what one experiences in school. New knowledge or language forms are represented consciously in the learner's mind, frequently in the form of language "rules" and "grammar", and the process often involves error correction.Language learning involves formal instruction and, according to Krashen, is less effective than acquisition. Learning in this sense is conception or conceptualisation: instead of learning a language itself, students learn an abstract, conceptual model of a language, a "theory" about a language (a grammar).

Given figure above illustrates the relationship between attitude and motivation.

In this particular case, one has to acknowledge that language acquisition can be realized through the interesting content directed to the infants. As we see in the figure above, we might hypothesis that the emphasis on the appropriate interesting content helps to realize proper language acquisition. If there is enough comprehensible input, but the child's attitude is not accurate, for instance, if directed speech (message) does not inspire a child or is not exciting, at this point, undoubtedly that acquisition would not happen respectively. In other words, if the anxiety is high and motivation is low, language acquisition cannot take place indeed. If there is high anxiety, an acquirer is able to understand certain message, i.e this means that comprehensible input can be realized, but the message would not go to the language acquisition device (LAD). This supposes that an acquirer understands the message but does not acquire the language. So, here should be mentioned that the positive attitude to the language acquisition is not only useful, but is very essential and crucial component of it.

Second, attitudinal factors relating to acquisition will be those that enable the performer to utilize the language heard for acquisition. Simply hearing a second language with understanding appears to be necessary but is not sufficient for acquisition to take place. The acquirer must not only understand the input but must also, in a sense, be "open" to it. Dulay and Burt (1977) have captured this concept bypositing the presence of a "socio-affective filter". Performers with high or strong filters will acquire less of the language directed at them, as less input is "allowed in" to the language-acquisition device. The presence of such a filter, according to Dulay and Burt, may explain which of alternative models the acquirer will internalize (e.g. why children acquire the dialect of their peers rather than that of their elders), why acquisition prematurely ceases in some cases, and often what parts of language are acquired first. Thus, attitudinal factors relating to language acquisition will be those that contribute to a low affective filter. If everything is accurate, those attitudinal factors promt to the appropriate subconscious language acquisition.

Moving back to the point of importance of motivation in language acquisition we might distinguish one of the major type of motivation. According to Stevick, he suggests the integrative type of motivation which supposes the importance of interaction between a caregiver and an infant, what in fact leads to the well-constructed language acquisition.

Integrative motivation, defined as the desire to be like valued members of the community that speak the second language, is predicted to relate to proficiency in terms of the two functions. The presence of integrative motivation should encourage the acquirer to interact with speakers of the second language out of sheer interest, and thereby obtain intake. A low filter for integratively motivated acquirers is also predicted for similar reasons. In Stevick's terms, the integratively motivated performer will not feel a threat from the "other" group and will thus be more prone to engage in "receptive learning" (acquisition), rather than "defensive learning".

Furthermore, another pretty interesting fact about language acquisition according to Stephen Krashen, is that speaking (output) is not the process of language acquisition, this is the result of enough comprehensible input that the acquirer was provided . Speaking comes from sufficient amount of listening, so in this case, one should admit that, speaking comes from enough amount of intake, i.e. this means that speaking then appears as the consequence of sufficient intake.

Considering all the given facts above, we might come to conclusion, that obtaining enough input from the first year of birth, within the early childhood, in average, children before going to school, have sufficient level of language proficiency. In other words, this means that children before enter the doors of primary schools, are able to understand a huge amount of input (comprehensible input) and moreover they are able to produce language on pretty high level (output).

To conclude everything, one ought to acknowledge that child-directed speech plays one of the significant roles in first years of language development and provides with the sufficient framework to acquire the language effortless and without anxiety.

Further reading

1. Vivan Cook “Second language learning and language teaching - London, 2008”

2. Krashen, S.D. (1981). Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning Friederici, AD. (Oct 2011). "The brain basis of language processing: from structure to function".

3. Harris, Margaret (1992). Language Experience and Early Language Development: From Input to Uptake.

4. Bruner, J. (1983). Child's Talk: Learning to Use Language. Oxford: OxfordUniversityPress.

5. Lillo-Martin, Diane C.; Crain, Stephen (1999).An introduction to linguistic theory and language acquisition.

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