Language Development - Social Preconditions

Social Preconditions

It is crucial that children are allowed to socially interact with other people who can vocalize and respond to questions. For language acquisition to develop successfully, children must be in an environment that allows them to communicate socially in that language.

There are a few different theories as to why and how children develop language. The most popular—and yet heavily debated—explanation is that language is acquired through imitation. The two most accepted theories in language development are psychological and functional. Psychological explanations focus on the mental processes involved in childhood language learning. Functional explanations look at the social processes involved in learning the first language.

There are four main components of language:

• Phonology involves the rules about the structure and sequence of speech sounds.
• Semantics consists of vocabulary and how concepts are expressed through words.
• Grammar involves two parts. The first, syntax, is the rules in which words are arranged into sentences. The second, morphology, is the use of grammatical markers (indicating tense, active or passive voice etc.).
• Pragmatics involves the rules for appropriate and effective communication. Pragmatics involves three skills:
  • using language for greeting, demanding etc.
  • changing language for talking differently depending on who it is you are talking to
  • following rules such as turn taking, staying on topic

Each component has its own appropriate developmental periods.