THE WAY OF CHILDREN IN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Written to Complete Psycholinguistics

Paper Task

By:

TARI KURNIA PUTRI / 15018043

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Mukhaiyar, M.Pd.

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
STATE UNIVERSITY OF PADANG

2018
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Language can be learned by natural way. It can be started from a family

environment where a human is beginning their life for the first time. A baby has the

ability to acquire language through a natural way. Language acquisition occurs

naturally in the family. It is because they are born in a family nuance where the

people around them will provide language input. Babies are born with the ability to

learn it and that learning begins at birth. According to Chomsky “ language was not

‘learned’ but somehow mysteriously ‘acquired’ “. Research has shown that the nature

of the speech and environmental input which children receive is essential for

language learning. It means that environment gives many input of language to

children. It because of children receives input from many sources such as mother,

father, siblings, friends, etc.

Language acquisition refers to the way children learn their native language.

Children acquire 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 through interaction, not only with their parents and

other adults, but also with other children. All normal children who grow up in normal

households, surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language that is being used

around them. And it is just as easy for a child to acquire two or more languages at the

same time, as long as they are regularly interacting with speakers of those languages.

The special way in which many adults speak to small children also helps them

to acquire language. Studies show that the 'baby talk' that adults naturally use with

infants and toddlers tends to always be just a bit ahead of the level of the child's own

language development, as though pulling the child along. This 'baby talk' has simpler

vocabulary and sentence structure than adult language, exaggerated intonation and

sounds, and lots of repetition and questions. All of these features help the child to sort

out the meanings, sounds, and sentence patterns of his or her language.
 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Speaking is conveying our ideas to others but many people are good at

speaking but the intent of the idea is not well conveyed. Brown (2001: 267) cites that

when someone can speak a language it means that he can carry on a conversation

reasonably competently. In addition, he states that the benchmark of successful

acquisition of language is almost always the demonstration of an ability to

accomplish pragmatic goals through an interactive discourse with other language

speakers.

Brown (2001: 267) cites that when someone can speak a language it means

that he can carry on a conversation reasonably competently. In addition, he states that

the benchmark of successful acquisition of language is almost always the

demonstration of an ability to accomplish pragmatic goals through an interactive

discourse with other language speakers.

Based on the definitions above it can be concluded that speaking skill is

always related to communication. Speaking skill itself can be stated as the skill to use

the language accurately to express meanings in order to transfer or to get knowledge

and information from other people in the whole life situation.

 CHAPTER III

DISCUSSION

Children begin to acquire language at the age of 2 years. where they begin to

try to repeat the words spoken by people around them. But the word is not entirely

clear, it takes time to reach perfection in their language. In addition, by longer phase,

the way they speak will become clearer.

A child tends to tell everything that he experienced to others, but the

pronunciation is unclear. It is quite difficult for listeners to understand what he is

talking about. He will keep talking even people doesn’t listen to him.

The basic principle of children in acquiring language is imitative. Imitative

means that children tend to imitate everything around them. So they tend to imitate

everything that they listen and look: people utterances, new things, environment, and

media.

Second, child is interested with the new things that he never met before. The

new things can improve his language acquisition. They feel curious about something

that they never knew and met before. When they see their mother is cooking in the

kitchen, they will ask the ingredients that they never met before, such as fish,

chicken, and vegetables. He is curious with that such things and he never stop to ask

about those things.

 Third, child tends to influenced by the environment and by the people whom

he met every day. It means that they acquire the words by the people that often they

meet. For example, when child is playing every day with the children in

neighborhood, then some of their friends’ utter impolite words then the child also

imitate it. Briefly, they utters that words to his mother even he does not know the

meaning.

Forth, child tends to be influenced by the media such as television and gadget.

They tend to imitate the unique words that he never heard before. When he always

watches the same TV program every day, automatically he will hear the same words

such as Cartoon movie.

Fifth, child tends to imitate the songs. When he listens to the song for the first

time, they listen to the song carefully. Then, after listen to the song for several times,

they start to sing the song. In imitating the songs, they cannot imitate the whole

words, but they only utter the last sounds of each sentence of the songs.
 CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the language acquisition of the children may come from many

others aspects, such as the family, environment, media like television and gadget and

even songs. It can occur because we know that the children tend to imitate all of the

things that he listen and looks every day. As much as he does the interaction with

many people, so the language acquisitions tend to increase every time.

 REFERENCES

Steinberg, et al.(2006). An introduction to psycholinguistics (2nd edition). Edinburgh:

Pearson Education

Brown. 2000. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. Sanfrancisco: Addison

Wesley Longman.

Brown. 2001. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to

Language Pedagogy. New York: Wesley Longman, Inc.