Language Acquisition By Children
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This research reviews literature relevant to the acquisition of language by children. The contemporary rage in the teaching and learning of language is the whole-language approach (Levine, 1994, pp. 38-43). The whole-language approach exposes children to interesting reading and writing at the expense of systematically teaching specific reading and writing skills. Whole-language teachers, for instance, encourage young students to recite along with them as the teachers read aloud from entertaining big-print books. One of the central tenets of the whole-language approach is that language should be learned from whole to part, with word-recognition skills being picked up by the child in the context of actual reading, writing, and immersion in a print-rich classroom (Bates, Bretherton, & Snyder, 1988, pp. 25-44). Proponents of the whole-language approach contend that children taught in this way are more motivated to read and write, and that comprehension increases.The whole-language approach, however, can deprive children, particularly low-income and other disadvantaged students, of the intensive instruction in phonics·the study of sound-letter relationships·that they need to master reading (Levine, 1994, pp. 38-43). Evidence also is mounting that the whole-language approach may not be as effective as claimed by proponents, and that its underlying premises simply may be false. Some of the many school districts that have tried the whole-lan
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ead, children reason by deciding that this word sounds like that word.
The Rumelhart and McClelland hypothesis of language acquisition is a ruleless system (Kolata, 1987, p. 133). The ruleless systems are called connectionist hypotheses. "No rules are fed into the system but, at the end, when the network adjusts itself, something very much like rules are learned" according to proponents (Kolata, 1987, p. 133).
Proponents of the whole-language approach to the teaching of reading contend that whole-language is the best approach for minorities and disadvantaged students (Nikiforuk & Howes, 1995, pp. 22-26). The Whole Language Teachers Newsletter recommends teaching children confronted by an unfamiliar word to skip it, use prior information, or put in another word that makes sense. The newsletter warns against having students sound-out unfamiliar words.
The federal government, philanthropic foundations, and universities have sponsored other major studies on reading that have been generally supportive of the intensive phonics programs derided by whole-language proponents (Levine, 1994, pp. 38-43). Low-income and slow students appear to benefit especially from explicit phonics instruction (Thal & Bates, 1988, pp. 115-123). Th
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Reading Recovery, Bretherton Snyder, Liberman Mattingly, San Diego, Rumelhart McClelland, ACQUISITION CHILDREN, Nikiforuk Howes, Teachers Newsletter, Thal Bates, North American, whole-language approach, levine 1994, 1994 pp, 1995 pp, pp 38-43, 1994 pp 38-43, reading writing, levine 1994 pp, nikiforuk howes 1995, beane 1995, language acquisition, howes 1995, nikiforuk howes, liberman mattingly 1989, howes 1995 pp,
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