The older a child gets, the better he or she will speak a language. But how exactly does that work? There are various aspects when it comes to language development in children. Consider the development of communicative intentions, the organization of conversations, conveying information and the development of complex speech acts in children. These are all areas in which children develop to learn to speak a language better.
The aspects of language development
- The development of communicative intentions
- The organization of conversations
- Conveying information
- Developing complex speech acts
1. Development of communicative intentions
Parents/caregivers will interpret children’s behavior as communicatively intentional. Children slowly become accustomed to being guided by their parents/guardians’ interpretation. At the beginning of language acquisition, a child has a small number of communicative functions. Expressive (showing your opinion), directing and asserting functions are examples of this. At the beginning of language acquisition, what the child says will only relate to the here and now. Only later will a child talk about other things that have nothing to do with the here and now. Children gradually increase their repertoire of actions and the combination possibilities of words. More and more often a child can talk about the immediate past or the near future, so talking only about the here and now will disappear. A child will also be able to understand indirect speech acts.
2. Organization of conversations
As mentioned earlier, a child will increasingly refer to the near future or the immediate past, more previous expressions can be retrieved. Children will also learn to respond more and more to questions that are asked of them. At first they will answer questions simply with yes, but later they will add things to make the answer more complete/clearer. Turn-taking in conversations will also become smoother, partly because children will use increasingly longer answers.
3. Transferring information
Referring words will be used during the phase in which a word is spoken each time. Young children will repeat more and more, which will create more coherence in sentences. In the third year of life, children will start using conjunctions.
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As children grow older in their language development, more and more clear and relevant information will be used.
4. Developments of (complex) speech acts
Speech acts such as:
- Narrate
- Argue
- Jokes and jokes
- To lie
- Explaining: explaining is still very limited at 5 years old
- Definitions: from the age of seven a child will give more definitions, but at the age of eleven, giving definitions is still developing
Language development and school language
- Educational discourse: language use when participating in routines in school. Think of group discussions, craft activities and how the teacher communicates with the class.
- Educated discourse: language use in learning, cognitive development. Think of conversations during meals or during collaborative learning.
Individual differences in language development in children
- Environmental differences / socio-cultural differences . This includes language use, literate environment and faith.
- Language aptitude or learning ability.