Matakuliah
Tahun
: E1122 - Psikologi Pendidikan
: 2010
Cognitive and Language Development
Pertemuan 4
What is Language ?
• Language is a form of communication whether spoken,
written, or signed- that is based on system of symbols.
• Language consist of the words used by a community
(vocabulary) and the rule for varying and combining
them (grammar and syntax)
• Language involves five system of rules; phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantic, and pragmatics.
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Five system rules of language
• Phonology; a language’s sound system
• Morphology; the units of meaning involved in
word formation
• Syntax; the ways that words must be combined
to form acceptable phrases and sentences
• Semantics; the meaning of words and sentencies
• Pragmatics; the use of appropriate use of
language in different contexts.
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Biological and Environmental Influences
• Noam Chomsky (1957) argued that humans are prewired to
learn language at a certain time and i a certain way. Some
language scholars view the remarkable similarities in how
children acquire language all over the world, despite the
vas variation in language input they receive, as strong
evidence that language has a biological basis
• Other language expert argue that language that the child’s
experiences, the particular language to be learned, and the
context in which learning takes place can strongly influence
language acquisition.
• Both biological and environmental influences play important
roles in children’s language development
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How Language Develops
Infancy
• Language acquisition advances past a number of
milestones in infancy.
• Babbling begins at about 3 to 6 months.
• Utter their first word at about 10 to 13 months
• Begin to string to words together at 18 to 24 months
• In two-words stage, they quickly grasp the importance of
language in communication, creating phrases such as
“my candy”, “mama walk”, “give papa”
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How Language Develops
Early Childhood
• The transition from simple sentences expressing a
single proportion to complex sentences begins between
2 and 3 years
• Phonology: Most preschool children gradually become
sensitive to the sound of spoken words
• Morphology: children begin using the plural and
posssesive form of nouns (books and book’s), putting
appropriate endings on verb (s when the subject is third
person singular), ect
• Syntax ; the child shows a growing mastery of complex
rules for how words should be ordered (consider wh
question, such as “where is dady doing/”
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How Language Develops
Early Childhood
• Semantics: the speaking vocabulary of a 6 year-old
child ranges from 8,000 to 14,000 words. Assuming that
words learning began when the child was 12 months
old, this translates into a rate of 5 to 8 new word
meangings a day between the ages of 1 and 6.
• Pragmatic : at about 3 years of age, children improve in
their ability to talk about things that are not physically
present.
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How Language Develops
• Midlle and late childhood
• As they enter school, children gain new skills that make
it possible for them to learn to read and write; these
include increasingly using language in a displaced way,
learning what a word is, and learning how to recognize
and talk about sounds.
• As children develop during middle and late childhood,
changes in their vocabulary and grammar also take
place.
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How Language Develops
• Midlle and late childhood
• During the elementary school years, children
increasingly able to understand and use complex
grammar.
• Metaliguistic awareness also improves considerably
during the elementary school years. Metalinguistic
awareness refers to knowledge of language which
allows children “to think about their language,
understand what words are, and even define them”
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How Language Develops
• Adolescence
• Language development during adolescence includes
increased sophistication in the use of words. As they
develop abstract thinking, adolescence become much
better than children at analyzing the function a word
plays ia sentence.
• Adolescence also develop more subtle abilities with
words. They make strides in understanding metaphor,
which is an implied comparison between unlike things.
• Adolescence become better able to understand and to
use satire, which is the use of irony, derision, or wit to
expose folly or wickedness.
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