SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 2011-Second Language Acquisition Assignment (ANALYSIS OF BABY TALK)

SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ASSIGNMENT (ANALYSIS OF BABY TALK)

ISTYA NINGRUM

0813042034

ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM 08 REG

ENGLISH STUDY PROGRAM

LANGUAGE AND ART DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY

2011

BABY TALK-IMITATING PRONUNCIATION

These video described how a toddler, ages of two years old, imitated her mother’s speaking.  Whenever her mother spoke a word, (in this case, the mother spoke in three languages: English, Chinese, and Hebrew to her daughter), the daughter tried to follow what her mother has spoken to her. Even though, when we watched to the video, we would see that the daughter pronounce the words incorrect or as she wanted to speak.  The daughter could pronounce some words given by her mother such as, “papa”, “mama”, “water”, and “toothbrush” in English better than in Chinese and Hebrew. This situation probably caused by the daughter was used to speaks in English, although may be her mother was a Chinese (in the video, the pronunciation of the mother sounds like a Chinese dialect).

The act of the toddler above is a kind of baby talk. The toddler imitates the pronunciation of the adult’s speaking, her mother commonly.  If children have a desire to learn and that learning comes without great difficulty, is that all there is to the development of language? Social learning theory explains that children imitate the words and language patterns they hear by watching and listening to the models, caregivers, and family members in their life (Bandura, 1989). Some children imitate German words, others imitate Japanese words, and still others imitate English words. They repeat those sounds that are rewarded with smiles and praise (dada and mama) and drop out those sounds that are not rewarded (ngaaw) (Skinner, 1957; Whitehurst & Valdez-Menchaca, 1988).Proponents of the interactionist theory argue that children need more than a desire to speak, more than an inborn LAD, and more than a model to imitate. Interactionists suggest that children need to interact with others (Bohannon & Bonvillian, 1997). A normal infant born to deaf and mute parents provided scientists the opportunity to observe a child's attempts to learn language in an environment where spoken language interaction was not possible. Could a child learn language by listening to TV? If a child only needs models to imitate, he or she should be able to learn to speak and understand the spoken word by watching TV. If a child needs to interact (speak and be spoken to), then watching TV would not enable him or her to learn language.

For addition about a toddler talk style:

• Toddlers, too, love to look at books with adults who talk about the pictures. While they are learning new words every day, toddlers' speaking vocabularies are still limited. However, they can understand a great deal of the spoken language they are not yet able to produce. Therefore, adults can facilitate language growth as they talk with the toddler while "reading."

• Books that picture common objects and everyday events are particularly appealing. For example, Helen Oxenbury's All Fall Down is fun for toddlers because it pictures very young children engaged in movements that are easy for the toddler to imitate and name.

• Outings, even simple walks in the grass, open up possibilities for learning new words and concepts. Talk about the rough bark, soft grass, tickly ant, hungry birds, and splashy puddles. Take advantage of every opportunity to enlarge the child's world because each new adventure brims with language possibilities.