what is language?
Language and communication skills are critical to a child’s development. Good communication makes them better able to engage in socialization and to learn from their environment and and from formal classroom instruction. When we talk about communication we are talking about both speech which is the verbal means of communication and language which is using shared rules to put words together to express thoughts and feelings as well has to understand the meaning of language through both spoken and written communication. Since parents are a child’s first teacher, knowledge of language development in children improves their ability to interact with their child to stimulate and guide them in their ability to understand and communicate with their environment.
There are four main components of language:
There are four main components of language:
- Phonology involves the rules about the structure and sequence of speech sounds.
- Semantics consists of vocabulary and how concepts are expressed through words.
- Grammar involves two parts. The first, syntax, is the rules in which words are arranged into sentences. The second, morphology, is the use of grammatical markers (indicating tense, active or passive voice etc.).
- Pragmatics involves the rules for appropriate and effective communication. Pragmatics involves three skills:
- using language for greeting, demanding etc.
- changing language for talking differently depending on who it is you are talking to
- following rules such as turn taking, staying on topic