Ways in which technology improves education

Ways in which technology improves education:

• Teachers can collaborate to share their ideas and resources online: They can communicate with others across the world in an instant, meet the shortcomings of their work, refine it and provide their students with the best. This approach definitely enhances the practice of teaching.
• Students can develop valuable research skills at a young age: Technology gives students immediate access to an abundance of quality information which leads to learning at much quicker rates than before.
• Students and teachers have access to an expanse of material: There are plenty of resourceful, credible websites available on the Internet that both teachers and students can utilize. The Internet also provides a variety of knowledge and doesn’t limit students to one person’s opinion.
• Online learning is now an equally credible option: Face-to-face interaction is huge, especially in the younger years, but some students work better when they can go at their own pace. Online education is now accredited and has changed the way we view education.

There are innumerous instances till date where we can see the improvement in education, once it embraced technology. I will state a few remarkable ones of them to provide you with a more realistic picture of the whole scenario. Here’s the list along with the references to the originals:

• The Flipped Classroom: This popular technological approach has gotten to everybody’s ears by now. It is a practice in which, students watch lecture videos as homework and discussion is carried on them in the class-time by the teachers. It has resulted in a remarkably better student performance, with noticeable grade boost-up. Students can now learn at their own pace and save class-time for interaction. To go into more details about this approach refer to this article on The Flipped Classroom .
• Effectiveness of EdTech on Mathematics for K-12: Technology has proved to be effective for making students efficiently adept with Math. Out of several, there are three remarkable technologies, which in my opinion should be brought to the light. Computer-managed learning is a program that uses computers to assess student learning on Math and assign them with appropriate Math material, which they can work on to score and receive a chart of their progress for self-assessment; Comprehensive models such as Cognitive Tutor and I Can Learn use computer-aided instruction as well as non-computer activities for students to approach Math; Supplemental CAI technology consists of individualized computer-assisted instruction (CAI), to provide additional instruction at students’ assessed levels. Findings indicate that educational technology applications produce a positive effect on Mathematics achievement. For details, refer to the review onMathematics/ Effectiveness of Technology .
• Reference: http://edtechreview.in/news/681-technology-in-education

ENGLISH 305 – TEACHING AND TESTING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

ENGLISH 305 – TEACHING AND TESTING ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

1.    What is the importance of studying Teaching and Testing English as a Second Language in your task as English Teacher? Explain through illustrations experienced in the field of teaching. (20 points)

The significance of studying this subject as an English Teacher:

Ø  It continuously motivates me, improves my psycho-social cognition and stimulates my language creativity through the learning I had from the sharing, experiences and activities we had from this subject. As I further study on this subject, I started to see some connections I didn’t see before because every language teacher approaches the world of learning in a slightly different way. As a result, I had the opportunity to understand deeper the realm of teaching L2 from the perspective of my classmate-teachers and professor and gain a greater appreciation of L2. I think I was equipped and empowered to understand others’ point of views.

Ø  In my teaching, as I’m learning language teaching strategies and concepts about this subject, I am applying directly and indirectly certain techniques and theories aligned to the needs of my students as 21^st century learners thus, I am producing language activities and also a website about the subject to let my students browse, make an insight and learn from it as application and way-of-transfer of my learning.

2.    Discuss fully the difference between language proficiency and communicative competence in terms of first and second language acquisition research. (20 points)

Ø  Language Proficiency is how one use the language (as 2^nd language) as that of the native speakers or has a speaking ability equivalent to that of an educated native speaker--the L1 user while Communicative Competence is focus exclusively on the functional ability of using the language appropriately in different contexts of conversation as well as the ability to organize thoughts or meaning through language which is the 2^nd language end goal—to communicate appropriately across the globe competently.

3.    What are some major developments or key trends in Language Acquisition in the 21^st Century? Expound on your answer by providing illustrations to show these developments. (20 points)

Ø  In the twenty-first century, individualized instruction is becoming the norm.

-       Thus, mobile phone particularly the android or smart phones and some on-line platforms are the key trends in this generation. With our technology nowadays, with just a click or two on your smart/android phone or computer with your data, you can now sign-up or browse any sites and platforms if you desire to learn new language or continuously acquire further your first language. It is so amazing that thru mobile apps and on-line platforms, no need to sign up or enroll for 3-6 months language lesson in a language institution/school because of their personalized and adaptive content, constant feedback for progress, faster results and the live and on-demand tutoring characteristics based on the learning style and assessment of learning is aligned on the learning pace of every learner.

4.    Discuss one type of language problem that is most common in your work area. Think of one particular instance with a student and discuss how you usually deal with this problem. (20 points)

Ø  One of my students in one class of mine became overly dependent on me.

-       With this, I need to help him become more self-reliant and develop more trust in his own judgment by motivating him that language will be difficult only if he won’t focus. So, it required me to communicate to him my expectations first then set firm limits on our interactions; I just gave him the standards, rules, steps and techniques in learning the language as well as attention in ways that foster his independence towards the language and avoided interacting with him in ways that foster his dependence. Eventually, I paired him with a mature, responsible classmate, and told him to see his peer first when he needs help. This helped him a lot on his struggle.

5.     How important is second language acquisition for a child? How does the acquisition of a second language contribute to a child’s development? (20 points)

Ø  Most specially, in this millennial stage, second language acquisition for a child can provide cognitive development and social benefits. This helps the child expand his/her vocabulary and cognitive ability towards solving problems that requires understanding L2 also utilize L2 during their dealings/conversations with others more easily, open and confident because the more the child learn the second language, the more he/she understand further his/her first language.

-       Speaking from my experience, most of the time students’ success in school is strongly dependent on their proficiency in the language of instruction. This indicates that L2 has also an important role for the child development by building up their language skills in the school so that they can fully participate in the classroom activities and reap the most positive benefit from their educational experience. Hence, learning L2 is a significant skill or experience, especially to us Filipinos.

Second-Language Acquisition and Bilingualism at an Early Age and the Impact on Early Cognitive Development

Second-Language Acquisition and Bilingualism at an Early Age and the Impact on Early Cognitive Development

Ellen Bialystok, PhD

York University, Canada

September 2017, 2nd rev. ed.

PDF version 

Introduction

The possibility that early bilingualism affects children’s language and cognitive development has long been a concern for parents and educators. In the first half of the 20th century, the prevailing view was that bilingualism and second-language acquisition early in life made children confused and interfered with their ability to develop normal cognitive functions1 and succeed in educational environments.2These ideas were dramatically reversed in a landmark study by Peal and Lambert3that showed a general superiority of bilinguals over monolinguals in a wide range of intelligence tests and aspects of school achievement. Recent research has been more balanced, identifying areas in which bilingual children excel and others in which bilingualism has no effect on their development.4

Subject

The question regarding the potential impact of bilingualism on children’s development has always been important, but has increasingly emerged as a crucial concern for modern societies and for Canada in particular. In addition to the official commitment to a national policy of second-language acquisition and bilingualism, immigration has transformed Canada into a rich multilingual and multicultural nation. Public schools, especially in major urban centres, are home to large numbers of children for whom English or French is a second language. These children represent an enormous variety of home languages and often constitute the majority of children in a single classroom. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the impact of these language backgrounds on children’s cognitive and educational futures.

Problems

Information about the language, cognitive and educational development of children with varied language backgrounds is essential to interpret the performance of these children in school and assess their development. For example, children with limited proficiency in the language of schooling are certain to experience increased difficulty in coping both academically and socially, and it is important to identify these difficulties in order to understand what intervention or remedial approaches are needed.

Research Context

The research is typically conducted in classrooms, often settings containing both multilingual and monolingual children. The context in which the bilingualism or second language occurs is important, even though it is not always included as a formal aspect of research investigation. There is evidence that whether the child’s home language is in a majority or minority situation, is valued in the community, and is used as a medium for literacy affects the child’s linguistic and cognitive outcomes.5 Therefore, the implications of the child’s language experience should ideally be examined with careful attention to the social and linguistic factors that describe the child’s educational environment.

Key Research Questions

The important issues that follow from linguistic diversity are the cognitive and educational outcomes for bilingual children. First, it is necessary to establish whether language acquisition proceeds at the same rate and in the same manner for children who are learning two languages simultaneously or are learning a second language after having begun to master one. Second, are children able to acquire literacy skills at school if they are either bilingual or learning a second language, especially if their home language is not the language of instruction? Finally, are there consequences for normal cognitive development in terms of the child’s ability to acquire new concepts or perform various calculations (e.g., arithmetic), especially if school instruction is in the child’s weaker language?

Recent Research Results

There are three main outcomes from this research. First, for general language proficiency, bilingual children tend to have a smaller vocabulary in each language than monolingual children in their language.6 Nonetheless, their understanding of linguistic structure, called metalinguistic awareness, is at least as good7 and often better8 than that of comparable monolinguals. Second, the acquisition of literacy skills in these children depends on the relationship between the two languages9 and the level of proficiency in the second language.10 Specifically, children learning to read in two languages that share a writing system (e.g., English and French) show accelerated progress in learning to read; children whose two languages are written in different systems (e.g., English and Chinese) show no special advantage, but neither do they demonstrate any deficit relative to monolinguals. The benefit of learning to read in two languages, however, requires that children be bilingual and not second-language learners whose competence in one of the languages is weak. Third, bilingual children between four- and eight-years old demonstrate a large advantage over comparable monolinguals in solving problems that require controlling attention to specific aspects of a display and inhibiting attention to misleading aspects that are salient but associated with an incorrect response. This advantage is not confined to language processing, but includes a variety of non-verbal tasks that require controlled attention and selectivity in such problems as forming conceptual categories,11 seeing alternative images in ambitious figures,12 and understanding the difference between the appearance and functional reality of a misleading object.13 These differences persist across the lifespan conferring cognitive benefits to bilinguals at all ages, and even providing cognitice reserve that allows bilinguals to function independently even through the early stages of dementia.14

Conclusion

The results of these studies demonstrate that childhood bilingualism is a significant experience that has the power to influence the course and efficiency of children’s development. The most surprising outcome is that these influences are not confined to the linguistic domain, where such influence would be expected, but extend as well to non-verbal cognitive abilities. In most cases, the child’s degree of involvement with a second language, defined as the difference between bilingualism and second-language acquisition, is an important variable that determines both the degree and type of influence that is found. Three patterns of influence were noted in these studies. One outcome is that bilingualism makes no difference, and monolingual and bilingual children develop in the same way and at the same rate. This was found for cognitive problems such as memory-span development and language problems such as phonological awareness. The second is that bilingualism disadvantages children in some way. The primary example of this is in the development of vocabulary in each language. The third pattern, and the most prevalent in our studies, is that bilingualism is a positive force that enhances children’s cognitive and linguistic development, improving access to literacy if the two writing systems correspond and development of general executive processes for all bilingual children solving a wide range of non-verbal problems requiring attention and control. These executive control abilities are at the centre of intelligent thought.

Implications

Parents are often concerned that using a non-community language as the language of their home will disadvantage their children. This program of research provides solid evidence that the overwhelming effect of bilingualism in the home is positive. The disadvantages are relatively minor and easily overcome. The implications for schooling are more complex. Children’s success in school is strongly dependent on their proficiency in the language of instruction, a relationship that holds for important linguistic activities (e.g., learning to read), non-verbal computational subjects (e.g., mathematics), and content-based curricula (e.g., social studies). In all these cases, children must be skilled in the forms and meanings of the school language and be competent readers of that language. Bilingual children may not be at the same level as their monolingual peers, and second-language learners for whom English or French is not their home language may have not built up adequate skills in the instructional language to succeed in schools, although the vocabulary gap between monolingual and bilingual children disappears if only school-based words are considered.6 The evidence for the overwhelming positive benefit of bilingualism, together with evidence that bilingual children are not cognitively handicapped, indicates an important role for schools in providing a means for these children to build up their language skills in the school language so that they can be full participants in the classroom and reap the most positive benefit from their educational experience.

References

1. review in Hakuta K. Mirror of language: the debate on bilingualism. New York, NY: Basic Books; 1986.
2. Macnamara JT. Bilingualism and primary education: a study of Irish experience. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press; 1966.
3. Peal E, Lambert WE. The relation of bilingualism to intelligence. Psychological Monographs 1962;76(27, Whole No. 546):1-23.
4. Barac R, Moreno S, Bialystok E. Behavioral and electrophysiological differences in executive control between monolingual and bilingual children. Child Development 2016;87:1277-1290.
5. Cummins J. Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research 1979;49(2):222-251.
6. Bialystok E, Luk G. Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual adults. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 2012;15:397-401.
7. Bialystok E, Majumder S, Martin MM. Developing phonological awareness: Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics 2003;24(1):27-44.
8. Bialystok E. Levels of bilingualism and levels of linguistic awareness.  Developmental Psychology 1988;24(4):560-567.
9. Bialystok E, Luk G, Kwan E. Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read:  Interactions among languages and writing systems. Scientific Studies of Reading 2005;9(1):43-61.
10. Bialystok E, McBride-Chang C, Luk G. Bilingualism, language proficiency, and learning to read in two writing systems. Journal of Educational Psychology 2005:97(4):580-590.
11. Bialystok E, Martin MM. Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: Evidence from the dimensional change card sort task. Developmental Science 2004;7(3):325-339.
12. Bialystok E, Shapero D. Ambiguous benefits: the effect of bilingualism on reversing ambiguous figures. Developmental Science 2005;8(6):595-604.
13. Bialystok E, Senman L. Executive processes in appearance-reality tasks: The role of inhibition of attention and symbolic representation. Child Development 2004;75(2):562-579.
14. Bialystok E. The bilingual adaptation: How minds accommodate experience. Psychological Bulletin 2017;143:233-262.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Chomsky: Language Acquisition Device
Although other theories were proposed earlier, it may be best to begin with Chomsky's theory that humans are born with a special biological brain mechanism, called a Language Acquisition Device (LAD). This theory supposes that the ability to learn language is inborn, that nature is more important than nurture and that experience using language is only necessary in order to activate the LAD. Chomsky's background is in linguistics, and psycholinguists continue to contribute much to our understanding of languages and how children acquire them. His theory is described as Nativist. The main contribution of his work has been to show that children's language development is much more complex than the Behaviourists ('Show the way', Nursery World, 18 March 2004), who believed that children learn language merely by being rewarded for imitating.

One problem with Chomsky's theory is that it does not take enough account of the influence that thought (cognition) and language have on each other's development.

Piaget: cognitive constructivism
Piaget's central interest was children's cognitive development ('Building up', Nursery World, 20 May 2004). However, he theorised that language was simply one of children's ways of representing their familiar worlds, a reflection of thought, and that language did not contribute to the development of thinking. Cognitive development, he argued, preceded that of language.

Vygotsky: social constructivism and language
Unlike Chomsky and Piaget, Vygotsky's central concern was the relationship between the development of thought and that of language. He was interested in the ways in which different languages might impact on how a person thinks. He suggested that what Piaget saw as young children's egocentric speech was in fact private speech, the child's way of using words to think about something, a step on the road from social speech to thinking in words. So Vygotsky's theory views language first as social communication, gradually promoting both language itself and cognitiion. Theorists who also followed this tradition and whose ideas can contribute to our understanding include his contemporary Bakhtin, and Bruner.

Recent theorising: intentionality
Some critics of earlier theories suggest that children, their behaviours and their attempts to make sense are often lost when the causes of language development are thought to be 'outside' the child or else mechanistically 'in the child's brain.'

These contemporary researchers and theorists recognise that children have 'agency' - that they are active learners co-constructing their worlds. Their language development is part of their holistic development, emerging from cognitive , emotional and social interactions. The social and cultural environment, the people in it and their interactions, and how children come to represent all these in their minds, are absolutely fundamental to language development. It is a child's agenda, and the interactions generated by the child, that promote language learning.

However, this does not mean the adult's role, actions and speech are considered of less importance. But adults need to be able to 'mind read' and adjust their side of the co-construction to relate to an individual child's understanding and interpretation.

Intentionality theories have existed since Aristotle, and this model of language development draws on Piaget, acknowledging the importance of cognitive development. However, 'intentionality' emphasizes holistic development, so including emotions and other aspects of growth and learning.

The intentionality model makes sense when we think about the way in which most children's language accelerates between 18 months and four years of age, when increases in cognitive capabilities give children a better understanding of both verbal and non-verbal categories. They will also use 'over-extended categories' less (such as babies and toddlers labelling all men 'daddy' or all animals 'dogs').

Messages for practice
Theories about language development help us see that enjoying 'proto-conversations' with babies (treating them as people who can understand, share and have intentions in sensitive inter-changes), and truly listening to young children, is the best way to promote their language development.

From "Talk it through", written by Tricia David for Nursery World, 16 September 2004.

Source(s):Psych grad student

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyo...

Teaching ESL: 10 Common Problems in the Classroom

Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Teaching English as a foreign language is a challenging, yet rewarding career choice. As an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, you must learn to constantly adapt to your students' needs. Many times, this means dealing with a variety of problems in the classroom, many of which are all too common occurrences. A good ESL teacher must be able to recognize these common problems, and work to find solutions. Even a small tweak in your teaching methods can help to create a more productive and casual environment for both you and your students. The following will outline 10 of the most common classroom problems faced when teaching English as a foreign language, and just how to solve them.

10 Common Classroom Problems

1. Students become overly dependent on the teacher.

Many times, students will automatically look to the teacher for correct answers instead of trying themselves. If the teacher obliges them with the answer each time, it can become a detrimental problem. Instead, focus on giving positive encouragement. This will help to make students more comfortable and more willing to answer (even if incorrectly).

2. Persistent use of first-language

When teaching English as a foreign language, this is possibly the most common problem. As an ESL teacher, it's important to encourage students to use English, and only English. However, if students begin conversing in their first language, move closer. Ask them direct questions like "do you have a question?" Another idea is to establish a set of class rules and develop a penalty system for when they use their first language. For example: if someone is caught using their first-language three times, have them recite a poem in front of the class (in English). Remember, for the 1-2 hours they are in English class, it must be English only.

3. Student is defiant, rowdy, or distracting of others.

This will happen, no matter what, in every classroom. If the entire class is acting up, it may be the fault of the teacher, i.e. boring material or poor classroom management. If it is one particular student, you should react swiftly to show dominance. In order to resolve the issue, an ESL teacher must be strict and institute discipline if needed. If it continues to happen, further disciplinary action through the school's director could be pursued.

4. Students "hijack lesson"—The lesson doesn't go where you want it to.

When teaching English as a foreign language, you can always count on students hijacking a lesson. To some extent, this can be a good thing. It shows that students interest, and as long as they are participating and conversing in English, it is a productive experience. However, if the lesson strays too far off topic, in a direction you don't want it to go, it's important to correct the problem by diverting the conversation.

5. Personalities clash.

Not everyone in an ESL classroom will become the best of friends. If drama arises between certain students, the easiest solution is to separate them from one another. If the tension persists, switching a student to another classroom may be your only option.

6. Students unclear what to do, or do the wrong thing.

This happens far too often when teaching English as a foreign language. The fact is, it's often the fault of the teacher. If your instructions to an assignment yield looks of confusion and soft whispers among students, don't worry: there is a solution. In order to avoid this problem, it's important to make sure your instruction are clear. Use gestures, mime, and short concise sentences. Speak clear and strong. Most importantly, use models and examples of the activity. You can use pictures, miming, gestures etc. to model the entire activity exactly how you want the students to do it.

7. Students are bored, inattentive, or unmotivated.

Many times, it is the teacher's fault that class is boring. Fortunately, with proper planning, this problem can be solved. Choose a juicy theme to the lesson; one that the students can relate to and one you know they will enjoy. This will automatically give them some motivation and interest. Get to know your pupils and identify their interests and needs, then design your course accordingly.

8. Strong student dominance

As an ESL teacher, you will encounter learners with different capabilities and language skills. While it is good to have some students who excel in the classroom, it is important that they don't take away from others. If certain students begin to constantly "steal the show," take care. Focus on calling on weaker students in the class to answer questions. Encourage, but gently deflect some answers from the strong students and give production time to other not-so-strong members of the class.

9. Students are unprepared.

The last thing you want as an ESL teacher is for learners to drop out simply because they felt lost and/or unprepared. Concentrate on a more shared learning experience. Make sure students are all on the same page before moving onto a new topic by concept checking multiple times, and encouraging individual participation.

10. Tardiness

Even I have a hard time arriving places on time. But the truth is, tardiness is not only rude, it can be distracting and disruptive to other students. If tardiness becomes a problem for members of your class, make sure they are disciplined. Set rules about tardiness and penalties for breaking them.

The Goal of Teaching

Staying awake and interested in class can be difficult. But what's even more difficult is being responsible for keeping students awake and interested. This is the job of an ESL teacher first and foremost. In order to be a great ESL teacher, one must not only teach but inspire and empower. The goal is to excite the students about learning, speaking, reading, writing, and comprehending English. Keep the advice in this article as a tool to be used often, and you will be one step closer to that goal.

Reference:

https://owlcation.com/academia/Teaching-ESL-10-Common-Classroom-Problems-and-Solutions

How Do Children Learn Language?

The Basic Stages of a Child's Ability to Talk

By Carol Bainbridge

Updated April 12, 2018

Stages

•  Through the Years
• Babies
• Toddlers
• Preschoolers
• School-Age Kids
• Tweens
• Teens
• Multiples

VIEW ALL 

Learning language is natural and babies are born with the ability to learn it. All children, no matter which language their parents speak, learn a language in the same way. 

Basic Stages of Language Learning

There are three basic stages in which children develop their language skills.

Stage One: Learning Sounds

When babies are born, they can make and hear all the sounds in all the languages in the world.

That’s about 150 sounds in about 6500 languages, though no language uses all of those sounds. The sounds a language uses are called phonemes and English has about 44. Some languages use more and some use fewer.

In this stage, babies learn which phonemes belong to the language they are learning and which don’t. The ability to recognize and produce those sounds is called “phonemic awareness,” which is important for children learning to read.

Stage Two: Learning Words

At this stage, children essentially learn how the sounds in a language go together to make meaning. For example, they learn that the sounds m-ah-m-ee refer to the “being” who cuddles and feeds them, their mommy.

This is a significant step because everything we say is really just a stream of sounds. To make sense of those sounds, a child must be able to recognize where one word ends and another one begins. These are called “word boundaries.”

However, children are not learning words, exactly. They are actually learning morphemes, which may or may not be words. A morpheme is simply a sound or sounds that have a meaning, like a word mommy.

The word mommies, however, has two morphemes: mommy and –s. Children at this stage can recognize that the –s means "more than one." They also begin to associate that meaning with other words when the sound is added.

Stage Three: Learning Sentences

During this stage, children learn how to create sentences. That means they can put words in the correct order. For example, they learn that in English we say "I want a cookie" and "I want a chocolate cookie," not "Want I a cookie" or "I want cookie chocolate."

Children also learn the difference between grammatical correctness and meaning. Noam Chomsky created an example of this difference in the sentence “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.” Children will know that although the sentence is grammatically correct, it doesn’t make sense. They know that green is a color and can't, therefore, be colorless.

Language Development

Though all children learn in basic stages, language develops at different rates in different children. Most children follow a familiar pattern.

Birth 

When babies are born, they can already respond to the rhythm of language. They can recognize stress, pace, and the rise and fall of pitch.

4 to 6 Months

As early as four months, infants can distinguish between language sounds and other noise. For instance, they know the difference between a spoken word and a clap.

By six months, babies begin to babble and coo and this is the first sign that the baby is learning a language.

Babies are now capable of making all the sounds in all the languages of the world, but by the time they are a year old, they will have dropped the sounds that aren’t part of the language they are learning.

8 Months

Babies can now recognize groups of sounds and can distinguish word boundaries. Although they recognize these sound groups as words, they may not know what the words mean.

12 Months

At this point, children are able to attach meanings to words. Once they can do that, they can begin to build a vocabulary. They begin to mimic new words they hear and by the time they are 1 year old will have a vocabulary of around 50 words.

18 Months

In order to communicate, children must know how to use the words they are learning. In this stage of language development, children are able to recognize the difference between nouns and verbs. Generally, the first words in a child’s vocabulary are nouns.

24 Months

At this stage, children begin to recognize more than nouns and verbs and gain an understanding of basic sentence structure. They can use pronouns, for example. They also know the right order of words in a sentence and can create simple sentences like "Me cookie?", which means "May I have a cookie?".

30 to 36 Months

By this age, about 90 percent of what children say is grammatically correct. The mistakes they make are usually things like adding -ed to irregular verbs to form the past tense. 

For example, they might say "I fallen down" instead of "I fell down." They learned the grammatical rule to form the past tense by adding -ed to a verb but have not yet learned the exceptions to the rule.

Beyond 3 Years

As they grow, children continue to expand their vocabulary and develop more complex language. Their language use really doesn’t completely resemble adult language until around the age of eleven. 

By the pre-teen years, kids begin to use what are called although-type sentences. These sentences show a concession such as, "Even though the man was tired, he kept working." Young children would likely say “The man was tired, but he kept working.”

Language Development and Gifted Children

Verbally gifted children often go through these stages more quickly than other children. Some develop so quickly that they seem to skip right over some of them.

It is not unusual for a gifted child to babble and coo and then be relatively silent. By age one they are not mimicking words and by age two they are not using even simple sentences. They may be saying "mama" and "dada," and a few other words, but not much more. Then suddenly, at 26 months, the child begins speaking in complete, grammatically correct sentences like a three-year-old.

Other verbally gifted kids may be using sentences like “Me cookie” at age one. And some six-year-old gifted kids may use sentences like “I still love my Grammy even though she doesn’t know how to use the computer.”

The advanced language development of gifted kids may be one of the reasons that some of them are able to learn how to read before they turn five or even before they turn three.

Ref.: https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-do-children-learn-language-1449116

Phonological Development

Phonological Development

Quick revise

Phonological Development - how children develop the ability to use and understand  the sounds of language

Trends in Phonological Development

It is difficult to be precise about later phonological development and the way in which vowels and consonants are acquired varies from child to child. When a sound has been mastered, it maybe used only in the pronunciation of certain words and may be missing or pronounced incorrectly in others. Researchers have identified certain trends in phonological development and these are listed below:

• Command of all the vowels is achieved before all of the consonants
• By the age of two and a half the average child has mastered all of the vowels and around two thirds of the consonants
• At four the child is likely to be having difficulty with only a few consonants
• The child may be six or seven before confidence in using all vowels and consonants has been acquired
• Consonants are first used correctly at the beginning of words but consonants at the end of words are more difficult for example ‘p’ and ‘b’’ sounds in ‘push’ and ‘bush’ will be easier to pronounce than ‘rip’ and ‘rib’.
• In general, sounds that occur frequently in a large number of words will be acquired before sounds that occur less frequently
• To make words easier to say children simplify their pronunciation in certain ways

Ways of Simplification

Deletion:

Children will often simplify pronunciation by deleting certain sounds:

• Final consonants maybe dropped eg) the ‘t’ sound in ‘hat’ and ‘cat’
• Unstressed syllables are often deleted eg) ‘banana’ becomes ‘nana’
• Consonant clusters are reduced eg) ‘snake’ becomes ‘nake’ , ‘sleep’ becomes ‘seep’

Substitution

Another form of simplification involves substituting harder sounds with easier ones.

• R (as in rock or story) becomes w
• Th (as in there, that or thumb) becomes d, n or f
• T (as in toe) becomes d
• P (as in pig) becomes b

Reduplication of sounds is another common phenomenon. This occurs when different sounds in a word are pronounced the same way such as ‘dog’ becoming ‘gog

Undertanding

Berko and Brown (1960) describe how a child referred to a plastic fish as his ‘fis’. When an adult asked ‘is that your fis?’ he replied ‘no, my fis.’ When he was told ‘that is your fish’ he replied ‘yes, my fis.’ Another child confused card/cart and jug/duck in his speech, but when shown pictures of the items, could correctly identify them. This proves that understanding may develop faster than the ability to pronounce things.

Ref:

https://revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-language/child-language-acquisition/phonological-development