Language Development in Context

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-223
Author(s):  
Meredith L. Rowe ◽  
Adriana Weisleder

Young children learn to communicate in the language(s) of their communities, yet the individual trajectories of language development and the particular language varieties and modes of communication children acquire vary depending on the contexts in which they live. This review describes how context shapes language development. Building on the bioecological model of development, we conceptualize context as a set of nested systems surrounding the child, from the national policies and cultural norms that shape the broader environment to the particular communicative interactions in which children experience language being used. In addition, we describe how children's developing sensory-motor, perceptual, and social-cognitive capacities respond to and are tuned by the surrounding environment. Closer integration of research on the mechanisms of language learning with investigation of the contexts in which this learning takes place will provide critical insights into the process of language development.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulfa Fauziyah.M

Learning Indonesian is closely related to the conditions of the surrounding environment. The environment has a big influence on children's language development . In formal form, environmental materials can be incorporated into Indonesian language learning in schools. The teacher can link the existing texts in Indonesian language learning with environmental examples.The introduction of environmental education is important to include in learning in order to raise awareness of students in protecting the environment


2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 167-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leif D. Nelson ◽  
Evan L. Morrison

Male preferences for female body weight follow a consistent cross-cultural pattern such that in cultures with scarce resources, heavier women are preferred, whereas in cultures with abundant resources, thinner women are preferred. We offer a social-cognitive account for these findings based on the individual experience of resource scarcity. In four studies (N = 1,176), we explored the possibility that this cross-cultural relationship emerges at the individual level; that is, we investigated whether situational feelings of resource scarcity predict personal preferences within a single culture. We operationalized intraindividual resource scarcity through feelings of financial and caloric dissatisfaction. Accordingly, we hypothesized—and found—that men who feel either poor or hungry prefer heavier women than men who feel rich or full. We discuss these findings in terms of how patterns of cross-cultural norms may be evinced at the individual level through an implicit psychological mechanism.


2001 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean A. Rondal

Predominantly non-etiological conceptions have dominated the field of mental retardation (MR) since the discovery of the genetic etiology of Down syndrome (DS) in the sixties. However, contemporary approaches are becoming more etiologically oriented. Important differences across MR syndromes of genetic origin are being documented, particularly in the cognition and language domains, differences not explicable in terms of psychometric level, motivation, or other dimensions. This paper highlights the major difficulties observed in the oral language development of individuals with genetic syndromes of mental retardation. The extent of inter- and within-syndrome variability are evaluated. Possible brain underpinnings of the behavioural differences are envisaged. Cases of atypically favourable language development in MR individuals are also summarized and explanatory variables discussed. It is suggested that differences in brain architectures, originating in neurological development and having genetic origins, may largely explain the syndromic as well as the individual within-syndrome variability documented. Lastly, the major implications of the above points for current debates about modularity and developmental connectionism are spelt out.


Relay Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 319-322
Author(s):  
Gamze Güven-Yalçın ◽  
Stephanie Lea Howard ◽  
Hatice Karaaslan

In the Reflective Practice column of the third issue of the Relay Journal, Yamamoto (2019) remarked on the importance of creating a platform for advisors to voice their views, feelings, and experiences, and suggested a need for more reflective narratives to be posted from different social, historical, and cultural contexts in order to provide an intimate view inside advising sessions, thereby offering a better understanding of said advising practices. The aim was to create a forum where advisors could learn from each other, and ultimately, everyone could mutually benefit from the experiences shared. To further this innovative research into Advising in Language Learning (ALL), the initial experiment by language advsiors at Kanda has been replicated in a different setting with four learning advisors from Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Turkey. The design used by the advisors at Kanda, a narrative style adopted while telling the stories, has been expanded to include a visual message board to which 20 learning advisors have contributed with their short reflective captions on their advisor selves. Additionally, the theme used by the advisors at Kanda, “the most memorable advising experience of this academic year” has been altered in our case to avoid repetition and to allow reflection on different aspects of the advising experiences. Thus, our narratives and the visual message board will examine two different themes: (1) How has advising affected you? (2) How do you define yourself as an advisor? Four narratives have elaborated on the first theme of the influence of advising knowledge and practice on the individual advisors, and the visual message board includes 20 images with reflective captions on the second theme of defining advisor identities.


Author(s):  
Dani Levine ◽  
Daniela Avelar ◽  
Roberta Michnick Golinkoff ◽  
Kathy Hirsh-Pasek ◽  
Derek M. Houston

Copious evidence indicates that, even in the first year of life, children’s language development is beginning and is impacted by a wide array of cognitive and social processes. The extent to which these processes are dependent on early language input is a critical concern for most deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children, who, unlike hearing children, are usually not immersed in a language-rich environment until effective interventions, such as hearing aids or cochlear implants, are implemented. Importantly, some cognitive and social processes are not dependent on the early availability of language input and begin to develop before children are fitted for hearing aids or cochlear implants. Interventions involving parent training may be helpful for enhancing social underpinnings of language and for maximizing DHH children’s language learning once effective hearing devices are in place. Similarly, cognitive training for DHH children may also provide benefit to bolster language development.


Healthcare ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 326
Author(s):  
Luis M. Dos Santos

Nursing curriculum usually focuses on vocational development to train students to become nursing professionals after graduation. However, due to the packed major schedule and curriculum, many students are not required to take additional foreign language courses for their associate degree. Based on the lens of social cognitive career theory, the researcher sought to understand the motivations and reasons behind the learning behaviours. One research question was guided in this study, which was, what are the motivations and reasons for taking foreign language courses beyond their (i.e., nursing students) major curriculum and coursework plan? A qualitative research method was employed to collect interview data from 60 nursing students. The finding of this study indicated that the interest in career development and personal consideration were two of the most important factors for foreign language learning for these groups of nursing students. The results of this study provided recommendations for college leaders, government agencies, and policymakers to reform and polish foreign language courses and offer directions to contemporary students of the nursing curriculum. Students may also be benefitted as the study outlined the motivations and reasons for foreign language learning. Therefore, all parties may take this study as a blueprint to exercise their future developments.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
shinta mailina

Environmental education aims to attract people's interest in paying attention toenvironmental functions, how to manage the environment and protect the environment.Developing knowledge about the importance of the environment is the first step in the formationof an environmentally friendly society. Through knowledge and awareness, positive values andattitudes will emerge to make lifestyle adjustments that will reduce the burden on the environment(Ramadhan et al 2019). Sukma & Azrianti (2020) said that character education is very importantto be instilled since students are still in elementary school. The diversity of characters and habitsof students at school who come from different family backgrounds is very influential and can evencause bad things in the character of the child. Several cases state that students' attitudes areinfluenced by the surrounding environment or family environment, in addition, the finding of somestudents who often experience confusion in translating their local language into Indonesian is aform that the environment greatly affects Indonesian language learning (Ikhlasani & Ramadhan2021). Therefore, it is important to develop knowledge about the environment, environmentalawareness and behavior change towards the environment (Ramadhan et al, 2019).


1996 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 718-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Bley-Vroman

AbstractWhile child language development theory must explain invariant “success,” foreign language learning theory must explain variation and lack of success. The fundamental difference hypothesis (FDH) outlines such a theory. Epstein et al. ignore the explanatory burden, mischaracterize the FDH, and underestimate the resources of human cognition. The field of second language acquisition is not divided into camps by views on “access” to UG.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wander Lowie ◽  
Marijn Van Dijk ◽  
Huiping Chan ◽  
Marjolijn Verspoor

A large body studies into individual differences in second language learning has shown that success in second language learning is strongly affected by a set of relevant learner characteristics ranging from the age of onset to motivation, aptitude, and personality. Most studies have concentrated on a limited number of learner characteristics and have argued for the relative importance of some of these factors. Clearly, some learners are more successful than others, and it is tempting to try to find the factor or combination of factors that can crack the code to success. However, isolating one or several global individual characteristics can only give a partial explanation of success in second language learning. The limitation of this approach is that it only reflects on rather general personality characteristics of learners at one point in time, while both language development and the factors affecting it are instances of complex dynamic processes that develop over time. Factors that have been labelled as “individual differences” as well as the development of proficiency are characterized by nonlinear relationships in the time domain, due to which the rate of success cannot be simply deduced from a combination of factors. Moreover, in complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) literature it has been argued that a generalization about the interaction of variables across individuals is not warranted when we acknowledge that language development is essentially an individual process (Molenaar, 2015). In this paper, the viability of these generalizations is investigated by exploring the L2 development over time for two identical twins in Taiwan who can be expected to be highly similar in all respects, from their environment to their level of English proficiency, to their exposure to English, and to their individual differences. In spite of the striking similarities between these learners, the development of their L2 English over time was very different. Developmental patterns for spoken and written language even showed opposite tendencies. These observations underline the individual nature of the process of second language development.


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