Citing this articleThis page contains an article about speech and language development. Cite it as:Bowen, C. (1998). Speech and language development in infants and young children. Retrieved on (date) from http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/devel1.htm

Language Acquisition Language acquisition is partly innate and partly learned, as children interact with other people and the environment.

How is language learned?Whether they speak early or late, are learning one language or more, are learning to talk along typical lines or are experiencing difficulties, the language acquisition of all children occurs gradually through interaction with people and the environment.

LanguageLanguage has been called the symbolisation of thought.

It is a learned code, or system of rules that enables us to communicate ideas and express wants and needs.

Reading, writing, gesturing and speaking are all forms of language.

Language falls into two main divisions: receptive language: understanding what is said, written or signed; and, expressive language: speaking, writing or signing.

Your role in language learningMaybe you are a couple raising your baby, or you might be a sole parent or caregiver. Whatever your family structure, you are the most 'significant other' your baby interacts with communicatively. The way you engage with him or her will determine the path that language development takes in the vital first five years.

Be naturalEnjoy this exciting period in your child's development. Talk in a natural way about what he or she is doing, seeing and hearing. Listen to the sounds, and later the words he or she says, and respond,

so that your child knows you are listening. Read stories together from an early age, and make communicating fun.

Progress should be steady Children learn at different rates. Some are fast language learners and some are slow, so it is best not to compare one child's language development with another's. The important thing to watch is that language development proceeds steadily, not whether it is fast or slow.

Pragmatics skillsPragmatic skills begin to develop in the early weeks of life, with tiny babies "turn taking", and initiating communicative interchanges, and "talking" (non-verbally, of course) to their caregivers.

PragmaticsPragmatic skills include: 1.knowing that you have to answer when a question has been asked;

2. being able to participate in a conversation by taking it in turns with the other speaker;

3. the ability to notice and respond to the non-verbal aspects of language;

4. awareness that you have to introduce a topic of conversation in order for the listener to fully understand;

5. knowing which words or what sort of sentence-type to use when initiating a conversation or responding to somethinganother person has said;

6. the ability to maintain a topic;

7. the ability to maintainappropriate eye contact,with not too much staring, and not too much looking away during a conversation; and,

8. the ability to distinguish how to talk and behave towards different communicative partners.

Language "Milestones""Ages and Stages" charts for speech and language development and speech intelligibility criteria can be worrying if they are interpreted too rigidly. Remember that children vary quite considerably with regard to the rate at which they reach the various speech and language "milestones". So there is no need to put out an SOS for a speech pathologist if your child does not do the things itemised at precisely the ages stated! When you see language ages and stages and read an age like '12 months' say to yourself, 'twelve months or so'.

The first three yearsBy 12 months (or so!) most children have one or two words that they say with meaning and can comply with simple requests (e.g., 'Can I have your cup?') or commands (e.g., "Don't touch!") and understand little questions (e.g., 'Where's your tummy?').

By 2 to 3 years of age your child should be able to follow two-part instructions ('Get your teddy and put it on the chair') and string two or three words together to talk about and ask for things.

More detailed informationYou might be interested to read the section here about Brown's Stages. It provides an account of the development of the first 'sentences' children say, and the grammatical rules (morphemes) they apply. There is also information on this site about the way SLPs collect and analyse small children's language samples.

If progress seems too slow If 'first words' have not emerged by 18 months make a concerted effort to spend half an hour a day just playing and interacting one-to-one with your baby. This can be difficult to organise in larger families, but it often does the trick! How to set these times up and maximise their usefulness can be discussed with an SLP, who may suggest and demonstrate various activities.

When to seek helpEven though they are concerned that their child's speech and language development may be unusual or slower than normal, people may hesitate to seek the professional advice of a speech-language pathologist. Sometimes this is because they are advised against it by reassuring friends, family and others. But sometimes it is because they think the child is too young to 'be assessed'.

The fact is, babies or toddlers are never too young for a communication skills assessment. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) see children from infancy.

A rough guideExpect first words between 12 and 18 months.

There will probably be a "spurt" of language development before 2 years.

Anticipate hearing 4 to 5 word sentences by 4 years.

Grammar should be correct most of the time by 4 years.

"Other people" will understand almost everything your child says by the time he or she is 4!.

Isn't that amazing?

The very very young clients SLPs include on their caseloads may have cleft palate, hearing impairment, developmental disability (for example, Down Syndrome) or they may have been identified early as being "at risk", unduly silent, withdrawn or unresponsive to the communicative attempts of others. Or they may simply be late talkers.

The right time to seek help is when you, as a parent, are concerned.

Speech developmentChildren's speech does not sound like adult speech because they make typical child-like 'sound replacements'. These sound replacements are called phonological processes by some researchers.

Phonological processesSome of the phonological processes, and the ages by which they normally disappear from a child's speech are outlined in quite a lot of detail here. The following examples of phonological processes provide a general rule of thumb.

The phonological process called context sensitive voicing e.g., cup = gup has usually disappeared from a child's speech sound system by three years of age (3;0). Similarly, the phonological process called word final devoicing e.g., bed = bet has normally gone by 3;0. A few months later by 3;3 (that's three years 3 months) final consonant deletion, e.g., boat = bow generally vanishes. The phonological process of velar fronting e.g., car = tar persists until about 3;6 in many children. Consonant harmony e.g., kittycat = tittytat, continues until close to 3;9, by which age it has normally vanished.

Weak syllable deletion e.g., elephant = effant is common up to the age of 4;0, as is cluster reduction e.g., spoon = boon. Gliding of liquids e.g., leg = weg normally disappears by 5;0. Stopping

of 'f' e.g., fish = tish, and Stopping of 's' e.g., say = tay go by 3;0. Stopping of 'z' e.g., peas = pead often persists until 3.6. Stopping of 'sh' (shop = dop), Stopping of 'j' (Jack = dack) and Stopping of 'ch' (chin = tin) are eliminated by 4;6. Stopping of 'th' (this = dis, that = dat) can go on until 5;0.

Late talkersA child is considered to be a "late talker" if he or she has a spoken vocabulary of fewer than 50 words at 24 months. This does not mean that the 50 words will be pronounced perfectly - two year olds are supposed to talk baby talk! It is advisable for late talkers to be assessed by a Speech LanguagePathologist.

Child-like speechThis may sound strange, but expect your child's speech to be child-like.

This is normal...Children, that is, ALL children, sometimesmisunderstand whatis said to them, utter oddly worded sentences, and put speech sounds in the wrong spots (or omit them) when they are learning to talk.

...and this is notStuttering is not a normal part of learning to talk (though a LITTLE "normal non-fluency" is); children's voices should not be hoarse unless they have a cold; and if children are disinterested in communicating with other people, have poor eye-contact and are aloof with people outside the family, or usually respond to what you say by echoing all or part of it back to you word-for-word, their communication skills should be assessed.

SLPs SLPs are the only professionals uniquely qualified to assess, diagnose and treat communication disorders. SLPs are called by different names in different parts of the world. For example:

Australia Speech PathologistCanada Speech-Language PathologistFrance Orthophoniste French Canada Orthophoniste New Zealand Speech-Language TherapistSouth Africa Speech Language TherapistUnited Kingdom Speech and Language TherapistUnited States Speech-Language Pathologist

Not all SLPs see children, and not all SLPs who do see children assess and manage every childhood communication disorder. Some SLPs specialise in particular areas, and some are generalists.

QualificationsIf you are in Australia, consult a certified practising member (CPSP) of Speech Pathology Australia. United States and Cananda residents should look at the ASHA site where there is an Online Directory of SLPs and Audiologists. The Canadian site has a 'find a practioner' page. In the United Kingdom ASLTIP has a searchable database of Speech and Language Therapists in private (independent) practice.

If you are somewhere else in the world, and you are uncertain about a practitioner's qualifications, check with the professional association for Speech-Language Pathologists in your country, or the country where the practitioner says they gained their qualifications. Most of these sites contain a description of the criteria for membership of their associations. The sites listed here are among the bona fide professional associations.

Language Development Chart

Age of Child Typical Language Development

6 Months

Vocalization with intonation

Responds to his name

Responds to human voices without visual cues by turning his head and eyes

Responds appropriately to friendly and angry tones

12 Months Uses one or more words with meaning (this may be a

fragment of a word)

Understands simple instructions, especially if vocal or physical cues are given

Practices inflection

Is aware of the social value of speech

18 Months

Has vocabulary of approximately 5-20 words

Vocabulary made up chiefly of nouns

Some echolalia (repeating a word or phrase over and over)

Much jargon with emotional content

Is able to follow simple commands

24 Months

Can name a number of objects common to his surroundings

Is able to use at least two prepositions, usually chosen from the following: in, on, under

Combines words into a short sentence-largely noun-verb combinations (mean) length of sentences is given as 1.2 words

Approximately 2/3 of what child says should be intelligibleVocabulary of approximately 150-300 words

Rhythm and fluency often poor

Volume and pitch of voice not yet well-controlled

Can use two pronouns correctly: I, me, you, although me and I are often confused

My and mine are beginning to emerge

Responds to such commands as "show me your eyes (nose, mouth, hair)"

36 Months Use pronouns I, you, me correctly

Is using some plurals and past tenses

Knows at least three prepositions, usually in, on, under

Knows chief parts of body and should be able to indicate these if not name

Handles three word sentences easily

Has in the neighborhood of 900-1000 words

About 90% of what child says should be intelligible

Verbs begin to predominate

Understands most simple questions dealing with his environment and activities

Relates his experiences so that they can be followed with reason

Able to reason out such questions as "what must you do when you are sleepy, hungry, cool, or thirsty?"

Should be able to give his sex, name, age

Should not be expected to answer all questions even though he understands what is expected

48 Months Knows names of familiar animals

Can use at least four prepositions or can demonstrate his understanding of their meaning when given commands

Names common objects in picture books or magazines

Knows one or more colors

Can repeat 4 digits when they are given slowly

Can usually repeat words of four syllables

Demonstrates understanding of over and under

Has most vowels and diphthongs and the consonants p, b, m, w, n well established

Often indulges in make-believe

Extensive verbalization as he carries out activities

Understands such concepts as longer, larger, when a contrast is presented

Readily follows simple commands even thought the stimulus objects are not in sight

Much repetition of words, phrases, syllables, and even sounds

60 Months Can use many descriptive words spontaneously-both adjectives and adverbs

Knows common opposites: big-little, hard-soft, heave-light, etc

Has number concepts of 4 or more

Can count to ten

Speech should be completely intelligible, in spite of articulation problems

Should have all vowels and the consonants, m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n,ng,y (yellow)

Should be able to repeat sentences as long as nine words

Should be able to define common objects in terms of use (hat, shoe, chair)

Should be able to follow three commands given without interruptions

Should know his age

Should have simple time concepts: morning, afternoon, night, day, later, after, while

Tomorrow, yesterday, today

Should be using fairly long sentences and should use some compound and some complex sentences

Speech on the whole should be grammatically correct

6 Years

In addition to the above consonants these should be mastered: f, v, sh, zh, th,1

He should have concepts of 7

Speech should be completely intelligible and socially useful

Should be able to tell one a rather connected story about a picture, seeing relationships

Between objects and happenings

7 Years

Should have mastered the consonants s-z, r, voiceless th, ch, wh, and the soft g as in George

Should handle opposite analogies easily: girl-boy, man-woman, flies-swims, blunt-sharp short-long, sweet-sour, etc

Understands such terms as: alike, different, beginning, end, etc

Should be able to tell time to quarter hour

Should be able to do simple reading and to write or print many words

8 Years Can relate rather involved accounts of events, many of which occurred at some time in the past

Complex and compound sentences should be used easily

Should be few lapses in grammatical constrictions-tense, pronouns, plurals

All speech sounds, including consonant blends should be established

Should be reading with considerable ease and now writing simple compositions

Social amenities should be present in his speech in appropriate situations

Control of rate, pitch, and volume are generally well and appropriately established

Can carry on conversation at rather adult level

Follows fairly complex directions with little repetition

Has well developed time and number concepts

Definition

Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural languages.

Discussion

The phonological system of a language includes

an inventory of sounds and their features, and

rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting hierarchy of levels in linguistics:

Comparison: Phonology and phonetics

Phonetics … Phonology …

Is the basis for phonological analysis.

Is the basis for further work in morphology, syntax, discourse,

and orthography design.

Analyzes the production of all human speech sounds, regardless of language.

Analyzes the sound patterns of a particular language by

determining which phonetic sounds are significant, and

explaining how these sounds are interpreted by the native speaker.

Models of phonology

Different models of phonology contribute to our knowledge of phonological representations and processes:

In classical phonemics, phonemes and their possible combinations are central.

In standard generative phonology, distinctive features are central. A stream of speech is portrayed as linear sequence of discrete sound-segments. Each segment is composed of simultaneously occurring features.

In non-linear models of phonology, a stream of speech is represented as multidimensional, not simply as a linear sequence of sound segments. These non-linear models grew out of generative phonology:

o autosegmental phonology

o metrical phonology

o lexical phonology

Every human knows at least one language, spoken or signed. Linguistics is the science of language, including the sounds, words, and grammar rules. Words in languages are finite, but sentences are not. It is this creative aspect of human language that sets it apart from animal languages, which are essentially responses to stimuli.

The rules of a language, also called grammar, are learned as one acquires a language. These rules include phonology, the sound system, morphology, the structure of words, syntax, the combination of words into sentences, semantics, the ways in which sounds and meanings are related, and the lexicon, or mental dictionary of words. When you know a language, you know words in that language, i.e. sound units that are related to specific meanings. However, the sounds

and meanings of words are arbitrary. For the most part, there is no relationship between the way a word is pronounced (or signed) and its meaning.

Knowing a language encompasses this entire system, but this knowledge (called competence) is different from behavior (called performance.) You may know a language, but you may also choose to not speak it. Although you are not speaking the language, you still have the knowledge of it. However, if you don't know a language, you cannot speak it at all.

There are two types of grammars: descriptive and prescriptive. Descriptive grammars represent the unconscious knowledge of a language. English speakers, for example, know that "me likes apples" is incorrect and "I like apples" is correct, although the speaker may not be able to explain why. Descriptive grammars do not teach the rules of a language, but rather describe rules that are already known. In contrast, prescriptive grammars dictate what a speaker's grammar should be and they include teaching grammars, which are written to help teach a foreign language.

There are about 5,000 languages in the world right now (give or take a few thousand), and linguists have discovered that these languages are more alike than different from each other. There are universal concepts and properties that are shared by all languages, and these principles are contained in the Universal Grammar, which forms the basis of all possible human languages.

Part Two: Morphology and Syntax

Morphemes are the minimal units of words that have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further. There are two main types: free and bound. Free morphemes can occur alone and bound morphemes must occur with another morpheme. An example of a free morpheme is "bad", and an example of a bound morpheme is "ly." It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot stand alone. It must be attached to another morpheme to produce a word.

Free morpheme: badBound morpheme: lyWord: badly

When we talk about words, there are two groups: lexical (or content) and function (or grammatical) words. Lexical words are called open class words and include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. New words can regularly be added to this group. Function words, or closed class words, are conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns; and new words cannot be (or are very rarely) added to this class.

Affixes are often the bound morpheme. This group includes prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and circumfixes. Prefixes are added to the beginning of another morpheme, suffixes are added to the end, infixes are inserted into other morphemes, and circumfixes are attached to another morpheme at the beginning and end. Following are examples of each of these:

Prefix: re- added to do produces redoSuffix: -or added to edit produces editorInfix: -um- added to fikas (strong) produces fumikas (to be strong) in BontocCircumfix: ge- and -t to lieb (love) produces geliebt (loved) in German

There are two categories of affixes: derivational and inflectional. The main difference between the two is that derivational affixes are added to morphemes to form new words that may or may not be the same part of speech and inflectional affixes are added to the end of an existing word for purely grammatical reasons. In English there are only eight total inflectional affixes:

-s 3rd person singular present she waits

-ed past tense she waited

-ing progressive she's eating

-en past participle she has eaten

-s plural three apples

-'s possessive Lori's son

-er comparative you are taller

-est superlative you are the shortest

The other type of bound morphemes are called bound roots. These are morphemes (and not affixes) that must be attached to another morpheme and do not have a meaning of their own. Some examples are ceive in perceive and mit in submit.

English Morphemes

A. Free

1. Open Class

2. Closed Class

B. Bound

1. Affix

a. Derivational

b. Inflectional

2. Root

There are six ways to form new words. Compounds are a combination of words, acronyms are derived from the initials of words, back-formations are created from removing what is mistakenly considered to be an affix, abbreviations or clippings are shortening longer words, eponyms are created from proper nouns (names), and blending is combining parts of words into one.

Compound: doghouseAcronym: NBA (National Basketball Association) or scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)Back-formation: edit from editorAbbreviation: phone from telephoneEponym: sandwich from Earl of SandwichBlending: smog from smoke and fog

Grammar is learned unconsciously at a young age. Ask any five year old, and he will tell you that "I eat" and "you eat," but his "dog eats." But a human's syntactical knowledge goes farther than what is grammatical and what is not. It also accounts for ambiguity, in which a sentence could have two meanings, and enables us to determine grammatical relationships such as subject and direct object. Although we may not consciously be able to define the terms, we unconsciously know how to use them in sentences.

Syntax, of course, depends on lexical categories (parts of speech.) You probably learned that there are 8 main parts of speech in grammar school. Linguistics takes a different approach to these categories and separates words into morphological and syntactic groups. Linguistics analyzes words according to their affixes and the words that follow or precede them. Hopefully, the following definitions of the parts of speech will make more sense and be of more use than the old definitions of grammar school books.

Open Class Words

Nouns_____ + plural endings"dogs"

Det. Adj. _____ (this is called a Noun Phrase)"the big dog"

Verbs____ + tense endings"speaks"

Aux. ____ (this is called a Verb Phrase)"have spoken"

Adjectives____ + er / est"small"

Det. ____ Noun"the smaller child"

AdverbsAdj. + ly"quickly"

____ Adj. or Verb or Adv."quickly ran"

Closed Class Words

Determinersa, an, the, this, that, these, those, pronouns, quantities

____ Adj. Noun"this blue book"

Auxiliary Verbsforms of be, have, may, can, shall

NP ____ VP"the girl is swimming"

Prepositions at, in, on, under, over, of____ NP (this is called a Prepositional Phrase)"in the room"

Conjunctions and, but, orN or V or Adj. ____ N or V or Adj."apples and oranges"

Subcategorization defines the restrictions on which syntactic categories (parts of speech) can or cannot occur within a lexical item. These additional specifications of words are included in our mental lexicon. Verbs are the most common categories that are subcategorized. Verbs can either be transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs take a direct object, while intransitive verbs take an indirect object (usually they need a preposition before the noun).

Transitive verb: to eat I ate an apple. (direct object)

Intransitive: to sleep I was sleeping in the bed. (indirect object)

Individual nouns can also be subcategorized. For example, the noun idea can be followed by a Prepositional Phrase or that and a sentence. But the noun compassion can only be followed by a Prepositional Phrase and not a sentence. (Ungrammatical sentences are marked with asterisks.)

the idea of stricter laws his compassion for the animals

the idea that stricter laws are necessary *his compassion that the animals are hurt

LANGUAGE, LEARNING AND A PLACE CALLED SCHOOL: LEARNING LANGUAGE AND USING LANGUAGE TO LEARN

By Alice Thomas and Glenda Thorne

In school as in life, the main way that ideas are exchanged is through language. So it becomes essential for a child to master language if he is to succeed at this place called school and a journey called life.

Kids who are "naturally" adept at language seem to master language with as little conscious effort as they give to breathing. But language skills do not come naturally for most of our children in both public and private schools.

In fact, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), research suggests that about 50 percent of school children learn to read relatively easily once exposed to formal instruction, while the other half of our nation's children find learning to read to be a much more formidable challenge. Also, Reid Lyon, Director of NICHD, points out that "reading failure cuts across all ethnic and socioeconomic strata. A striking 32 percent of fourth grade children across the nation who were reading below basic reading levels were from homes where the parents had graduated from college. These data underscore that reading failure is a serious national problem and cannot be attributed to poverty."

So what does this mean? As parents and teachers, it is crucial for us to understand that the development of language skills is not something that will "take care of itself." The development of language skills requires a lot of hard, focused work. Dr. Lyon sums it up well: "Reading is not a natural process."

First, let's define language. When we think of language and school, most of us think about reading. Reading is a language skill. But language skills encompass much more than reading. As humans, we talk, we listen, we read and we write with words. So it is in school. Language skills include reading, and also writing, listening, and speaking. Throughout this article, then, the word language will be used to mean the language we speak and write, and also the language we hear and read.

The following paragraphs describe a student for whom language is causing problems in school. As you read through it, think about the four manifestations - reading speaking, listening and reading - and see if you can determine the strengths and challenges (breakdowns) for this child. Why? Identifying specific strengths and breakdowns allows us to provide specific strategies that will help a child move forward.

The Heavy Load of Language

Lucy is a very likeable girl, and until this year she got along well with her classmates as a group. Now, however, they don't seem to want to have much to do with her because of the way she talks. Lucy gets along well with peers one-on-one. But in class discussions, she often says things that have nothing to do with what is being discussed. She also talks slowly and seems to be confused when trying to talk with others in the class. Sometimes this leads to her classmates' making fun of her or acting annoyed. This bothers Lucy a lot.

Although Lucy seems to read well for her grade level, her parents say that over the years she's had problems with sounding out words. Her decoding has never become automatic for her. Her slow reading speed causes her have to spend long hours on homework. Lucy complains that reading is laborious and tiring.

Hearing the difference between words such as "middle" and "metal" is also difficult for Lucy. Often, directions have to be given to Lucy more than once, but if they are said slowly the first time, she usually understands. Or, if she is given a written copy of the directions that she can read in addition to the oral directions, she usually gets it. When she talks, Lucy has trouble finding the

right words to say and she has trouble getting sentences together on quick demand. For this reason, Lucy hates to be called on in class and will frequently answer with, "I don't know" even when she knows the answer because she just can't get it together and give it out fast enough.

Lucy does very well in science and social studies. When given enough time, she can also write well in language class. She knows the rules of punctuation and grammar, and she also spells quite well, although her parents say that this was not always true.

Lucy has had a lot of extra help in the past. Her tutors taught her lots of strategies for remembering language. For example, spelling used to be a real problem for Lucy, but now she uses colored markers to write her spelling and vocabulary words and says them out loud while she is writing them. This has really helped her.

Teachers like having Lucy in class because she works hard and wants to please others. She just wishes that the other kids would be more patient with her.

Can Lucy and other children like her be helped? Of course! Kids like Lucy, however, are not likely to "fix" themselves. They need help from their parents and teachers as they develop strategies that build their language skills.

Step One for helping a child increase his language skills is knowing the child's "language profile". That is, what kinds of language strengths and weaknesses does the child have? Teachers and parents who are keen observers will soon see a pattern in a child's language profile. A very important part of this process is to ask the child about his/her language skills.

Step Two for helping a child build language skills and strategies is demystifying the language processes - taking the "mystery" away by breaking language down and understanding how it works. The sections that follow contain a summary of language, common language problems, and some management strategies.

What Is Language?

An easy way to organize how we look at language is by 2s, 3s, and 4s:

Two Systems - Receptive and Expressive

Three Components - Phonology, Structure, and Meaning

Four Manifestations - Listening, Reading, Writing, and Speaking

Two Systems

1. Receptive LanguageThe system of language that includes what a person hears and reads is called receptive language. Receptive language puts information into our brains.

So much of what a student does in school has to do with his ability to use language. He needs to listen to the teacher and also his classmates in order to receive information. In his very early years, much of what a child learned came from his ability to listen. As he grew older, he learned to receive information by reading as well. In fact, as he progressed in school, he found that more and more of the material that he needed to learn depended on his ability to understand the printed word.

2. Expressive LanguageThe ability to transmit information to others is called expressive language. Expressive language is the output part of your language system.

A telephone is only half useful to a person as a means of communication if it has only the earphone and all she can do is receive messages. She also needs the transmitter, or the part she speaks in to, to be able to send information or to deliver her thoughts or ideas to someone else. In like manner, there is a part of her brain that controls her ability to send messages by what she says or what she writes.

Three Components

1. PhonologyThree interactive parts sit under the umbrella of phonology: phonics, phoneme awareness, and auditory discrimination. Phonics means associating segmented units of speech sounds with their graphic or printed forms (letters). This is the ability to match individual sounds in one's native language with letters of the alphabet and letter combinations. Some of us may remember learning phonics in the early grades where we learned the sounds that certain letters and combinations of letters make.

Phoneme awareness is awareness that spoken words are composed of individual sound parts called phonemes. According to Reid Lyon, Chief of NICHD, phoneme awareness is the ability to demonstrate knowledge of the sound structure of words without any letters or written words present.

Phoneme awareness and phonics are not the same. Dr. Lyon goes on to state that "when educators assess phoneme awareness skills, they ask children to demonstrate knowledge of the sound structure of words without any letters or written words present. For example, 'What word would be left if the /k/ sound were taken away from cat?' 'What sounds do you hear in the word big?' To assess phonics skills, teachers ask children to link sounds (phonemes) with written letters. Thus, the development of phonics skills depends on the development of phoneme awareness." To learn to decode and read, then, children must have both phoneme awareness and phonics skills.

Auditory discrimination is being able to detect a change in sounds, such as the difference between drill and thrill and knee and Lee. When a person has trouble distinguishing the subtle differences in sounds, it may become very hard for him to understand the meaning of sentences.

2. Structure: Morphology and SyntaxMorphology and syntax deal with language structure and organization. Morphology has to do with the changes that can be made to root words by adding prefixes and suffixes, or by changing verb tenses. For example, the prefixes re- and pre- can be added to the beginning of a word such as view to form review and preview. Suffixes such as -able and -ly can be added to end of a word such as like to make likeable and likely. And -ed and -ing added to laugh change the verb laugh into laughing and laughed. The words untidy bedroom are made up of four morphemes - un, tidy, bed and room. A morpheme has meaning on its own. For example, un- means not. A morpheme is not the same as a syllable because not all syllables have their own meaning. For example, with the word devil, dev and il have no meaning on their own (dev/il). But a syllable may be a morpheme! For example, in the word preview, pre means before and view means look.

Syntax has to do with joining all the parts of a sentence together and understanding how the different parts work together. Syntax involves understanding the rules of grammar and how words relate to each other in sentences and paragraphs. For example, consider the different meanings the commas make in the following sentences:

"Mary Jo Ellen and Krystal went to the store." (Two people went to the store.)

"Mary, Jo Ellen, and Krystal went to the store." (Three people went to the store.)

"Mary, Jo, Ellen, and Krystal went to the store." (Four people went to the store.)

Rules of grammar help us make our message clear. When we don't use or understand the rules of grammar, it is difficult to express or understand the intended message. Syntax refers to understanding things such as subjects and predicates, adjectives and adverbs, direct objects, prepositional phrases, and participles gerunds and infinitives.

3. MeaningA. SemanticsSemantics is the meaning of words and word combinations. As a student progresses through the elementary school grades and moves into higher reading levels, he finds that he needs to be responsible for more and more new vocabulary words. Many of these are technical words that he has to use in math, science, or English, like hypotenuse, subtrahend, photosynthesis, or subjunctive.

B. DiscourseDiscourse is the ability to use large volumes of language. It involves the understanding of longer and longer passages (paragraphs and stories, either heard or read), which include detailed explanations. Discourse is also being able to produce long paragraphs or passages, either in oral or written form. It is the building of narratives, story-telling, and essays.

C. PragmaticsPragmatics is understanding the fine points of how we use language. Being able to tell a joke that is funny, a story that is interesting or a lie that is convincing are examples of language pragmatics.

Understanding the shift of meaning in different situations, the intentions of the speaker, the needs of the listener, and being able to code switch all involve pragmatics. Code switching is changing how a person may talk to her parents and teachers to how she talks to her friends. For example, what can be okay for a teenager to say to a friend may be interpreted as disrespectful if it were said to her grandmother.

D. Metalinguistic AwarenessMetalinguistic awareness is a person's ability to know her own knowledge of language and how to use it, and her own language capacity. It includes phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse and pragmatics.

Four Manifestations

There are four ways language occurs or manifests itself. Two are receptive - listening and reading. We receive or take these in with our ears and our eyes. Two are expressive - speaking and writing. We express or give these out with our voices and our hands. So, when thinking of how language manifests itself, think 2 + 2 = 4!

References

Fonología

La Fonología es la rama de la lingüística que estudia los sistemas fónicos de las lenguas, frente a la articulación física del lenguaje (Fonética). Entre la gran variedad de sonidos que puede emitir un hablante, es posible reconocer los que representan el 'mismo' sonido, aunque las formas de pronunciarlo resulten distintas desde el punto de vista acústico; a la vez se pueden distinguir los sonidos que señalan una diferencia de significado.

Cada vez que se emite una palabra, no se realiza de la misma manera, porque cada emisión depende de los otros sonidos que la rodean. Los sonidos adquieren valores distintos según la función que ocupen en un contexto dado, sin embargo existen unos rasgos que no varían y que permiten reconocerlos sin confusiones en cualquier posición. Por otro, lado los sonidos que componen una palabra son las unidades mínimas que la hacen diferente de otra. Una prueba sencilla que lo demuestra es la comparación de lo que se llama 'segmentos portadores de significado de los llamados pares mínimos': los sonidos que forman la palabra más pueden ser sustituidos por otros y al hacerlo se forman palabras diferentes: vas, mes, y mar. Por este procedimiento se pueden aislar las unidades mínimas que distinguen los significados, es decir, los fonemas.

Cada fonema se describe siguiendo unos criterios físicos y articulatorios, en función del punto de articulación o de su carácter de sonoro o sordo. Cada uno de los componentes que define un sonido es un rasgo distintivo /mas/ es distinto de /vas/ en función de los fonemas /m/ y /b/; se definen, /m/ como [+bilabial], [+sonoro], [+nasal]; y /b/, como [+bilabial], [+sonoro], [-nasal]; el

único rasgo que los diferencia es la condición de nasalidad. Lo mismo podría hacerse al comparar /a/ y /e/, /s/ y /r/ y cuantas oposiciones revelen sonidos diferentes. Por rasgos distintivos se describen todos los sonidos que constituyen una lengua. La teoría de los rasgos distintivos se formuló en primer lugar dentro de la escuela estructuralista; está incorporada a la teoría generativa que trata de construir una explicación fonológica dentro de la teoría general de la gramática.

A este análisis de los fonemas en términos de segmentos fónicos aislados se le llama fonología de los segmentos; existe otra rama que trata de los suprasegmentos y se ocupa de las unidades mayores del componente fónico, tales como la sílaba, bien estudiada por Straka, las frases y las oraciones, así como los contornos de intensidad y entonación. A este enfoque de la fonología se le llama fonología de los suprasegmentos.