Language Aquisition Group Blog

All four of us seemed to agree that Language Acquisition is essential to reading. They are intertwined as if they cannot exist on their own. I am constantly telling my parents to read to their children. I am also telling them to talk to them in depth. Reading and language are also connected because they are skills that will only improve with practice. Whether it is modeled for us (listening & reading) or we do it ourselves (talking, writing & speaking), we are practicing and learning how to communicate.

With this Nature verses Nurture debate the consensus was that nurture wins in Language Acquisition. Language and Reading are skills that have to be modeled, practiced and corrected. This requires a lot of nurturing.

Without proper language acquisition learning to read and write will be very difficult. The grammar rules alone will give the brightest child a headache. Then there are the the way words are pronounced in different dialects. Marcie brought up the bathroom example in her blog. It reminded me that I thought a pocketbook was a pockaboot for years. my brother said it and my mom thought it was cute. She still says it.

Lauren and I brought up the point that it is more difficult for adults to acquire a second language. That ability to switch gears seams to weaken as we get older and find the rules of out native language more deeply embedded. I still think that most languages are speaking backwards when they put the adjective behind the noun. I think its a blue table, not la mesa azul.

Sam closed with this thought which I feel best summarizes all our thoughts. "Reading to a child is a form of communication. Hearing the words read aloud and properly will help them to acquire language and expand their vocabulary. Once they have acquired language, they will begin to read on their own. Reading and language acquisition seem to go hand in hand."