Babies start their first journey to the world by crying as the sign that they are breathing and alive. Although they make sounds, it does not mean that their language development begins with speaking stages. They will soon learn that language is a matter of habit. Therefore, they do not need a specific classroom and a set of goals in learning language. For their first language, they will master it through language acquisition, which is an unconscious process in acquiring language. The process to acquire language itself involves some natural stages which start from listening, speaking, reading, to writing.
Listening is the first stage in language acquisition that babies use hearing to acknowledge the surroundings before they have clear sight. The hearing sense precedes the development of the other senses. In addition, hearing helps babies to catch the sounds and memorize them in the long-term brain memory. The repetition words will help them to recognize certain words to certain things such as the word “mama” for mother or “dada” for good bye. In the early age, they still respond anything with certain behavior such as smile, laugh, or body movement. Along with the physical development, the babies are able to connect one word to another into certain patterns. Therefore, they can understand sentence meanings that they hear after several months.
Speaking follows the development of the listening stage that the babies can speak in different times based on language information they have. For instance, a baby may start her/his first word when s/he is 10 months old; however, another is 12 months old. It means that speaking ability represents the storage information in the brain. In this stage, the babies will imitate what they see and hear from their environment. The sight sense eases them to visualize forms and behaviors, then connect them to appropriate words such as nodding head to represent the word “yes” and shaking head from side to side meaning “no”. Further, they will attempt to speak in a sentence. Normally, they speak mainly the main word in early speaking stage. Let us take a look the sentence “Mom, I want to pee”. The baby will say “pee” with repetition to explicate the meaning of the sentence above. Another example, the sentence “Can I eat this Mom?” is replaced by the words “eat this?”. Through language experiment their speaking ability evolves into a complete sentence logically and grammatically.
Reading skills begin when the toddlers are 19 months old and they are able to indicate the existence of pictures, scratches, or forms in papers. Automatically, they are always curious about the formula in written expressions. To accelerate this skill, they need external intervention such as parents who promote learning method and approach such as flash card or introducing the letter spelling. From this starting point, soon or later, toddlers are capable of spelling words and sentences. Through reference improvement and practice, their reading speed will increase.
Writing sometimes is one package with reading stage because psycho-motoric activities in writing help children visualize and memorize the words. For example, drawing book gives the letter “A” in fade away form and the children should bold the letter with pencil and spell it at the same time. In advance, the children may play a game such as hang man which they have to fill out the missing letter from the word given. By this way, they have to recall their memory, rewrite, and spell the words respectively.
Listening and reading are receptive skills that children merely receive and capture from their hearing and sight senses. On the contrary, speaking and writing are productive skills which are harder than receptive ones because they have to collaborate all skills to produce speaking and written expressions. Although language is a matter of habit and children can master it unconsciously, it still needs external intervention to encourage the process faster. The process that is explicated above forms – what the experts said – the term “LSRW” which is coined as an acronym for listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Listening is the first stage in language acquisition that babies use hearing to acknowledge the surroundings before they have clear sight. The hearing sense precedes the development of the other senses. In addition, hearing helps babies to catch the sounds and memorize them in the long-term brain memory. The repetition words will help them to recognize certain words to certain things such as the word “mama” for mother or “dada” for good bye. In the early age, they still respond anything with certain behavior such as smile, laugh, or body movement. Along with the physical development, the babies are able to connect one word to another into certain patterns. Therefore, they can understand sentence meanings that they hear after several months.
Speaking follows the development of the listening stage that the babies can speak in different times based on language information they have. For instance, a baby may start her/his first word when s/he is 10 months old; however, another is 12 months old. It means that speaking ability represents the storage information in the brain. In this stage, the babies will imitate what they see and hear from their environment. The sight sense eases them to visualize forms and behaviors, then connect them to appropriate words such as nodding head to represent the word “yes” and shaking head from side to side meaning “no”. Further, they will attempt to speak in a sentence. Normally, they speak mainly the main word in early speaking stage. Let us take a look the sentence “Mom, I want to pee”. The baby will say “pee” with repetition to explicate the meaning of the sentence above. Another example, the sentence “Can I eat this Mom?” is replaced by the words “eat this?”. Through language experiment their speaking ability evolves into a complete sentence logically and grammatically.
Reading skills begin when the toddlers are 19 months old and they are able to indicate the existence of pictures, scratches, or forms in papers. Automatically, they are always curious about the formula in written expressions. To accelerate this skill, they need external intervention such as parents who promote learning method and approach such as flash card or introducing the letter spelling. From this starting point, soon or later, toddlers are capable of spelling words and sentences. Through reference improvement and practice, their reading speed will increase.
Writing sometimes is one package with reading stage because psycho-motoric activities in writing help children visualize and memorize the words. For example, drawing book gives the letter “A” in fade away form and the children should bold the letter with pencil and spell it at the same time. In advance, the children may play a game such as hang man which they have to fill out the missing letter from the word given. By this way, they have to recall their memory, rewrite, and spell the words respectively.
Listening and reading are receptive skills that children merely receive and capture from their hearing and sight senses. On the contrary, speaking and writing are productive skills which are harder than receptive ones because they have to collaborate all skills to produce speaking and written expressions. Although language is a matter of habit and children can master it unconsciously, it still needs external intervention to encourage the process faster. The process that is explicated above forms – what the experts said – the term “LSRW” which is coined as an acronym for listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
