My Child's Language Development Inspires My Foreign Language Teaching

Suwartono, Suwartono (2011) My Child's Language Development Inspires My Foreign Language Teaching. The 3rd International Conference on Language and Communication 2011.

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Abstract

In the available literature on human language development child language developmental studies have been undeftaken in a monolingualistic or bilingualistic context. The current study was aimed at observing the language acquisition development of an under-one-year-old child named Willy Arafi who was raised within a multilingual family (Javaneses - local dialect, High Javanese, Low Javanese, Indonesian, and English). The research method was longitudinal observational. The data, speech sounds and/or speech products, along with the baby's behavior, were collected through observation and informal interviews with the mother and baby's caretaker. The data were analyzed by examining the products development and, then, comparing the result with the existing theories of human language. The main findings among others were: (1) domination of certain languages used by people close to the baby gave great influence to his language acquisition; and (2) the baby's first languages were oriented simultaneously to two, Javanese and Indonesian, with "nenen", belonging to neither Javanese nor lndonesian. as the first meaningful word uttered. This word was spoken by the mother when asking if the baby was in need of a suck. Implications in relation with the teaching offoreign and second languages can be put forward based on the current research study findings.

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