Importance of first language in early childhood education

Importance of first language in early childhood education

By Sadia Wali

❝One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.❞

‒Frank Smith

Beverly A. Clark says,

Language is inextricably entwined with our mental life—our perceiving, our remembering, our attending, our comprehending, and our thinking— in short, all of our attempts to make sense of our experience in the world….  Reference (Lindfors, 1991, p. 8)

   

The way children learn language follows a specific pattern and is inherently systemic in nature. It is clear that children must be exposed to language and be able to interact with others, but how that exposure and interaction occur is extremely variable. Even though young children are not formally taught language, language acquisition is part of the overall development of children physically, socially, and cognitively. There is strong evidence that children may never acquire a language if they have not been exposed to a language before they reach the age of 6 or 7. Children between the ages of 2 and 6 acquire language so rapidly that by 6 they are competent language users.

  As children develop their ability to use native language, they understand social situations well and learn how to express their own actions and thoughts. Speech development is one of the first tools that a child will demonstrate in his/her lifelong education.

  Research in bilingual education has shown that children need to have their first language facilitated in the early years, and it is not essential that English should be the first language of a child.Cummins, 1984; Gutierrez, 1993; Wong-Fillmore & Valadez, 1986, encourage families and teachers to maintain children's native language because bilingualism has been associated with many cognitive, social and economic advantages. Children who are bilingual may be equally proficient in both languages or they may know one language better than the other. Usually the language that predominates depends on the context (e.g., home vs. school).

Lindfors, 1991 says, “Children’s language development is a creative process that only needs a rich environment to thrive.”

In Vygotsky’s view, achild's external speech is the first step in the development of thinking.  The acquisition of language is a crucial part of cognitive development.  Children acquire a native language through the interactions with adults, cultural norms, and their environmental circumstances.He says that children solve all their tasks with the help of their speech, as well as their eyes and hands.For Vygotsky, first language provide the means to think in new ways and gain a new cognitive tool for making sense of the world. First language is used by children as an additional device in solving problems, to overcome impulsive action, to plan a solution before trying it out and to control their own behavior (Jones, 1995). 

Language development is a gradual process and reflects a child’s cognitive capacities. "Language is purposeful. As children play and work, they do so through language"  (Garcia, 1994; Lindfors, 1991; McLaughlin, 1984)

 Children expand their development of language by relating what they already know to what they encounter (Shatz&Gelman, 1973)

‘Play is a way for children to extend their language abilities; it is where new vocabulary can be introduced as well as new ways to use it. It also allows children opportunities to express their point of view, solve disagreements, and persuade peers to work together. Language play has a focus on the very language elements that children will need to consider later when they learn about language.   (Lindfors, 1991, p. 282).

“Children who develop proficiency in using their native language to communicate, to gain information, to solve problems, and to think can easily learn to use a second language in similar ways” (Pérez & Torres-Guzmán, 1996, p. 96).
“Even young children who are learning a second language bring all of the knowledge about language learning they have acquired through developing their first language” (Tabors, 1997, p. 12)
 Almost all children become fluent in their first language. This kind of guarantee is not automatic with the acquisition of a second language. Second-language acquisition is as complex as the acquisition of the first language but with a wide variety of variables added in. An interesting metaphor that Bialystok and Hakuta (1994) use is comparing the addition of a second language to home renovation vs. new construction.

The native language is also crucial and interrelated with the action, providing an additional tool used both to reflect the behaviour of the child. Both Piaget and Vygotsky viewed preschool children in problem solving situations talking to themselves. Vygotsky referred to it as a private speech. He said that private speech grows out of the children’s interaction with parents and other adults and through such interactions; they begin to use their parent’s instructional comments to direct their own behavior. 

Tabor states that “young children, then, certainly seem to understand that learning a second language is a cognitively challenging and time-consuming activity. Being exposed to a second language is obviously not enough; wanting to communicate with people who speak that language is crucial if acquisition is to occur.

Children who are in a second-language learning situation have to be sufficiently motivated to start learning a new language” (Tabors, 1997, p. 81).

There is real concern that if children do not fully acquire their first language, they may have difficulty later in becoming fully literate and academically proficient in the second language (Collier, 1992, 1995a; Collier & Thomas, 1989;)