Language Socialization Across Cultures

Humans are dependent on language and communication to survive. In fact, theyare the only species who use language with other members in order tocommunicate needs and wants. Language is a very interesting piece of life,largely because it is needed for survival, but it is not easily understood due to its complexity. It is believed that no one remembers the first language that people have learned, but according to experts, it actually begins at birth.

Remembering how a person acquired a language is merely impossible because it was learned at a tenderage through interactions with the immediate environment.. These are usually the parents, siblings, and other adults in the early years of life of a person. From birth, babies begin to learn about communication from the environment and surroundings. They are also rewarded for communicating their needs. This can be seen when babies communicate by showing an emotional response such as crying, in order to get the attention of its mother or father. Hence, communication creates a two-way relationship between the baby and its parents.

However, humans are not born to speak words and sentences in order to seek for their wants, it is acquired over time throughout the first few years of their life. This shows that language is a skill that is learned earlier on in life, and manifests during the different stages of development of a person. There are other ways of communication also considered as verbal communication, this can be through body language, sign language, and showing of emotions (usually referred to as non-verbal communication.) For instance, when babies are born, they spend a lot of time crying in order to communicate their needs to their parents. This is because they don’t know how to express their needs through speech. Despite that, they know how to get what they want before they could speak. Hence, Language has different aspects, which shows its complexity. These include receptive and expressive languages which will later be discussed in an attempt to understand language learning and the stages in which it is acquired.

Language is present in the daily lives of humans all over the world. No matter the country a person is born and raised in, there are languages that help different cultures to communicate their wants and needs to people within the same culture. While there can be communication between cultures, success is attained when people from a culture learn a second or third language so as to enhance communication. The most fascinating thing about language is that despite its varying dialects, it can be acquired in similar ways across the world.

Since it has been around for a very long time, it is usually an interesting topic for experts and researchers. Overtime, it has also become a subject that has been studied by many scientists, psycholinguists and researchers all around the world. Although there are thousands of different languages worldwide, the main purpose of language is common and simple: Humans need it to meet their basic needs of survival. This is done by communicating their wants which eventually leads to a happy and successful life. In the world today, there are so many languages and dialects, which is well above 7,000 and it helps humans to have proper communication.

Babies enter the world knowing only how to communicate through noises such as crying and cooing in order to show their mood. The first noise that a mother hears is crying, and this is how a baby seeks for comfort from their care takers. Whether they are hungry, wants to be cuddled, or are unhappy with the temperature, light, or noise level within their current surrounding. Likewise they show when they are hungry and dissatisfied or happy and content. This causes the caretaker to take action and attempt to soothe the crying baby or reward the happy infant with smiles and cooing. Through this the baby knows what to do whenever it feels that way.

As infants continue to grow, they learn other ways to communicate, through sounds and motions, which eventually turns into words and sentences in whatever language they have learned from those around them. There are many stages young children go through when learning a language. We often hear children mimicking the words and phrases of those around them, even when we think that they are not listening or don’t understand. Although humans don’t realize it, language is used every day throughout our lives and it is a very powerful tool. We are so accustomed to language, that we do not even understand that it plays an integral role in our lives.

No matter the language a person speaks, humans acquire communication skills by watching the behavior of others whom they trust and are together with. This is evident in the fact that there are many dialects spoken throughout our world. Children learn those dialects from listening to people around them. Another important aspect that affects the people which are present in a person’s life in communicating is the accent. Children pick up accents from different regions of the world through their parents and adults that are near them when they start learning how to speak.

There are many common accents that come from different regions of the world. Taking English language as anexample. A person from England has a specific way of speaking. This may be different from someone who lives in the East Coast in the United States, these differences in accents show a listener where they are from. Someone who lives in or near Boston, Massachusetts has a different accent compared to someone who lives in New York City in New York. There is some kind of indication that dialects and accents are learned from those people who are around the environment and speak to a person which becomes his learning language.

It is a common behavior for a toddler to copy the behavior or words and phrases uttered by their parents or siblings. They may also pick up ways in which those languages sound and use them in their own speech when that occurs. When mimicking, children are using language in an expressive way and attempting to discover what happens when they speak. If they are rewarded for speaking, they will continue to do so. Children who are negatively reinforced for speaking may become non-verbal. This shows that it is very important to treat children especially as they are learning to speak in order to encourage them to express themselves better.

In this book, language will be discussed in order to pay a close attention to these popular theories and the different ways it is acquired through observation and behavior. The way language acquisition differs from various countries around the world will also be explored in order to understand how it differs throughout regions of various countries. Different stages of language acquisition for both first languages and second languages will also be explored in order to aid the understanding of language learning. Topics such as first and second language acquisition,stages, strategies and differences, will be discussed.Likewise the reason behind the difference oflanguages spoken across the globe and throughout different cultures and how to attain these similar communication skills will also be discussed. Young children from all over the world learn languages by being immersed and surrounded by it. While this is the most easily understood theory, other theories will be explored. Although humans also communicate in many different ways, there are language and speech disorders that may delay or alter ways in which some humans interconnect. These disorders and different ways of communication will also be discussed to show how those with language difficulties are able to survive since communication is an important aspect of survival.

Likewise, the ways in which children learn to communicate through the latter years will be mentioned. Language is imperative to gaining knowledge, learning to read and write, and to be successful in life. Research also shows that there may be a correlation between language acquisition and intelligence. Another important point to discuss will be language acquisition in early childhood education and throughout the educational career. Teachers are often responsible for teaching parts of language so that students can be successful in the academic world and beyond. In school, children learn about grammar, vocabulary, and written communication including handwriting, gathering and organizing ideas, and expressing ideas and opinions through their writing. Strategies to properly and effectively gain communication skills within school will be discussed. There are many research-based approaches that are known to be efficient in helping children develop and be successful in language skills.

Summarily, Language is an imperative and integral part of life all over the world. As humans, we need it to survive and to communicate our daily needs and wants. Understanding how important communication is to a person’s life aids our comprehension of language. The rest of it such as its history and how it is acquired is not so simple.

Christopher Nemelka is PhD is English from University of Maryland. He is currently an Assistant Professor and Research Coordinator in COMSATS Institute of Information Technology and also Director of Dissertation Management at University of Maryland.