Learning of Languages - Article Example

 Article review The author Alaina Kelley and Kathryn Kohnert write this article so as to study the performance, perfection and the speed of Spanish children within the age bracket 8-13 years who are aspiring to learn English language as their second language. The purpose of this study was to investigate how easily children adapt cognates (words sharing same vocabulary and form) as compared to noncognates. It was evaluated that majority of the children easily understood and learnt the cognates with a smaller number having certain issues with learning whereas the same children had difficulty in learning noncognates. It is observed that once adults start to learn a language they easily grasp those words which are similar to their language to which they can easily relate too. For example, helicópterowhich is in Spanish and helicopter in English are cognates of each other therefore a Spanish child can easily relate to it.These are known as cross-linguistic cognates. There are also certain cognates which have the same meaning but not the same form. Cognates are easy to comprehend as an individual has a very vague idea about it and can join the dots in order to make a complete picture. "When two languages are close, learners will have access to a large number of cognate words" (Ellis, 1999). A lot of researches in the past are based on cognates and how easily one can understand them as a new language learner as compared to words which are not cognates. Cognates act like a stimuli reinforcing and making understanding easier. At times cognates can be semantically quite like each other, there can be restrictions because of grammar found in one language but not the other which can arouse problems occasionally (Odlin, 1989) . The purpose of this study was to understand whether these cognates act as a potential tool for language learning in Early Language Learners (ELL). The authors view on bilingual is that learning languages is essential and just to make it easier and comprehendible cognates are used. Learning English language is essential therefore emphasis is given on considering it as a second language. The author supports his position by providing examples from previous researches andwork done on the same content taking it a step forward. In order to understanding the effect of cognates in (ELL's) various methods were adopted such as research based questions, participation and features of the language. In this the children were allowed to determine and comprehend cognates with their own estimation independently or with certain support depending on his/her caliber. Initially there wasn’t any drastic difference but gradually they showed improvement with cognates over noncognates. Different techniques were used such as visual and memory aid, age bar, phonological overlapping between the word and its cognate and the prior knowledge of the word. Direct strategy training was used for maximum benefit of 5th grade (ELL). Receptive and expressive help to develop the proficiency in language as well as the pathology of speech and language. Although there wasn’t any study that targeted the cognate status of language which are developing. It was observed that on cognate language of English the bilinguals performed better than the monolinguals but when it came to noncognates both were equal in performance. Statistics were used in order to show the cognate and noncognate items. It was deduced that Spanish students who were ELL did not merely benefit from L1 or L2 on test which were based on receptive vocabulary. An important issue in the methodology that arises while using the PPVT is item difficulty. Lastly, it was investigated how fast and precisely children knowing only one language i.e. English could match Spanish words to one of the two pictures. This exercise was performed irrespective of language impairment. It was observed that phonological overlap effected performance and language impairment proved to be beneficial. Earlier nonverbal cognate effects were not considered but now their effects were even bought under consideration. Nonverbal intelligence and language abilities are interlinked. Although performance could not be judged through this method. This study is the first one to evaluate the effect of recognizing and producing spoken words to develop cognate vocabulary in school going children. The method used for this research was experimental. 30 children were taken of particular vicinity belonging to middle class families speaking their home language (L1) and English (L2). All the children passed certain standards set and had almost the same intellect. A well-defined group helps to get more precise results. More generalized result. Diversity in group helps to get individual results as well as group performance. Various tests were taken. The results of the tests were judged according to standards set according to the age bar that was present. The difficulty of the test kept on increasing gradually. These tests were made in order to judge certain criteria's. Results were evaluated on the basis of performance on average. Since no child was able to do the entire thing therefore group performance was considered. It was also evaluated how performance in cognate versus noncognates occurs when difficulty is increased to three levels. Since the level of cognition of each child is different therefore individual judgment was also required with group assessment. For the group results it was observed that the children answered more cognates correctly as compared to the noncognates showing that they could understand and comprehend with cognates better irrespective of the difficulty level.Individually 60% of the children were more comfortable with cognates versus the noncognates. Pearson product moment correlation was used to evaluate the relation between age, language (L1 and L2) proficiency and cognate advantages. Since these children easily associated and figured out the cognates with their matching pictures which were spoken verbally, this proves that there is some relation between these two dialects and bootstrapping from phonologic to lexical and semantic is possible. Well known words were easily associated but using less famous words is more beneficial. The children were more inclined to cognates this shows that bilingual people can easily grasp similar words and cognates can be used to derive meaning of words that aren’t used frequently. There was an advantage in cognates for those who gave receptive and expressive tests. This study contrasts with the earlier studies that claim cognates do not benefit (ELL). Although there was better understanding of cognates in the children but this wasn’t applicable for all. Age was an important factor when it came to learning about cognate performances when it came to receptive and expressive tests in learning. It was observed that older children experienced more benefit. It was noticed that there wasn’t much of a difference in the cognates and noncognates when it came to receptive tests. Scores were kept quite flexible as the age group was diverse which gave way to developmental effects potentially. This method wasn’t quite successful in capturing the role of proficiency in L1 and L2. The results are preliminary. There were many obstacles that came during this research but despite that it was observed that children benefited from phonological similarities that were present in their native and second language. Clinical implications adhere to all the primary findings. Speech language pathologist's (SLP) are used in order to help monolingual English students to develop better skills.Various techniques are used by the SLP in order to aid in cognition. Once cognates are understood then facilitating in reading and writing comes in play. The author in his research challenges the course by giving various other methods in order to improve the present system. In order to improve the system new techniques need to be adapted which are coherent with the sentiments and values of such linguistic and cultural minorities. In order to bring changes more research is required so that better understanding about the pros and cons of the subject is developed. I personally agree with the author as he gives a detailed justification and the methods used by her are quite relevant as cognates are helpful because they help us to relate and form a vague picture inside our minds which help us understand the new dialect. These ideas are fairly applicable in a classroom environment as a teacher understands a child individual requirement and can process according to the needs to the child resulting in better outcomes. Works cited: Ellis, R., &Fotos, S. (1999). Learning a second language through interaction. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins. Odlin, T. (1989). Language transfer: cross-linguistic influence in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More