By: Dwi Puji Lestari
Children
can learn new language very easily. Even though we do not take them to the
formal education to learn languages in their early childhood, we will be very surprised
finding them communicate two languages or more with people around them. This
essay agree with Birner (n.d.) statement in her Journal that said, “there is no
evidence to suggest that it’s any harder for a child to acquire two languages
than it is for the child to acquire one language.” It is happened because
children have ability in learning language simultaneously or sequentially. So, by
those two ways children can absorb and learn different languages.
Simultaneous
learning for children is very possible happened at bilingual home because
children can learn two languages at once. Bilingual home acquires parents speak
in different languages every day. Steinberg (2006) said that there are two
basic situations in which children may learn: (1) One Person-One Language, (2)
One Person-Two Languages. In this case parents has important rule in giving
language exposure naturally. In the first situation mother speaks one language
while father speaks another language. They will give two different exposures of
language. So this situation will force children to learn both languages in the
same time for children communicate with father and mother.
The
second situation is One Person-Two Languages. It means one person speak two
different languages. For example, the mother uses both Javanese and Indonesia
languages, and father does the same. Two languages are mixed by each parent. By
this situation the children also has good exposure of language at home.
Although the situation is a bit different with the One-Person-One Language,
this way never makes difficulties for children. Stainberg (2013) said that children
can be fluent in both languages by the age of 3 or 4 years. Thus, simultaneous learning
both One Person-One Languae and One Person-Two Languages are normal situation
of children in acquiring languages.
Besides
simultaneous learning, bilingual children also acquire languages by sequential
learning. Steinberg et al (2013) said, “the sequential kind of bilingual
situation can occur for children when children learn second language at school.
This is common happened for Javanese children in village. They learn and speak
Javanese with their parents at home while they also study second language,
Indonesia Language, at elementary school. This is what makes different between
simultaneous learning and sequential learning. The starting time in acquiring
both language is different. Children learn second language after they have
learnt first language. Thus, not all bilingual children learn two languages at
once but they also learn languages one by one.
Overall,
this essay concludes that bilingual children acquire languages very easily with
two different ways; simultaneous and sequential learning. Simultaneous learning
makes children learn two languages in the same time. Children acquire both
language at once with certain circumstances that create good exposure of
language such as One Person-One Language and One Person – Two Languages.
Besides, children also acquire two languages sequentially with different
starting time. They acquire first language well before they learn second
language.
Refferences
Birner, Betty.
(n.d) ‘Bilingualism’ Linguistic Society
of America, [online]. Available at www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/faq-what-bilingualism (Accessed 15th
December
2014).
Steinberg, Danny
D. and Natalia V. Sciarini. (2006) ‘An Introduction to Psycholinguistics’, New York: Routledge.
Steinberg, Danny
D., Hiroshi Nagata. and David P Aline. (2013) ‘Psycholinguistics: Language, Mind, and World’, New York: Routledge.
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