Teaching Children To Read: The Behaviorist Theory Of Oral Language

Language development is a critical part of a child’s overall development. Language encourages and supports a child’s ability to communicate. Through language, a child is able to understand and define his or her’s feelings and emotions. It also introduces the steps to thinking critically as well as problem-solving, building and maintaining relationships. Learning a language from a social perspective is important because it gives the child the opportunity to interact with others and the environment.

Oral Language is when the language is spoken to express ideas, thoughts and even emotion. Before a child learns to read, the child begins to speak and connect through saying the words aloud. With that in mind, a child can identify and connect the words on the page to the picture that appears through their mind base on the concept of oral language. Oral language goes beyond the classroom walls because it starts from the words, saying and ideas that they’ve personally heard and experienced through their life. Therefore, many educators test their students on their Oral Language abilities, and Oral Language is comprised of Phonology, Semantics, Grammar, Morphology, Pragmatics, and Discourse.

Reflection 1 Research has shown literacy is one of the most important but most complex subject taught within the education system (Bickart &Dodge, 1999). However despite it’s complexity it is still one of the most important subject, because the lack of literacy skills affect all other subject area. “Language is critical for learning across the curriculum” (Copple, Bredekamp, Koralek &Charner, 2013). Language is important because language has various function, it works as expression for feeling, as mediator in thought and it helps to provide mental representation (Copple, Bredekamp, Koralek &Charner, 2013). It is also proven that language develop rapidly during the early childhood years (Copple, Bredekamp, Koralek &Charner, 2013).

The Socio-behaviorist theory (behaviorism) Socio-behaviorists often study how children 's experiences model their behaviors (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Behaviorism believes that what matters is not the development itself, but the external factors that shape children 's behaviors (Nolan & Raban, 2015). This theory demonstrates that teachers and mentors dominate and instruct child-related activities, and they decide what children should learn and how to learn (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Reinforcement, which is an essential factor that helps children to learn particular behaviors, generally refers to rewards and punishments (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Children are more likely to repeat actions that result in receiving praise; in contrast, they may ignore or abandon behaviors that make them get punishment.

The questionable and ambiguous nature surrounding the notion that children play an active role in acquiring language has been debated by many theorists of different perspectives. These three perspectives include the learning view, the nativist view and the interactionist view. In this essay I will discuss each perspective with reference to psychological theories and research that relates to each view. The learning perspective of language acquisition suggests that children acquire language through imitation and reinforcement (Skinner, 1957). The ideology behind this view claims that children develop language by repeating utterances that have been praised by their parent, therefore gaining a larger vocabulary and understanding of phrases over

Speech, language and communication can be supported through play and activities in a number of different ways, children/young people need the opportunity to express themselves using language. It is important to help them develop language skills and to help them use language effectively. It is essential to listen to what is being said and respond appropriately. It is important to be aware of any additional needs, and if English is a second language.

Effects of Other Individuals Social learning theory is different to Skinner’s Learning Theory. It highlights the importance of cognition. This means we don’t just accidentally learn something, we use our mental processes to choose what we want to learn and what we need to learn. Social learning theory suggests that we learn through a series of modelling, reinforcement and observation of others. Modelling is when you observe the behaviour of other people and then imitate it even if the behaviour is not rewarded.

As an illustration, if your toddler said thank you after receiving something they had asked for, you should then praise the action by saying “it was very nice of you to say thank you”, rather than just saying “good job”. In turn, this helps the toddler understand the behavior that is being praised. In sum, then praising children is fundamental to their intelligence and development; however, such praise has to be carefully phrased. Intellectual and ability praise is not only harmful to the child's growth, but it can also be detrimental to the relationship between parents and their children. Furthermore, without the proper wording of the praise children may see it as empty and feel as though they lack the ability of the task at hand.

The Positive and Negative of Operant Conditioning and The Most Effective Method There are many ways we can come about in behavior. An American psychologist, B.F. Skinner, introduced the theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is known as associative learning and a learning process. The theory is made up of two factors in which behavior is modified through either reinforcement and or punishment.

The Aural-Oral Approach in English Language Teaching In English language teaching there are several approaches that can be applied in a classroom. Each one has purpose and gives concern to certain skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) development. One of these approaches is Aural-Oral Approach. The Aural-Oral Approach is based on developing two language skills: listening and after that speaking which is the earlier stage of learning a language (Geri, 1990).

The Learning perspective argues that children imitate what they see and hear,and that children learn from punishment and reinforcement.(Shaffer,Wood,& Willoughby,2002). The main theorist associated with the learning perspective is B.F. Skinner. Skinner argued that adults shape the speech of children by reinforcing the babbling of infants that sound most like words. (Skinner,1957,as cited in Shaffer,et.al,2002). This theory explains that the language starts on what they see or hear, the children will imitate what they see on their parents or the people around them.

Behavioral and social cognitive theories emphasize continuity in development and argue that development does not occur in stage-life fashion. Skinner and Bandura are best known for there theories in behavioral and social cognitive theories. Skinner believed in operant conditioning, where the consequences of a behavior produce changes in the probability of

One of the earliest explanations of language acquisition was proven by Skinner. He proved that for language to develop it needed an environmental influence. Skinner argued that children learn language based on “behaviourist reinforcement principles by associating words with meanings”. The child realises the communicative value of words and phrases when correct utterances are rewarded. In an ECCE setting the preschool teacher helps shape the child’s language by rewarding them when they imitate speech, sounds and

First, the speech development is one of the first tools that child will demonstrate in their first learning situation. Then, it is important to have language development skills at first. By this kind of activities, the children engaged in speaking with other peers may have cooperative ideas in play any task given by the teacher. There also verbal and non-verbal interactions involved between two or more person that contribute to the social interactions that can improve their communication skills. Basically, through this method, there no children left behind because all the children need to interact to each other to complete the

These insomuch will develop the child’s knowledge of language