Exposure to the Target Language: How Much is Necessary?Children have the ability to absorb language quickly. However, there should be enough exposure to the language for them to be able to learn effectively. So how do children learn language? Naturally, they learn through daily interactions and emotional bonds with those around them. For example, there’s language learning while children play everyday games such as peekaboo and when they are talked to when bathed or fed, while having their clothes changed, at the car seat, etc. Indeed, they are very curious and have an open mind as they go about their everyday activities.
Day By Day Learning
Whenever parents or guardians communicate with their children on a daily basis, they are able to pick up on the spoken language. Through months of these daily interactions, young children are able to gradually learn and understand the role of language in social life. Sooner or later, they start to recognize language patterns in such interactions and are able to participate as well, enabling them to learn language better. Meanwhile, as children become more able to communicate the language, parents and guardians naturally start to use more complex language forms while speaking with them. As a result, this helps children in language development. According to studies, vocabulary growth among children highly depended on their exposure to words. This is proof that exposure to the target language is indeed an important factor in language learning.
In conclusion, children who are more exposed to the language in daily interactions tend to learn language better. What determines language learning appears not much to do about what the children are explicitly taught (Ex. through warnings about grammar and usage such as “Don’t end your sentence with a preposition). Rather, what matters is what the children hear and the language that they are exposed with through everyday conversation, and in the variety of situations that they are able to experience along the way.