Language Acquisition 語学の習得

I have had the privilege of spending a lot of time with our two-and-a-half year old grandson over the past year or so. It is amazing to watch language develop in a child. As a little baby they find their voice and experiment with sounds until words begin to emerge. At the toddler stage they are now copying what others say and producing understandable sentences. Having struggled to learn a new language in my late twenties it constantly amazes me how such little ones are able to produce grammatically correct verb conjugations. I can remember spending hours repeating and repeating verb lists in order to get them conjugated correctly. However, a little child does not need to do this. How I envy our grandson!

Recently, I was on a full bus in which at least 90% of the people were from China. Amongst them were a couple of toddlers and it was fascinating to listen to them doing exactly what our grandson does. Of course, I was unable to understand what they were saying! It made me realise afresh that a child`s brain is like plasticine and can be molded in different ways. This applies not only to language of course but also to any other input we may have in the child`s life. What a responsibility we have as we spend time with young children to make sure we model the kind of behavior that we want to see in them.

“But if any of you causes one of these little ones who trusts in me to lose his faith, it would be better for you to have a rock tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea.” Matthew 18:6.

Stella

私は2歳半の孫と過去1年半に渡って、多くの時間を共に過ごす機会が与えられました。

幼児が言葉を学んでいく過程を見ると驚きます。

赤ちゃんの時から声を出して続けて、やがてそれが言葉になってきます。

歩きはじめる頃から親が話す言葉を真似し始め、徐々に短い文を話し始めます。

私は二十代の後半になって、日本語を学び始め、学ぶのにとても苦労しました。

孫のように小さな子が、どのようにして、文法的に正しい文を話せるのか驚きます。

私は動詞の活用形の表を見ては、正しい活用の動詞を使うのに何回も練習して、多くの時間をかけて学んだのを覚えています。

しかし、小さな子供はこんな努力をする必要はありません。

孫がわずかの期間で話せるようになるのを見ると羨ましく思います。

最近、90%の乗客が中国人であるバスに乗りました。

そのバスには孫と同じ年頃の二人の幼児がいました。