Identifying Linguistic Development of a 33 Months Old Bengali Child in Bangla Language
1. Abstract
2. Keywords
3. Background
4. Research Questions
5. Sources of Language Acquisition
6. Analysis of the Text
6.1. Stimulus-Response Theory
6.2. Imitation
6.3. Learned language
6.4. Language from television
6.5. Phonetic and phonological production
6.6. Morphological production
6.6.1. Noun
6.6.2. Pronoun
6.6.3. Verb
6.6.4. Adverb
6.6.5. Adjective
6.6.6. Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection
6.7. Syntactical Production
6.7.1. Tense
6.7.2. Creativity
6.8. Semantical Production
6.8.1. Differentiation among words
7. Method
8. Literature Review
9. Conclusion
10. Works Cited
11. Appendix
1. Abstract
This paper aims at investigating the language production in Bangla language by a Bengali child aged around 33 months. Based on a close and real-life observation, the paper will linguistically analyze the language produced by the child. Critical comment will be made on the produced language according to psycholinguistic approach.
2. Keywords: Language, Development, Acquisition, Child, Psycholinguistics.
3. Background
Language development is a process which starts early in human life. By 10 months, infants start babbling without knowing a language. They can distinguish speech sounds and engage in babbling. Some researches have shown that the earliest learning begins in utero when the fetus starts to recognize the sounds and speech patterns of its mother's voice and differentiate them from other sounds after birth. (Graven, Stanley N.; MD; Browne, Joy V. , 2008)
However, in this paper, our approach is to analyze the Bangla language production by a toddler with the application of existing theories. The toddler selected for the research is a 33 months old boy. He is acquiring or learning Bangla as his first language. His parents are tenants at the researcher's home. Thus, the researcher has a very close access to the child, and he gets the opportunity to observe the language behavior of the child regularly. Only some of the samples of the produced language by the child are transcribed here in the appendix part.
However, the child spends most of his daytime at the researcher's home and his night time with parents. He also watches Television programs e.g. Bangla movies with his parents. Moreover, the child moves around with fellow children with his locality, and therefore his language is also influenced by them.
4. Research Questions
This paper will look for answers to the undermentioned questions:
1. What are the sources of language acquisition of the selected child?
2. How was the stimulus-response behavior of the child?
3. How was the grammatical state of the produced language?
4. What difficulties the child is facing at this stage of language acquisition?
5. What are the recommendations for sound language production of the child?
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| Fist Language Acquisition |
5. Sources of Language Acquisition:
Name of the child: Tamim Date of Birth: 06-06-2015
Tamim's language repertoire is mainly influenced by the four persons whom he spends most of his time with. Language profile of those four persons are given below:
Father's Name: Abul Hossain Profession: Garment worker
Language Repertoire: Bangla (Narayanganjian local dialect) Mobile:01998449794
Mother's Name: Akhi Akter Profession: Housewife
Language Repertoire: Bangla (Barishalian local dialect) Mobile:
Companion's Name (Researcher's mother): Jakia Begum Profession: Housewife
Language Repertoire: (Narayanganjian local dialect) Mobile: 01671427016
Companion's Name (Researcher's father): Mokter Hossain Profession: Employee Language Repertoire: Bangla (Standard and Narayanganjian local dialect) Mobile: 01673620173
Moreover, watching television, listening to music on mobile phone and playing with local kids are also Tamim's sources of language acquisition.
6. Analysis of the Text:
6.1. Stimulus-response behavior
Stimulus-response theory is an important concept in modern psychology. It is any form of conditioning in which a specific stimulus comes to be paired with a particular response in the mind of the subject. The most common applications of stimulus-response theory are in classical and operant conditioning. The pioneers of stimulus-response theory are Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner. (enotes.com)
Stimulus-Response behavior was seen in Tamim for several times. In scenario 1, when Tamim saw the mobile phone, he wanted to touch it and see his own face on camera. Sometimes, when Tamim is told to talk to the researcher's sister in a video call, he rather pays attention to his own face on the mobile screen.
In scenario 6, Tamim used a disrespectful pronoun "tui" towards the researcher. Afterwards, when the researcher scolded him, he stared to behave politely and tried to create intimacy with the researcher.
6.2. Imitation
Tamim calls the researcher's father with the same nick name (Lalu) Tamim is called by that person (scenario 1). He simply copies the word and applies with the appropriate person. He answers for the positive response using the word "hoy" as his mother uses so. (Scenario 7)
While his parents quarrel with each other, Tamim's father scolds his mother calling, a bad word, "khanki" meaning "whore"(Scenario 8). That is how Tamim learned to use the bad word during quarrelling or arguing with people.
6.3. Learned language
In scenario 1, Tamim was able to say his father's name only when he was reminded the name. Actually, he was taught his father's name before, but could not recall it. He also answered that he would study in Madrasa for the same reason.
6.4. Language from television and multimedia
Once it was noticed that Tamim was talking to himself and singing alone. When the researcher paid attention to his words, he could understand that Tamim was singing a Bangla song which he listens to most (Scenario 3). The verse was "Boro mishty lage kache ele..eeeee"
6.5. Phonetical and phonological production
Tamim can produce all the 11 vowel sounds in Bangla. By contrast, he has difficulty with pronouncing some of the consonant sounds, for example, aspirated sounds. He can utter at least 25 consonant sounds.
He could not produce the sound [V] as in "Baiya" and "Alu Borta" (Scenario 1). Here, he also faced difficulty to utter the complex sound (Abul Hossain) of his father's name, so he simplified it as [abuloshen]. In scenario 6, he could utter "Dekina" instead of "Dekhina".
6.6. Morphological production
6.6.1. Noun
Like most other children the grammatical element Tamim is learning is noun-vocabulary. He can produce all kinds of nouns including common, proper, possessive, abstract, concrete etc., but it seems that he has not learnt yet to produce compound nouns.
Samples: Tamim, Lalu, babu, Api, cha, muri, beda, bedi, byatha, bari, apigo khat etc.
6.6.2. Pronoun
It has been found that Tamim produces all kinds of pronouns except reflexive and relative pronouns. Also, he has not learnt the hierarchy of respect in pronoun yet. For example, he cannot say “eta amar nijer bari” or “Unar nam ki?”
Samples: Tui, oi, tumi, amar, hego(tader)
6.6.2.1. Use of hierarchy marker in personal pronoun
At one point of scenario1, the boy gets angry and uses the Bangla verb "Char" which represents the symbol of his uneasiness. He has learnt to express anger using respect or disrespect marker in Bangla verb which are of three types: "char, charo, charen". Again, in scenario 6, he said "tor charge chutaiya lamu" beacause of the scolding by the researcher.
6.6.3. Verb
Compared to English, the verbal system in Bangla is simpler. Tamim is acquiring the simple verbs and with inflexions of number, tense etc. as well. He has not acquired long and phrasal verbs yet.
Samples: Jamu, maira lamu, Dekhi, jaa, poira gese etc.
6.6.4. Adverb
Tamim has already acquired a few adverbs (Scenario 9).
Samples: [Emun koira, aste aste jay. May ase na amare jore jore masse]
6.6.5. Adjective
In Tamim’s language repertoire, there are some significant attributive adjectives which he uses to serve his emotions while talking to people.
Samples: valo, shundor, Khacchor,Shoytan, boro etc.
6.6.6. Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection
Tamim lacks this category of words because of complexity. Acquiring this category of words requires active sense of grammatical faculty of human brain.
Samples: Dail ar bat, Si! Si! Iss!.
6.7. Syntactical Production
The kid cannot produce optative, exclamatory, complex and long compound sentences.
6.7.1. Tense
Tamim has already learnt the three simple tenses: present, past and future. Day by day, he is getting acquainted with the complex tense system and trying to produce more complex sentences. In scenario 5, Tamim used a future-word "jaiga" meaning "I'm going to go". In scenario 6, "tor charge chuutaiya lamu" meaning "I will tear up your headphone"
6.7.2. Creativity
Tamim's language creativity is so amazing that in Scenario 4, he was seen to tell the fellow children [bangla kotha bojhona polapan?] meaning "Don't you understand Bangla words, kids?" because the children were not following his orders. The source of this long sentence was probably his mother. The researcher noticed that sometimes Tamim's mother asks Tamim "Bangla kotha bojhona tui, ay?". Thus, Tamim borrowed the sentence from his mother and replaced the final word "tui" by "polapan"
6.8. Semantical Production
Sometimes Tamim produces some words and sentences which are even ambiguous to the listeners and even to him. He sometimes does not understand the words told to him by his mother or else, but he tries his best to understand. For example, Tamim has learnt some bad words “khacchor (meaning messy)” and “buira beda (meaning old man)”. He uses these bad words in inappropriate contexts i.e. irrespective of time, place, gender and person.
6.8.1. Differentiation among words
At first in scenario 1, Tamim fails to differentiate between his father’s name "Abul Hossain" and the proper noun "Baba" as he calls his father by the later word. Again, in scenario 6, he used the word "charge (charger)" for the object "headphone".
7. Method
The research has been conducted using both the qualitative and quantitative method. A 33 months old kid was observed very closely and his interview was also taken. Some the footages of the interview have been transcribed in the appendix part.
For the formation of the paper, the standard set by American psychological Association (APA) was followed. The researcher had to use video-audio recorder and other related technologies for collecting data.
As part of the quantitative method, the collected data were analyzed and critical comments were made.
8. Limitations
It should be admitted that the study has a lot of limitations. Firstly, the research is based on a single interview and observation by one individual Bangla speaking children. Secondly, child language production cannot be studied properly using the linguistic approach solely as language production also requires clinical analysis. Thirdly, there is still lack of literature on child language production in Bangla language. Finally, the language the child is learning is not the “Standard Bangla”, and therefore there might be some possibility of differences between the standard Bangla and the dialect the child speaks.
As a result, there is still possibility of generalization on the critical comments made on the research.
9. Conclusion
It is very crystal on the paper that Tamim is in a transition period from his mumbling stage to proper fluency of language. Day by day, he is learning Bangla faster than the previous day and becoming fluent.
To cut a long story short, the paper has been successful to answer all the 5 questions of the research. It is suggested that further research may bring more fruitful outcome in the field so that the literature of Child language production by Bengali children in Bangla language gets enriched.
10. Works Cited
English-grammar-revolution.com, Accessed 14 Feb. 2018.
Graven, Stanley N.; MD; Browne, Joy V. (December 2008). "Auditory development in the fetus and infant". Newborn and Infant Nursing Reviews. 8 (4) – via Brain Development of the Neonate.
Ucl.ac.uk, Accessed 14 Feb. 2018.
"What is the stimulus-response theory in psychology?" eNotes, 7 Apr. 2016, https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-stimulus-response-theory-psychology-674442. Accessed 14 Feb. 2018.
11. Appendix
Scenario 1
Tamim: [Lalu! lalu! (calling my father, in front of him, by the name my father calls him), babu, Taaamim (seeing his own face on camera and calling by his own name), deko! deko!]
Researcher: [tor abbur nam ki?]
Tamim: [Baba (as he calls his father by this name), babu! Tamim! (again, calling his own self)]
(behind the camera, my mother is pressing him to say his father's name which she taught Tamim before)
Tamim: [Dekhona dak dey kemne(he is paying attention to the camera). Abuloshen. Abuloshen(said his father name at last)]
Researcher: [Tor ammur nam ki?]
Tamim: [Baiya!! Chacchu! Baiya!(not giving heed to the question)]
Researcher: [Tui dupure ki dia vat khaisos?]
Tamim: [Alu Borta (not vorta)]
Researcher: [ar ki dia vat khaisos?]
Tamim: [murgi, eeeee…....lalu..........]
Tamim: [Tambabu tambabu(calling his own nickname), chaR(got angry)]
Researcher: [Tui boro hoye ki hobi? Chor na batpar? Na hujur hobi?]
Researcher: [tui boro hoye koi porbi?]
Tamim: [madrasay(as he was taught before)]
Scenario 2
Researcher: [eta ke(showing the camera)?]
Tamim: [tamim]
Researcher: [tamimer abbur nam ki?]
Researcher: [baba]
Tamim: [apigo khat, eida apigo khat na?(seeing a cot on mobile-screen through the back camera)]
Researcher: [kader khat?]
Tamim: [apigo khat]
Scenario 3
(talking to himself)
Tamim: [Boro mishty lage kache eleeeeee, mishty lage kache eleeeee (singing)]
Scenario 4
(talking to the fellow children loudly)
Tamim: [bangla kotha bojhona polapan?]
Scenario 5
Tamim: [eng..eng...........(mumbling and making ambiguous utterance)]
Researcher: [ki dekhbi?]
Tamim: [jaiga..]
Researcher: [koi jabi?]
Tamim: [basay]
Researcher: [ki korte jabi?]
Tamim: [futbol khelte]
Researcher: [ki korte, futbol khelte?]
Tamim: [….ummm......(leaves the room)]
Scenario 6
Researcher: [batti ki hoise?]
Tamim: [batti jole na]
Tamim: [keda, keda, keda, dekina. Dekhao (wants to see whether he was getting filmed as the previous day)]
Researcher: [na dekha jabe na]
Tamim:[kiise (what happened)?]
Tamim: [dekhao, dekhao. Arettu dekhao]
Tamim:(as the Researcher was not letting him to see, he got irritated and started threating).[tor charge(headphone) chutaiya lamu]
Researcher: (as he was behaving rudely, the Researcher scolded him)
Tamim: [ja...ja...tui....ja....]
Researcher: [tui bolli ken tui amare? Sahos boro hoiya gese?]
Tamim: [chacchu! ….....(after getting scolded started to behave politely)]
Scenario 7
Akhi: [kire kisu khaiso?]
Tamim: [Hoy] (acquired from his mother)!!
Scenario 8
A person: [hei, sor edik theika]
Tamim: [ja khanki, tore gullli maira lamu]
Scenario 9
Tamim: Naim e ase na emun koira aste aste jay.
Tamim: May ase na amare jore jore masse.
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