Reflection Paper

Reflection paper

1. The language acquisition process

According to readings language acquisition starts very early. Babies start vocalizing since the time that they are born by crying. In a couple of weeks they start producing vocalizations such gurgling and cooing. This is called Babbling stage.
From babbling stage they move to another stage, which words do emerge. In this stage they start saying words and not paying attention to phonemic differences.
Babies from this first words stage proceed into another stage in which they begin to develop an awareness of phonemic contrasts. Another thing that happen in this stage is that babies start to shorten longer words.
The one word stage is called also holophrastic stage. At this stage children try to use a single word to express a whole sentence.
After the holophrastic stage children enter the Tow – word stage. In this stage they seems to combine important words with crucial semantic relationships.
In this stage babies’ speech is telegraphic.
After two-word stage they start gradually to move beyond just using content words. After a while they start to acquire plurals, negative and interrogatives.

2. Individual differences in students’ development:

Adolescence is a time of many transitions. This is a time where they experience rapid developmental changes.

a) Physical development is a stage where they experience puberty (a rapid growth period) and development of secondary sex characteristics (breast development in girls or facial hair in boys).

b) Intellectual development is not visible as physical development. In this stage they develop advanced reasoning skills and abstract thinking skills.

c) In social development stage adolescents have a strong need to belong to a group. They may experiment different behaviors (positive or negative) to secure a position in their peer group.

d) Emotional development is characterized by the quest for independence and identity formation. Adolescents seek their sense of uniqueness and individuality.

e) Moral/ Ethical development. In this stage teens progress from a level in which they refers to rules imposed by other into a level in which they refers to rules imposed by themselves. They may be easily influenced by peers or by environmental cues.