Language learning begins with listening. Children are
greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start
speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will "obey"
spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word
"obey" is hardly accurate as a description of the eager and delighted
cooperation usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children
will also ask questions by gesture and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to study the
development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to
considerable difficulties. It is agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that
during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves as particularly
expressive as delight, pain, friendliness, and so on. But sincethese can't be
said to show the baby's intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as
early forms of language. It is agreed, too, that from about three months they
play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new
words to their store. This self-imitation leads on to deliberate (有意的) imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by
other people. The problem then arises as to the point at which one can say that
these imitations can be considered as speech.
It is a problem we need to
get out. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it
in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word
will change as he gains more experience of the world.Thus the use at seven
months of"mama" as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a
meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at other times for his father,
his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what
other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself, I
doubt, however, whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of this
ability in an attempt to teach new sounds.
1.Before children start speaking, _____.
A. they need equal amount of listening
B. they need different amounts of listening
C. they are all eager to cooperate with the adults by
obeying spoken instructions
D. they can't understand and obey the adult's oral
instructions
2.Children who start speaking late _____.
A. may have problems with their listening
B. probably do not hear enough language spoken around
them
C. usually pay close attention to what they hear
D. often take a long time in learning to listen
properly
3.A baby's first noises are _____.
A. an expression of his moods and feelings
B. an early form of language
C. a sign that he means to tell you something
D. an imitation of the speech of adults
4.The problem of deciding at what point a baby's
imitations can be considered as speech _____.
A. is important because words have different meanings
for different people
B. is one that should be properly understood because
the meaning of words changes with age
C. is not especially important because the changeover
takes place gradually
D. is one that should be completely ignored (忽略) because children's use of words is often meaningless
5.The author implies _____.
A. parents can never hope to teach their children new
sounds
B. even after they have learnt to speak, children
still enjoy imitating
C. children no longer imitate people after they begin
to speak
D. children who are good at imitating learn new words
more quickly
