Essay On Language And Language

Assessment 1 – Essay

Language can be seen and heard; it can be diverse or standard. With this in mind, discuss the different roles that language can have in a child 's life.

Language can be seen and heard in every aspect of our daily life, it can be a verbal form of communication spoken softly to connect with a few people close to us, or it could be shouted to millions via electronic broadcast mediums such as the internet. Alternatively, language can be a nonverbal form of communication where a message is successfully carried to another through the use of body language and facial expressions alone. Language can be used for written and oral communication, in which written language has to follow distinct grammatical and standardised rules and

The interplay between language and culture in a child’s life is significant. The relationship between language and culture is described by Emmitt (2010, p.52) as, “a way of life” in which language plays a major role in defining personal and national identity, our thinking and our attitudes towards others. In this sense, a child’s language can be seen as a cultural tool that governs behaviour. Emmitt (2010, p.50) explains how children can use their language to express themselves in a way that enables them to belong to a particular cultural or subculture group, and either include or exclude others from that

With this in mind, it is important to view the role of language in a child’s life as a socio-cultural practise. Green (2006, p.2) explains, how written, oral and visual language all derive from social and cultural contexts, in which children participate and comprehend, based on their own social and cultural backgrounds. Through exposure to language, children become aware of the many varieties within a language, such as dialects, registers, styles, accents and other forms of language including a standard variety (Meecham & Rees-Miller, 2001). Standard Australian English is the official language of Australia, and is in itself a variety of English. However, several varieties of English are spoken in Australia by children with different cultural backgrounds, for example, Aboriginal English, Italian English, and many more. According to Emmitt (2010, p.61), a child who speaks a non-standard variety is not deficient in or deviating from the standard variety, but is speaking a different language variety with its own rules, grammar and