Literacy and language development:The five aspects of language knowledge

       In this post, I would like to share with you the experience and information I gained from the literacy and language development course that I took lat spring and specifically when I observed a story telling time of the “Cuddly Cat” in KG3; in the National Evangelical School of Kab Elias.  

      The heart of this course was to emphasize on language as the base of the society and culture. It modeled language like an umbrella covering under it several aspects; the perceptions, communications, and daily interactions of a society. So to be effective members in the society and function in it successfully, children need to develop a wide range of language competencies in order to use oral and written language correctly in a variety of social events in their daily life. When young children acquire language, they develop in an interrelated, receptive manner five different aspects of language knowledge; phonetic, semantic, syntactic, morphemic, and pragmatic.Teachers of young children have to be aware of the fact the children will needs a wide range of communication competencies, which involve receptive language and expressive language, to be active and effective members in the society throughout their lives.

     Through listening to the “Cuddly Cat”, children have been exposed to the five different aspects of knowledge; phonetic knowledge, semantic knowledge, syntactic knowledge, morphemic knowledge and pragmatic knowledge. Phonetic knowledge refers to the knowledge about the relation between the sound and symbol in a language. Semantic knowledge refers to the word labels that specify concepts and schemata that represent the interrelation between concepts. Syntactic knowledge is related to the ability of combing words to create meaningful expressions. Morphemic knowledge refers to knowledge of word structure. This part is interrelated with the syntactic knowledge since children know that some words have related meanings, yet they are used in different ways. Pragmatic knowledge involves the knowledge or awareness of the overall intent of the communication and how language is used to achieve that intent or purpose and it is the awareness of how to participate in a conversation.

     Throughout this little time that I’ve spent in observing KG3, I was astonished by how wide the knowledge of such young children is; concerning language, and how a 10 to 15-minute story telling can add and build to the repertoire of their language regarding the five different aspects of language. The knowledge of these five aspects of language can be categorized into three levels: the linguistic level which is known by the “know-how” level, that is being able to use language in communicative contexts; the meta linguistic level, is when the children are aware of the five aspects of language knowledge; and the meta linguistic verbalization, is when the children can verbally respond to questions about specific language features.Those children were in the linguistic level and the meta linguistic level. 

    Teachers should be aware of these levels in order to determine the developmental appropriateness is language-related tasks in early childhood classrooms. Teachers need to be aware of involving the levels in which their children are passing through in every lesson and activity that is going to take place inside the classroom walls or even in the playground. This awareness will lead children to be successful social, active participants in their society.