Phonology BY yessi0212 Phonology is the study of the speech sounds and sound of words in a language. It is also concerned with the way words are pronounced in a language. Each language has its own phonology. From a child’s point of view, the business of phonology is figuring out how to produce those sounds that are necessary for making meaning. Infants know the sound of language before their first word. The most amazing part is babies learn from way before in utero (Siegler, 2005). Patricia Kuhl talks about how infants are sensitive to sounds that are not typically used in their language.
It is amazing how she conducted a study where she was able to show that infants can distinguish sounds from many languages. She described the act as, infants taking statistics in speech. Another study she conducted as exposing children to television or auditory learning of language. She proved that infants/ children need human contact in order to learn. This information shows the importance of interacting with children is very important. I use to think educational shows were a great part of a child’s learning. Now I know that it does not compare to human interaction.
I grew up in a bilingual household. My mother taught me Spanish first. She thought by teaching me Spanish first it would stick to me, because I was going to learn English at school. I was fluent in both languages as a child. As time passed my Spanish was not as great, because I was not speaking it often, not even at home. Although my parents always speak Spanish, I respond in English, or even “Spanglish”. Patricia Kuhl mentions, that once you get to your teenage years, everything goes downhill. Which I can agree. I still speak Spanish, but not as fluent.
