Since a baby is born, one can notice its evolution in terms of language, from words like “mommy”, until coherent sentences like “Mommy I am hungry!”, and one can explain this evolution by admitting the fact that children are able to acquire language subconsciously as a result of the massive exposure to it which they get from the adults and other children and people around, therefore, I believe in the miracle of words.
It is true that children develop better if adults help them by communicating with them, by telling stories, showing them pictures, talking about interesting and appropriate subjects, and of course using adequate vocabulary, because children since they are very little use to imitate and reproduce what they hear, what they see, they have a special will to communicate. Therefore, I think it is also important the quantity of language a child is needed to absorb as there are so many parents who think they know that their children can get so many vocabulary information all of a sudden which is not adequate and healthy because language must be absorbed step by step (even if we are talking about a first or a second language). Thus, learners can achieve good results in developing their language if their pace of learning is taken into account.
A nine-years-old child would get strong difficulties in improving a technical vocabulary (as it is a very ambiguous domain until a certain age) rather than a fifteen-years-old teenager, which is a matter of age. Therefore, school or teachers have a very important role in getting students involved in the learning process and nonetheless have the intellectual authority to decide the learner’s pace in teaching them the adequate information.
As an English teacher of young learners, I can say that children are able to acquire more words visually, when they come to learn English vocabulary. For instance, If I want to teach them simple words like: (cow, tree, etc.), I can show them a picture and they will be completely fascinated. This is just an example of how teachers and even parents can teach their little ones, specific words using pictures, as they learn better seeing things.
According to Jeremy Harmer, people need to choose special vocabulary which children can understand, rather than more sophisticated lexical items which they would not. So, it is very important to simplify the language too. In one word, the vocabulary we use around our children and students is very important as they will ‘pick it up’ immediately. The words are miraculous and have an importance for each of us. The miracle of words stands not only in the richness of vocabulary we can produce but also in the manner of using it, and here I want to underline the importance of the pronunciation and intonation of words too.
Words are very important nowadays, the more words we acquire the better we can send our message to the world. But, personally, I consider very important the manner and especially the intonation we use to send our message to the world; either we speak about our first language or second language. The words themselves, as Socrates points out, “give us no clue as to their natural meaning except for the nature of their sounds. Certain qualities are attributed to certain types of sounds and then the meaning of words is analyzed in terms of the qualities of the sounds they are made of” (C. Dumitru, Elements of English Structural Semantics, p.12).
The Miracle of words is also vital in schools where children come to improve their cultural and educational background in terms of reading, writing, speaking, and so forth. Since the very first school days, children are very emotional in terms of how would they come to read, speak and write.
As far as people are concerned, I consider that in the first days of schooling is very difficult to understand as a child the importance of expressing yourself firstly, in your mother tongue and then in the second language you are taught at school. Teachers have a relevant role in our development as human beings; they help children reading, communicating and then start opening doors for them to help them think what is good to do for their own future. The language we produce mostly by words is really a miracle in the way which helps us to create and develop the world we live in. Through language we can express our opinions, our likes and dislikes, our regrets and happiness is the message we connect with the others around.
According to Daniel Goleman, the author of the Emotional Intelligence, our awareness is one of the most important aspects in what the self- evolution is concerned. Therefore, he emphasizes the ability of people to recognize their own and others’ emotions by using emotional information and one can affirm that this fact produces language subconsciously.
From this point of view, one can realize that language in terms of words is miraculous especially when children produce it in order to express their feelings. Furthermore, I would like to underline that feelings can generate words and enrich vocabulary in the development of one’s language.
A famous British song says: “All you need is love”. A child when is loved blooms. Everything is possible when a child is loved and encouraged. Hence, he/she can even start producing words since he/she is just a one-year old baby and this can be understood as a miracle, the miracle of human evolution, and all the things they produce like sounds, movements and simple words can be considered miraculous.
The possibility of listening words gives the little ones a possibility to speak and the more they grow, the better they evolve in communication. A wonderful thing about using words is the fact that, children are always encouraged to say what they think and this leads to a higher percentage of self-esteem that would make them think they can do anything starting from one moment on.
Bibliography:
Dumitru, C. (1973). Elements of English Structural Semantics. Bucharest: Editura Didactica Pedagogica.