Research Article: Barriers: As Tools for Language Acquisition
by Murali Vemula
Introduction:
Despite the apparent complexity of language, nearly every human being masters its use in the first then years of life. We would like some theory to explain the phenomenon. Ideally, such a theory should explain processes that lead from native to sophisticated language use. The natural places to turn for such process descriptions are the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cognitive science. In particular, one should look for machine learning. In this paper, we examine their implications for theories of language acquisition. We begin by reviewing for basic learning skills that have been the focus of the machine learning work, describing each in terms of a common framework. We then turn to the task of grammar learning, comparing and contrasting it with other learning skills.
Learning to perceive and produce the sounds of a language acquisition and indeed the poorer half if we call the many children learns a natural language in the visual-manual modality. The essence of language acquisition is the comprehension and production of conventional symbols that may be used to direct the attention and mental states of other persons. In the present paper, I focus on the acquisition of meaning is light of the principle of contrast. This principle makes specific predictions about acquisition that are supported by date from many different domains. It shapes the lexicon for immature and mature speakers alike. It also plays a role in establishing which forms are conventional and thus contributes a solution why learners give over-regularization in morphology and syntax. Finally, it helps account for individual variation during acquisition. To begin with, language acquisition a process so broad that inevitably every aspect of human behavior to it.
Working on improving learner’s communication is a broad-brush activity. The learner has to change his thoughts, his feelings and his physical connections. The writing instruction that many of the learners currently receive is inadequate. Instruction for some of these learners focuses almost exclusively on the teaching of lower-level writing skills, such as handwriting and spelling, with few opportunities to actually write. Others are placed in classes where frequent writing is emphasized but little time is devoted to teaching needed writing skills and strategies, as it is assumed that these skills can be mastered through informal and incidental methods of learning. It is highly unlikely that learners/children with Learning Disability (LD) will acquire all they need to know in different programmes. We believe that writing instruction for those students must emphasize both prevention and intervention; respond to the specific needs of each learner maintain a healthy balance between meaning, process and form; and employ both formal and informal learning methods.
The design of such instruction is not and easy talk to both teacher or singly. It requires a coherent, coordinated and extended effort. The writing problems of children with LD are not transitory difficulties that are easily fixed. We can recommend few principles.
- Provide effective writing instruction
- Tailor writing instructions to meet the individual needs of the learner with LD.
- Intervene early, providing a coherent and sustained effort to improve the writing skills of children with LD.
- Expect that each child will learn to write.
- Identify and address academic and nonacademic roadblocks to writing and
- Employ technological tools that improve writing performance.
A crucial tactic in preventing writing difficulties, for learners with and without LD, is to deliver effective writing instruction. Although this approach will not eliminate all writing difficulties, it is advantageous for few reasons, one it helps to maximize the writing development or students in general. It minimizes the number of children who experience writing failure as a result of poor instruction. And it serves to ameliorate the severity of writing difficulties experienced by children whose primary problems are not instructional such as children with LD. What does effective writing instruction look like? Opportunities to engage in meaningful writing were plentiful, as learners they responded in writing to the material they read. The adaptation, ranging from procedures for circumventing writing problems to extra encouragement and praise. It is involved additional one-on-one assistance. This includes individual help from the teacher, adult tutors or volunteers or older and same-age peers. Another cluster of adaptations focuses on difficulties with text production skills. To overcome problems with spelling skills. Teachers also sought to bypass with text production difficulties by allowing weaker writers. Teachers facilitate planning for weaker writers.
BARRIERS:
Physical Barriers: As long as people still have a personal space that they can call their own, nearness to others aids communication because it helps us get to know one another.
Perceptional Barriers: The problem with communicating with others is that he all sees the world differently. Something like extrasensory perception world takes place.
Emotional Barriers: This is one of the chief barriers to open and free communication. It is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and suspicion.
Cultural Barriers: If a boy or girl joins a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later he needs to adopt the behavior patterns of the group. Where, however, there are barriers in his/her membership of a group, a high level of game playing replaces good communication.
Language Barriers: Language that describes what the speaker wants to say in his/her terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with the expression, buzz-words and jargons made by the speaker. When the learner couches his communication in such language. It is a way of excluding others. In a global market place the greatest compliment one can pay another person is to talk in their language.
Gender Barriers: There are distinct differences between the speech patters in a man and those in a woman. A woman speaks between 22,000 and 25,000 words a day whereas a man speaks between 7,000 and 10,000. The reason for this lies in the wiring of a man’s and woman’s brains. When a man talks, his speech is located in the left side of the brain but in no specific area. When a woman talks, her speech located in the both hemispheres and in two specific locations. This means that a man talks, in a linear, logical and compartmentalized way, features of left-brain thinking; whereas woman talks more freely mixing logic and emotion features of both sides of a brain.
Interpersonal Barriers:
a).Withdrawal is an absence of interpersonal contact. It is both refusals to be in touch and time alone.
b).Rituals is meaningless, repetitive routines devoid of real contact.
c).Pastimes fills up time with others in social but superficial activities.
d).Games are subtle, manipulate interactions which are about winning and losing.
e).Closeness is the aim of interpersonal contact where there is a high level of honesty and acceptance of him and others.
Intrapersonal barriers stem from an individual’s attitudes or habits, whereas interpersonal barriers occur due to the inappropriate transaction of words between two or more people. The two broad categories into which this barrier can be classified are:
- Inefficiency in communication
- Negative aspect nurturing in the climate
Interpersonal barriers creep in as a result of the limitations in the communication skills of encoder or decoder, or both. In addition, they may also occur because of some disturbance in the channel. If there are two people involved in communication, the traits that distinguish them as individuals can be the root cause of a communication problem. The most common reasons for interpersonal barriers are:
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- Limited vocabulary
- Emotional outbursts
- Communication selectivity
- Cultural variations
- Poor listening skills
- Noise in the channel
Intrapersonal Barriers:
Individuals are unique because of their idiosyncrasies. This is mainly because of difference in experience, education, value and personality. Each of us interprets the same information in different ways as our thinking varies. Certain common cause is responsible for an individual’s inbuilt barriers. Here are a few causes listed that leads to these intrapersonal barriers:
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- Wrong assumptions
- Varied perceptions
- Differing background
- Wrong inferences
- Impervious categories
- Categorical thinking
How to overcome the communication barriers:
Language diversity also brings many difficulties and barriers to effective communication in the learning environment. Diversity brings, the learner first cast aside his assumptions and perceptions. Hundreds of different languages are spoken in the different countries today, and when we hear a foreign accept, many of us assume that the speaker has a very limited knowledge of the language when in reality, he may have a vast understanding of the language, just trouble in his delivering and word pronunciation.
Most foreign-born workers have had to pass some of English proficiency test before they were hired. In addition, because most languages do not share the same roots as English grammar and vocabulary is better than ours, but still the learner may have difficulty pronouncing words in English. To help ease communication, the teacher should change his mindset and assume that the person does have a good grasp of the English language; he should try to understand the individual, and to help him with his pronunciation. It is important that we speak slowly, because the slower we speak, the slower the other will speak, making it easier to him to understand what we are saying and to deliver and understandable response. Always maintain the mindset that he will able to understand the individual.
“A barrier acts like a sieve, allowing only a part of the message to filter through; as a result, the desired response is not achieved. To communicate smoothly and effectively in an organization, irrespective of your position, you need to know how the barriers operate, why they cause misunderstandings and how to mitigate their negative impact”. Technical Communication by Raman Sharma, (p.23, 18-22).
One of the best things we can do to help break down the communication barrier is to avoid using idiomatic expressions (or distortions) and slang. English is very different from many languages. Be precise in the terms that we use so that it will be easier for our understanding. The breaking down communication barriers is a two way street: learner is trying to communicate information to us, and we try to understand him. Take responsibility for our part of this exercise and admit it when we don’t understand someone and try to help them when they don’t understand you. If we both make the effort to work as a team to understand each other, we will quickly break down the communication barriers and because more effective in the learner’s point of view.
Language barrier, communications breakdown, misunderstanding. It happens all the time. Some times the cause is obvious. We all understand that if I am speaking English and somebody is speaking Urdu, we will have moments of understanding because of cultural differences that assign different words to different things or assign different meaning to similar phrase. Even if any both speak English, with the gender difference, one will experience miscommunications because of sex-related differences in their communication styles.
But, there is another source of communications breakdown which can occur between people who speak the same language, are from the same culture, and may even be of the same sex. This has to do with our behavioral preference for either judging or perceiving. Humans fall into equally populated categories when it comes to these two processes; those who prefer to jump to the judging process as quickly as they can. This difference is preferences leads to a whole array of behavioral differences between perceives and judges and is reflected in how we communicate. A person can receive information and never apply a judgment to it, or a person can apply a snap-judgment to something without having received complete information.
Although everybody both perceives and judges, our language reflects which of these processes we prefer. And the difference between perceiving language and judging language, though subtle, can lead to miscommunication, endless rounds of argument and frustration. When language barriers prevent individuals from reporting a crime or describing a suspect, for example, it becomes that much harder, “language discordance is our biggest challenge when serving the Hispanic community. The language barriers make it very, very frustrating to get our work done.”
Language barriers can even threaten the safety of officials, being unable to communicate with. The obstacles associated with language barriers are often complicated by the fact that many Limited English Project (LEP) persons fear the people and go to great lengths to avoid contact with them.
Removing Barriers:
Being able to express the learner by himself and make his needs known must be one of the most frustrating for human experiences. Similarly, tying and failing to understand what someone else is struggling to convey can be extremely disheartening. Similarly, frustration can arise when the learner tries to communicate with people who speak a different language. The particular needs of the learner/child with a language delay and one with an austic spectrum disorder may be very different, but both can find themselves without friends, isolated at break times and often and easy target for bullies.
In the class room, their difficulties affect their ability to participate and to demonstrate what they know, understand and can do. However, there are a number of general strategies that teachers can use to help remove barriers to learning. Make sure all adults working in schools are aware of children’s needs and the approaches being used to help them.
Environment: A teacher has to facilitate the learners while using visible prompts, gestures and or a signing language. Eliminate extraneous noise as far as possible.
Routine: This is vital to alleviate confusion and give learners a sense of security. When routines have to be broken, ensure that children are preparing whenever possible. Familiarize them, in advance, with new teachers and setting – perhaps providing them with photographs, and making visits to their new classroom. Expectation should be consistent, as far as possible, throughout the school / college.
Verbal Instructions: Keep them short and precise. Ensure that children know you are addressing them, give one instruction at time speak clearly, to a natural pace and make sure that the learner can see the face of the teacher. The teacher should avoid figurative language, idioms be taken laterally- these will need to be taught explicitly. Instruct the learners what to do rather than what not to do.
Respect: Don’t force the learners and young people work in pairs of groups if they are clearly uncomfortable in that institution. Respect differences and beware of the social – networks of the class room. Activities such as ‘circle of friends’ and the use of ‘social stories’ can prove useful.
Praise: Reinforce all attempts to communicate. The teacher should avoid correcting the learner’s spoken language, but provide a good model and opportunities to practice. Use a child’ specific interests to expand to use of langue and social skills.
Solutions:
- Allow extra time for the child to respond; do not hurry him to give and answer.
- Consider whether he might benefit from using Augmentative and Alternative and Communicative (AAC) or (for a learner with significant difficulties) a Voice Output Communication Aid (VOCA).
- Teach new vocabulary (including subject- specific words). Have a ‘word of the day/week’ for the whole class.
- Practice sentence building and sequencing.
- Introduce ‘talking partners’ and use speaking frames.
- A buddy or a teaching assistant can help the pupil to organize his ideas.
- Idea/concept mapping can be useful.
- Use reading sessions to explore meaning, cause and effect.
- Teach metaphors, jokes and puns when appropriate.
- Teach the meaning behind facial expressions or countenance.
Closing comments
In this paper, I outlined few principles to avoid the barriers in learning language acquisition in connection to LSRW language skills. The barriers I mentioned can help prevent as well as alleviate the writing/learning difficulties experienced by the learners or students. These many be necessary but non-sufficient, components of overall responses.
Although, I have no doubt that a single, dedicated teacher can have a significant impact on a struggling writer’s development. For many children with LD, writing problems are a chronic, not a temporary condition. There is no quick or easy fix that will make their problems disappear. It is not only important to intervene early, but also to provide a sustained and coherent effort over time. Finally, a new approach to the modeling of language acquisition that we hope will overcome the barriers for language acquiring and it helps account for individual variation during acquisition.
A common obstacle to communication is poor listening habits. The learner should remember that listening and the hearing is nit the same. Hearing is a passive exercise while listening requires careful attention and accurate decoding of the signals received from the speaker.
References:
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