The Many Uses of Language in Childhood Or: Listening to Children

Margery B. Franklin, Ph.D.
Sarah Lawrence College
Bronxville, NY 10708
USA

Children’s talk is all around us. Too often, specialists focus on children’s vocabulary or their syntax and do not give sufficient attention to the complex ways that children use language in their everyday lives. Years ago, the linguist Michael Halliday presented a scheme of seven prime functions of language. Halliday's scheme, considered together with concepts drawn from the writings of psychologist Lev Vygotsky and linguist Roman Jakobson, provides the base for my discussion of how young children use language to make social contact, carry on relationships, establish shared understandings, gain information, reflect on their experience, plan action, and create imagined situations. Many real-life examples (with Spanish translation) will be provided.

In recent times, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on children’s learning to read and write. In the United States, even preschool programs are increasingly oriented toward introducing the child to “literacy.” Too often, this emphasis leads to relative neglect of the importance of spoken language and activities such as pretend play which depend heavily on the uses of speech. In this talk, I suggest that the child’s exploration and use of spoken language provide a basis for literacy and - more generally - for social, emotional, intellectual, and imaginative development. We should help young children diversify and strengthen their uses of spoken language. At the same time, we need to develop� techniques that provide a natural bridge from spoken to written language - activities in which children can experience the translation of spoken meanings to marks on paper. (In this connection, we will note the difference between entrance to literacy in cultures with alaphabetic writing systems and those with ideographic writing systems).

Finally, I will point out that spoken language is universal, a gift we all share. In some cultures, the oral tradition is central. Those of us enmeshed in a world of reading and writing will benefit from considering the worlds of the spoken word—including the worlds of young children.