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A No two human beings are exactly alike. Each one of us is different, yet we all have many features in common. One of these features is that when we are born we all absolutely depend on others for all of our needs: food, shelter, clothes, protection and love. Many important things happen during childhood, but central to the process of growing from a baby with little personality into an individual with is the development of communication.
B The first way a baby communicates its needs is by crying, but eventually babies realise that there are other and better ways of communicating. The baby listens to all the meaningless sounds around it, and it gradually gets used to the voices it hears. Day by day, week by week, and month by month, it learns to imitate those sounds, and so another language speaker is born. This, of course, is an extremely simple description of the very complex process of learning a language, but it is, nonetheless, true.
C When did you become a language speaker? Most children usually start talking when they are around one year old. For some it happens before then, while for others it occurs sometime between their first birthday and eighteen months. Those children who learn to talk earlier than others are a source of immense pride to their parents. On the other hand, if children are slow to start talking, parents can worry that something is wrong. Experts declare that being a late starter is not a cause for concern or a sign that a child is not clever; after all, Einstein was three or four before he started speaking, and there was nothing lacking in his brain power! All normal children learn to talk, but at different rates.
D In the first few months of life, babies make noises that are nothing like words, but by six months they are making nonsense noises that are beginning to sound like speech. After another six months, children will be making mama noises, and they will also try to repeat sounds that they hear. When they make these noises or say these ‘words', people do things for them: they smile and pick them up, or they get attention and a cuddle. They are starting to realise that language is a very useful tool indeed.
E After another half year, most children can say up to 8 or 10 words. At this age, children on average can understand 5 words for every one word they can say. Around this age, children start to use two words together as if they were one word, daddy car for example, which in adult language could mean either Daddy is in the car or it is daddy's car. If it is the first meaning, the child will stress the second word, car, and if it is the second meaning, the word daddy will be stressed. By the time they blow out the two candles on their next birthday cake, they will be able to utter approximately 40 words, and two years later, they will be able to handle between 200 and 300 different words. By the age of 5, the child will understand nearly 2,000 words. Then it will be time for primary school and during this period of early schooling, the child's vocabulary will grow by roughly another 1000 words each year.
F Learning a language is a very complicated process, but all human beings are born with language ability. The precise language they learn to speak depends on which language they hear all around them. When babies are making nonsense sounds, some people say that they are trying out all the possible sounds in all the world's languages before identifying those sounds that they hear around them. When they have narrowed down all possible sounds to the ones they hear every day, then those are the sounds they will produce and master, and the other sounds will disappear. An example may help to clarify this: some Chinese people find it hard to hear the difference between [1] and [r], lock and rock for instance, and speakers of Japanese sometimes have this problem, too. However, a study showed that newborn Japanese babies could indeed hear the difference between [1] and [r], even though their parents could not. Surprisingly, though, the babies lost this ability around the age of six months, and could then only hear the sounds their parents could hear and say.
G Learning a language takes persistence. It requires practice, practice, practice. Above all it needs time. And if babies can do it, then so can you. Enjoy the adventure!
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the reading passage? Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
1. ______ There is generally problem with a child’s language development if they start speaking later than 18 months.
2. ______ Young children put words together in ways which may have several alternative meanings.
3. ______ The language which human beings learn and produce depends on what is spoken by their family or caregiver.
4. ______ Teenager children are still learning vocabulary at a fast rate.
5. ______ At the age of eight months, Japanese babies were able to hear the difference between the sounds /l/ and /r/.
6. ______ Children of different nationalities learn the sounds of their language in the same order.
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