No child is born into the world with consciousness of the environment, language and culture.  His mind is empty at birth awaiting his parents and teachers to fill it in his years of growing up to be acquainted with man and nature.  He does not come to earth armed with speech although he is endowed with speech apparatus to function among humans.

The child needs language to communicate his desires and needs.  He uses instinct to express his needs at a very tender age; he cries when he needs breast-feeding or attention.  The mother offers him breast milk, bathes him and robs powder on his body to prevent heat and rashes.  The child looks around and uses his sight at first without seeing anything; he learns to use his sight; he learns to crawl, struggle, stand and run.  He hears people speaking the language of his mother tongue or, any other one used by his parents in the environment.  He listens and learns by imitation until he becomes conversant with speech rhythm, pronunciation and grammar.

The child almost masters basic collocations, subject-verb-agreement and vocabulary at the age of six.  The child is capable of expressing his desires, needs and, socialises freely with his mates who play using the language of communication: he plays, draws houses on ground and paper; he draws several other objects of his choice.  He plays games, sings songs, struggles to do other activities using words to communicate.

Adults enter the world of the child often to weave tales for him about the bad and good child, wicked adults, roles of the child to parents, women, men, adults and himself.  He is asked to attempt re-telling the tales he has been taught; he does using the language near perfectly; he is corrected when he  pronounces words wrongly, falters in using narrative language; he is taught simple formula of telling tales.

He is taught rhymes which help him to be much more perfect in using sounds and associating them with various objects in the environment.  They assist him in perfecting his pronunciation of words; some rhymes are so fast that he is compelled to sing very fast making him cope with speed, rhythm and music – he is made to love knowledge, obtain it unconsciously, love literature especially poetry and traditional music.  The rhymes increase his vocabulary although the nonsense words used in few of them are not words used daily in the language of every day usage; they are onomatopoeic words which convey images associated with sound.

Child language is different from adult language. It is simpler than adult language which is very complex and captures complex experiences in the world.  The child uses simple words and sentences to convey ideas in his world unlike the adult, who uses compound and complex sentences to express his ideas.

The child is a subject of literature – students are taught literature of the child, the way he reasons, speaks and conveys his ideas to people.  The child can be remarkably brilliant in making some observations, which adults use and treasure in various circumstances as the law court, classroom situation, the adult world, health planning and laws about him.  Indeed, there are scholars who are specialists in childcare, psychology, law and literature.  Studying and aiding the child are compulsory to prevent his extinction from the earth but also because the child has not attained the stage of accountability for decision making.

Perhaps it may be necessary giving few examples from literature to prove the intelligence of the child.  Francis in Michael Anthony’s The Year in San Fernando is a good example of child’s language.  He makes simple sentences about his world, the fascination with objects in it, observations about how adults live, husband and wife (Mr and Mrs Chandles), how they disagree and extra marital life of Mr Chandles.  His observations are far richer and better than his interpretations since he is innocent, young and uninformed about all the activities in his world.  His character is a typology for any other child.

Chike in Achebe’s Chike and the River learns acquaintance with his environment through songs, tales, stock expressions and imitation.  One of such songs is Row, row, row your boat

Gently, down the stream

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.

Life is but a dream.

His is taught tales about existence, one example is cited here.   He is told a story about the quarrel between a little bird and a river: bird and river are existential aspects of man in environment – social relations and nature.

The child learns through imitation: the way his teacher speaks English.  He memorises stock expressions which educate him on various aspects of life.  One example is ‘Time and tide wait for no one’, teaching him two markers in relation to progress; the first is a creation of man while the second is from nature.  Both measure the changing conditions of a day and, in the context of education, preparations are better done at appropriate stages for total development and growth of the child.

The child acquires culture from various persons in the society: the mother who is the closest to him at the early stages of growth and subsequently the dad, nurse and teacher; playmates and pupils.

Ngaage  writes  from   Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State.

To be continued

Barine Saana Ngaage