Interaction between Brothers and Sisters Promotes Children's Language Development

On 20021May 3 1, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee deliberated and passed the decision on optimizing the birth policy to promote the long-term balanced development of the population, and made a major decision on the policy and supporting measures for a couple to have three children. This is an important policy for China to actively deal with the aging population, which is conducive to improving the population structure of China and maintaining the advantages of human resources in China. In addition, it is worth noting that the language interaction between compatriots has a significant role in promoting children's language development.

Sibling relationship is one of the longest and most difficult interpersonal relationships in a person's life, and it is a "mandatory" relationship between family members. Sibling relationship will have a far-reaching impact on human individuals, and will affect the development of human personality, cognition, emotion, social relations, competition consciousness and so on. This can be seen from many fixed collocations or idioms formed on the basis of compatriot ethics in Chinese, such as orderly aging, brothers and sisters, etc.

The companionship of brothers and sisters in childhood and the language interaction between compatriots mean the initial stage of human socialization and are also a natural and important part of human social activities. Studies on children's language acquisition and development at home and abroad show that human language acquisition is the result of the interaction between innate and acquired. Infantile period is the fastest and most critical period for a person to learn and master a language in his life. It is generally believed that human beings have the possibility of acquiring a language because they have an innate language acquisition device. At the same time, the acquired language input and learning environment are also very important for human language acquisition and development.

There are many similarities and differences in human language acquisition. For example, even in a relatively limited cultural or linguistic environment, there are considerable individual differences when children say the first word and how to use grammatical morphemes. These individual differences not only reflect the influence of human heredity and biology on children's language acquisition and development, but also reflect the acquired effect. Parenting includes many factors, such as parents' educational level, family income and parenting style. These factors can also be said to be the acquired environment of children. Studies have shown that from birth to five years old, even a person's life, the biggest factor affecting language development is the environment in which children live, which accounts for about 60% to 70% of the differences in language skills, while genetic factors only account for 25%. After entering school, the environmental homogeneity is getting higher and higher; With the increase of age, the variability of children's environment will become smaller and smaller. That is to say, before receiving formal school education, children's language learning environment has considerable differences and variability, which undoubtedly has an important impact on children's early language development track, and whether there are brothers and sisters can be regarded as variables of children's environment similarities and differences.

In the environment of "three children" or "two children", the language communication between children presents the following characteristics:

Second, the sibling model. The language communication between brothers and sisters in the family belongs to the communication between compatriots. Previous studies have shown that older children play an important role in the intergenerational transmission of the first language. Polschi, a linguist, believes that older children bring home the mainstream language and often use it to communicate with their parents, brothers and sisters. More and more evidence shows that in immigrant families, older children play an intermediary role in the process of younger brothers and sisters mastering mainstream languages and language socialization. The topics of communication between compatriots are basically about family life and family members. These topics and contents are private and private, which is very important for cultivating children's family concept and brotherhood concept. Chinese kinship terms are detailed and complicated, and some non-universal kinship terms, such as aunt, uncle and uncle, are easier for children with brothers and sisters to understand and master their meanings. Although children can also get opportunities to interact with their peers in communities, kindergartens and other places, this cannot make up for the unique content and theme of peer interaction.

Third, the interactive mode. If there are two or three children at home, there will be more interaction and language interaction. Compared with a child's situation, the child will talk to himself less. In the face of younger brothers and sisters who can't speak yet, older children must try their best to make them understand what they mean in order to play with them. They will constantly adjust their language and movements until the children understand. This is an excellent opportunity for older children to practice language expression, which in turn improves their language ability. Children are naturally talkative and active, and older children input language to their younger brothers and sisters all the time. Children's imitation ability is very strong, and older children often act as role models for children in the family, as well as in language. Brothers and sisters always imitate older children, and when they come into contact with this language, they will understand and master it faster. Therefore, parents can often find that although one child can talk and the other child can't, they play well together. When the younger brothers and sisters can also speak, the children will continue to communicate with each other in language, which is incomparable in frequency and quantity in the state of being an only child. With only one child, they may spend a lot of time watching TV, mobile phones, intelligent voice toys and so on. If there are compatriots, the time spent with high-tech products will not only be reduced, but brothers and sisters can also have various dialogues and discussions on the same program or ballad.

With the implementation of the "three-child" birth policy, the family structure in China, which has lasted for several years, will change, and the once weakened or even disappeared hand-foot relationship will return to China society. The benefits of this kind of sibling return to children's language development are obvious. Therefore, "two-child" or "three-child" families should use and create more opportunities for language interaction between brothers and sisters in time to promote children's language acquisition and development.

(Author: Li Yingzi, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Intercultural Communication, Nankai University)