Language Acquisition of Child

First language acquisition of child is the process of children in acquiring their first language or mother tongue. In this stage, the ability of children in acquiring language is influenced by two major factors that are internal (family) and external (environtment out side the home where children live in).

Babies are born with the ability to distinguish speech from other sounds they hear, even though they do not understand what it means. By the time children reach school age, they are speaking in complex sentences, having conversations, and understanding most of what they hear.

Children's brains are designed to help them learn language. From the time they are born, their brains register and process the sounds they hear. As a child's brain, thinking skills, and motor systems develop, so does his/her understanding and use of language to communicate. Underlying language development is the ability to think about the world, and explore it with vision, hearing, smell, touch, etc. As a child begins to make sense of the world through exploration, language is attached to those experiences. Language develops gradually, from single words at about twelve months to complex sentences at five years, and from simple concepts (juice, shoes) to those that are more abstract (frustrated, addition). School-age children continue to learn and use increasingly complex and abstract language.


From the phenomenon that we seen in every day, here is an interesting question (but people think it is natural phenomenon). However, I will try to explain it according to my experience when I was child. The question is “how the children learn their first language?’’ ‘’How do I acquire and learn my mother tongue?’’ To answer the question, I have asked my mother and father to get the information about the way I acquire and learn language when I was child. Then, here, I greatly describe about that.

First of all, When I was 10 month, I able to say some words but not perfect. The first word that I could utter is MA-MA and PA-PA. In this stage, I couldn’t say many words because I have a tendency to utter the words which have the same pattern of morpheme. Such as CU-CU (susu), MA-MAM (makan), MI-MI (minum), BO-BO (tidur), NE-NE (nenek), KA-KA (kakak).

Furthermore, My mother and father told me that I was categorized as a child who made a giant leap in acquiring and learn Bahasa Indonesia as my mother tongue. I able to say many words fluently and clearly when I was 1 years old. For example: I did not say any more MA-MAM for MAKAN, MI-MI for MINUM, PI-GI for PERGI, ATUT for TAKUT because I could say these words correctly that MINUM for MINUM, MAKAN for MAKAN, PERGI for PERGI, TAKUT for TAKUT etc.

Moreover, My father and mother told me that I able to speak bahasa Indonesia as my mother tongue when I was 2 years old because I lived around the people who used to speak in bahasa Indonesia rather than local language. At this age, I used to call my father by saying “Bapaknya Icha” not “Bapak” because I used to hear my neighbor called my father with that call then I imitated it. My neighbor called my father “Bapaknya Icha” because my brother’s name is Icha therefore they called my father so. Then, my parents explained to me that I should call my father with “bapak” so step by step I could understand. This is being an unforgettable moment that my parents used to tell me.

Finally, my parents told me that I could interact to another people actively because I understand what they mean when they tried to talk with me. I could answer the simple questions correctly.

For example:
Q = “bapakmu pergi kemana?”
A = “bapakku pergi ke kantor”
Q = “kamu mau pergi kemana?”
A = “main”
Q = “siapa nama kakakmu?”
A = “icha”
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September End (The Trip is begin)

Mungkin isi kepalaku sedang membeku atau bisa jadi benar-benar buntu. Tapi yang pasti saya sedang menjadi orang dungu. Saya tidak tahu, saya tidak tahu, saya tidak tahu. Kata-kata itu setiap hari memalu dikepalaku sebagai jawaban dari pertanyaan: Kemana lagi saya melangkah?? Dimana lagi saya mencari jalan??. Saya juga tidak tahu sampai dimana estimasi otakku bekerja dengan baik. Apakah daya pikirku menurun atau stabil, tapi sepertinya tak mengalami peningkatan (hahaahhaha). Entah ilmu apa yang masih tersisa dikepalaku, setidaknya untuk bisa kubagi dengan orang lain (Mungkin karena sudah lama tak pernah diuji lagi sich!! Hohohoho). Semuanya seperti menguap bersama lamanya rentang waktu ketidakproduktifanku sebagai manusia, sepertinya ini efek samping terdahsyat yang pernah saya tahu ketika seseorang yang dalam setiap minggunya menghabiskan hampir sebagian besar waktunya dalam rumah saja dengan rutinitas itu-itu saja. Bukannya malas keluar rumah tapi lebih karena saya mesti memilah-milah mana aktivitas yang perlu dan mana tidak perlu dilakukan diluar rumah sana.

Sepanjang september ini saya masih selalu bergairah mencari lowongan kerja, masih senantiasa menulis surat-surat lamaran dan mangantarnya, tapi memang sampai akhir bulan ini belum juga ada kabar baik yang saya dapatkan. Meskipun begitu, semangatku tak memudar sedikitpun karena saya punya alasan untuk terus berjalan, Kelurgaku. Hmm,,,Kenapa tak kucoba saja peruntungan ke luar makassar, beradu nasib saja!!! Hitung-hitung sudah cukuplah 2 tahun saya bertahan berwara-wiri disini, mungkin saja rejekiku ada diluar sana (Who knows, I am the lucky one). Ah, sepertinya ini ide yang menarik dan patut dicoba. Anggap saja ini sebuah rekreasi, refreshing, atau sejenis terapi ringan bagi otakku yang membeku...hahahaha..(yahoo)

Perjalananku akan dimulai awal bulan Oktober ini. Ada rasa sedih yang menyelinap dalam hati yang berusaha saya tepiskan ketika ingin beranjak dari kota Makassar. Yach..Terlalu banyak kenangan yang bermakna disini, terlalu banyak yang saya miliki disini sehingga saya benar-benar benci jika harus berjarak jauh dari tempat ini meski hanya untuk sementara waktu. Namun itulah bagian yang memang tidak enak dari pilihan ini, mesti dijalani. Saya tidak tahu nasibku akan bagaimana disana nanti, benar-benar tidak tahu. Tak ada satu gambaran pun muncul dalam benakku. Ini seperti menebak langit abu-abu. Namun keinginanku lebih kuat dari pada kata TIDAK TAHU yang selalu menghantuiku. Saya tak mau berdiam diri saja disini, saya ingin berpetualang lagi. Entah nanti bagaimana hasilnya, yang saya tahu, saya ingin mencoba saja. Dengan begitu, saya bisa meruntuhkan dinding-dinding KetidakTahuanku tentang segala Kemungkinan.

‘’Bagaimana kita TAHU sesuatu yang TAK MUNGKIN bisa berubah menjadi MUNGKIN jika kita tak punya Nyali untuk mencoba’’

Let’s begin this Trip with BismiLLAHIrahmaanirrahiim ^_^

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