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Archive for the ‘General Category’ Category
The Rhythym of a Language: Speakers and learners of English are interested in improving their ACCENT. They quite properly give importance to their pronunciation. However, making the correct English sounds is only a part of a correct accent. A native accent also depends on proper links between parts of the expressions spoken, and also the proper intonation or stress on the parts of the words in the spoken utterance. It is necessary to have the proper music or rhythm of the language that is spoken. You all know the following word game. What is a zookee? Ask this of a native born English speaker and they will not know what you mean. If you say, It is used to open the gate to a place where animals are kept. He or she will know that you are saying zoo key. You may have pronounced the sounds perfectly but your link between the two parts of the word caused your listener to not hear zoo key. The same thing happens with word stress. A native speaker of English knows whether you mean the place where the president of the United States lives, or a house that is painted white when you say white house. Similarly when you say dark room, you mean either a room with no lights on, or the place where a photographer develops film. It is the word stress (which has certain rules that you will learn in other articles) that makes the difference. This article will present an example of and the reasons for the importance of proper word stress. A. Read the following sentences aloud timing how long each one takes to read. Then count the syllables in each sentence. The beautiful Mountain appeared transfixed in the distance.(How long did it take to read? ______ seconds.) (How many syllables does it have? ________) He can come on Sundays as long as he doesn’t have to do any homework in the evening.(How long did it take to read? (______ seconds.) (How many syllables does it have? ________) · Notice that the first sentence actually takes about the same time to speak well! · Even though the second sentence is approximately 30% longer than the first, the sentences take the same time to speak. This is because there are 5 stressed words in each sentence. B. Learn the following facts concerning pronunciation. · English is considered a stressed language while many other languages are considered syllabic. · In other languages, such as French or Italian, each syllable receives equal importance (there is stress, but each syllable has its own length). · English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words while quickly gliding over the other, non-stressed, words. · Stressed words are considered content words: Nouns e.g. kitchen, Peter - (most) principle verbs e.g. visit, construct - Adjectives e.g. beautiful, interesting - Adverbs e.g. often, carefully · Non-stressed words are considered function words: Determiners e.g. the, a - Auxiliary verbs e.g. am, were - Prepositions e.g. before, of - Conjunctions e.g. but, and - Pronouns e.g. they, she C. Practice and Keep it up · Write down a few sentences, or take a few example sentences from a book or exercise. · First underline the stressed words, then read aloud focusing on stressing the underlined words and gliding over the non-stressed words. · Be surprised at how quickly your pronunciation improves! By focusing on stressed words, non-stressed words and syllables take on their more muted nature. · When listening to native speakers, focus on how those speakers stress certain words and begin to copy this. · Now, do some listening comprehension or go speak to your native English speaking friends and listen to how they concentrate on the stressed words rather than giving importance to each syllableStressed words are the key to excellent pronunciation and understanding of English. D. Tips: · Remember that non-stressed words and syllables are often “swallowed” in English. · Always focus on pronouncing stressed words well, non-stressed words can be glided over. · Don’t focus on pronouncing each word. Focus on the stressed words in each sentence. Adapted from esl.about.com About the Author Frank Gerace Ph.D has a strong bilingual presence on the web. He extends guidance on accent reduction and the proper American English accent at http://www.GoodAccent.com . He offers resources for learners of Spanish at http://www.InglesParaLatinos.com/SpanishCourses.htm His blog is at http://www.InglesParaHispanos.blogspot.com . See Also:
When we recoil from the agnosticism of Kantianism “camouflaged” by the substitution of experience-in-general for the structure and demands of the consciousness of individual knowers and the identification of the physical world with constructs within this blanket experience, and return to a critical development of the leadings within common sense, we soon see that we humans do possess information about the physical existents we affirm. Within consciousness, we are acquainted only with contents; but what is to prevent us from regarding these contents as material for the knowledge about the physical existents which we continue to affirm? What necessity is there for holding that all knowledge terminates on sensory contents? That is a sophisticated view which results from analysis and the abstraction from the meanings and attitudes of common sense. It seems that critical realism stands for the reality and fundamental significance of another kind of knowledge, a knowledge which presupposes this interpretative awareness of the data of observation as a foundation and yet goes beyond it in the reference of propositions, built upon these data, to affirmed physical existents, as knowledge about them. The propositions are within consciousness, the reference is an act in consciousness; but the existent, which is the object of such knowledge, is not in consciousness, like a free petition. The object of knowledge is identical with the object of perception; but, whereas in perception we tend to clothe the object in the apprehended content, we now think of the content as material for obtaining knowledge about the object.(http://www.thepetitionsite.com/animal-welfare) We use the content in the critical knowledge-claimAn Explanation of Termsto get a suitable terminology to express the nature of our knowledge of the physical world is a rather difficult task. One way is to give a negative definition. Knowledge of the physical world is non-apprehensional; that is, we must give up, once for all, the ideal of intuiting the physical realm. Let us now offer a positive notion. Knowledge of the physical world is a comprehension of the characteristics of things by means of subjective contents. An idea, or judgment, is said to be a case of knowledge when it makes a claim to reveal something about things, and its claim is granted. This definition permits the usual belief that there are degrees in the completeness of our knowledge of things as we pass from ordinary perception to science. It is not that careful perception is wrongfor it is the right sort of response to the stimuli but that the methods of science use perception that is observation to carry us further in our comprehension of things. The distinctive feature of our most finished knowledge of the physical world, scientific knowledge, is that it consists of understood propositions regarded as information about an independent realm of existence similar to a citizen petition. Since this content is entirely empirical, its character can be studied. Factors of the following sort appear to me to be the characteristics of things which we comprehend : comparative size, texture, constituents, and relations to other things, the ways they affect other things and are affected, processes of change, functional capacities, and behavior. This information about things involving these categories can clearly be mediated by sense-data when these are properly handled by the mind of the individual. To assert that all this is not knowledge is to possess some a priori concept of knowledge and to apply it dogmatically. About the Author Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in philosophy, society, and culture. To file a free petition or a citizen petition, please visit http://www.thepetitionsite.com/ See Also:
With the rising popularity of sack in England and the Catholic orthodoxy of the reign of Bloody Mary, the English colony in Sanlucar might well have prospered, had not further conflict broken out between England and Spain in the reign of the heretic Elizabeth (1558-1603). The Spaniards can hardly be blamed for the animosity they felt against England for her naval activities and for supporting the rebels in the Spanish Netherlands; it must have been somewhat exasperating to have one’s Main perpetually harried by knighted corsairs, one’s chief seaport sacked, and one’s beard singed. Trade between the two countries was, from time to time, banned, but the English government acted generously towards the merchants, still permitting them to hawk their monogrammed coasters (http://www.thirstycoasters.com/servlet/-strse-Monograms/Categories) and other wares. Some English merchants sent from a town of Andalusia called Xeres de la Frontera at least 40,000 butts of wine annually besides eight or ten tons of fruit, which wine and fruit they are not able to consume themselves, whereby they are furnished of above 200,000 ducats annually to provide them for other necessaries, without which they could not live. The situation worsened. The continuous loss of men and treasure, captured on the filibustering expeditions of Hawkins and Drake, infuriated the Spaniards. By 1585, feelings had run so high that English merchants trading in Sanlucar were arrested and their goods and drink glasses (http://www.thirstycoasters.com/servlet/-strse-Great-Outdoors/Categories) sold. One of them, William Melson, took refuge in the church of St George for six or seven months. A dispatch of that date tells us that an officer was appointed to make inquiry throughout the country for Englishmen and their goods. But the people were less hostile than their government: when the officer approached, they hid their English friends and as soon as he had gone away, the merchants went about their business just as before. They continued shipping wine to England in spite of all adversities, but they could not do it directly: it had to be sent in foreign ships or in English ships officially sailing for foreign ports, and it often entailed great risk. The name of Drake became a by word of horror throughout the province of Cadiz, and it still is to this day. He is the local bogey man: when a mother wants to frighten her child into acquiescence, she says, El Draque will get you if you’re not good’ His most daring raid of all was in 1587. It was the time he singed the King of Spain’s beard by setting fire to the Spanish fleet as it lay at anchor in the bay. He remained in Cadiz for three days at considerable risk, and made off with 2,900 pipes of wine. His spoils must have been appreciated in England, as wine imports and beverage coasters from Spain had been greatly cut down in consequence of the war. This superb malpractice helped to introduce sherry drinking on a large scale in England, and the publicity was cheap at the price; it has been repaid a million-fold. Drake’s enthusiasm for sherry has given rise to another story. In a book called Hombres Ilustres de Jerez de la Frontera by Diego Ignacio Parada Barreto, published in 1875, there is a detailed account of how Francis Drake, known as Don Francisco Drake, worked as a sherry shipper in Jerez, but had a terrible quarrel with a man called Melgarejo; he took such strong offense that he left immediately for England and swore he would have his revenge. Earlier references occur in the histories of Bartolome Gutierrez (written in the middle of the eighteenth century), and of Portillo, written in 1839. The story is said to be based on evidence found in the Municipal Archives; it may be a legend or it may be true, but it is very doubtful whether Francisco Drake was the English admiral. The name is quite common. About the Author Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in food, drink, and the history of the two. For a great selection of beverage coasters and monogrammed coasters, please visit http://www.thirstycoasters.com/index.html. See Also:
The Andalusia Company continued in existence until 1585, by which time it owned a vineyard and some property in the nearby village of Chipiona. In this year ships on the Guadalquivir laden with the possessions of the English merchants who were taking them out of Andalusia were seized, while some of the merchants and sailors were handed over to the Inquisition. All that remained were a few Catholics, who met together on St George’s Day, 1591, and, led by the sinister Jesuit Robert Parsons (or Persons), resolved that their lands and imposts should be devoted to a new seminary. Not unnaturally the exiled Protestants were furious. There was an attempt to revive the Company on a much larger scale and it existed in a new form from 1604 to 1606, but neither in its latter years nor in its revival was it a very significant force in the wine trade. The revived company may well have succeeded had not the disastrous choice been made to appoint Roger Bodenham as Consul at Sanlucar. No one knew Spain better: he was a Catholic with a Spanish wife who had lived for many years in Seville, where he had long acted as an English intelligenceagent. He was, however, heartily disliked and was to prove useless as Consul. One of his kinsmen, Sir James Crofts, had been Controller of the Royal Household since 1570, but monarchs at this time were haphazard in their payments, to say the least, and the satisfaction of royal commands had long been a source of worry in the city. In 1586, for instance, there was a royal debt of £400 for sherry sack and paper coasters (http://www.thirstycoasters.com/servlet/-strse-Great-Outdoors/Categories) and the merchants offered to sell the best; quality sack to Crofts at £3 per tun below the market price if the debt were paid promptly, but this offer was not taken up. By Elizabeth’s reign, sherry sack was established as a firm favourite, and more verses were written about it than about any other wine. Shakespeare has already been quoted; Ben Jonson, Marlowe, Raleigh and Spenser acclaimed it at much the same time; Middleton soon afterwards; Herrick, a century later; and Pasquil’s Palinodia (attributed to Nicholas Breton) praised it at great length. It was enjoyed by lawyers as well as by poets, and the court of Star Chamber bought it by the hogshead. The word sack (there are several spellings) probably originated at the end of the fifteenth century, and is almost certainly derived from the Spanish verb sacar (to draw out). It thus signifies any wine for export, and there are many references to Malaga sack and Canary sack, quite apart from sherry sack. Other derivations have been proposed, and many of them are most alarming: Dr Johnson informs us that Skinner, after Mandesto, derived the word from Xeque, a city of Morocco with which it had no connection whatsoever; and many other ingenious minds have been applied to the problem. The alternative spellings sack and seek appear at random in early documents, but it seems reasonable to say it has nothing to do with seco, meaning dry, despite the contrary view taken by the Oxford English Dictionary; indeed sack was always classified as a sweet wine, a wine that would look tantalizing resting on a cork coaster (http://www.thirstycoasters.com/servlet/-strse-Dining-%26-Entertaining/Categories). The idea, though, that sack meant dry was firmly fixed in the minds of lexicographers; they stuck to their beliefs as a matter of faith, and apparently imagined sack to be somewhat similar to the popular amontillados of today, which were not prepared, let alone imported, until the nineteenth century. It was even suggested that all Elizabethan sweet wines were dry, but that is to enter the realms of fantasy and one can only assume they were drunk by a Jubjub under the Tumtum tree. It is difficult to say exactly what Elizabethan sack wines were like; they were certainly fortified, and the methods of making arrope had long been known, but they were seldom matured in the wood for more than a year or two. Even the cheapest wines sold today are expected to show at least three years maturation but perhaps the very cheapest olorosos are not so very far removed from sack, but still good enough to drink with your nicest table coasters. One famous shipper thought it would be interesting to market an old-fashioned sack, but would not associate his name with such an immature wine. In place of the rough, young olorosos originally used, he substituted a high quality, well-matured, light oloroso, and limited the quantity of sweet wine in the blend to produce a fairly dry, light-bodied sherry with a remarkably dry after-taste. It very rapidly, and very understandably, became one of the most popular sherries in the world. He called it Dry Sack, and the literally-minded have complained from time to time that it is not dry at all, but medium That is perfectly true, but although it may be a medium sherry, it is a very dry sack, and the name is absolutely accurate. About the Author Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in the history of wine and cuisine. For a great selection of table coasters and paper coasters, please visit http://www.thirstycoasters.com/index.html. See Also:
If you are currently attending a college or university you most likely understand the high cost of tuition. The prices of going to college seem to just keep rising over the years. With such high tuition costs it is important to make sure we get the most out of college. We all want to go to college to better ourselves and get a good job in the future. If you are another one suffering for the prices make sure you are getting the most out of college as well. How can we do that? Easily read below and find out how you can start getting the most for your dollars spent on college. Choosing classes You want to make sure that once you sign up for a class you stick with it. Dont sign up for a class if youre unsure whether you will like it or not. Dropping classes is one of the worst things you can do in college. Since classes are so expensive you want to make sure you take the right classes. When we drop a class we can loose up to all our money we put into the class. Do well If youre serious about a future career you need to be serious about your classes too. You want to make sure you get good grades and pass all your classes exceeding the minimum grade you can get. If you do poorly in the class not only will you most likely end up dropping it but youll loose a lot of money in the end. Also if you do drop it you will realize you just sat in the class, miserable for nothing. Be there When you sign up for a class you find out what days and times you need to be there. Since you know this information, do what it says. Going to class is one of the most important things in college. If you miss just one day you may be missing a pop quiz, a very important lecture or your attendance may go against you. Often in college professors mark you down for attendance and if you have so many they can fail you. Professor Be sure you talk with your professor and ask any questions you want. When we pay for our classes we also pay for the professors so take advantage of them! Theyve learned everything youre learning so ask them questions. Stay after class or ask during class what ever works for you. Your professor is your best source in college so ask away. Textbook You pay such a high price for the book so make sure you use it. Your textbook can be just as good as getting information from your professor. Also a book is always something you can refer to so take advantage of it and get your moneys worth. There is a lot you can do in college to make sure you get your moneys worth. College is a very expensive thing and is also very important. If you want to get the most out of college be sure you keep the ideas above in mind. About the Author Compare student credit cards and find more of Tom’s work at FINDcollegecards.com. See Also:
If you have decided that you want to learn English, you are about to start on a fairly difficult journey. While English is one of the most widely spoken languages, particularly in the western hemisphere, it is also one of the most difficult to learn. If you have committed yourself to learning the language, here are some tips you can use to make it a little easier. Tip 1 - Identify Your Motivation and Desire Before you start down the path of learning English, make sure you really want to. If you cannot say that you truly want to learn the language, you are going to struggle, particularly if you are trying to learn English online. Remember, it is a challenging language and will take a measure of dedication to learn. Also, you need to identify your motivation. Ask yourself why you want to learn English. Understanding your motivation, whether it be to help qualify for a better job or to communicate with someone you know, will help you stick to your goal of learning English. Tip 2 - Set Realistic Goals You are not going to learn English overnight, even if you are highly motivated, are a great student, and are attending the best online English school you can find. You need to set realistic goals that you can work toward as you master the language. Your goal for the first week may be to master some basic vocabulary. Then you may wish to tackle an important grammar rule. If you already have a basic understanding of English, you can set goals to improve your pronunciation or listening comprehension. You need to know your basic goals before you begin attending English school so that you can choose the best program to help you meet them. Tip 3 - Set Aside Time to Practice Learning any language takes practice, and lots of it. Knowing how to practice a language is important. You cant simply sit at home and talk to yourself. Even if you are trying to learn English online, you need to find native speakers to talk to. You can use the telephone or online chats to talk to people who know English well, but you need to find someone to talk to. You can also practice by writing English. Write letters, emails, and notes in English whenever the recipient can understand English. Your English lesson at school will probably have you writing as well, but practical writing in the real world is the best way to discover whether or not you know the language well enough to communicate. Tip 4 - Immerse Yourself in the Language The best way to train your brain to think and understand in another language is to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible. Subscribe to publications in English, and read them. Read books in English, and listen to recordings made in English. Speak the language whenever you have someone near you who can understand it, especially when that person is a native speaker who can help you with your pronunciation. Watch television programs in English. This is one of the best ways to help yourself learn English, because you will have a visual reference to help you understand the spoken word. If your television has closed captioning capabilities, turn this on. Then you will also have a written reference to reinforce what you are learning. The best thing about the immersion approach is that it gets you used to the proper pronunciations of the words. Also, by immersing yourself in the culture that surrounds the English language, you can pick up on slang words and words that are not quite used correctly, but sound right to English speakers. You will pick up on phrases that are commonly used, and phrases that are best left untouched. So, whenever you have the chance to practice speaking, writing, or listening to English, take advantage of it. You will soon learn English as well as any native speaker, or perhaps even better! About the Author Learn English online with our experienced teachers. We can help you develop your English skills so you can reach your goals at our English School. See Also:
Are you currently taking a foreign language class in college? If you arent yet you most likely will need to take a few foreign language classes to get your major in college. There are many general education classes that are needed when in college, and foreign language is one of them. Foreign languages can be very difficult for some people to learn. When in college, it is even harder to learn a language because you learn the language at such a fast pace. Read below for some tips on how to pass your college foreign language class. Professor - Your professors are supposed to be your friends so make sure you can ask them questions. If ever you have a question be sure to always ask until you understand. Whether you ask in class, or after class be sure you find out the answers. Be there College is expensive and if you dont show up youre going to only be wasting money. You want to make sure you go to every class when you have a foreign language. If you miss one day you will most likely be missing out on a lot. Its like math you have to learn the basics before you can go any further. Textbook Any kind of book in college costs an arm and a leg these days so you want to make sure you read it. Go through the textbook and go page by page and chapter by chapter. If you keep up with reading the textbook you will go much further than you think. Sounds You want to make sure you get a feel for the sounds. When learning a foreign language we often get confused at first with the different sounds. Try to pick them up and speak with the accents. It will take some time but it will flow much nicer and make you feel a whole lot better. Verbs To create good sentences in a foreign language you need to make yourself aware of a lot of verbs. Take a few days a week and just study verbs for 20 minutes each time. The more verbs you know the better your speaking will get. Tenses Be sure that you familiarize all the tenses. You want to make sure you know the past, present and future tense. If you dont learn these properly your sentences wont make sense. Once you get the feel for the tenses you will be on a roll. Conjunctions Learn all the conjunctions of the foreign language. Be sure you understand the subordinating, coordinating, and verb conjunctions. Once you know these a foreign language will make much more sense to you. There is a lot to know about learning a foreign language. The most important thing is to have patience, have fun with it and have motivation. Foreign languages can be very frustrating but once you get the gist of it youll be glad you took the time to learn it. About the Author Find Tom’s work and more all on his student blog. See Also:
If you wanted to educate the world about the plight of the endangered albatross you could write a book, have it published and hope that anyone would buy and read it. But, a much easier solution would be using free online photo sharing stories to illustrate the issues that are making the albatross disappear from our country.Just as an example, the photo could show an albatross on the end of a fishing line and the story could describe the way these innocent birds are killed as often as every five minutes during prime fishing season. This would reach a much wider audience and get your message across to people who might not care to spend hours reading about it, but would be willing to spend a few minutes looking at the pictures and reading the story. Online photo sharing stories provide a unique way to educate others about almost any topic there is. You could create photo sharing stories about anything you are passionate about. Maybe you want to promote natural childbirth by sharing your story. Maybe you want to teach people about collecting baseball cards or how to do a magic trick. Teaching others how to properly clean their stove or bake a cheese soufflé could help homemakers around the world. Maybe you want to teach people how to make their own E85 fuel to help them save money on gas or show them how to recycle milk jugs into useful household objects. The ability to post your online photo sharing stories with both words and pictures gives a lot of flexibility in the things you can teach others. Some people learn best by reading information on the page and others learn better through seeing things put into practice. Online photo sharing stories help put both of these methods into use which makes learning a topic easier and more interesting. A child could easily create a photo sharing story about the Civil War that could help him learn about the war to pass the test at school and then he could share that information with his classmates to help them learn as well. There are so many practical ways that online photo sharing stories can be used to promote education.Modern technology makes a great partner in education both in the classroom and in the home. Online photo sharing stories can be used to educate people about almost any topic in a way that is easy and fun. In our fast paced lives people need a way to learn about important topics that is quick and uncomplicated. Looking at pictures and reading short stories makes learning convenient and doesn’t create a strain which means people are more likely to do it. There is nothing more important than educating people because an intelligent world is a good world to live in. Creating online photo sharing stories brings people together as they become educated on the important and not-so-important things of life. Sometimes just putting a smile on someone’s face makes the whole thing worthwhile and helps create a better world for everyone to live in. About the Author MJ Johnston writes for a variety of websites, including Hoorray, a photo sharing site that offers the quickest and easiest way to build a free online photo album, as well as free online photo storage. See Also:
A lifetime in education and a mission to empower both students and staff are what drive Margaret Mary Wilson, Ed.D. Like any good student, Dr. Wilson is still pursuing new learning experiences after more than 30 years in education. Her most recent challenge as the new executive director of Tutapoint.com brings her into the emerging frontier of online academia. Tutapoint.com, based in Connecticut and Manhattan, offers live, one-on-one, Internet-based math and science tutoring to students in grades 9 through 12. Tutors are available on-demand or by appointment. We are extremely pleased to have attracted someone with such a passion and depth of experience, said Tutapoint.com co-founder Ryan Duques. Dr. Wilsons experience will help lead Tutapoints mission to answer the increasing need for supplemental education throughout the United States. Dr. Wilson, a resident of Tennessee, has been a long-time proponent of the benefits of academic enrichment programs throughout her distinguished career, which has included professorships at Tennessee universities and colleges and consultant posts with several school districts and state departments of education. As the founder of EdSolutions, Wilson designed and implemented an after-school enrichment model in response to the shortage of quality academic after-school programs in the Nashville, Tenn., public schools. EdSolutions later became a leading provider in the supplement education services industry. Before the firm merged with Knowledge Learning Corporation in 2005, EdSolutions served more than 25,000 children in more than 300 schools with $20 million in revenues. Students in the U.S., as compared to other countries, spend half as much time in core subjects annually. If our students are going to be competitive in the global market then we need to provide more academic enrichment activity opportunities, Wilson said. And to be competitive in the global market, students need strong backgrounds in math and sciencethe areas in which Tutapoint.com specializes. Tutapoint is filling a gap left vacant for secondary education in the areas of math and science, Wilson added. The No Child Left Behind Act raised the bar for skills mastery in reading and language arts, math, and science, but our students today are struggling to achieve adequate progress. In the last eight years the focus has been in providing after school services to elementary school children, but now the pendulum is shifting to high school students. Beyond subject matter, in Wilsons view, online tutoring offers busy high-school students one other important advantage. Online tutoring allows flexibility for the student, Wilson explained. They can receive assistance 24/7, where in traditional tutoring the student would need to adhere to a specific schedule. If a student was having difficulty understanding a new concept that had been introduced today in school, he could go online and get immediate clarification. In the traditional tutoring framework, that student might have to wait days before he would see his tutor, which could result in a missed opportunity for clarification, then the student could fall further behind in his subject area. Dr. Wilsons first task at Tutapoint.com will be to develop a strategic plan with Duques and co-founder Michael Callaghan. I have committed the next five years to making Tutapoint one of the largest national providers of online tutoring services with national brand recognition, said Wilson. Who knows? Perhaps we will add additional offerings in professional development, executive leadership, and management! To learn more about Tutapoint.com, visit www.tutapoint.com. About the Author Marisa Nadolny is an editor of several community newspapers in Connecticut, a lifestyle magazine and edits text books for http://TutaPoint.com Visit TutaPoint at http://www.tutapoint.com See Also:
Contrary to the popular view, children are ready to learn to read while they are still babies. In fact, the best time is before age 5. Several scientific studies show that this is not only true, but also that early learning is highly beneficial for many aspects of life. This article explains the reasons why a childrens best time to learn is at infancy. Early Learning and Baby Brain Development A babys body develops at an incredible pace during the first few years of life, but one of the most amazing aspects of this process is how the brain grows and develops. Between birth and age 3, the human brain goes from a very undeveloped form, weighing only a quarter of its final size to an incredibly complex state through a dramatic growth and development of billions of neurons and hundreds of trillions of connections, or synapses, between these neural cells. This period of active neural growth is when parents and caregivers can better help their children to get off to a great start and establish strong foundations for life-long learning. The basic neural connections are created before birth The basic structure of the brain is formed still during pregnancy. Here, the principal components of the brain develop and take form and the most basic cerebral functions start to organize. However, the vast majority of synapses are not yet formed, so the brain is not capable of the higher complexity that characterizes human cognition, learning and reasoning. These connections arise during the first three to four years, and the architecture of the complex networks of synapses depends in some degree on the childs interactions with his/her environment and experiences. The ability to learn languages is hardwired in the babys brain Language is a basic human feature, and the brain of a baby is ready to develop language since the beginning. Studies showed that babies can be stimulated with the sound of their mothers voices. As soon as they are born and start to interact with their family, the first patterns of the mother tongue are being set by the establishment of million of synaptic connections between specific groups of neurons. At the same time, the brains keeps growing, and the greatest density of neural connections is reached by the age 3. This is very important, since after this age, many of these synapses start to disappear though a process of elimination that brings the density of synapses down to the level we found in a typical adult brain. Considering all this, the conclusion is that the first three to four years after birth are the most critical times for brain development, and in consequence, the period during which the brain has the greatest power to acquire and fix abilities, especially those related to language. Now, in our society, the process of language acquisition is clearly separated between speech development (learning to talk) and literacy (learning to read and write). The first one arises naturally, almost spontaneously between the first and the third year, but the second is relegated to after the age of five, when most children go to kindergarten or elementary school. Being the ability to talk and read both sides of the same process (language), the natural way to develop it would be at the same time, when the brain is naturally shaped to acquire language. The consequence of this is that for decades, billions of children have not taken advantage of their best time to learn to read. Children are in fact able to learn to read since infancy, and the benefits of this stay forever. Children who read before entering Kinder perform better in virtually every aspect, both from the academic and social point of view and are more likely to succeed in life than their peers who were illiterate by age five. Psychologists and early childhood education experts have developed effective methods for parents and caregivers to train their children into reading while they are still babies. These programs are usually based on books, word cards and also multimedia components such as DVDs and songs, and parents should look for those endorsed by professionals with expertise Early Education and Child Development. About the Author The author has expertise in health, family subjects and early childhood reading. Parents of young children and expecting parents who want to see how their babies can read can find more information in http://www.ababycanread.com See Also: |
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