Memory and Language Development

Memory and language development

This is the first part of our linguistic series. Other posts in this series include the use of observation to improve linguistic capabilities in child and how writing Chinese promotes thinking.

In this post, we will discuss the topic of memory and language development , and how increasing the breadth and depth of our children’s vocabulary enables them to write and express their ideas with ease and fluidity.

Why a Diverse Vocabulary?

What does this have to do with learning a language (Chinese or otherwise)?

The Divide Between Different Types of Vocabulary is a False Construction

When we do not equip our children with these more advanced subjects, we hobble our children. We unnecessarily constrict their options and confine them to what we consider to be a child’s vocabulary. While narrowing the scope of our children’s vocabulary certainly makes life for us as teachers less overwhelming, it ultimately leaves huge gaps in our children’s ability to communicate.

These holes are never immediately apparent, they show up instead only at incredibly inconvenient times and frustrate our children (and ourselves). This makes it even more difficult to convince our children to use a language with which they are increasingly unable to express the fullness of their thoughts. Unless our children are extremely diligent and self-motivated, these gaps in their knowledge will rarely be filled and end up reinforcing the fallacy that Chinese is too hard for them to speak and use in a practical way.

Unconvinced?

Just think of how often in daily conversation we refer to something that requires more complex vocabulary. Children are endlessly curious and a seemingly “simple” conversation with “basic” terms will quickly escalate into one that requires highly specialized vocabulary. Perhaps we are talking about dinosaurs and your children ask why the dinosaurs are no longer around. Do you know the terms for meteor, asteroid, crater, atmosphere, mass extinction, fossils, dust clouds, or Cretaceous Era? These are the terms you need to talk about the mass dying of dinosaurs with any sort of intelligence.

Or perhaps your child wants to know how lights turn on or what happens when we die or where poop comes from. These are all subjects my children have asked me – sometimes all within the course of one day. Just think of how easily you can explain these matters in your most dominant language and whether you distinguish between basic and non-fiction terms in your daily life.

This is not to say your children need to know how to discuss the paradox of time travel as well as the perils of moving backwards in both space and time in relation to the position of the Earth. But perhaps they could learn what physics, time travel, space, and paradox are called in Chinese.

The Importance of Chinese Proverbs, Tang Poems and Idioms

Just like with the need for more complex vocabulary, many parents also choose not to teach Chinese proverbs, Tang Poems, or idioms. Again, this is because the prospect of teaching thousands of obscure proverbs and idioms can be incredibly daunting. However, since most children of native speakers would learn these through the course of daily conversation, literature, and pop culture – in addition to formally learning them in school – it is crucial for our children to know at least the more popular sayings if they are to have any hope of having deeper Chinese comprehension.

While it is possible to understand or express yourself in Chinese without being fully cognizant of all the famous Chinese proverbs, poems, and idioms, a robust comprehension and usage of Chinese requires familiarity with at least some of them.

All Vocabulary is Useful Vocabulary

As adults and primary gatekeeper of Chinese for our children, it’s tempting to create different categories for words and terms our children will be exposed to. Often, we shunt things into “educational” and “junk” categories, preferring to focus only on the educational portion.

However, just like with the the previous two points, the “junk” categories are often the stuff of small talk, filler conversation, and friendships. Without pop-culture references, it’s hard to get jokes, make connections, or have fun conversations.

How to Increase Your Child’s Vocabulary

Speak to Your Child in Chinese

Read Wide and Deep

Expanding upon points 1-4, read plenty of books, magazines, short stories in as many different genres as possible. Fiction seems to naturally be the easiest because children love to learn about different stories, but remember, there are so many other types of writing to read. For example: current events, recipes, science, religious, poems, song lyrics, plays, instructions, history, comics, pop-culture, and even tabloids.

Just as there are different foods for different purposes, there are different types of materials we can use to increase our kids’ vocabulary. The purpose of some foods – such as junk food – is simply to be fun. It isn’t nutritious but your body still uses it and extracts what it needs while excreting what it does not. The thing is, learning Chinese and reading it should be fun. So short of completely inappropriate materials, provide your child with as many varieties of writing as possible. All of it will be incorporated within your children’s memory to provide a robust and agile linguistic foundation.

Memory and Language Development