Importance of sound and child psychology
We move ahead to another field where we can clearly see the impact of sound-child psychology and language development in children. Scientists and child psychologists have demonstrated that the vocal chords of a child get developed after the neo-natal age; and before that, the child can produce some guttural sounds only. After one year, the child starts uttering some particular consonants. Then, as the child grows, it picks up the words and starts uttering them. And as the child grows, the vocabulary and the ability to speak the longer words, and ultimately the sentences, keep on increasing.
But all this for the interest of child psychologist and what we have to do here? The important factor for a linguist is that the child picks up the sounds and not the language, as it may be written or called. A child born in Australia learns English; while born in Brazil, it learns Spanish or Portuguese. There is no knowledge of language and its grammar to the child, but it develops its language from the sounds that it picks from its surrounding areas. And this is where the sound factor comes into fore-a person who is illiterate would never come to know about the correct pronunciation of the words that he speaks. This is just because the fact that he or she was never told or taught the correct pronunciation. And this is also the main reason why we get so many different regional dialects of the same language.
This still in not a major problem, as we can see that there are not so many harms in developing different dialects! But is it true? Let us take a closer look:
1. When there are so many dialects, and children reared in these different backgrounds, come in contact with the books and study together at higher classes, they face difficulties in understanding one others’ language. Sometimes this even leads to the formation of regional or linguistically-different groups in the student community, which is potentially dangerous for any type of education.
2. The standardization of language becomes utterly difficult for publishing books and other material, which is pretty much important for the development of the language. People who want to learn a particular language can’t decipher the dialect that they would have to speak, and the interest in that particular language dies down!
3. The social structure also gets distorted, for, people within a community develop differences on the basis of language and the dialect, which divides the strength of the nation and does not create a favorable atmosphere for the children to grow.
4. The interest of foreign people, and of the people from different states and places, to learn a particular language can receive a major setback due to the confusion caused by different and varied dialects, which is not good for the development and popularity of that language.
5. Lastly, the main aim of language-communication-becomes difficult, for, people find it hard to understand the same language in different dialects, and this creates the need of another language to be learned and used. We can see the same scene in our country, as in families people use English now, and not any regional language, which they actually find difficult to use in the society.
Sound factor for child psychology is not limited to humans only, but it helps the birds and the animals also. There is famous adage in Sanskrit:
काकः कृष्णः पिकः कृष्णः को भेद पिककाकयोः।
वसन्तकाले सम्प्राप्ते काकः काकः पिकः पिकः।।
The above couplet means that a crow and a cuckoo look similar because they are black in colour, and what would be the way to distinguish them from one another. But when the spring comes, it becomes known that the cuckoo is a cuckoo and a crow is a crow (By virtue of their voices, as during spring times, the cuckoo sings songs in her melodious voice, which is universally famous and pleasing to ear. However, the cawing of crows is seldom pleasing to ears!) It is clear that every bird or animal has a specific voice, which distinguishes it from the others having similar colors and characteristics.
We take an example of the Flamingos. These birds are one of the only three types of the birds that feed their young ones milk from their mouth. Flamingos live in vast and big groups, and eventually in thousands of numbers. When the adult male and female members of the group goes for their daily fetching of food in the far-off places, the young ones have schools where they do some exercises and other activities. This sounds strange, but this has been found and recorded by scientists and researchers. The strangest and most important factor of their behaviour comes forth in the evening, when the adult members return to them: there are eventually thousands of those children and almost all of them have the same color. There is no way that those adult members could recognise their young ones, but they seem to do it pretty simply! How? Every child produces a specific or particular type of sound, which helps the adult members to recognise it. It seems very difficult for us to understand, but they do it pretty simply and regularly. There seems no chance for any error or wrong recognition. And the only factor that helps this seemingly strange and difficult activity is sound! If they lose their sound, they lose their identity!
We can see that sound is one of the most important factor for children, their development, and all the things that they would do in their life.
Recommendations to strengthen the importance of sound in education
It seems that the whole system of language learning and teaching would need to be changed to implement the things that are intended; but we cannot reach the heart of a man without cutting the chest! We will have to make a cut somewhere, so some suggestions are listed below:
1. Teachers should be oriented to learn the correct pronunciation of the language that they have to teach to the students; for, unless they do not know how to pronounce it, they can’t teach correctly.
2. Language learning should be aided with sounds and audio systems so as to ensure the correct use of dialects and accents.
3. Written work should be supplemented with the oral and verbal tests of the students to ensure that they are getting it the right way. The syllabus and examination of language learning should also include verbal and oral tests, so as to check the accuracy and the pronunciation of the language.
4. Music should be introduced as a regular course to make students understand the value of sound and the notes that are so much valuable for physical, mental, and spiritual development.
5. Sanskrit should be made compulsory and as the necessary language, so that the importance of linguistics and the science dealing with languages should be made available to children at starting.
Bibliography
Books
1. Some quotes from spiritual texts
2. Learn Sanskrit in 30 days (Balaji Publications, Chennai)
3. Psychology (Wayne Weiten)
4. Raman and His effect (University Press, Hyderabad)
5. Ajanta German in two months (Ajanta School of Foreign Languages, Amritsar)
Internet Resources
Search done on www.google.com
www.healingmusic.org
www.wikipedia.com
www.discoverthesound.com
http://www.srichinmoymusic.com
www.radiosai.org/Journals
http://www.gosai.com/science/sanskrit-nasa.html
© All the material quoted and used from other sources is intended for reference purposes only, and should not be used for any other purposes without the prior permission of the copyright holder of that material. The author has no responsibility for any issue of copyrights arising thereof.
