Friday (19/3) Office of Cooperation, International Affairs, and Alumni (OCIA), Faculty of Psychology UGM held a guest lecture with the theme “Bilingualism & Cultural Factors and Language Development”. This event is part of the International Guest Lecture Series held by OCIA this year.
The event, which took place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., was attended by 108 participants. Apart from students of the Faculty of Psychology, this event is also open to the public.
The speaker for this event was Christina Perez, M.A., a psychology doctoral student at The University of Toledo, Ohio, United States. He has a research focus on child development. On this occasion he shared the results of his research on how language development in children is influenced by cultural and multilingual factors that occur in the surrounding environment.
In the development of their verbal skills, children go through phases of language skills gradually. In general, children begin to speak their first words at the age of 10 to 14 months. The speech in this phase is called holophrase.
“At the age of 10 months, toddlers speak in their first words and in this phase the communication is only in sound pieces or so-called holophrases and in one working phrase using a series of short sentences,” explained Perez.
Bilingualism or using more than one language in everyday life is very common throughout the world. The language spoken in the environment at play, school, or work may be different from the mother tongue or the language used in family communication. This is experienced by 20% of the American population and 79% of the European population. However, there are several countries where it is difficult to measure the percentage of bilingual people, including Indonesia.
“In Indonesia there are more than 400 languages and dialects and many more that are large and related to each other and it is very difficult to take a clear bilingual estimate if you really separate them easily,” said Perez.
Perez also explained how culture greatly influences children’s memory. He studied cultural appropriateness when children tell adults in the years before they enter school. Memories of those early days are stored in the form of words in a language he can understand according to the culture in which he grew up. Understanding the formation of this language is very important for its implementation in various fields. In the realm of law, understanding the influence of culture on bilingual children is useful to formulate some guidelines for investigators during investigations and trials. The language gap will of course greatly affect the results of the investigation.
“With the increase in international migration, it is increasingly possible for legal professionals to meet bilingual witnesses. However, until now, there is still no formal guideline,” said Perez.
This event was very interactive. Several participants gave questions to the speakers related to problems regarding language skills in children and their impact on various fields in daily life. The committee hopes that by holding this event participants can understand more about the importance of research on language development and can explore it more deeply.