Jos Andrs Aldana Santillana

What Can Go Wrong With Speech

David Crystal in How Language Works discusses some of the aspects that could damage

the development of speech, The reason why this specific chapter caught my attention is

because, as teachers, we must be aware about every aspect in which we can help our

students. Similar to when a student has problems reading, which could lead us to some

issues both psychological and physiological , when our student cannot speak properly could

be a red light about an issue that we must address.

Crystal mentions that the interference can be present at birth [...] It can appear

gradually as the child grows or suddenly as the result of some accident or disease. (90) It

is important to recognize what kind of issue the student is dealing with so we can act

according to it. For example emotional stress can itself be sufficient for people to lose

their voice. (Crystal 91) In this case we, as teachers, could talk to the student and try to

help him focus on the issue at hand and try to solve it before there has to be any chirurgical

intervention.

In addition, the student could also suffer from lack of practice from home. As

second language teachers, we are aware that a student that does not practice almost daily

will not be able to retain the fluency he may have achieved in the classroom. Now we can

extrapolate this to a child who does not practice his mother tongue at home, whether

because the parents do not pay enough attention to him or they try to guess what the child is

trying to say without making him do a real effort. In this case the child will not develop his

speech properly and will have issues in the future, therefore we have the responsibility to

alert the parents of the problem, and, at the same time, take the necessary measures during

the class to motivate him to practice and make the extra effort.

Crystal, David. How Language Works. Chapters 11-15.