Language Acquisition

CONTENT

Introduction ................................................................. 3

Main body

1. Language acquisition ................................................ 4

2. The stages of language acquisition ................................. 5

2.1. The prelinguistic stage ....................................... 7

2.2. Babbling ....................................................... 7

2.3. One-word utterances ......................................... 9

2.4. Two-word utterances ......................................... 10

2.5. Telegraphic speech ......................................... 13

2.6. Language learning during the pre-school period ..... 16

3. The critical period .................................................... 17

4. The summary of behaviours to expect of

children with normally developing speech and language ...... 19

5. The language acquisition cannot be sped up .................... 20

6. Tips to help develop

speech communication in a child ................................. 22

Conclusion .................................................................. 24

Bibliography ................................................................ 25

INTRODUCTION

Children's acquisition of language has long been considered one of the uniquely defining characteristics of human behaviour.

Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children's first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept - long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as language with so little experience of life. Experiments have clearly identified an ability to discern syntactical nuances in very young infants, although they are still at the pre-linguistic stage. Children of three, however, are able to manipulate very complicated syntactical sentences, although they are unable to tie their own shoelaces, for example. Indeed, language is not a skill such as many others, like learning to drive or perform mathematical operations - it cannot be taught as such in these early stages. Rather, it is the acquisition of language which fascinates linguists today, and how it is possible. Noam Chomsky turned the world's eyes to this enigmatic question at a time when it was assumed to have a deceptively simple explanation.

Further in this term-paper I am going to describe the stages in child language acquistion starting from the very birth of an infant till the onset of puberty.

LANGUAGE ACQUISTION

There are many facts that are intriguing about the language. The fact that all humans have it, and all non-humans do not. The fact that children are able to learn it very quickly. The fact that there exist so many languages and children of all countries are able to acquire them at the same speed. This list can go on and on, and I am sure that the reader can think of many other fascinating features of language.

As stated by cognitive researches "Language is paramount among the capacities that characterize humans, setting us off from even the most perfectly formed and functioning of the other beasts on earth so. As a matter of species pride - if nothing else - we would hold up language as a marker of our humanity and thus a focus of our scientific interests. By understanding language, we understand something important about ourselves." (5,29)

The way in which children acquire language is at the centre of a debate. Learning theorists such as Skinner (1957) maintained that language is acquired through reinforcement. Chomsky (1959) argued that language was far too complex to be learned so competently in such a short space of time, by cognitively immature toddlers, merely by reinforcement. He argued that the neonate arrives equipped with a LAD (Language Acquisition Device). This contains a set of rules common to all languages and allows children to learn any language which they are exposed to. Slobin (1985) suggested a similar innate device the LMC (Language-Making Capacity). The interactionist perspective suggests that a combination of biological and cognitive factors plus the linguistic environment are all necessary for the acquisition of language. (11, 17-28)

There are many distinctions between the processes of learning and acquisition. For instance, the terms are generally used to separate first language acquisition from second language learning, and implied within this distinction is the gap between children of 0-5 years learning their mother tongue, and those beyond puberty who may begin at this stage to learn a second language, or more. The process is a conscious one in learning whereas it is subconscious in acquisition and in language acquisition the focus is on communication or reception of a message as opposed to syntax and grammar as is the case in language learning. Moreover, the context is usually crucial and meaningful in language acquisition, but need not be important to the same extent in language learning. Motivation, too, is a factor that may broaden the gulf between learning and acquisition, but need not be factor that may broaden the gulf between learning