First Language Acquisition

Theories and research of first language acquisition.

1. First Language Acquisition

2. Objective Explain the theories and research of first language acquisition.

3. 1 . First Language Acquisition

4. Language Acquisition Th e process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate 1 Refers to first language (L1) and second language (L2) Not to be confused with language learning Acquisition is an unconscious process that does not presuppose teaching 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

5. First Language Acquisition Requirements: A language-using environment Interaction with other language-users Ability to send and receive sound signals in a language

6. First Language Acquisition Schedule: All normal children develop language at roughly the same time, along the same schedule The biological schedule is related to the maturation of the child’s brain to cope with the linguistic input Young children acquire language by identifying the regularities in what is heard and applying those regularities to what they say

7. 2 . Stages of First Language Acquisition

8. Cooing and Babbling Cooing: Few weeks: cooing and gurgling They seem to be discovering phonemes at this point Producing sequences of vowel-like sounds: high vowels [i] and [u] 4 months: sounds similar to velar consonants [k] and [g] 5 months: distinguish between [a] and [i] and syllables [ba] and [ga], so their perceptions skills are good

9. Cooing and Babbling Babbling: Different vowels and consonants ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga 9-10 months: intonation patterns and combination of ba-ba-ba-da-da Nasal sounds also appear ma-ma-ma 10-11 months- use of vocalization to express emotions Late stage- complex syllable combination ( ma-da-ga-ba ) Even deaf children babble The most common cross-linguistic sounds and patterns babbled the most, but later on they babble less common sounds

10. One-Word Stage 12-18 months. Recognizable single-unit utterances. Single terms are uttered for everyday objects “milk”, “cookie”, “cat”, “cup”, and “spoon” [pun]. Holophrastic (wasa = what's that) Produce utterances such as “Sarah bed” but not yet capable of producing a more complex phrase

11. Two-Word Stage Vocabulary moves beyond 50 words By 2 years old, children produce utterances ‘baby chair’, ‘mommy eat’ Interpretation depends on context Adults behave as if communication is taking place. The child not only produces speech, but receives feedback confirming that the utterance worked as a contribution to the interaction. By this age, whether the child is producing 200 or 300 words, he or she will be capable of understanding 5 times as many This stage is also called telegraphic speech because its brevity and clarity is like that of a telegram

12. Growth of Telegraphic Speech 2-2½ years: The child produces “multiple-word” speech. The child has already developed sentence-building capacity & can get the word order correct (“ cat drink milk ”, “ daddy go bye-bye”) A number of grammatical inflections begin to appear. Simple prepositions (in, on) are also used Vocabulary is expanding rapidly. 3 years: Vocabulary has grown more Better pronunciation Can comprehend an incredible quantity of linguistic input

13. School Age Children start to internalize increasingly complex structures, expand their vocabulary and sharpen their communication skills They also learn the social functions of their language

14. The First Language Acquisition Process A child does not acquire the language by simply imitating adults- but also by trying out constructions and testing them: CHILD: my teacher holded the baby rabbit and we patted them MOTHER: did you say your teacher held the baby rabbit? CHILD: yes. she holded the baby rabbit and we patted them MOTHER: Did you say she held them tightly? CHILD: no, she holded them loosely

15. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Morphology By 2-and-a-half years old- use of some inflectional morphemes to indicate the grammatical function of nouns and verbs. The first inflection to appear is – ing after it comes the – s for plural. Overgeneralization: the child applies –s to words like ‘foots’ ‘mans’ and later ‘feets’ ‘mens’

16. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Morphology The use of possessive ‘s’ appears ‘mommy’s bag’ Forms of verb to be appear ‘is’ and ‘are’ The –ed for past tense appears and it is also overgeneralized as in ‘goed’ or holded’ Finally –s marker for 3 rd person singular present tense appears with full verbs first then with auxiliaries (does-has)

17. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Syntax A child was asked to say the owl who eats candy runs fast and she said the owl eat candy and he run fast. The development of two syntactic structures- three stages Forming questions Forming negatives

18. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Syntax FORMING QUESTIONS: First Stage: Insert where and who to the beginning of an expression with rising intonation E.g. sit chair? Where horse go? Second Stage: More complex expression E.g. why you smiling? You want eat? Third Stage: Inversion of subject and verb E.g. will you help me? What did I do?

19. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Syntax FORMING NEGATIVES: First Stage: Putting not and no at the beginning E.g. not teddy bear, no sit here Second Stage: Don’t and can’t appear but still use no and not before VERBS E.g. he no bite you, I don’t want it Third Stage: didn’t and won’t appear E.g. I didn’t caught it, she won’t go

20. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Semantics During the two-word stage children use their limited vocabulary to refer to a large number of unrelated objects. Overextension: overextend the meaning of a word on the basis of similarities of shape, sound, and size. e.g. use ball to refer to an apple, and egg, a grape and a ball. This is followed by a gradual process of narrowing down.

21. The First Language Acquisition Process: Developing Semantics Antonymous relations are acquired late The distinction between more/less, before/after seem to be later acquisition.

22. These stages of first language acquisition are just some of the ways that linguists have tried to explain language development. There are also theoretical explanations that merit our attention

23. 3 . Theories of First Language Acquisition

24. Theoretical Approaches Different researchers/linguists developed different theories (explanations) about language acquisition based on different perspectives: Behaviorism: say what I say Innatist: it’s all in your mind Cognitive/Developmental: learning from inside out Sociocultural: environment facilitates learning Lightbow, P. & Spada, N. (1993) How languages are learned. 4th Ed. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

25. Behaviorist Perspective Individuals are born without built-in mental content and their knowledge comes from experience and perception ( tabula rasa ). Assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. Behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Consider effective language behavior to be the production of correct responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual, or conditioned.

26. Innatist Perspective We have an innate predisposition to learn language, and learning is in our genetics. All human beings are genetically equipped with the ability that enables them to acquire language. (a system of universal linguistic rules or Universal Grammar)

27. Cognitive/Developmental Perspective Stresses the importance of making learning relevant to the experience of learners and their work context. The learning of new information is facilitated by making it possible for the learner to relate it to knowledge already possessed and transform old knowledge into new knowledge.

28. Sociocultural Perspective Emphasize on the social interactions that are a necessary function of language Discourse has a special meaning in that language is used for interactive communication.

29. Now that you know the different theoretical perspectives. Read this week’s assigned chapter and learn about the specific theories of first language acquisition. And don’t forget...

30. All of these theories have truth to them. Don’t fall under the trap of thinking that only one theory will explain everything. You need to take the best bits from each of them in order to understand language acquisition. --David Crystal