1st Language Acquisition
How do humans acquire speech
Language acquisition
We are not born speaking!
We have a language instinct, but we
must acquire our language nonetheless.
If we think of all that is entailed in
knowing a language, it seems a
challenge.
Language instinct
Our language instinct does not tell us what
specific language to learn or particular
structures to memorize.
It does provide us with an innate knowledge
of basic language features, present in all
human languages.
 LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS > UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
Humans then learn to specialize this universal
grammar for the particulars of their language.
Innateness of language
How do we really know this is an
innate ability?
The biologist Eric Lenneberg
defined a list of characteristics that
are typical of innate behaviors in
animals.
Innate behaviors . . .
 emerge before they are necessary.
 do not appear as the result of a conscious
decision.
 do not appear due to a trigger from external
events.
 are relatively unaffected by direct teaching and
intensive practice.
 follow a regular sequence of “milestones” in
their development.
 generally observe a critical period for their
acquisition
1. Emerge before necessary
 When is language necessary?
 When do children usually begin speaking/using
language coherently?
Is this criterion met?
2. Are not conscious
Does a child decide to consciously pursue
certain skills?
Do babies make a conscious decision to start
learning a language?
Is this criterion met?
3. Are not triggered
 What would prompt a child to take up soccer?
 What would prompt a child to begin speaking?
 Is this criterion met?
4. Cannot be taught
We CAN teach grammar, and prescriptive
rules of language. But we’re not talking
about that here.
We correct children’s errors sometimes.
Does it help?
In fact, “coaching” seems to hurt rather
than help language ability in children.
Is this criterion met?
5. Follow milestones
 In spite of different backgrounds, different locations,
and different upbringings, most children follow the
very same milestones in acquiring language.
For example, around 12months
Around 24 months
By 30 months
 Is this criterion met?
6. Observe a critical period
 What is a critical period?
 For first language acquisition, there seems to be a
critical period of the first five years, during which
children must be exposed to rich input. There is also a
period, from about 10-16 years, when acquisition is
possible, but not native-like.
 For SLA, the issue is more complicated… More later.
Is this criterion met?
The Critical Period Hypothesis
CPH: Proposed by Lenneberg
This hypothesis states that there is only a
small window of time for a first language
to be natively acquired.
If a child is denied language input, she will
not acquire language
Genie: a girl discovered at age 13 who had not
acquired her L1
More evidence for the Critical
Period Hypothesis
 Second Language Acquisition:
 Younger learners native fluency.
 Older learners (>17) never quite make it.
 ASL Acquisition:
 Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs) have an advantage over
later-learners of ASL in signing
 Aphasia:
 Less chance of recovery of linguistic function after age 5.
L1 acquisition
Sound production/babbling
Phonological acquisition
Morphological/Syntactical acquisition
Semantic development
Acquisition of phonetics
 Few weeks: cooing and gurgling, playing with sounds.
Their abilities are constrained by physiological
limitations.
 4 months: distinguish between [a] and [i], so their
perception skills are good.
 4-6 months: children babble, putting together vowels
and consonants. This is not a conscious process!
Experiment with articulation
 7-10 months: starts repeated babbling.
 10-12 months, children produce a variety of speech
sounds. (even ‘foreign’ sounds)
Acquisition of phonology
 18 months: Sound substitution ‘dat’ ‘wawa’.
Non-fixed perception of phonemes, entire
words are single units, unaware of meaning
distinctions due to single sounds
 15-21 months: words as a sequence of
phonemes. Mastery of sounds differing
maximally: mama, dada. CV is main syllable
structure. They reduce = banana  [na.na] 2
syllable words, stressed/unstressed
The acquisition of morphosyntax
 At about 12 months, children begin producing words
consistently.
 One-word stage (holophrastic stage):
 Name people, objects, etc.
 An entire sentence is one word
 Two-word stage:
 Approximately 18-24 months
 Use consistent set of word orders, with structure
determined by semantic relationships
 agent+action (baby sleep)
 possessor+possession (Mommy book)
Acquisition of Semantics
Overextensions:
 Using ‘moon’ for anything round
 Using ‘dog’ for any four-legged animals
Underextensions:
The word ‘mammal’ may not include
whales, etc
Second Language
Acquisition
Differences from L1 acquisition
Teaching Methods
Terms/Associations
Native Language = 1st lang = L1
Second Language = L2 = target lang
Second Lang Acquisition (SLA)
Research investigates how people attain
proficiency in a lang which is not their
mother tongue
Differences b/w L1 and L2
Difference b/w child and adult
grammars
Difference b/w beginning and advanced
L2 learner’s grammars
Interlanguage grammar
Transfer
Mastering the L2
Communicative competence
Grammatical accuracy
Sociolinguistic ability
Second Lang Teaching
Methods
Grammar-translation
Direct method
Audio-lingual method