Child Language Acquisition: All children go through the same stage, but language learning varies Before birth: Language learning before birth. A child born (4 days old) in France could distinguish between French and other languages: when he heard French, he sucked the feeder more vigorously than on hearing other languages Babies become attuned to the rhythm and intonations of the language around them The First Year: All babies cry in some manner around the world At six weeks, cooing starts which makes reduplication At six months, babbling sounds are closer to language Parents help develop peaking Caretaker language of parents-teachers turn taking Exposed to language more The entire environment is language Parents converse with child-teach him conventions of turn taking. Repeating key words lead him to understand vocabulary and syntax better Babies between 0-3 months can even differentiate between voices In early months, phonemes produced are hot culture specific (i.e. well – “we” sound is phoneme, bell, “ba” sound is phoneme). Around 10 months, these sounds develop into the native language like vocabulary or sound so, then child language differs Body recognizes simple and often repeated phrases as bye-bye, night, moon, toys. Language Acquisition: From one to two years, the Holophrastic stage: Age of rapid vocabulary acquisition and basic syntax First word spoken at about 12 months of age Gain vocabulary of 200 words before 2nd birthday Term Holophrastic means the first grammar Lexical items learned are nouns (referring to things, toys, noun, etc.) Vocabulary items relate to personal interactions Long/speech is linked with child’s wants and needs Express emotions Vocabulary is limited, car may refer to anything with wheels Two-word stage; e.g; train go/plane fly Sentences are not inflected-no indication of tenses Use consonant sound example; m, h, b Certain sounds (phonemes arrive before others) Indulges plosive sounds: b+p and nasal sounds in response m+h They babble Language is limited but understanding is wider Age 2-3: Including the telegraphic stage Huge increase in vocabulary Learns vocabulary of 2000 words by the age of five and most are learned at this stage Over-extension when a word is used more broadly then it is over extension e.g, ‘daddy’ might be used for all men Under-extension-word used is used in a narrative context (shoes for everyone/plate) Telegraphic stage is: child’s utterance has some longer, grammatically complex/some parts missing) Words have greater meaning like food-all-we going now Child is logically coherent Straight forward with subject (food) and verb (gone) Often use auxiliary verb (is) Not use → prepositions-determines (the/a) suffices tenses etc. at this stage Use wider range of consonants- p, t, d, n, w, f Can’t say polysyllabic words like ba /ra /na- repetition Language repetitions from adults Now understood to clause commands, hot or cold, day and night Understanding contrasting concepts, hot or cold, day and night Types of child languages Monologues About two children provide a running commentary. As they become older, monologues change into narratives Dialogue Children engage in a dialogue and need parents or somebody to talk to 3-5 years-pre-operational stage: Cognitive and social development with language development Following feature develop with speed: Connecting words example, because/if Number words Words connected with emotions Family terms (aunt/brother) Colors Contrasting concepts (cold/hot, day/night) Vocabulary includes hypernyms (words for categories like animals/vegetables) Vocabulary in hyponym (words within those families) Home environment and family members are important Use longer words with three or more syllables (el/e/phant-he/li/cop/ter) Become competent in communication Increase knowledge of syntax/tenses and plurals) They make virtuous errors, applying regular grammatical endings with irregular forms e.g, runned/mouses/wented/thoughted Berko Wug Test – 1958 Use questions and negotiations (rot) Mixed up homophones-one/won (words with same sound)