Language Acquisition
Some things to remember
Some Notes on First Language
A
Acquisition
i iti
y Starts at birth
1.
y Includes a listening stage
2.
before the child speaks and
the following stages:
3.
4.
5
5.
6.
Cooing and crying
B bbl
Babbling
One word utterances
(usuallyy nouns)
Two word utterances and
pivot sentences.
Gradual development of
essential vocabulary
Descriptive words, articles
andd etc. come llater.
What
is
a
phoneme?
y Every spoken language has a set
/S//I//
T
y of phonemes.
y Phonemes are speech sounds.
y A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language.
language
y Phonemes are joined together to form larger units of
language,
g g such as syllables
y
and words and sentences.
Sit
How many phonemes are there?
y There are approximately 800 known phonemes that exist in
all known languages of the world.
y English uses approximately 44 of these phonemes.
WO
W!
Phonological Rules
y Every spoken language has a set of rules that determine
which phonemes can be combined and how they can be
combined.
y For example,
l in English,
l h you cannot hhave a wordd that
h
starts with the phoneme /ŋ/. The phoneme /ŋ/ is
heard at the end of the word “sing
sing.”
y Phonetic transcription is [SIŋ]
How are phonemes acquired?
y Babies are born with the ability to develop
any and all of the 800 possible phonemes
from spoken languages around the world.
I can learn any
phoneme in the whole
world.
Marginal Babbling
y Vocal play sequences have been referred to as marginal
Babbling.
y By 5 to 6 months of age, babies begin to produce sequences
of vowel-and
vowel and consonant-like
consonant like sounds that seem to serve as a
transition between cooing and true babbling.
Reinforcement
y As the baby experiments with
various phonemic babbling,
adults and older children
begin to reinforce the
syllables that are used in the
native language of the baby.
Thus the ability to learn is
Thus,
not less, but the child only
retains those phonemes
he/she will use.
use
Developing Meaning
y As the phonemes are
combined and reinforced,
the young child begins to
attach meaning to his/her
experiments with speech
sounds.
What is a morpheme?
y A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a language.
y Phonemes are combined to create utterances that carry
meaning in languages.
y These meaningful units may be words or word particles.
particles
Beginning of Communication
y Initial words are usually nouns—naming things and people in
the child
child’ss environment
environment.
y The next words are functional words called holophrastic speech
y This is followed by pivotal speech or pivot sentences.
Language is
acquired from
experiences
experiences.
“bath, water, bubbles”
Holophrastic Stage
y Comprehension is more
developed than production at
this stage.
stage
y Characterized by one word
utterances that communicate
a concept,
y like “down” instead of put me
down,, or
y “cookie” for I want a cookie.
“M
Mommy Up
U”
3 Purposes of Holophrases
OOPS!
y Communicate an emotion
y “oops!” for any kind of accident
y Communicate an action
or desired action
“Swing” for I want to swing
or “push me on the swing.”
y Name a concept
p
in the environment
“candy” for any kind of sweets.
Swing!
E
Examples
l off Two-Word
T W d Utt
Utterances
y More car
y More cereal
y More high
y Outside
O t id more
y Mama come
y No pee
y All wet
y All ggone
y Bye-bye Calico
y Bye-bye baby
y Daddy bear
y Daddy book
y There potty
y More pudding
y Mommy stair
y Mommy do
y Mommy bear
“flower gone”
Two Word Utterances
y Initially, these often consist of two holophrases.
y As the child adds vocabulary, more variety is introduced
y Often called pivotal speech because of presence of noun
and verb.
verb
y The child generally does not include any verb tense,
articles or other more developed
p aspects
p
of speech.
p
Functions of Two Word Utterances (Brown,
1973)
Semantic Function
Agent + Action
Action + Object
A ti + LLocation
Action
ti
Entity + Location
Agent + Object
Possessor + Possession
Entityy + Attribute
Demonstrative + Entity
Example
doggie go
smell flower
go swings
i
ball box
daddy candy
my baby
bigg ball
That boy
“smell flower.”
Telegraphic Speech
y Called telegraphic as a comparison between the
structure of a telegram and the child’s formation of
sentences
y Smaller function words are absent
y Included are words needed to carry the main idea of the
utterance
y Included are a noun phrase and verb phrase with meaning
similar to some adult utterances
utterances.
y They are “like a sentence” with some words missing.
Examples of Telegraphic Speech
y I got red wagon
y I go beach
y Where daddy?
y Don’t hit me
y I play doll
y Mama go store
y Not sit here
Overgeneralizations
y Overgeneralizations occur
when the child
attempts to make a grammatical rule fit an irregular form.
form For
Example:
Substitution
M or mens for
Mans
f men
“the mens go there.”
Holded for held
Past tense—Add ed for form past tense
I holded the doll’s hand
Nobody not like dog for
Negative—add not to form negative
Nobody likes the dog
Rule That is Being Followed:
Plurality—add
Pl li
dd s to fform plural
l l
Developing Complexity
y Children begin to broaden their communication and they
acquire:
y Grammatical rules
y Functionality
F ti lit andd Fl
Flexibility
ibilit
y Modalities like questions, negatives, imperatives, plural and etc.
y Coordination of sentences and meaningg
y Varity of lexicon (vocabulary)
y Dialogue
Functions of Langauge
g g
( According to setting & partner: Pham, 1994)
¾ ggreeting
eet g
¾p
praisingg or expressing
p
g love or affection
¾ affirmation or declaration
¾ expressing fear or horror
¾ calling, asking, or questioning
¾ mischief-making
¾ answering or responding
¾ negating, refusing, or denying
¾ requesting or demanding
¾ exclaiming, insisting, or
emphasizing surprise or
astonishment
ih
¾ agreeing
i or approving
i
¾ disagreeing or disapproving
¾ complaining, expressing anger or
dissatisfaction
¾ expressing possession,
¾ cultural communication,, or orientation
¾ using higher thinking or reasoning
skills.
Order of Acquisition
Grammatical Morphemes—Brown 1973
y Present progressive
y Regular Past Tense
y Prepositions
y Third Person Present tense
y Plural
y Third Person Past tense
y Irregular
I
l Past
P tT
Tense
y Auxilary
A il
y Possessive
y Copula, contractible
y Copula,
Copula uncontractible
y Auxilary,
Auxilary Contractible
y Articles
Language and Social Development
y Language becomes a function
of the child’s
socialization process
y Children learn to communicate
with
children and adults
y They communicate with more flexibility
y They communicate for a variety of purposes.
purposes
y Culture and family structure play a role in the
developing
p g language
g g
Differences Between Children
y Language
g g acquisition
q
varies greatly
g
y from child to child,,
depending on
y Experiences
y Physical Environment
y Interaction with Others
y Sibling
Sibli placement
l
y Intelligence
y Functionality
u ct o a ty Needed
ee e
y Perception and Focus
The Role of Experience and Environment in
Linguistic Development
y Experience and even
physical environment
play an important role
in the development of language.
How might the children in the
picture develop vocabulary
diff
differently
tl th
than children
hild where
h
we live?
Interaction with Others
Parents, Siblings, Friends, etc.
y What
Wh t is
i the
th role
l off Ad
Adults
lt iin
the development of language?
y How do extended family
members and day care
workers contribute to language
development?
p
R l off Siblings
Role
Sibli g
y Sibling place will contribute to
language
g g development
p
y How would an “oldest child” be
like an “only child?”
y How would a middle child vary
from a youngest child?
y How
H would
ld an only
l child,
hild a
child with two siblings and a
child with 8 siblings
g developp
differently?
Functionality, Perception and Focus
y How does the function of
language affect
d l
development?
t?
y How does the child’s
perception
pe
cept o of
o a concept
co cept
affect development?
y How does the child’s
individual focus affect
language?