X
X Language Acquisition
X Language Acquisition
10.1 Introduction
Language acquisition refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how
the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community.
10.2 Theories of child language acquisition
10.2.1 A behaviorist view of language acquisition
Traditional behaviorists view language as behavior and believe that language
learning is simply a matter of imitation and habit formation. A child imitates the
sounds and patterns of the people around him; people recognize the child’s
attempts and reinforce the attempts by responding differently, the child repeats the
right sounds or patterns to get the reward. The child learns the language gradually
in much the same way as habit-forming. So imitation and practice are preliminary,
discrimination and generalization are key to language development in this theory.
The behaviorist theory of child language acquisition offers a reasonable account of
how children acquire some of the regular and routine aspects of the language, yet
how they acquire more complex grammatical structures of the language requires
a different explanation.
10.2.2 An innatist view of language acquisition
The linguist Noam Chomsky, claims that human beings are biologically programmed
for the language and that the language develops in the child just as other
biological functions such as walking.
Originally Chomsky referred to this innate ability as Language Acquisition Device. The
LAD was described as an imaginary “black box” existing somewhere in the human
brain. The “black box” is said to contain principles that are universal to all human
languages. Children need access to the samples of a natural language to activate
the LAD, which enables them to discover his language’s structure by matching the
innate knowledge of basic grammatical system to that particular language. Later
Chimksy prefers to this innate endowments as Universal Grammar and holds that
if children are pre-equipped with UG, then what they have to learn is the ways in
which their own language makes use of these principles and the variations ion
those pronciple which may exist in the particular language they are learning.
10.2.3 An interactionist view of language acquisition
The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex
interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in
which the child develops. Integrated with the innatist view, the interactionist further
claims that the modified language which is suitable for the child’s capability is
crucial in his language acquisition.
10.3 Cognitive factors in child language development
The cognitive factors relate to language acquisition mainly in two ways. First,
language development is dependent on the concepts children form about the world
and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their
language development.
For example, children at early stage can use two word utterances o express a wide
range of meanings; but they may not use English perfect tense until they have
acquired the underlying concept of “present relevance” around the age of four and a
half. Meanwhile, the ‘present relevance’ embodied in the perfect tense helps to
stimulate the English-speaking children to form that concept. Thus, as children’s
conceptual development leads to their language development, it is likely that their
language development also helps in the formation and enhancement of the concept.
Secondly, the cognitive factors determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic
system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses. Many
careful studies of children’s acquisition sequences and errors in various language
have revealed that children have some “operating principles” for making sense
language data.
10.4 Language environment and the Critical Period Hypothesis
A specific and limited time period for language acquisition us referred to as Critical
Period Hypothesis.
There are two versions of the CPH. While the strong one suggests that children must
acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from
subsequent exposure, the weak holds that language learning will be more difficult
and incomplete after puberty.
10.5 Stages in child language development
10.5.1 Phonological development
10.5.2 Vocabulary development
a)
Under-extension
Children do not learn the meaning of a word “all at once”. When a child learns a new
word, he may well under-extend it or overextend it.
b)
Over-extension
Overextension happens when a child a takes a property of an object and generalizes it.
Later rather than immediately following the acquisition of a word. It is likely to occur.
10.5.3 Grammatical development
Around the age of two, children begin to produce two-word utterances. They are typically
the examples of telegraphic speech. This kind of speech contains content words
which give us the information and lacks the function elements, or function words
which by themselves tell us nothing.
10.5.4 Pragmatic development
While children are acquiring morpho-syntax and vocabulary, they are also acquiring
pragmatics, or how to speak to others in an appropriate manner. These include, for
example, the greetings to be use, the taboo words, the polite forms of address and
the various styles appropriate to different speech situations of his community.
10.6 Atypical development
The atypical language development includes:
hearing impairment (which may cause a delayed language acquisition),
mental retardation (which may cause a delayed language acquisition),
autism (language impairment from the very beginning),
stuttering (repetition of sounds, syllable, or phrases where the speaker can not
“release” the words),
aphasia (partial or total loss of language due to brain damage) and dyslexia and
dysgraphia (disorders in reading and writing which may be acquire or
developmental).
Reference books
G oodluck, H. Language Acquisition: A Linguistic Introduction
Peccei, J. S. Child Language New
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