CLD

• 4 main stages of first language acquisition in children:

  • the babbling stage
  • the holophrastic stage
  • two-word stage
  • multi-word/telegraphic stage
• Babbling stage:

  • 4-6 months until about 12 months of age
  • during this stage, child hears speech syllables from its environment + caregivers and attempts to imitate by repeating them.
  • Canonical babbling - consists of the same syllables being repeated over + over e.g ‘ba ba ba.’
  • Variegated babbling - when different syllables are used in babling sequence e.g ‘ga ba da.’
• Holophrastic stage: (one-words stage)

  • 12-18 months
  • at this stage, children have identified which words + combinations of syllables are most effective for communicating + may attempt to communicate a full sentence’s worth of information
  • Example: ‘dada’ could mean ‘I want dad’ to ‘where is dad?’ -> this is known as holophrasis.
• Two-word stage:

  • occurs around 18 months
  • at this stage, children are able to use two words in the right grammatical order
  • tend to exclusively use content words + leave out function words.
  • child’s vocabulary starts at around 50 words + consists of common nouns + verbs.
• Multi-word/telegraphic stage:

  • children move on from two-word phrases + begin to from short sentences of around 3,4,5 words and eventually more.
  • begin to use more + more function words and are able to form complex sentences.
• Early telegraphic stage:

  • takes place around 24-30 months
  • ignore function words in favour of using the most important content words, use of negatives + questions about surroundings.
• Later telegraphic stage:

  • starts around 30 months and no fixed endpoint
  • sentences structures become more complex + varied
  • children in this stage have a concrete sense of time, quantity + ability to engage in simple reasoning.
  • start to explain why + how they think or feel things + may ask others.
  • age 5 + above, may struggle with pronunciations - school typically helps further develop linguistic skills.
• Nature vs. Nurture:

  nurture -> some linguists argue that environment + upbringing are key in language acquisition.

  nature -> others argue that genetics + biological factors are important.
• BF Skinner 1957:

  • behavioural theory or imitation theory proposes that we are a product of our environment -> children have no internal mechanism or ability to develop language.
  • Skinner suggests that children learn language first by imitating their caregivers/parents + then modifying their use of langauge due to operant conditioning.
  • Operant conditioning - way of learning that focuses on the reward (positive reinforcement) or punishment (negative reinforcement) or desired or undesired behaviour.
• Jean Piaget 1923:

  • cognitive theory suggests that the primary drives behind our actions are out thoughts + internal processes
  • Piaget assumes that children are born with relatively little cognitive ability, but their minds develop as they age + experience the world around them.
  • Piaget believes that cognitive development had to come before language development because it would be impossible for children to express things that they don’t yet understand.
• Noam Chomsky 1957:

  • Chomsky proposes that children are born with an instinct or drive for language learning which he calls the language acquisition device (LAD) -> believes there must be an innate biological component to language acquisition.
  • LAD - provides us with a baselines understanding of grammatical structure.
• Jerome Bruner 1961:

  • Bruner believed that children are born with an ability to develop language but they require regular interaction with their caregiver to learn + understand it to a level of full fluency.
  • Language acquisition support system (LASS) -> caregivers tend to correct the mistakes that children make when using them + teach them what objects are + their purposes.
• Lev Vygotsky 1978:

  • social development theory states that a child’s cognitive development + learning ability can be guided + mediated by their social interactions.
  • claimed we are born with 4 ‘elementary mental functions’:
  • attention
  • sensation
  • perception
  • memory
  • our social + cultural environment allows us to use these functions + develop ‘higher mental functions.’
• Eve Cark -> Over/Under extension

  • researched the way children develop semnatic understanding + make sense of the new words they encounter -> their understanding has to be refined once the actual word has been initially acquired.
• • Over-extension - when a child uses a more specific word to label a more general noun e.g calling all men 'Daddy' + have not yet realised that the word applies only to their own father
  • Under-extension - when a child might use a word more narrowly to describe something without recognising the wider use of the word e.g might only call green apples 'apple' + not red apples
• Analogical overextension = child tries to make links between different objects according to similar properties or use. e.g Ball = all spherical objects

  Categorical overextension = child refers to all objects within the same category with the same name e.g all outerwear = dress
• Jean Aitchison's Stages of Acquisition:

  • labelling = making link between sounds of particular words + the objects they refer to.
  • packaging = understanding a word's range of meaning
  • network-building = grasping connections between words + understanding that some words are opposite in meaning

  She believed that speed of learning is influenced by both innate abilities + environment.
• Diminutive - reduction in scale of an item due to the way in which a word is created e.g Doggie
• Addition - adding an additional suffix to end of word e.g Doggie, dolly
• Substitution - substituting harder sounds with easier ones e.g 'rock' becomes 'wock'
• Assimilation - when one consonant sound is swapped for another e.g 'name' becomes 'mame
• Deletion - omission of a particular sound within a word

  • unstressed syllables = often deleted e.g 'banana' becomes 'nana'
  • consonant clusters = reduced e.g 'sleep' becomes 'seep'
• Reduplication - repetition of complete/incomplete syllable in substitution for a word e.g 'dada'
• Berko + Brown 1960 - 'fis' phenomenon

  • describe how a child referred to a plastic fish as his 'fis.'
  • this suggests that children can recognise + understand more phonemes than they pronounce -> our understanding may develop faster than our ability to pronounce things.
• Halliday's Functions:

  • instrumental - fulfil a speaker's need
  • regulatory - persuading, commanding or requesting
  • interactional - develop relationships + ease interaction
  • personal - express identity + preferences
  • informative - communicate information
  • heuristic - used to learn + explore environment
  • imaginative - explore imagination, accompany play
• John Dore's infant language functions:

  • labelling
  • repeating
  • answering
  • requesting action
  • calling
  • greeting
  • protesting
  • practicing
• Brown 1973 - langauge development between 20-36 months

  He found this sequence occurred regularly:

  1. -ing
  2. plural 's'
  3. possessive 's'
  4. the, a
  5. past tense '-ed'
  6. third person singular verb ending '-s'
  7. auxiliary verb 'be'
• Cruttenden 1979 - acquisition of inflections:

  1. first stage - memorise words on individual basis
  2. second stage - show awareness of general inflection rules + observe past tense forms - may make overgeneralisations
  3. third stage - correct inflections are used
• Jean Berko 1958 - Wug Test

  • tested 4 + 5-yr-olds
  • found that children are often able to deduce what the plural of a noun would be - 'there are two wugs' - suggests that children have an ability to understand grammar rules.
• Morphemes:

  free morpheme - makes sense on its own e.g House

  bound morpheme - relies on other elements of word to make sense e.g plural 's' in houses
• Bellugi 1971 - acquisition of pronouns:

  1. child will use name rather than pronoun
  2. children will recognise difference between subject + object pronouns but will not be able to apply this understanding correctly
  3. child will correctly apply subject + object pronouns
• Bellugi 1966 - negative acquisition

  1. child's first attempt at constructing negative will be to place a negative word at beginning of utterance e.g 'no like book'
  2. child sees negative word move within body of sentence e.g 'me not going'
  3. child will master capability of attaching negatives to auxiliary verbs or copula verbs e.g 'I'm not happy.'
• Bellugi (1966) - Question Formation

  1) Use of rising intonation of single, then multiple words within an utterance to signify a question. E.g., Bedtime?

  2) Inversion of auxiliary verbs in order to signify a question. E.g., Are you coming?

  3) Formulaic ‘wh’ questions (Who, what …) E.g., Where are you going?

  4) Use of tag questions. E.g., You like this,