First Language Acquisition

Group 2 Members: Nurul Nadiah bt Che Adnan Nor Affandi b Khiruddin Punnithann a/l Subramanian Wan Nur Fadhlin Sakina bt Wan Razuli

Introduction
Twentieth century did researchers begin to analyze child language systematically and to try to discover the nature of psycholinguistic process:
To gain fluent control of an exceedingly complex system of communication.

 This wave of research led teachers:

To study some of the general findings of such research with a view to drawing analogies between first and second language acquisition. To justifying certain teaching methods and techniques on the basis of first language learning principles.

 Normal children development acquire their native languages fluently and efficiently. First language learning as a foundation on which you can build and understanding of principles of second language learning.

Theories of First Language Acquisition

Small babies:
Children babble and coo and cry and vocally or non-vocally send an extraordinary number of messages and receive even more messages.

First year:
Children make specific attempts to imitate words and speech sounds they hear around them, and about this time they utter their first words.

 18 months:
This words have multiplied considerably and are beginning to appear in two-word and three-words sentences. For example:
bye-bye Daddy

3 years:
Children can comprehend and incredible quantity of linguistic input; their speech capacity mushrooms as they become the generators of non-stop chattering and incessant conversation.

 School age:
Children internalize increasingly complex structures, expand their vocabulary, and sharpen communicative skills. Children not only learn what to say but what not to say as they learn the social functions of their language.

 In principle, one could adopt one of two polarized position in the study of first language acquisition. An extreme behavioristic position would claim that children come into the world with a tabula rasa, a clean slate bearing no preconceived notions about the world or about the language.

 These children are then shaped by their environment and slowly conditioned through various schedules of reinforcement. Children learn to function in language chiefly through interaction and discourse.