FIRST LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION
 DEFINITIONS

1) “First language” (L1):

2) “Second language” (L2):

3) “Foreign language” (FL)

4) “Target language” (TL)

 CHARACTERISTICS OF
CHILDREN S LANGUAGE

Their language development shows a high

degree of similarity among children all
over the world.
• PREDICTABILITY
• LEARNING THROUGH IMITATION
• CREATIVITY
 Before First Words -

• The earliest vocalizations

–Involuntary crying
–Cooing and gurgling – showing
satisfaction or happiness
 Before First Words -
“Babbling”
–Babies use sounds to reflect the
characteristics of the different
language they are learning.
 First Words
Around 12 months (“one-word”
stage):
–one or two recognizable words
(esp. content word);
–Single-word sentences.
By the age of 2 (“two-word” stage):
1) at least 50 different words
2) “telegraphic” sentences (no function
words and grammatical morphemes)
e.g., “Mommy juice”, “baby fall down”
3) reflecting the order of the language.
e.g., “kiss baby”, “baby kiss”
4) creatively combining words.
e.g., “more outside”, “all gone cookie”
 By the age of 4
– Most children are able to:
 ask questions,
give commands,
report real events,
 create stories about imaginary ones with
correct word order and grammatical
markers most of the time.
 By the age of 4

–basic structures of the language

–less frequent and more complex
linguistic structures.
–use of the language in a widening
social environment.
• Development of Metalinguistic Awareness

• Development of Vocabulary
 THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO L1
ACQUISITION

1) Behaviorism: Say what I say

2) Innatism: It’s all in your mind

3) Interactionist/Developmental perspectives:

Learning from inside and out

Bibliography: Lightbown, Patsy. Spada, Nina. “How languages are learned” 1993
 1) BEHAVIORISM: SAY WHAT I SAY

Skinner: language behaviour is the

production of correct responses to
stimuli through reinforcement.
 Language learning is the result of:

 imitation (word-for-word repetition),

 practice (repetitive manipulation of form),
feedback on success (positive
reinforcement)
 habit formation.
 The quality and
quantity of the
language that the
child hears

as well as the
consistency of the
reinforcement
offered by others in
the environment
would shape the
child’s language
behaviour.
Children’s imitations are not
random

Their imitation is selective and

based on what they are currently
learning.
 Children’s practice of new
language forms
– substitution drills.
– It is selective and reflects what they would like
to learn.
– They pick out patterns/rules and then
generalize or overgeneralize them to new
contexts.
2) INNATISM: IT’S ALL IN YOUR
MIND
 Chomsky (1959) argues that
behaviorism cannot provide
sufficient explanations for
children’s language acquisition
for the following reasons:
 –Children come to know more
about the structure of their
language than they could be
expected to learn on the basis of
the samples of language they hear.
– The language children are exposed to
includes false starts, incomplete
sentences and slips of the tongue, and
yet they learn to distinguish between
grammatical and ungrammatical
sentences.
– Children are by no means
systematically corrected or instructed
on language by parents.
Children are In the same
Language
biologically way of other
develops in
programmed biological
the child
for language functions
 language learning to
acquisition walk.
LAD: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
DEVICE ( or BLACK BOX)
– It contains all and only the principles which are
universal to all human languages
(i.e.. Universal Grammar – UG).
 If children are pre-
equipped with UG.

What they have to learn is

The ways in which their

own language make use
of those principles
 They
By matching
children need discover the the innate
access only structure of knowledge of
to samples of the basic
a natural language to grammatical
language be learned principles (UG)

which serve
Once the to the
structures of
as a trigger LAD is the particular
to activate
the device. activated language in the
environment.
 CONCLUSION

• Children’s acquisition of grammatical rules

is guided by principles of an innate UG
which could apply to all languages.

• Children “know” certain things of the

language just by being exposed to a
limited number of samples.
Evidence used to support Chomsky’s
innatist position:

Virtually all children

successfully learn their native language
at a time in life
when they would not be expected
to learn anything else so complicated
(i.e. biologically programmed).
 –Language is separate from
other aspects of cognitive
developments
(e.g., creativity and social grace)
and may be located in a different
“module" of the brain.
The language children are
exposed to does not contain
examples
of all the linguistic rules and
patterns.
 Animals cannot learn
to manipulate a symbol system
as complicated as
the natural language
of a 3- or 4-year-old child.
Children acquire grammatical

rules without getting explicit

instruction.
 The biological basis for the innatist
position:

The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) –Lenneberg:

• There is a specific and limited time period
(i.e., “critical period”) for the LAD to work
successfully.

• Only when it is stimulated

at the right time
 ONLY BY
STRONG
PUBERTY

Two versions
AFTER PUBERTY
IT WILL BE MORE
WEAK
DIFFICULT AND
INCOMPLETE
Virtually every child learns language on a
similar schedule in spite of different
environments.

– Three case studies of abnormal language

development - evidence of the CPH
•Victor – a boy of about 12 years old
(1799)
•Genie – a girl of 13 years old (1970)
•Deaf signers (native signers, early
learners, vs. late learners)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTFCiG
I5wJA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Oavg
lDkn0&feature=related
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tchn_
DXs4o&feature=related
3) INTERACTIONIST/DEVELOPMENTAL
PERSPECTIVES:
LEARNING FROM INSIDE AND OUT
Problems of Innatism:

Too much emphasis on

the “final state”
but not enough on the
developmental aspects of
language acquisition.
 • Language was
ONE manifestation
of the cognitive and affective ability
to deal with the world

• Innatists
dealt with FORMS of the language,
not with the FUNCTIONAL levels
of meaning constructed from
SOCIAL INTERACTION
 INTERACTIONISM: Bruner

Language acquisition
is an example of children’s ability to learn
from experience.

What children need to know

is essentially available
in the language
they are exposed to.
the innate learning
ability of children

LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT

the environment
in which they
develop
MODIFIED SPEECH

CRUCIAL ELEMENT
in language acquisition process
 CARETAKER TALK
• It is the way adults modify their speech
when communicating with kids.

• Slower rate of speech

• Higher pitch
• More varied intonation
• Shorter simpler sentence patterns
• Frequent repetition
• Paraphrase
 Developmental psychologists

attribute more importance to the

environment

But they recognize a powerful learning

mechanism in the human brain.
 PIAGET

“Children’s cognitive development

determines their language
development.”
 The interaction
between the child

the
developing
cognitive
understanding

things which can be

observed, touched, and
manipulated
Language

was one of a number of

symbol systems
developed in childhood,

rather than a separate

module of the mind.
 Language

can be used to represent knowledge

that children have acquired

through physical interaction with the environment.

 VYGOTSKY
Sociocultural theory of human mental
processing.

He argued that language develops primarily

from social interaction.
Zone of proximal development
(ZPD):
• A level that a child is able to do when there is
support from interaction with a more advanced
interlocutor.
• A supportive interactive environment enables
children to advance to a higher level of
knowledge and performance than s/he would be
able to do independently.
Vygotsky observed the importance
of conversations which children
have with adults and with other
children and saw in these
conversations the origins of both
language and thought.
 ESSENTIALLY
THOUGHT INTERANALIZED
SPEECH

EMERGED IN
SOCIAL SPEECH
INTERACTION
 The Child's Language Environment
• There is NO DIRECT PRESSURE to learn

• There is NO TIME LIMIT for learning.

• There is NO WAY OF ESCAPING into a

different language (no vacations).

• The language is NOT SEQUENCED BY

GRAMMAR OR VOCABULARY (no
textbook).
 The Child's Language Environment

• There is LOTS OF REPETITION

• Both the LANGUAGE AND THE WORLD

ARE NEW.

• All the language is spoken IN THE

CONTEXT OF THE SURROUNDING
WORLD.

• THE LANGUAGE IS ALL AROUND.

 The Child's Language Environment

• The child has MANY OPPORTUNITIES

FOR USING the language to communicate
to those around him.

• Much of THE LANGUAGE IS SIMPLIFIED

to the level of understanding of the child.
 The Child's Learning Strategies
• The child in NOT INTERESTED IN
LANGUAGE for its own sake.

• The child is NOT DISTURBED by the

language he does not understand.

• The child ENJOYS THE REPETITIVE

events of his life, and uses this enjoyment
to help him learn.
 The Child's Learning Strategies

• The child USES HIS PRIMARY

INTERESTS to help him learn.
• The child directs his attention to things that
are EASY TO UNDERSTAND.
• The child possesses a natural desire TO
CALL AN OBJECT BY ITS NAME.
 The Child's Learning Strategies
• The child adds words to his speaking
vocabulary more easily IF HE ALREADY
KNOWS HOW TO PRONOUNCE THEM.

• The child IMMEDIATELY USES the

language, and his SUCCESS IN
COMMUNICATION BUILDS
CONFIDENCE.
 The Child's Learning Strategies

• The child uses his natural desire TO

PARTICIPATE IN THE LIFE AROUND
HIM to help him learn new language.

• The child brings TREMENDOUS

INGENUITY to the task of learning.