RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Language Acquisition By Children; Investigating The Stages of Language Acquisition In

Children, Analyzing Their Phonological, Syntactic And Semantics Development, With A
Specific Focus On The Acquisition Of Tense And Negation.

Prepared By; Emmanuella Sekyi

Stephanie Vincent Kisiwaa
Nicole Asase Gyebi
Grace Abena Agyapomaa Annan

Overview
This chapter introduces language acquisition in children, the importance of studying the various
stages of language acquisition and its impact on phonological, syntactic and semantics
development focusing specifically on the acquisition of tense and negation, it also includes the
methodology(informants, literature review, research questions), the significance and implications
of our research, timeline and resource. In chapter 1, the phonological development and analysis
will be tackled, in chapter 2, the syntactic development and analysis, chapter 3, the semantic
development and analysis while we share tense and negation in chapter 4 and 5 respectively.

Introduction
Language acquisition has been explain by many scholars and researchers. Language acquisition
is the process which 3 months before birth and gradually leads to the child’s mastery of his/ her
native language/s, at adolescence ( Elman et al.1996; Karmiloff and Karmiloff-Smith2001), also
according to Huda ( 1987:1) language acquisition is a natural process in a person mastering the
language.
Noam Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition views language as biologically determined
process that uses neural circuits in the brain which have evolved to contain linguistics signals.
Chomsky concludes that language acquisition requires an inborn faculty in children a concept
known as the Language Acquisition Device (LAD). In other words human are born with an
innate language “device” that enables them to learn language.
Language Acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate
(Levina 2022).
Chomsky’s theory emphasizes the existence of a ‘universal grammar’ hardwired in the human
brain, facilitating the natural the progression of language learning in early childhood. Child
language acquisition is also termed as ‘L1’ or first language that is the language the child is been
exposed to ( Corder 1973:109), language acquisition takes place during the period when the child
is maturing physically and mentally. The first recorded language acquisition experiment was
conducted by the ancient Egyptian King Psamtik (664-610BC) becos-“bread”- Phrygian
language. Language tells the states of the mind and language is associated with the left
hemisphere.
There are 5 stages of language acquisition namely; the pre-linguistic stage also known as the pre-
language stage, the holophrastic stage also known as one-word stage, the two word stage, the
telegraphic stage and the later multiword stage.
Pre-language stage (0-9months), the holophrastic stage (9-18 months), the two-word stage
(18-24 months), the telegraphic stage (24-30 months) and the later multiword stage ( 30+
months).
During the pre-language stage, the child begins to babble, makes noises and syllable that are not
yet words. Physically, teeth begin to bear and the muscles in the mouth are required for speech to
begin and also make vegetative sounds they are sounds produce by new born babies such as;
crying, coughing etc.
During the holophrastic stage, many children are yet to produce words but others begin to learn
and speak single words. These words are strongly centered around basic needs and interests as
well as names like “mama” and “dada”.
During the two-word stage children produce mini statements by putting two words together. Also
this stage is where children begins to produce negation which we will focus much on.
Example; “No eat” to say they won’t eat
Example: “Mummy eat”.
With the telegraphic stage children begin to expand their two-word phrases into short sentences.
Example; “Daddy car”, “Me play” etc.
And the last stage that is the later multiword stage, children begin to use grammatical elements
and this is the stage they begin to form tenses which is also our main focus too.

OBJECTIVES
- To investigate the chronological stages of language acquisition in children with emphasis
on phonology.
- Analyze syntactic development of sentence structure and grammatical
- Examine semantic development, delving into how children comprehend and express
meaning through language.
- Analyze the acquisition of tense and negation, examining developmental patterns and
potential influencing factors.
 METHODOLOGY
- Collecting data through research and observations from children and books
- Analyzing the collected data using appropriate linguistic analysis to examine the
acquisition of grammatical structures and word formation

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem addressed in this study is the need to examine the stages of language
acquisition specifically on phonological, syntactic and semantic development with
emphasis on the acquisition of tense and negation.
By understanding how children acquire these aspects of language we gain insights into
underlying process and developmental pattern.

EXPECTED RESULTS
- To identify the typical stages of language acquisition in children
- Understanding the patterns of phonological, semantics and syntactic development
- Gaining insights into the acquisition of tense and negation

SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPLICATIONS

- Enhancing our understanding of language development in children
- To help us understand how language skills develop over time and the patterns children
follow
- Focusing on the tense and negation will provide insights into how children grasp and use
complex aspects of language.
- Also gives the opportunity for teachers, speech pathologist or researcher the
understanding of the stages to help promote a child’s healthy development.

CONCLUSION
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
There 5 stages of language acquisition which some children go through to acquire language.
We aim to investigate the stages by analyzing the phonological, syntactic and semantic
development with our focus on tense and negation.
Thank you very much for taking time to read our proposal. We really appreciate your attention
and consideration.