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AAE 203

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION &

DEVELOPMENT

Lecture 1 - An Introduction

Course Objectives

Compare different theoretical positions on first, second

and bilingual language acquisition

Analyse language data to describe aspects of

preschool and school-age language development

Explain and illustrate concepts and issues in the

interaction between languages and society

Use the concepts to explain the role of the home,

school and society in the acquisition of English bySingapore children

Apply knowledge and skills acquired in the course to

make connections with classroom teaching in

Singapore primary and secondary schools DNA, 2011

Other admin details

Please download all materials from Blackboard

Tutors:

Dr Norhaida Aman (Course Chair)

Dr Rita E. Silver

Dr Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh

No TG changes, please

Assessment: 50% assignment (9 Mar); 50% exam (18 Apr)

Compulsory course book:

Goh, C. C. M. & Silver R. E. (2006) Language Learning:

Home, School and Society. Singapore: Pearson Longman. DNA, 2011

Language Acquisition & Development

children have acquiredthe main elements of

the language in theirenvironment?

Acquisition

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The developmentprocess continuesthroughout our lives.

Development

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Language Development: An Overview

Phonological

SemanticDevelopment

Learning themeaning of

Morphology &Syntax

Putting wordstogether

Languagein SocialContexts

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CommunicativeDevelopment inInfancy

LearningSounds

wor s

Communicative Development in Infancy

Babies hear in utero.

uring t eir irst mont s,

infants acquire communication

skills.

By the 6th month - babies have

categorised the sounds of their

anguage. By the 11th month understand ~50

common words.

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Phonological Development

Learning sounds and sound patterns

Cries Cooing Babbling Words

, ,

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Semantic Development

The ways in which speakers relate words to their

Early vocabulary:

Reflect their daily lives Context-bound, here-and-now

School years:

An lin 1 3 : when children be in school the know

about 10,000 words.

Metalinguistic awareness: they think about their ownlanguage, understand what words are, and are able todefine them.

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Conceptual (denotative) vs.

assoc a ve conno a ve mean ng

Example: cow

Sense relations

Syntagmatic & Paradigmatic relations

Semantic fields/lexical sets

E.g. colour lexical set: blue, red, green

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Syntagmatic

The brilliantboypassed with flying colours.

male synonymy

girl antonymy

uman (superordinate) yponymy

Paradigmatic

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Morphology & Syntax

Morphology

Begin to recognise patterns of word formations:

Overgeneralisation

Syntax

One word >> 2-word utterances Mommy drink >>

book books*foot - foots

telegraphic speech Mommy put book table

Begin to learn rules to combine words into phrases and

sentences

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Language in Social Contexts

When children have acquired the phonology,

morp o ogy, syn ax, an seman cs o a

language

Linguistic competence

When they acquire the ability to use language

appropriately in a variety of situations

Social competence

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Pragmatics

The use and interpretation of language in context

The system of rules that dictates the way language is

used to reach social ends.

Speech acts

Getting thing done with words

Direct vs. Indirect

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So

What issues must we consider when discussing

Nature oflanguage

Role of theenvironment

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Role of the child

The Aspects of the Language

FORM

Phonology Morphology Syntax

MEANING SemanticsLANGUAGE

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USE Pragmatics

The Role of the Child

Active participants or passive recipients?

Is linguistic knowledge innate?

How does cognitive development influence language

development, and vice versa?

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Language learning and cognition are strongly related to

each another

Language is contingent on cognitive development

When language acquisition is delayed, it may affect the

ability to learn concepts and develop spatial skills etc.

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The Role of the Environment

Linguistic environment

-- , ,on output Use of a distinctive register

Social environment

The childs life experiences

The type of interaction/conversation

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Parenting style Social experience little opportunity to interact with other

children/adults; anxieties

Familys social class

Etc.

LANGUAGE

LEARN USE

1st language

2nd languageguisticAspects

Bilingualism

Psycholin

LANGUAGE

LEARN USELanguage form

Semantic developmentA

spects

Pragmatic development

Metalinguistic development

School-age learningDescriptiv

LANGUAGE

LEARN USE

InteractionuisticAspects

Language socialisation

Societal multilingualism

Language variation Socioling

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Questions to think about

What issues must we consider when discussing the

rs anguage acqu s on

How do the behaviourist, the innatist, and the social

interactionist approaches contribute to our

understanding of language acquisition?

What are the limitations of these theoretical

approaches?

Pg.18, Goh & Silver (2006)

Theoretical Approaches

e av our sm:Say what I say

nnat sm:Its all in your mind

Interactionism:Learning from inside & out

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Behaviourism

According to this theory, children learn language

e same way ey earn ma s mus c

adults model, children imitate & practise

adults teach/correct them

According to Skinner (1957),

learning takes place when there

is a stimulus, reinforcement and

feedback.

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Language = Verbal behaviour

The mind cannot be

o serve s u e .

Onl behaviours are

observable.

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Role of adults

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Language learning

Imitation

(word-for-word

repetition)

Practice

(repetitivemanipulation

of form)

Feedback

(positivereinforcement)

Habitformation

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Limitations

1. Language is learnt through imitation.

t is true t at t ey may copy an imitate ot ver a

and non-verbal behaviours.

However, this theory cannot explain how children canproduce and comprehend utterances they have never

heard before.

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Overgeneralisation: break - broked

Mother: Maybe we need to take you to the doctor.

Randall (36 months): Why? So he can doc my little

bump?

2. Role of an adult

rov e m e mo e s w egenera e npu .

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u ts are expecte to correct m sta es .

Even if this is done, it is likely that the content, and not

the grammatical structure that is corrected by the adult.

Eve : "Mama isn't boy, he a girl."

" ' .

Adam : "And Walt Disney come on Tuesday."

Mother: "No, he doesn't."

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Sometimes, even with explicit correction, the desired

:

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For example,

' .

Parent: No, say 'nobody likes me'.

Child : Nobody don't like me.(Repeated 8 times)

Parent: Now listen carefully, say 'nobody likes me'.

: , no o y on es me.

(Data from McNeill, 1966)

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Innatism

Chomsky (1957):

Language is rule-based and generative in nature,

processed through complicated cognitive processes

and mechanisms.

Humans are innately predisposed to acquire

language, in much the same way humans are

predisposed to walk and stand upright.

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Children are biologically programmed for

The environment makes only a basic contribution,serving as a trigger to activate the LAD.

themselves the underlying rules of a languagesystem on the basis of the samples of a naturallanguage they are exposed to.

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Critical period

hypothesis

Acts as a

trigger

Innate mental

capacity for

language

Some

exposure to

language X

Language

X+

LAD

(Universal

Grammar) DNA, 2011

..the assumption that language is

Critical Period hypothesis~Lennenberg (1967)

,

is dependent upon both necessary neurological

events and some unspecified minimal exposureto language. this critical period lasts from

about 2 to puberty: language acquisition is

impossible before two due to maturational

factors, and after puberty because of loss of

"cerebral plasticity" caused by the completion of

the development of cerebral dominance, or

lateralized specialization of the language

faculty DNA, 2011

Limitations

1. Competence vs. performance

Chomskys arguments are primarily based on

competence instead of performance.

Too much emphasis on the final state (i.e. the

linguistic competence of adult native speakers),

but not enough on the developmental aspects of

anguage acqu s t on.

Focus on syntactic model

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2. Role of environment

Adult language input and socialisation processes

oversimplified.

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Interactionism

Concerned with social and psychological

aspec s o anguage earn ng

Focus on:

the role of the linguistic environment in interaction with

the childs innate capacities

Vygotsky

how language and cognitive developments take placewithin key contexts of interaction:

Care-giving

Play Motherese/

Reading sessions, etc. Child-directed speech DNA, 2011

Child-directed Speech (modified language

interaction):

Phonological modification: a slower rate of delivery,higher pitch, more varied intonation

Syntactical modification: shorter, simpler sentence

atterns, fre uent re etition, and ara hrase.

Limited conversation topics: e.g., the here and now

and topics related to the childs experiences.

Conversational give-and-take

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Interactions

Provideinput

Provideopportunities forchildren to use

Routines: Helpchildren develop

scripts about howlanguage events typica y

unfold

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The interactionists recognize:

mind

the environment which provides the language samples

=Language

acquisitionAcquisition of

other skills

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LA is similar to and influenced by the acquisition of other kinds of

skill and knowledge instead of being independent of the childs

experience and cognitive development.

Limitation

1.Inadequate account of the cognitive processes

a c ren engage n

Difference between interactionism and innatism?

Effect of childs personality and learning strategies?

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Summary

Behaviourism

Language is a subset of learned behaviours through

conditioning and habit formation.

Innatism Language is processed through biologically

programmed and psychological means.

Interactionism

Language is learnt through interaction in meaningful

communicative contexts.

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Theoretical Models- A Comparison

Language Child Environment

st

Behaviouri

learned

behaviours.

models and provides

selective reinforcements.

natist

All languages have

grammatical

structures that are

Born with syntactic

knowledge for analysing

linguistic input

The input from the

environment is

degenerate but

In universal. necessary for triggering

innate knowledge.

Int

eractionist Language has

social and

communicative

purposes.

Uses contextual clues from

interaction to process

language

The environment provides

meaning contexts for

language input and

language use. DNA, 2011

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References

Chapters 1 & 2, Goh & Silver (2006). Language

: , . :

Pearson Longman.

Chapters 1& 7, Gleason, & Ratner (2009). The

Development of Language, 7th edition. Pearson Ed.

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