Language Acquisition
CONTENT
Introduction ...... .. 3
Main body
1. Language acquisition . . ....... 4
2. The stages of language acquisition .... ...... .. 5
2.1. The prelinguistic stage . ......... ........... 7
2.2. Babbling ........ ........... 7
2.3. One-word utterances .. .... ........... 9
2.4. Two-word utterances .............. .. .... 10
2.5. Telegraphic speech ........ ... 13
2.6. Language learning during the pre-school period .. 16
3. The critical period ....... 17
4. The summary of behaviours to expect of children with normally developing speech and language 19
5. The language acquisition cannot be sped up . . 20
6. Tips to help develop speech communication in a child . .. 22
Conclusion . .. 24
Bibliography ... . 25
INTRODUCTION
Children 's acquisition of language has long been considered one of the uniquely defining characteristics of human behaviour. Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children 's first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as
Introduction ...... .. 3
Main body
1. Language acquisition . . ....... 4
2. The stages of language acquisition .... ...... .. 5
2.1. The prelinguistic stage . ......... ........... 7
2.2. Babbling ........ ........... 7
2.3. One-word utterances .. .... ........... 9
2.4. Two-word utterances .............. .. .... 10
2.5. Telegraphic speech ........ ... 13
2.6. Language learning during the pre-school period .. 16
3. The critical period ....... 17
4. The summary of behaviours to expect of children with normally developing speech and language 19
5. The language acquisition cannot be sped up . . 20
6. Tips to help develop speech communication in a child . .. 22
Conclusion . .. 24
Bibliography ... . 25
INTRODUCTION
Children 's acquisition of language has long been considered one of the uniquely defining characteristics of human behaviour. Still today, it is the commonly held belief that children acquire their mother tongue through imitation of the parents, caregivers or the people in their environment. Linguists too had the same conviction until 1957, when a then relatively unknown man, A. Noam Chomsky, propounded his theory that the capacity to acquire language is in fact innate. This revolutionized the study of language acquisition, and after a brief period of controversy upon the publication of his book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax, in 1964, his theories are now generally accepted as largely true. As a consequence, he was responsible for the emergence of a new field during the 1960s, Developmental Psycholinguistics, which deals with children 's first language acquisition. He was not the first to question our hitherto mute acceptance of a debatable concept long before, Plato wondered how children could possibly acquire so complex a skill as
Bibliography: The short sentences which children utter at this stage usually omit words such as a, on, and the, Gerken et al (1990) suggest that this may be because they see these function words as 'spacers ' between the more heavily stressed content words.