Child Language Acquisition

Child Language Acquisition

1. Key Theories

   • Chomsky
     • Children are born with an innate (inbuilt) knowledge of grammar he believed in 'Universal grammar' that everyone around the world followed similar grammatical rules - this wasn't investigated. He believed that children had a language Acquisition Device (LAD) which enables them to pick up language without needing to be taught. Tomasello criticised Chomsky and named him an armchair theorist as his ideas were only speculative.
   • Skinner
     • Skinner suggested that children imitate what they hear from parents. The child should be rewarded with positive reinforcement in order to encourage accurate learning.
   • Bruner
     • Bruner came up with the idea of the language acquisition support system (LASS) suggesting that children do have this innate ability to learn but also require social interaction and support from their caregivers.
   • Piaget
     • Piaget argued that children need to develop cognitively before they can fully acquire language. A child has to understand a concept before they can acquire the particular language form which expresses that concept.
   • Vygotsky
     • Suggested that children need a more knowledgeable other (MKO) in order to support them when acquiring language. The MKO should push the child into their zone of proximal development (ZPD) and help them learn what they don't yet know through scaffolding. Vygotsky also suggests that social interaction is vital for children to acquire language.

2. Stages of Development

   • 0 - 6 Months: Vegetative stage this is from birth to 4 weeks which features when the child starts to make sounds of discomfort.The child will get vocal practice of them crying.An example of this is the child crying to get a response. Solely Crying-This stage is when the child cries to signify the child wants something,the child will realise that crying allows the caregiver to come therefore they use it as a way to communicate. Cooing stage -This ranges from 4 to 6 months.This is when the child first starts to produce sounds besides them crying .An example of this is when they say “ooh” or “aahs” this sin when they start experimenting they may do gurgling sounds to experiment with the sounds of their lips. Babbling stage-This is when there's a consistent pattern of consonants and vowels.A few examples of this are like reduplicated sounds like “baba” and then theres a non reduplicated sounds like “agu”
   • 6 - 12 Months: Pre-talking Babbling stage Babbling - The baby produces phonemes, often in the form of combinations of vowels and consonants e.g. ma, ba, baba, gaga. 6-7 Months: Reduplicated babbling - Appears first and consists of a child making the same sounds again and again e.g. babababa 8-9 Months: Variegated babbling - Emerges later and involves variation in the consonant and vowel sounds being produced. This does not resemble recognisable words yet e.g. daba, mamamoo 10-11 Months: Conversational babbling (baby jargon) - Complex babbling the child will imitates inflection,conversational rhythm,facial expressions and gestures. CVC - consonant, vowel, consonant construction Proto words - made up words that a child will use to represent a word that they cannot pronounce. Towards the end of 12 months the child will have built up a small vocabulary of words they understand. This often occurs before their first word.
   • 12 - 18 Months: The holophrastic stage of child language development begins at around 12 months old, this is the time where they are beginning to say their first words. They will usually be concrete nouns or material verbs as it is easier for a baby to pick up on a physical object rather than have to conceptualise a non physical thing such as feelings/ emotions. They will also begin by learning words with a lot of vowels such as ‘dada’. They will begin by speaking in one word utterances and simplify words to make it easier for them to pronounce. They will use addition, substitution, reduplication. This also introduces the ‘wassat’ stage, where they develop a naming insight, realising that everything around them has a name and becoming more inquisitive. At this stage of language development they have 50 words in active use but are curious about learning. Simplification of words Addition - addition of sounds and structures e.g dog turns to ‘doggie’ Deletion - removal of sounds e.g bana
   • 18 - 24 Months: Children between 18-24 months are beginning of what's describes as “vocabulary spurt” or another name “naming explosion” which its believed that from 18 months onwards when the child has acquired between 50-100 words. For example: “Mama” and “ball” (a cognitive change occurs in the children). Between the stage of 20-21 months, their vocabulary expands to about 200-300 words and that's when they begin using the two-word phrases. For example: “More Juice”. Between the stage of 21-24 months, children’s vocabulary expands to about 200-500 words and can construct short sentences with two or more words. For example: “I want Juice” ” During this stage children begin to realise that all things around them have names and gain a naming insight and understand more simple questions and instructions. For example, “Where is your shoe?”