First Language Acquisition

FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

The first three years: Milestones and developmental sequences

similarity in the early children language all over the world

tiny babies are capable of auditory discrimnation

differentiation of similar sounds

reflect gradual acquisition of the linguistic elements

14 grammatical morphemes

-present continuous

-plural

-irregular past forms

-possessive

-copula

-anides

-regular past

-3rd person singular present simple

-auxiliary

other language features

NEGATION

-Stage 1: expressed by the word 'no'

-Stage 2: negative appears before the verb

-Stage 3: inclusion of 'can't' and 'don't'

-Stage 4: negative addition to the correct form of auxiliary

QUESTIONS

-Stage 1: words of sentences with rising intonation

-Stage 2: children use the word order of the declarative sentence with rising intonation

-Stage 3: children notice that the structure is different

-Stage 4:some questions are formed by subject-auxiliary inversion

-Stage 5: both Wh- and yes/no questions are formed correctly

-Stage 6:all questions types are correctly formed

The pre-school years

By the age of 4, children have acquired the basic structures, and developed their ability to use the language in a social environment

development of metalinguistic awareness

The school-years

Children's ability to use the language grows and expands

metalinguistic awareness includes understanding of ambiguity

astonishing growth of vocabulary

(also depends on the children reading)

Perspectives and Approaches

The Behaviourist Perspective

"The quality and quantity of the language the child hears, as well as the consistency of the reinforcement offered by other in the environment, would shape the child's language behaviour."

The Innatist Perspective

The Critical Period Hypothesis

Interactionist developmental perspectives

human languages are based on innate universal principles

humans are genetically programmed to acquire certain kinds of knowledge and skill at specific times in life

close relationship between children's cognitive development and their acquisition of language

language develops primarily from social interaction (Vigotsky)

children acquire the community language

language acquisition device

universal grammar