1.

Sources Consulted:
Ellis, R. (1997). Second Language Acquisition.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
"Language Development." Films for the Humanities &
Sciences. 1996. Video Archive. 10 Jan 2005
Ritchie, W., & Bhatia, T. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of Child Language
Acquisition. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Slentz, K., & Krogh, S. (2001). Early Childhood Development and its Variations.
Mahawah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc..
Wade, C., & Tavris, C. (2000). Psychology. 6th ed.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

2. Relevant Section in the Text:

Pages: 79-81,113-115

3. Major Points:
- Path of language development (Slentz & Krogh):
1. Crying
2. Early vocalizations
3. Babbling
4. Word approximations
5. First words
6. Two/three word sentences
- Language Acquisition Theories (Language Development):
Nurture
• B.F. Skinner, behavioral psychologist
o Learn language through imitation, shaped by operant
conditioning
 Parents always reward and reinforce child’s
attempts to imitate speech
 This cannot be the only way children learn
language because they make up their own original
sentences and they say things adults would never say
(foots, mouses, etc.)
Nature
• Noam Chomsky
o Proposed kids are preprogrammed to acquire
language: have a language acquisition device
 Language acquisition device is an innate
mental module that allows young children to develop
language if they are exposed to an adequate sampling of
conversation
 The deep structure of all languages are the
same and an inherited LAD is universal
 • Explains why all kids go through the
same language stages and tend to make the same
language mistakes instead of just mimicking adults
Critical Period for Language Learning (Ellis):
• Lenneberg
o Claimed that there is a period in the maturation of the human
organism, lasting from approximately 2 years of age to puberty,
during which effortless and complete language acquisition is
possible on the basis of exposure to primary linguistic data and
before and after which it is not possible
o Supported by research done on people who have had sever
trauma to the head loosing linguistic capabilities who were able to
regain these abilities totally before puberty, but those who were
post-pubescent were unable to regain these abilities
o Also supported by research done on people who had been
deprived of social interaction, thus not having the opportunity to
learn even one language as a child
 Famous case study - Genie

What is Bilingualism? (Ritchie & Bahtia)

- According to Bloomfield, bilingualism is the “native-like control of two
languages”
- Bilingual is determined by:
1. The amount and type of input from each of the two languages
- Heterogeneity of linguistic input constitutes the defining feature
of bilingual acquisition
- Their exposure to either language is always divided so quantity
of their exposure to each language is less than that of a
monolingual child
2. The possibility of an asymmetry or dominance of one language over
the other
- One language becomes dominant, despite the child being
competent in both languages
i. One language is spoken more in the home
3. The interaction or separation of two linguistic systems
- They are capable of keeping the two linguistic systems separate
once their grammatical competence reaches its ultimate point
and they can also employ these two systems interactively
4. Socio-psychological factors in bilingual acquisition and use
- Depending on changes in socio-psychological factors, the
bilingual child may exhibit regression and progression of the two
participating linguistic systems
i. Leopold’s case study of Hildegard

2 Linguistic Systems for Bilinguals (Ritchie & Bahtia):

Unitary Hypothesis
 - Begin the acquisition process with one language system, which
later separates into two language systems
- Volterra and Taeschner
i. Claimed that bilingual children go through a stage of
“language confusion” before they finally arrive at the
stage of language separation
Dual System Hypothesis
- Claims that children do not go through an initial stage(s) of
treating the two languages as one, but differentiate the two linguistic
systems

4. Conclusion (Slentz & Krough, Wade):

- Bilingual children exhibit the same major stages of acquisition
as monolingual kids: the babbling stage, followed by the one-word, two-
word, and multi-word stages
- It seems that the phonological development of bilingual children
shows that the two systems are largely acquired separately, thus no
interference is experienced
- Bilingual children have to undertake a more complex and
challenging task since they learn two languages at the same time
i. Bilingual children’s ability to separate two languages is
critical in arriving at appropriate language-specific phonological
systems for their two languages
- They use some words from both languages, usually preferring
whatever word is shorter and is easier to say
- If you compare vocabularies of monolingual and bilingual
children, they have roughly the same-sized vocabularies
- They learn the syntax of one language and use these rules for
both languages
- Caregivers may worry when children mix their languages, but it
is an expected phase of multi-lingual language acquisition
- One experiment done using a functional MRI had bilingual
people think about what they had done the previous day before first in one
language, then in the other. Those who learned both of their languages in
childhood, had a single section of Broca’s area, responsible for speech
production, active. Those who learned a second language later in life
different sections of Broca’s area active for the two languages.

5. Questions or Issues for Further Investigation:

Are there any negative effects of being bilingual?
Why do people lose the ability to pronounce certain sounds?
Is there a difference in language development in children who learn similar
languages (i.e.: French and Spanish) vs children who learn very different
languages (i.e.: English and Japanese)?