5/1/2012

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 by Singapore children Apply knowledge and skills acquired in the course to make connections with classroom teaching in Singapore primary and secondary schools DNA, 2011

AAE 203 LANGUAGE ACQUISITION & DEVELOPMENT

Lecture 1 - An Introduction

Other admin details

Please download all materials from Blackboard Tutorials begin next week Tutors:
Dr Norhaida Aman (Course Chair) Dr Rita E. Silver Dr Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh

Language Acquisition & Development

By what age would children have acquired the main elements of the language in their environment?

Acquisition

No G h N TG changes, please l 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

Development

The development process continues throughout our lives.

DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

Language Development: An Overview

Communicative Development in Infancy

Babies hear in utero. During h i fi D i their first months, h infants acquire communication skills. By the 6th month - babies have categorised the sounds of their language. By the 11th month understand ~50 common words.
DNA, 2011

Semantic Development Learning the Phonological meaning of Development words d Learning Sounds Communicative Development in Infancy

Morphology & Syntax Putting words together

Language in Social Contexts

DNA, 2011

Phonological Development
Learning sounds and sound patterns
Cries Cooing Babbling Words

Semantic Development
The ways in which speakers relate words to their referents and their meanings Early vocabulary:
Reflect their daily lives Context-bound, here-and-now

School years:
phonemes, word stress, rhythm and intonation Anglin (1993) : when children begin school they know about 10,000 words. Metalinguistic awareness: they think about their own language, understand what words are, and are able to define them.
DNA, 2011 DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

Conceptual (denotative) vs. associative (connotative) meaning

Example: cow

Syntagmatic
The brilliant boy passed with flying colours. male girl human (superordinate) h synonymy antonymy hyponymy h

Sense relations
Syntagmatic & Paradigmatic relations

Semantic fields/lexical sets

E.g. colour lexical set: blue, red, green
DNA, 2011

Paradigmatic
DNA, 2011

Morphology & Syntax

Morphology
B i to recognise patterns of word f Begin i f d formations: i Overgeneralisation book books *foot - foots One word >> 2-word utterances Mommy drink >> telegraphic speech Mommy put book table Begin to learn rules to combine words into phrases and sentences
DNA, 2011

Language in Social Contexts

When children have acquired the phonology, morphology, syntax morphology syntax, and semantics of a language
Linguistic competence

Syntax

When they acquire the ability to use language appropriately in a variety of situations
Social competence

DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

So
Pragmatics
The Th use and interpretation of language in context di i fl i The system of rules that dictates the way language is used to reach social ends.

What issues must we consider when discussing language acquisition and development?

Speech acts
Getting thing done with words Direct vs. Indirect

Role of the environment

Nature of language

Role of the child

DNA, 2011 DNA, 2011

The Aspects of the Language

FORM Phonology p gy Morphology Syntax

The Role of the Child

Active participants or passive recipients? Is linguistic knowledge innate? How does cognitive development influence language development, and vice versa?
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. 2011 DNA,

LANGUAGE

MEANING Semantics

USE

Pragmatics
DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

The Role of the Environment

Linguistic environment
Use of a distinctive register

LANGUAGE

Psycholinguistic Aspects

The language used - input received output feedback received, output, on output

Social environment
The childs life experiences
The type of interaction/conversation Parenting style Social experience little opportunity to interact with other children/adults; anxieties Familys social class Etc.
DNA, 2011

LEARN

USE

1st language 2nd language Bilingualism

LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE

Descriptive Aspects e

LEARN Language form

USE

LEARN

USE

Semantic development Pragmatic d l development Metalinguistic development School-age learning

Interaction Language socialisation l Societal multilingualism Language variation

Sociolinguistic Aspects

5/1/2012

Questions to think about

What issues must we consider when discussing the first lang age acq isition? language acquisition? How do the behaviourist, the innatist, and the social interactionist approaches contribute to our understanding of language acquisition? g g g q

Theoretical Approaches

Behaviourism: B h i i
Say what I say

Innatism: I i
Its all in your mind

Interactionism:
What are the limitations of these theoretical approaches?
Pg.18, Goh & Silver (2006)

Learning from inside & out

DNA, 2011

Behaviourism
According to this theory, children learn language the same way they learn maths & music wa the m sic
adults model, children imitate & practise adults teach/correct them

Language = Verbal behaviour

The mind cannot be observed/studied. obser ed/st died

According to Skinner (1957), learning takes place when there is a stimulus, reinforcement and feedback.
DNA, 2011

Only behaviours are y observable.

DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

Role of adults

Language learning

Imitation (word-forword p ) repetition)

Practice (repetitive manipulation ) of form)

Feedback (positive reinforcement)

Habit formation

DNA, 2011

DNA, 2011

Limitations
1. Language is learnt through imitation. It I is true that they may copy and imitate both verbal h h d b h b l and non-verbal behaviours. However, this theory cannot explain how children can produce and comprehend utterances they have never heard before.
Overgeneralisation: break - broked Mother: Maybe we need to take you to the doctor. Randall (36 months): Why? So he can doc my little bump?
DNA, 2011 DNA, 2011

2. Role of an adult Provide li it d d l ith degenerate i t P id limited models with d t input.

5/1/2012

Adults Ad lt are expected to correct mistakes. t dt t it k

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." Mother: "That's right. That s right. Adam : "And Walt Disney come on Tuesday." Mother: "No, he doesn't."
DNA, 2011

Sometimes, even with explicit correction, the desired outcome may not always result result:

DNA, 2011

Innatism
For example, Child : Nobody don t like me. don't me Parent : No, say 'nobody likes me'. Child : Nobody don't like me. (Repeated 8 times) Parent : Now listen carefully, say 'nobody likes me'. Child : Oh nobody don t likes me. Oh, dont me (Data from McNeill, 1966)
DNA, 2011

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.

DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

Children are biologically programmed for language language acquisition device The environment makes only a basic contribution, serving as a trigger to activate the LAD. Children have the innate ability to discover for themselves the underlying rules of a language system on the basis of the samples of a natural language they are exposed to.
DNA, 2011

Acts as a trigger gg Innate mental capacity for language LAD (Universal Grammar)

Critical period yp hypothesis

Some exposure to language X

Language X

DNA, 2011

Critical Period hypothesis

~Lennenberg (1967) ..the assumption that language is innately determined that its acquisition determined, is dependent upon both necessary neurological events and some unspecified minimal exposure to 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 language acquisition. l iii Focus on syntactic model

DNA, 2011

5/1/2012

Interactionism
2. Role of environment Adult language input and socialisation processes oversimplified. Concerned with social and psychological aspects of lang age learning language Focus on:
the role of the linguistic environment in interaction with the childs innate capacities how language and cognitive developments take place within key contexts of interaction:
Care-giving Play Reading sessions, etc. Motherese/ Child-directed speech DNA, 2011
Vygotsky

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 p patterns, frequent repetition, and paraphrase. , q p , p p Limited conversation topics: e.g., the here and now and topics related to the childs experiences. Conversational give-and-take
DNA, 2011

Interactions
Routines: Help children develop scripts about how events typically i ll unfold

Provide input

Provide opportunities for children to use l language

DNA, 2011

10

5/1/2012

Limitation
The interactionists recognize:
the contributions of the innate structures of the human mind the environment which provides the language samples
Language acquisition

1.Inadequate account of the cognitive processes that children engage in Difference between interactionism and innatism? Effect of childs personality and learning strategies?

Acquisition of other skills

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.

DNA, 2011

DNA, 2011

Summary
Behaviourism
Language is a subset of learned behaviours through L i b fl db h i h h conditioning and habit formation.

Theoretical Models- A Comparison

Language
Behaviouris st
It is a subset of all learned behaviours.

Child
A clean slate clean

Environment
It is a source of language models and provides selective reinforcements. The input from the environment is degenerate but necessary for triggering innate knowledge.

Innatism
Language is processed through biologically programmed and psychological means.

Interactionism I i i
Language is learnt through interaction in meaningful communicative contexts.
DNA, 2011

All languages have Born with syntactic grammatical knowledge for analysing structures that are linguistic input universal. Language has social and communicative purposes.

Inn natist

Interactionist

Uses contextual clues from The environment provides interaction to process meaning contexts for language language input and language use.
DNA, 2011

11

5/1/2012

References
Chapters 1 & 2, Goh & Silver (2006). Language Learning: Home Learning Home, School and Society. Singapore Society Singapore: Pearson Longman. Chapters 1& 7, Gleason, & Ratner (2009). The Development of Language, 7th edition. Pearson Ed.

DNA, 2011

12