Child language learning Chapter 8 Child language learning

Child language learning is: Typical Similar from child to child Spontaneous creative

Typicality of language learning We say that children learn their language typically because there are indeed exception which always involve very exceptional circumstances physical handicaps family setting. A some what regular schedule for language learning ،regularly seen stages. Babbling: about 6 month First word : about 1 year First grammatical morphemes: about 2 years Basic mastery: by about 4 years Continued learning ,especially of vocabulary ,indeed throughout life.

Spontaneity of language learning We say children learn language spontaneously because there is obviously a drive ,a strong natural or innate motivation , by children to learn language, so that instruction in the usual sense is unnecessary, speech and writing. As language is not speech ,learning language is not learning to ,manually signed language . Speech is just a medium for language, a medium for language, a medium typically but not necessarily employed. Speech, but something abstract and mental, underlying speech.

Stages in the learning of English Cooing We say that child language learning shows creativity because it always Result in utterances by children which they cannot have heard. Go ed, mans And mommy sock. when they are six to eight weeks old, babies typically Start “cooing “ Velar consonants and back vowels, in utterances like [k u:] coo , [gaga] g a _g a, And [g u:] go o. babbling Babbling is a period of regular production by the child of unrecognizable but word-like vocalizati- -on. typically begins at about six months of age. During early babbling ,English –learning children May even produce non –English phones, such as bilabial fricatives , front rounded vowels and Retroflex stops. During babbling children particularly practice the phones of the languages they hear and will grow To speak. Word recognition Before the end of the first year, most parents see signs that babies recognize words ,daddy or mommy

First meaning First words Intonation Appear at about one year of age , mommy or daddy , meaning of first words are overwhelmingly concrete, not abstract. Names are among the first words; Nouns are more common than verbs; First verbs are action verbs such as dirty and funny Intonation Statements with a rise and fall, and yes- no questions.

Phoneme learning order Where phoneme means phones regularly found in particular words: Nasal and oral stops are relatively early , 1m, n , p, b, k. Early voiceless stops tend to be un aspirated. Early vowels are typically 101 and or iii, then often /u/. Labial consonants p, b, f , m , w , will often be mastered earlier than those at other places of articulation. Certain phones , including ;r, e , 01 of English are , relatively late.

Phoneme substitutions Fronting, consonants with more forward articulation replace those with less forward articulation ;in stopping , stops replace other manners of articulation; perseverance, a preceding phone replaces a following phone; and in anticipation ,a following phone replaces a preceding one. fronting Stopping Perseverance anticipation

Word structure Especially take the from CV, of simple open syllables or CVCV: [do] father , [no] not If CVCV , the consonants are often the same (because of the perseverance and anticipation phenomena) Have few closed syllables (syllables which end in consonant)

Overextension and under extension of meaning Over extension and under extension , in over extension a word has a broader range of meaning than the apparently Equivalent adult word , dog , daddy ,under extensions are also seen, in which a word has a narrower range of meaning than the apparently equivalent adult word

MLU MLU abbreviates mean length utterance. It expresses the average number of morphemes in one of the child’s utterances – not always recognizable as sentence. By about eighteen months. A year and a half ,an English –learning child’s MLU may often average one and a half .a good average for MLU at age three appears to be about three or twice that of MLU at one and a half.

Two- word sentences Syntax of two- word sentences 200-word vocabulary Telegraphic speech From about 18 months. the child learner’s utterances at this time are like those of a Telegram, lacking grammatical morphemes, there rabbit , not there ‘s a rabbit , and snowy gone , not snowy is gone Syntax of two- word sentences Words appear to be classified by the child into two groups, which might be called object words. A growing and relatively open – class (we might call these pre-nouns), such as pudding and baby, and relation words , sometimes called pivot words ,of a more closed class (which might be called pre- verbs), such as up and ther 200-word vocabulary By age two, the vocabulary of most children surpasses 200 words, a great majority of which are nouns , especially proper and concrete nouns , somewhat fewer verbs and a few adjectives, social words like yes , no,, hey, and good-bye. and until late in the second year , no grammatical morphems.

Basic mastery 18 months 100 words 24 200 30 400 36 800 38 1600 Vocabulary growth Between two and four the , from 18 to 36 months vocabulary size approximately doubles every six months, and doubles again from 36to 48 months. 18 months 100 words 24 200 30 400 36 800 38 1600

First grammatical morphemes For more English –speaking children, the first grammatical morpheme to appear is the ing suffix of verb. Verb suffix- ing Propositions in and on Noun plural sufix –s Regular past tense of frequent verbs Noun possessive suffix-’s Un contracted copula in questions Indefinite and definite articles a/an , the Regular verb past tense suffix – ed Regular verb present tense suffix –s Irregular present tense of frequent verbs

The regular order of learning of English grammatical morphemes is not explained by the frequency order of the morphemes in the language. In over extension of meaning meanings are over extended :in these overgeneralizations , morphological rules are over general.

Stages in the learning of questions and negatives Negative sentences appear at about 18 months ,in which no or not is placed at the beginning or end of sentences: no I can go . Before age three ,the negative word may appear after the subject ,where is belongs and the common negative auxiliary verbs can’t and don’t begin to be used: he no bite you . I can’t go .i don’t want it. Children have questions , marked by intonation ,with their early one-word sentences. before age three , an English -learning child may acquire yes-no question ,with inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb.

MLU AN EASY-TO-remember generalization MLU is that reaches a rough average of 3 at about age three. sine one – word utterances persist at this age ,and later ,an MLU of 3 means that many utterances of the three-year-old child are more than three words in length.

Continued learning The learning of our first language continues throughout life especially for reading and writing.