Applied Linguistics First Language Acquisition

Stages of Language Development

Age In month StageExamples 0 - 4Crying 4 – 6 -12BabblingDa, dada One-word phrases, car Ba, boo, car 24 phrases Two-word phrases Daddy gone Cat sleeping Multi-word phrases Telegraphic speech Mommy milk drink

Stages of Language Development -ing – playing, eating, Third-person present tense “s” – he goes Regular past tense – played, goed, bringed Plural “s” – cats, boys, mans, foots Irregular past tense – went, brought

Negation: Stage 1: no + PHRASE - No drink, No you playing here Stage 2: negator moves inside phrase; not and don’t added to list of negators but don’t is considered one word. I no can swim. I don’t see no mop. Stage 3: negator attached to modals but initially may be unanalyzed as don’t in stage 2. I can’t play this one, I won’t tell. Stage 4: auxiliary system is developed, and learner acquires correct use of not and contractions. He doesn’t know anything, I didn’t say it.

Theories of First Language Acquisition Behaviorism: Skinner (1957) 1. Language is learned like anything else. 2. Imitation: Children learn by imitating adult speech. 3. Stimulus and response 4. Reinforcement: Children learn to speak properly by being corrected by their caregivers (Motherese/ CDS). Problems?

Explanations: 1. Children everywhere learn to speak about the same time and go through the same stages. 2. If it’s S-R, why don’t Apes, Dolphins,.. acquire human language? 3. Adult doesn’t utter “he goed home” 4. Children master a complex linguistic system faster than they learn other things.

: Cognitive: Chomsky (1959)  Innate: Humans have a genetic predisposition to learn language.  Generative Grammar – SS & DS  Language Acquisition Device (LAD) – UG  Children learn rules w/ or w/o feedback from adults. - Overgeneralization - Hypothesis – Test  Rule