1. Brian MacWhinney
(The Pooh)
By: The ‘Stache Expert

2. A Little About BIG MAC…. Born August 22, 1945 in New York, New York
Teaches modern languages and psychology at Carnegie Mellon
KEY FACT: Used to have an AWESOME ‘stache that you will see later in the presentation (like right now!)

3. Language Acquisition What is it?
Process humans undertake to comprehend words and language and speak the language in a communicable manner

4. Emergentism
The belief that a comprehensive system is made up of many small facets.
In language particularly it is vital to understand context to grasp language acquisition.

5. Emergentism
MacWhinney created his Competition Model along with Elizabeth Bates
This states that language acquisition is not possible through a sole component . This means that acquiring a language is both learned and innate. It also states that thinking is key in the language acquisition process. Particular parts of the brain help to learn words and grammar. This model also states that words are worthless without context.

6. MacWhinney’s Key Points
No universal grammar exists
There is not a specific language organ 
There are no genes related to language  
Creating a language and learning a language are very similar processes
Cultural evolution created and shaped language
Language came from thought

7. CHILDES The Child Language Data Exchange System
Database of information about child acquisition of language
Created in1984 with Elizabeth Bates
Now uses audio and video for the best transcript
The database contains 34 languages
The Swiss Cheese concept

8. Works Cited
The Origin of Language Debate. UsingEnglish.com, 22 Feb Web. 10 Apr. 2011
<
"Emergentism" Defined. Progressive Living. Web. 10 Apr <
MacWhinney, Brian. A Unified Model of Language Acquisition. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Mellon U. Web. 10 Apr <
MacWhinney, Brian Brian MacWhinney. Carnegie Mellon Psychology Department. Web. 10 Apr <