Child Language: Acquisition And Growth (original) (raw)
Related papers
Language development and acquisition in early childhood
Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 2020
The paper discussed in detail the process of language development and the process of language acquisition in early childhood. It also gave a brief overview of the theoretical frame of reference of language development. The paper included an in depth explanation of the importance and impact of overexposure for early second language acquisition and it answered the question of whether language learning could turn into a language acquisition after what Noam Chomsky referred to as the "critical period". The paper concluded that even after the Chomskian critical period learners who got overexposed to the target language can acquire the language and it can be equivalent to their first language. The paper discussed two major kinds of motivations at play in the process of second language acquisition: (1) Curiosity: A desire to better understand a group of people and their way of life , and (2) Empathy: Upon repeated exposure, one might come to the conclusion that this group of people has a more sensible handle on things, and thus identifies with them.
2006
The remarkable way in which young children acquire language has long fascinated linguists and developmental psychologists alike. Language is a skill that we have essentially mastered by the age of three, and with incredible ease and speed, despite the complexity of the task. This accessible textbook introduces the field of child language acquisition, exploring language development from birth. Setting out the key theoretical debates, it considers questions such as what characteristics of the human mind make it possible to acquire language; how far acquisition is biologically programmed and how far it is influenced by our environment; what makes second language learning (in adulthood) different from first language acquisition; and whether the specific stages in language development are universal across languages. Clear and comprehensive, it is set to become a key text for all courses in child language acquisition, within linguistics, developmental psychology and cognitive science.
2005
The present level of understanding of the psycholinguistic processes and capacities underlying the child's acquisition of language is reviewed in this publication. In the first chapter, linguistic theories, biological characteristics of language learning, and the distinctions between language competence and language performance are discussed. The remaining two chapters are a detailed discussion of the empirical findings of psycholinguists and psychologists about language acquisition: chapter two focuses on the nature and acquisition of syntax while chapter three considers the nature of phonology in a grammar and the child's acquisition of phonology. A bibliography is included. (JM)
Language Acquisition in Children
From the moment we are born, we have language in our lives. It is a unique ability that defines us as humans. Speech and language differ us from all the other species. Evidence suggests that our capacity for language is directed by our genes. The most interesting phase of speaking is the language acquisition phase. Thus, we will concentrate on children's ability to learn language.
How language comes to children: from birth to two years
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2001
As a researcher in the area of early communication and language I found How Language Comes to Children a thorough and thought-provoking description of early language development and the research related to how infants learn to talk as well as how infants respond to speech. Or, to be more precise, responses to speech from before birth until the end of the second year. Particularly interesting to me was the cross-cultural focus. De Boysson-Bardies compares research from different parts of the world to determine similarities and differences in development as well as the variations in how parents view and respond to the early speech of their children. The author is the Director of Research in the Experimental Psychology Laboratory at the Center Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, and the book is translated from French. However, the examples of the children's earlier word productions are in French. As a mono-lingual English speaker who does not know French pronunciation, the French examples required a bit more effort than they would have in English. However, the depth and detail of the information make the book well worth the effort. The book is organized into 8 chapters. Generally the information follows the development of the child with the first chapter focused on infants and early perceptions related to speech, and the last chapter focused on the language of 18-24 month olds. In addition to an in-depth look at speech perception and vocal development, deBoysson-Bardies discusses the communication environment of the young child, cultural variations in development, and individual variations among children. For example, one of the early discussions in the book was about the speech perception of young infants. For the past 30 years or so researchers have been devising creative ways to answer questions about infant perception of different dimensions of speech. Because infants are not yet able to answer questions or to directly indicate preferences researchers have identified something infants can do, suck, and built studies around that ability. The premise is that infants suck harder to indicate preference or novelty. Results of these studies indicate that infants even a few days old show a preference for their mother's speech when compared to that of another woman. They also prefer the prosody (the rhythms and tonal variation, sometimes referred to as the music of the language) of their mother's voice compared to another woman's voice when listening to voices with the phonetic information screened out. However, if the tape of their mother is played backwards, making the prosody "unnatural" the infant no longer prefers the voice of the mother. These early studies also show that infants
Linguistics 417 Child Language Acquisition
Typical development patterns in phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Comparison of first and second language acquisition. Influence of biological, social, and cultural factors. Techniques for collecting and analyzing acquisition data (fieldwork projects). Evaluation of competing theories of acquisition.
Theories of child language development attempted to account for the development of language in infants from various angles, and with different points of emphasis. In this article, two major theories are discussed with regards to their major contribution to this area of study, Piaget’s cognitivist theory and Vygotsky’s social interactivist theory. Both theories agree that the sensorimotor period in infant’s development is marked by an organization of means and ends. However, the two theories diverge in many aspects of child language development, the most basic of which is their views on the interrelationship between cognitive, linguistic and social processes of development.