Chapter 10 Language acquisition

1. Chapter 10 Language acquisition • Language acquisition —refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother tongue, i.e. how the child comes to understand and speak the language of his community. • Language acquisition vs. Language learning natural simple unnatural difficult

2. Questions to be answered • How do children accomplish this? • What enables children to learn words and string them together into meaningful sentences? • What facilitates children to develop the grammatical system of their language?

3. Theories of child language acquisition • A behaviorist view of language acquisition (Skinners) 行为主义 • An innatist view of language acquisition (Chomsky) 天赋主义 • An interactionist view of language acquisition 互动主义 • Cognitive factors in child language development

4. A behaviorist view of language acquisition • B. F. Skinner • Language is a behavior. • language learning: a matter of imitation and habit formation. • A child imitates the sounds and patterns of the people around him; people recognize the child's attempts and reinforce the attempts by responding differently, the child repeats the right sounds or patterns to get the reward. • Imitation—reinforcement (positive / negative)—Practice--discrimination and generalization--practice

6. A behaviorist view of language acquisition • The inadequacy of behaviorist view lies in explaining how children acquire complex language system. • It offers a reasonable account of how children acquire some of the regular and routine aspects of language.

7. An innatist view of language acquisition • Chomsky • LAD • UG • According to the innatist view of language acquisition, human beings are biologically programmed for language and that the language develops in the child just as other biological functions such as walking.

8. Criticism • It may serve as an answer to the logical problem of language acquisition that the behaviorist view fails to recognize. • The fact that children come to know more about the structure of their language than they could reasonably be expected to learn from the language samples they hear. • So when exposed to confusing information or when guidance or correction is not available, children, born with UG, can discover for themselves the underlying rules of the language system.

9. LAD • Language Acquisition Device • an imaginary "black box" existing somewhere in the human brain • contain principles that are universal to all human languages (universal grammar) • what they have to learn is the ways in which their own language makes use of these principles and the variations on those principles which may exist in the particular language they are learning

10. An interactionist view of language acquisition • The interactionist view holds that language develops as a result of the complex interplay between the human characteristics of the child and the environment in which the child develops. • Integrated with the innatist view, the interactionist further claims that the modified language which is suitable for the child’s capability is crucial in his language acquisition. (motherese)

11. Cognitive factors in child language development cognitive development language development cognitive development language development shape crucial

12. Cognitive factors in child language development 1)      Language development is dependent on both the concepts children form about the world and what they feel stimulated to communicate at the early and later stages of their language development. (the acquisition of perfect tense and the concept of present relevance) 2)      The cognitive factors determine how the child makes sense of the linguistic system himself instead of what meanings the child perceives and expresses. (the acquisition of negative form)

13. 10.4 Two Factors • language environment & the age they start to learn language • In the three approaches, language environment plays a different role in language acquisition.

14. 10.4 Two Factors • CPH 关键期假说 The strong version ： children must acquire their first language by puberty or they will never be able to learn from subsequent exposure. The weak version ： language learning will be more difficult and incomplete after puberty.

15. 10.5 Stages • Phonological development 2 p b m n w 2.5 t d k g n h3 f s 1 j4 F v z r tF dV 西瓜 小狗 哥哥 姑姑 吃东西 姐姐

16. Vocabulary development a) Under-extension (扩充,范围 ) 外延缩小 b) Over-extension

17. lingustic complexity or input? Grammatical development • telegraphic speech（at age of two) • three main elements (2.5) • morphemes • transformation

18. 10.6 Atypical(非典型的) development • Hearing impairment (损害, 损伤) • Mental retardation (延迟) • Autism (孤独症) • stuttering (口吃) • Aphasia (失语症) • Dyslexia (诵读困难) and dysgraphia (书写困难)