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Exploring Language Acquisition Theories in Children

Learn about language acquisition in children through theories like Innateness, Imitation, Reinforcement, and Interactionist. Understand phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic development. Witness stages from prenatal perception to babbling and acquisition difficulties.

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Exploring Language Acquisition Theories in Children

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  1. Language Acquisition LI 2023 Nathalie F. Martin

  2. References • References: • Language files (7th ed). Cipollone, Keiser & Vasishth • Contemporary Linguistic Analysis (5th ed) O’Grady & Archibald • http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/ling001/acquisition.html

  3. Introduction • Language acquisition is the process by which the language capability _________ in a human. • First language acquisition concerns the development of language in _________ , while second language acquisition focuses on language development in _________ as well

  4. IntroductionOpinion • According to you, what does a child need to learn in order to “know” his or her language?

  5. Three general theories of language acquisition: Innateness Theory Imitation Theory Reinforcement Theory Interactionist Theory (or Constructivism)

  6. IntroductionOpinion • According to you, how does a child learn a language?

  7. Theories of language acquisitionInnateness Theory • Children have the _________ _____ to differentiate phonemes, extract words from the stream of language, and process grammar. Rowe & Levine (2012). A Concise Introduction to Linguistics, p .237.

  8. Theories of language acquisitionImitation Theory • Children learn grammar by _________ the words and sentences of their language • Problems with this theory: • Children produce many things that are not found in _________ _________ • Children make consistent ______that cannot be attributed to mispronunciation and which still are not ever heard in the adult grammar. • Children can produce and understand _________ _____

  9. Theories of language acquisitionReinforcement Theory • Children learn to speak like adults because they are taught to do so: • Through _________ and _________ when speaking “correctly”. • Through _________ when making “mistakes” • Problems with this theory: • Adults don't seem to correct children's grammar as much as we might think, neither do they praise them for using proper adult grammatical constructions. • There is little evidence that reinforcement has any great effect on the language development of the child

  10. Theories of language acquisitionInteractionist Theory • Children "invent" the rules of grammar for themselves • Though it is based on the _________ _________ • Innate ability to _________ _________ • Only approach that explains how children • Produce _________ _________ • Ex: Past tense - goed* or hitted* • Generate _________ ______that they have never heard • Seem almost impervious to correction from adults

  11. Theories of language acquisitionInteractionist Theory • Irregular verbs acquisition - Past tense: • Children acquire some irregular past tense forms quite early through memorization • Then the child starts to notice a general “rule” for past tense formation • This results in ______________(ex: goed*) • Finally the child realizes that “went” is an _________

  12. Aspects of Language Acquisition Phonetic development Phonological development Morphological development Syntactic development Semantic development

  13. She Sure Knows a Lot About Language !!! http://vimeo.com/16404771

  14. IntroductionQuestions • What does one need to learn in order to learn a language? • When do you think an individual begins learning language?

  15. Acquisition:PHONETICS

  16. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Beginning to learn language involves: • Learning how to _________ the necessary speech sounds • Learning to _________ make sense of the speech sounds • Ex: Figuring out what are the phones & _________ of one's language

  17. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Production Baby Adult

  18. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • In the womb: • Perception of ________ ________ • ________(rhythm and intonation) • From birth: • Perception • ________ • Six months of age: • ________ stage

  19. Vocalization (Cooing) For an example of a baby vocalization/cooing: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKu_rUsIPHM&feature=related

  20. Contemporary Linguistics: p.313 Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Babbling is a stage when babies: • Produce ________ sequences of ________ ________ • Practices the difficult sequences of ________ gestures (jaw and tongue and velum movement, along with voicing control) • Example: • Repeating CV syllables (mama, papa) * At this stage there is no clear association between babbling and meaning

  21. Babbling • For an example of babbling: • Vowels: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DDZbQ_OJWw • Syllables: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RqUTJAfy48&feature=related • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZw2NsqkFBo&feature=related

  22. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition

  23. Difficult soundsAnalysis • Why do you think certain sounds are easier to produce for children? • What makes a sound hard to pronounce? • What about allophones?

  24. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Handout

  25. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition

  26. Contemporary Linguistics: p.314 ... Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonetic Acquisition • Developmental order in babbling: • Generally ________ before ________ • ________ before other consonants • _______before alveolar, velar and alveopalatals • Lastly ________ • Perception of phonemic contrast begins in word-initial position

  27. Acquisition:PHONOLOGY

  28. Experiments on Babies • Research on how infants acquire language in a video featuring Toby Mintz, associate professor of psychology and linguistics at the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, and USC College undergraduate Ashlee Welday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZAuZ--Yeqo

  29. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonological Acquisition • 18 months: • Link between sound and _________ • Memorizes single words as chunks and not pay much attention to _________ differences • Ex: doesn’t necessarily understand that /b/ and /d/ are different phonemes in English

  30. Aspects of Language AcquisitionPhonological Acquisition • Later phonological acquisition: • Perception of phonemic _________ • Perception of CV & _____________ structure • Understanding of _________ • Babies naturally delete unstressed syllables in words. • For example: “nana” [nAny] for “banana” [benAny]

  31. Acquisition:Early Phonetic Processes Syllable deletion: Syllable simplification: Substitution: Assimilation: Maintenance of the same consonant/vowel

  32. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Syllable deletion: • Telephone /ˈtɛləˌfoʊn/ - /foʊ/ • Helicopter /ˈhɛlɪˌkɒptər/ - /ɛlkɒt/ • Syllable simplification: • Stop /stɒp/ - /tɒp/ • Small /smɔl/ - /mɔ/

  33. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Substitution: • Sing / sɪŋ / - / tɪŋ / • Shoes / ʃuz / - / tud / • Ship / ʃɪp / - / sɪp / • Look / lʊk / - / wʊk / • Jam / dʒæm / - / dæb /

  34. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Assimilation: • Tell / tɛl / - / dɛl / • Pig / pɪg / - / bɪg / • Maintenance of the same consonant/vowel • Doggy / ˈdɒgi / - / ˈdɒdi / or / ˈgɒgi / • Baby / ˈbeɪbi / - / ˈbibi /

  35. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Charlie / ˈtʃɑrli / - / ˈtʃɑ:li / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM

  36. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • All / ɔl / - / ɔ / • The / ðə / - / ə / • Time / taɪm /  http:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8aprCNnecU

  37. Aspects of Language Acquisition Early Phonetic Processes • Thought / θɔt/ - /tɔt/ • Saw/sɔ/ - /tɔ/ • Pussy /ˈpʊsi/ - /ˈpʊdi/ • Cat /kæt/ - / tæt/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=E8aprCNnecU

  38. Acquisition:VOCABULARY & SEMANTICS

  39. Contemporary Linguistics: p.317 ... Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Semantic acquisition is how children acquire _________ & _________ • Children need to learn: • Nouns (Concrete vs. abstract) • Verbs • Adjectives • Pronouns • Articles • Etc.

  40. Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • To learn word meaning children basically have to make guesses about what words mean • Example …

  41. Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • For example: A child is exposed, for example, to a poodle in the street and sees mommy or daddy point to it and say "doggie". Even if the kid associates "doggie" with that object, there are a number of routes that the child can logically take. The child might see a squirrel and say, "doggie", clearly having taken the word "doggie" to mean something more general that it does in the adult grammar. Or, the child might see a dog, say a “labrador”, and not say anything, failing to associate the word "doggie" with anything beyond poodle-ness. This trial and error process seems to be how children acquire word meanings.

  42. Contemporary Linguistics: p.320 Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Overgeneralizations (or overextensions): • Overgeneralizations are cases in which a child gives a word a ____________ ____________ that it has in the adult grammar • E.g. Using the word "fly" to include specks of dirt, dust, small insects, and bread crumbs

  43. Contemporary Linguistics: p.320 Aspects of Language AcquisitionSemantic Acquisition • Underextensions: • Underextensions have the opposite effect. In this case, it might help to think of them as cases in which the child is being ____ ________ • E.g. A child who calls “a ball” “a ball” only when it is under the sofa • E.g. Underextended the word "fruit" as to exclude olives

  44. KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS !!! • My cousin's daughter looked at my feet the other day and saw the state of my torn shoes. • She looked over to her mother and said: "Mommy, look. She had broken feet!“ • Classic example of overextension of “feet” :)

  45. Language AcquisitionVovabulary Acquisition

  46. Acquisition:MORPHOLOGY

  47. IntroductionExample of Child’s Speech • CHILD: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • ADULT: Did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits. • CHILD: Yes. • ADULT: What did you say she did? • CHILD: She holded the baby rabbits and we patted them. • ADULT: Did you say she held them tightly? • CHILD: No, she holded them loosely.

  48. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition • Plurals: • Plural suffix is acquired __ • Then there is overgeneralization as the child is building a grammar • (Ex: sheeps, foots)

  49. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition

  50. Aspects of Language AcquisitionMorphological Acquisition • Suffixes • Example: Church kids

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