1. First Language Acquisition Chapter 14

2. Basic Requirements A language-using environment
Capable of sending and receiving sounds signals in a language
Able to interact with others via language

3. Caregiver Speech Frequent use of questions Exaggerated intonation
Slow tempo
Long pauses
Simple sentences
A lot of repetition

4. The Acquisition Schedule
All normal children develop language at roughly the same time
COOING: the earliest speech-like sounds
First few months of life
Sequences of vowel-like sounds
5 months old
Able to hear the difference between vowels [i] and [a] and syllables [ba] and [pa]

5. The Acquisition Schedule
Between 6 and 8 months
Ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga
Beginning of BABBLING stage
Around 9 to 10 months
Later babbling stage
Recognizable intonation patterns
Nasal sounds [ma]
10-11 months
Late babbling stage; used to express emotions and emphasis
More complex syllable combinations (ma-da-ga-ba)
Provides the child with some experience of the social role of speech (because adults tend to react to this type of sound production)

6. One-Word Stage Between 12 and 18 months ONE-WORD STAGE
Single-unit utterance
EXAMPLES: milk, cookie, cup
HOLOPHRASTIC
Single form functioning as an entire phrase or sentence

7. Two-Word Stage 18-20 months TWO-WORD STAGE
Used with a vocabulary of 50+ words
EXAMPLES: baby chair, light off, cat bad
Interpretation is solely related to context

8. Telegraphic Speech Between 2 and 2 ½ Produces 200-300 distinct words
Understands words
TELEGRAPHIC SPEECH
Strings of words in phrases and sentences (like a telegraph)
EXAMPLES: this shoe all wet, daddy go bye-bye
By 3 yrs.
Pronunciation has become closer to the form of adult language

9. The Acquisition Process
Language acquisition is NOT simply a matter of :
Providing instruction on how to speak a language
Filling a little empty head with words
Children imitating adult speech
An adult making corrections to a child’s speech
Rather, a more accurate view would be that children actively construct, from what is said to them, possible ways of using the language.

10. Developing Morphology
Starting at about 2 ½ yrs.
1st : -ing morpheme
cat sitting
2nd : regular plural –s
boys, cats
Often accompanied by OVERGENERALIZATION
Foots, mans, boyses, footses, some mens, and two feets
3rd : possessive –’s
Girl’s dog

11. Developing Morphology, Cont.
4th : forms of ‘to be’
Are, was
ALSO—about the same time–irregular past tense went and came appear
5th : regular past tense –ed
Walked , played
At this stage, irregular forms (went and came) may be OVERGENERALIZED as goed and comed
6th : third person singular present –s and auxiliaries
[he] Comes, [it] looks, does, has

12. Developing Syntax, Cont.
FORMING QUESTIONS
1st (18-26 months): add wh-form in front and rising intonation at the end
Where kitty?
2nd (22-30 months): same as 1st , but more complex phrases
Why you smiling?
3rd (24-40 months): S/V inversion occurs
Can I go?

13. Developing Syntax, Cont.
FORMING NEGATIVES
1st (18-26 months): put no or not at the beginning
I no fall. (I didn’t fall)
2nd (22-30 months): negative forms don’t and can’t appear with other auxiliary forms such as won’t and didn’t following closely behind.

14. Developing Semantics OVEREXTENSION
When the meaning of a word is OVEREXTENDED on the basis of shape, sound, size, movement, texture, or other characteristics.
EXAMPLE:
doggie=all four-legged creatures
cookie=all circular things
fly=any little specks of anything
Overextension is usually only relevant to a child’s language PRODUCTION, not COMPREHENSION. What does this mean?
As the child’s vocabulary increases, the overextension of words occurs less and less.

15. By the age of 5, the child has completed the greater part of L1 acquisition.
What does this knowledge of L1 acquisition process mean for teachers? How can we apply this knowledge?

16.
Gettysburg Address
Young 2-year-old with incomprehensible speech
Making sense of nonsense