LanguLanguage Acquisition Theories Definition of Language Acquisition Physical Structure for Speech Development 5 basic stages of Language Developmental Sequences How to Enrich Child's speech Theoretical Approaches to L1 Acquisition Theoretical Approaches to L2 Acquisition

1. Language Acquisition
Theories
Fall 1399
Sh. Tamizrad

2. Language Acquisition Means
Investigating the processes through which individuals
acquire language is Language acquisition

3. Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire
the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to
produce and use words to communicate.

4. First Things First!
• FLA: First Language Acquisition
• SLA: Second Language Acquisition

5. FLA
• First language acquisition refers to the child’s acquisition of his mother
tongue, and how he comes to understand and speak the language of his
community.

9. 5 basic stages of Language
• Cooing
• Babbling
• One word utterances
• Telegraphic speech
• Normal Speech

10. Cooing
• Appears at about 3/4-8 months. All infants coo using all the phonemes from every
language. Even congenitally deaf children coo. Repetitive CV patterns
• During the period from, infants typically engage in “vocal play”, manipulating pitch (to
produce “squeals” and “growls”), loudness (producing “yells”), and also manipulating
tract closures to produce friction noises, nasal murmurs and snorts.

11. Babbling
• Appears at around 9 months. Infants selectively use the phonemes ( smallest
unit of sound) from their native language.
• 7 months,- "canonical babbling" appears: infants start to make extended
sounds that are chopped up rhythmically by oral articulations into syllable-like
sequences, opening and closing their jaws, lips and tongue.. The range of
sounds produced are heard as stop-like and glide like. Vowels tend to be low
and open, at least in the beginning.

12. Babbling
• No other animal does anything like babbling. It has often been
hypothesized that vocal play and babbling have the function of
"practicing" speech-like gestures, helping the infant to gain control of the
motor systems involved, and to learn the acoustical consequences of
different gestures

13. Other Stages
At around 12-18 months, children start
using words.
Children start making multi-word
utterances that lack function words. (about 2 years old)
By about 5-6 years of age, children have almost
normal speech

15. There is often a spurt of vocabulary acquisition during the
second year. Early words are acquired at a rate of 1-3 per
week (as measured by production diaries); in many cases
the rate may suddenly increase to 8-10 new words per
week, after 40 or so words have been learned.

17. Developmental Sequences
Stages Show:

18. Developmental Sequences
Year 1 –
• Involuntary crying when they are hungry or uncomfortable
• Babbling and gurgling
• Can distinguish between sounds

19. Developmental Sequences
Year 2 –
• Around 12 months (“one-word” stage):
• one or two recognizable words (esp. content word);
• Single-word sentences.

20. Developmental Sequences
By the age of 2 (“two-word” stage):
1) at least 50 different words
2) “ ” sentences (no function words and grammatical
morphemes) e.g., “Mommy juice”, “baby fall down”
3) reflecting the order of the language. e.g., “kiss baby”, “baby kiss”
4) creatively combining words. e.g., “more outside”, “all gone cookie”

21. Developmental Sequences
By the age of 4 most children are able to:
• ask questions,
• give commands,
• report real events,
• create stories about imaginary ones with
• correct word order and grammatical
• markers most of the time.

22. Developmental Sequences
By the age of 4
• basic structures of the language
• less frequent and more complex linguistic structures.
• use of the language in a widening social environment.

23. Emergence and Development of Language Features
.
• Related to children’s cognitive development
• No temporal adverbs until they develop a sense of time (tomorrow,
last week)

24. Stages of Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes
• Roger Brown et al. (1973) did a longitudinal study of three
children: Adam, Eve and Sarah
• Jill & Peter de Villiers (1973) confirmed it in a cross-sectional
study of 21 children

25. Stages of Acquisition of Grammatical Morphemes
Order of acquisition
1. Present progressive
2. Plural
3. Irregular past forms
4. Possessive
5. Copula
6. Articles
7. Regular past
8. Third person singular simple present
9. Auxiliary

26. Expand Vocabulary
• Talk constantly to your baby in full sentences
• Explain what you are doing all the time
“ Were are washing your toes”
“I am combing your pretty hair”

27. Read to your baby
• Read simple picture books to your baby, starting as early as two or three
months of age. Point to the pictures and name the pictures for them.
• Point to pictures make descriptive sentences “Look at the red ball”! See the
pretty pink bunny?
• Expand your babies words. Baby says Kha for car. You say …. That’s
daddy's big car.

28. Motivation for learning
• His learning of the new language coincides with his discovery of
the world. the curiosity that he has toward the world becomes a
powerful force in his language learning.
• And every time he uses a piece of language successfully, it is
reinforced in his mind and his confidence grows

29. Good Language Environment
• No pressure should be put upon the child as he learns
• The environment does contain within itself the ability to tell the child
where to begin and how to proceed.
• There is all the time that the child needs to learn the language

30. Theoretical Approaches to
L1 Acquisition

31. Theoretical Approaches to L1 Acqusition
1) : Say what I say
2) : It’s all in your mind
3) :
Learning from inside and out

32. : Say what I say
Skinner: language behavior is the production of correct
responses to stimuli through reinforcement

34. Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis
• The ideas associated with behaviorism.
• Role of the L1 in L2 learning.
• CAH predicted that where similarities existed between L1 and
L2 structures, there would be no difficulty for L2 learning.
• Differences, however, the L2 learner would experience
problems (Lado,1964).
• It failed to predict errors that L2 learners were observed to
make, and it predicted some errors that did not occur.

35. Language learning is the result of:
• Imitation (word-for-word repetition),
• Practice (repetitive manipulation of form),
• Feedback on success (positive reinforcement)
• Habit formation

37. • Children’s imitations are not random.
• Their imitation is selective and based on what they
are currently learning.

38. Children’s practice of new language forms
• It is selective and reflects what they would like to learn.
• They pick out patterns/rules and then generalize or
overgeneralize them to new contexts.

39. : It’s all in your mind

40. Cognitive Psychology
• Cognitive psychology examines internal mental processes such as problem-
solving, memory, and language.
• It hypothesized that second language acquisition, like other learning, requires
the learner’s attention and effort.
• Restructuring is a cognitive process in which previously acquired information
that has been somehow stored in separate categories is integrated and this
integration expands the learner’s competence

42. Chomsky (1959) argues that behaviorism cannot provide
sufficient explanations for children’s language acquisition
for the following reasons:

43. Children come to know more about the structure of their
language than they could be expected to learn on the basis
of the samples of language they hear.

44. • The language children are exposed to includes false starts,
incomplete sentences and slips of the tongue, and yet they learn to
distinguish between grammatical and ungrammatical sentences.
• Children are by no means systematically corrected or instructed on
language by parents.

47. LAD: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
( or BLACK BOX)
It contains all and only the principles which are universal to all
human languages (i.e.. Universal Grammar – UG)

50. Conclusion
• Children’s acquisition of grammatical rules is guided
by principles of an innate UG which could apply to all
languages.
• Children “know” certain things of the language just by
being exposed to a limited number of samples

51. Evidence used to support Chomsky’s innatist position:
Virtually all children successfully learn their native language at
a time in life when they would not be expected to learn anything
else so complicated (i.e. biologically programmed)

52. Evidence used to support Chomsky’s innatist position:
Language is separate from other aspects of cognitive
developments (e.g., creativity and social grace) and may
be located in a different “module" of the brain.

53. Evidence used to support Chomsky’s innatist position:
The language children are exposed to does not contain
examples of all the linguistic rules and patterns.

54. Evidence used to support Chomsky’s innatist position:
Animals cannot learn to manipulate a symbol system as
complicated as the natural language of a 3- or 4-year-
old child.

55. Evidence used to support Chomsky’s innatist position:
Children acquire grammatical rules without getting explicit
instruction.

56. The biological basis for the innatist position:
–Lenneberg:
• There is a specific and limited time period (i.e., “critical period”) for the LAD to
work successfully.
• Only when it is stimulated at the right time

58. • Virtually every child learns language on a similar schedule in spite of different
environments.
• Three case studies of abnormal language development - evidence of the
CPH
1. Victor – a boy of about 12 years old (1799)
2. Genie – a girl of 13 years old (1970)
3. Deaf signers (native signers, early learners, vs. late learners)

59. • Studying second language acquisition from a UG perspective deals
with language user’s underlying linguistic ‘competence’ (what they
know) instead of focusing on their linguistic ‘performance’ (what a
language user actually says or writes or understands).
• The researcher may ask a language user to judge whether a sentence
is grammatical or not.
• Competence: abstract underlying knowledge of language Ideal
speakers’ situation .
• Performance: language representation

61. Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis
• Acquisition: unconscious development of language through
exposure.(implicit)
• Learning: conscious effort to develop language through study and
practice.(explicit)

62. Monitor Theory
• The fundamental hypothesis of Monitor Theory is that there
is a difference between ‘acquisition’ and
‘learning’.
• Learning functions as a monitor or editor and its focus on
form/correctness and rules.
• Acquisition is responsible for fluency.

63. Natural Order Hypothesis
L2 learners, like L1 learners, go through a series of
predictable stages in their acquisition of linguistic
features (Krashen ,1982) .

64. Comprehension Input Hypothesis
L2 learning, like L1 learning, occurs as a result of
exposure to meaningful and varied linguistic input
(Krashen)

65. Affective Filter Hypothesis
(anxiety, motivation, self-confidence)
• Learner’s feeling or attitude impedes or blocks input
necessary to acquisition.
• Successful acquisition is that the learner be motivated to
learn the L2 and thus receptive to the comprehensible input.

66. Connectionism
• It explains how brain creates networks which connect words or
phrases to other words or phrases (as well as to events and
objects) which occur at the same time.
• Links or connections are strengthened through repeated (high
frequency) exposure to linguistic stimuli in specific contexts.

67. Connectionism
• Connectionists challenge nativists and contend that general learning mechanisms
such as sensitivity to distributional patterns in the input are sufficient for at least some
aspects of language acquisition, including syntax.
• This approach, also variously known as the “information processing approach” or a
parallel distributed processing (PDP) approach, generally holds that processing is
carried out by nodes (roughly analogous to neurons) that are connected to other
nodes in a network by pathways that vary in
their strength.
• Connectionists argue that children can learn the regularities of the language through
an inductive process based on exposure to many examples.

68. Processability Theory
• Processability Theory represents a way to relate underlying cognitive processes to
stages in the L2 learner’s development (Pienemann, 1998).
• Theory was originally developed as a result of studies of the acquisition of German word
order and, later, on the basis of research with L2 learners of English.
• L2 learners were observed to acquire certain syntactic and morphological features of the
L2 in predictable stages. These features were referred to as ‘developmental’.
• Other features, referred to as ‘variational’, appeared to be learned by some but not all
learners.
• It was suggested that each stage represented a further degree of complexity in
processing strings of words and grammatical markers

70. Problems of Innatism
Too much emphasis on the “final state” but not enough on
the developmental aspects of language acquisition.

71. Problems of Innatism
• Language was ONE manifestation of the cognitive and affective ability
to deal with the world.
• Innatists dealt with FORMS of the language, not with the FUNCTIONAL
levels of meaning constructed from SOCIAL INTERACTION.

72. • Language learning takes place through social interaction, and interlocutors adjust
their speech to make it more accessible to learners.
• Ex: children’s interaction with their caregivers and peers which is tailored to their
linguistic and cognitive abilities (child-directed speech).
• These adjustments include modifications and simplifications in all aspects of
language, including phonology, vocabulary, syntax ,discourse and paraphrasing,
repeating, clarifying.

73. • Bruner : Language acquisition is an example of children’s ability to learn from experience. What
children need to know is essentially available in the language they are exposed to.

75. CARETAKER TALK
It is the way adults modify their speech when communicating with kids.
➢ Slower rate of speech
➢ Higher pitch
➢ More varied intonation
➢ Shorter simpler sentence patterns
➢ Frequent repetition
➢ Paraphrase

80. Definition

81. Second Language Acquisition

82. • Some obvious reasons for the problem experience in SLA are related
to the fact that most people attempt to learn another language during
the teenager or adult years, in a view hours each week of school time
(rather than natural communication experienced by a child) and
already known language available for most of their daily
communicative requirements.

83. • Some other reasons include that adult tongue get stiff from
pronouncing one type of language (e.g. English) and cope with
the new sounds of another language (e.g. French or Javanese).
• Students in the early teens are quicker and more effective than
L2 adult learners.

88. • Third language acquisition refers to the acquisition of a non-native
language by learners who have previously acquired or are acquiring
two other language. The acquisition of the first and second language
can be simultaneous as in early bilingualism (Cenoz, 2000).
• Second language acquisition has become a cover term for
acquisition after a first language has been learned

89. • There a number of variables that can impact the extent to which one of the
languages involved (the L2 or the L1) will influence the acquisition of the L3.
The age at which L3 learning begins, the context of acquisition, individual
characteristics etc.
• There are many areas that impact third language acquisition, including
sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, and cross-linguistic influences.

90. • Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of
cognition.
• There is an intimate relationship between culture and mind, and that all
learning is first social then individual.
• Through dialogic communication, learners jointly construct knowledge
and this knowledge is later internalized by the individual.
• Sociocultural theorists emphasize the integration of the social, cultural
and biological elements.

91. • In the 1970s, a number of error analysis studies found that errors
made by L2 learners are systematic.
• The term ‘interlanguage’ (Selinker, 1972) was coined to characterize
this developing linguistic system of the L2 learner.
• L2 learners’ errors could not be attributed to L1 influence.
• Both L1 and L2 learners of English make similar overgeneralization
errors such as two mouses and she goed.

92. • Study of second language acquisition based on previous work in L1
acquisition.
• Brown’s (1973) longitudinal research on the language development of
three children ( how they acquired grammatical morphemes).
• Result showed that forms are acquired in a similar order.
• L2 learners go through similar sequence.

93. • Some aspects of language are more susceptible to L1 influence
than others (pronunciation and word order).
• Learners may be slowed down when they reach a developmental
level at which a particular interlanguage pattern is similar to a
pattern in their L1.
• Another way in which the L1 interacts with developmental
sequences is in the constraints which L1 influence may place on the
use of L2 patterns within a particular stage.

94. • Instruction can have a significant effect on L2 acquisition.
• It does not prevent learners from going through
developmental stages.
• But it may permit learners to move through the stages
faster.

95. • Krashen (1982) argued that instruction tended to lead only to what
he called ‘learning’ and that instruction could potentially interfere
with language ‘acquisition’.
• He concluded that exposure to ‘comprehensible input’ would be
sufficient to allow learners to progress through developmental
stages because the language t
• One way to provide learners with more natural input is through
communicative and content-based language teaching