This chapter discusses language learning in early childhood. It covers topics such as first language acquisition milestones in the first three years including negation and question formation. It also discusses language development in pre-school and school-aged children. The chapter examines theoretical perspectives on first language acquisition such as behaviorist, innatist and interactionist views. It further discusses language disorders and delays in children as well as childhood bilingualism.

1. By :
Candy Robert
Viena Simon
Jeniffer Annie Ali
Grace William Bali
Chapter 1 :
Language learning in early
childhood
THEORETICAL BASES OF LANGUAGE LEARNING
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH

3. First Language Acquisition
- Language acquisition is the process by which
human acquire the capacity to perceive and
comprehend language, as well as to produce
and use words and sentences to
communicate.

4. The first three years: Milestones and
developmental sequences
1. The earliest vocalizations are simply the involuntary crying
that babies do when they are hungry or comfortable.
2. They distinguish the voice of their mothers and other
speakers, and seem to recognize the language that was
spoken aorund their mother before they were born.
3. Babies are capable to hear the difference between sounds as
similar as ‘pa’ and ‘ba’. They will continue to respond to
these differences for a longer period when they hear more
than one languages.

5. The first three years: Milestones and
developmental sequences
Stages in Grammar Morphemes
Stages Features of LA (Negation) Examples
1 Negation is usually expressed by the word ‘no’,
either all alone or as the first word in the
utterance.
No. No cookie. No comb
hair.
2 Utterances grow longer and the sentence
subject may be included. The –ve word appears
just before the verb.
Daddy no comb hair. Don’t
touch that!
3 The negative element is inserted into a more
complex sentences. (Adding forms of the –ve
other than ‘no’.
I can’t do it. He don’t want
it.
4 Children begin to attach the –ve elements to
the correct form of auxiliary verbs such as ‘do’
and ‘be’.
You didn’t have supper. She
doesn’t want it.

6. The first three years: Milestones and developmental sequences
Stages in Questions
Stages Features of LA (Questions) Examples
1 Children’s earliest questions are single words or
simple two or three word sentences with rising
intonation.
Cookie? Mommy book?
2 Children use the word order of the declaratve
sentence, with rising intonation.
You like this? I have some?
3 Children notice that the structure of questions is
different and begin to produce questions;
Can I go?
Are you happy?
4 Some questions are formed by subject-auxiliary
inversion. They also add ‘do’ in questions in which
there would be no auxiliary in the declarative version
of the sentence.
Are you going to play with me?
Do dogs like ice cream?
5 Both wh- and yes/no questions are formed correctly. Are these your boots?
Why did you do that?
6. Children are able to correctly form all question types,
including –ve and complex embedded questions.

7. The-pre school years
1. At the age of four, most children have aquired the basic
strucures of the language. (ask questions, give commands,
give reports)
2. Children (3-4 year olds) begin to learn vocabulary at the rate
of several words a day.
3. They develop their ability in using the language in a widening
social environment and variety of situations.
4. Children also begin to develop metalinguistic awareness.
E.g, the ability to treat language as an object separate from
the meaning it conveys.

8. The school years
1. Children develop their language as they grow up.
2. Reading gives a major boost to metalinguistic awareness
(language are form as well as meaning).
3. Metalinguistic awareness also includes the discovery of such
things as ambiguity. It leads them to access to word jokes,
trick questions, riddles, etc.
4. In the school years, children also develop vocabularies.
(Reading assignments, for pleasure whether narrrative or
non-fiction). However, the amount depends on how widely
they read (Nagy, Herman and Anderson 1985).

9. The school years
Language registers.
1.Children learn how written language differs from spoken
language, how the language used to speak to the principal is
different from the language of a narative.

10. Explaining First Language AcquisitionExplaining First Language Acquisition

11. The Behaviorist Perspective

12. Analyzing Children’s Speech

13. •Imitation and practice alone cannot explain some of the forms created by children.
•Children appear to pick out patterns and generalize them to new contexts.
•Their new sentences are usually comprehensible and often correct.
•Behaviorism – offer a reasonable way of understanding how children learn some of the
regular and routine aspects of language, especially at the earliest stages.

14. The innatist perspective

15. • Often linked to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)
• CPH
– suggests that children who are not given access to language in
infancy and early childhood will never acquire language if these
deprivations go on for too long
– Language acquisition begins at birth and possibly even before,
as the child’s brain is shaped by exposure to the language(s) in
the environment.
The innatist perspective

16. • Based on evidence that there is a critical
period for language acquisition.
• Also seen as an explanation for the logical
problem of language acquisition that is the
question of how adult speakers come to know
the complex structure of their first language
on the basis of the limited sample of language
to which they are exposed.
The innatist perspective

17. Interactionalist / developmental
perspectives
• language acquisition is as similar to and
influenced by the acquisition of other kinds of
skill and knowledge, rather than as something
that is different from and largely independent
of the child’s experience and cognitive
development.
• Dan Slobin (1973)
– Have a long emphasized the close relationship
between children’s cognitive development and
their acquisition of language

19. Intteractionist/developmental perspective

20. Language Disorders and Delays
LDO AMONG CHILDREN
Causes and Consequences
OF LDO

21. DEFINITION

Language impaired

Language delays

Clinicians use the terms “specific language
impairment”

Significant delay in the use and understanding of
spoken and written language.

Affect children in speaking, writing, and reading.
(Clark & Kamhi, 2010)

22. CAUSES & CONSEQUENCES IN LDO
CAUSES CONSEQUENCES
- Children have difficulty in language
learning.
- Due to mental, sensory & physical deficits.
- Severe emotional distrubance
- Environmental factor
- “children with cognitive weaknesses”
(Clark &Kamhi, 2010).
1. Affect comprehension
- receptive language
- how children receive, process and
respond
2. Production
- expressive language
- difficult to produce oral language
- difficult to construct sentences and convey
the meaning.

23. LDO AMONG CHILDREN
(Lightbown & Spada, 2013)
YOUNG CHILDREN OLDER CHILDREN
- Normal case: able to produce 1st
recognizable words at the of 1-year old.
- Abnormal case: children have problem
producing 1st
words towards the age of 3.
- Language delay
- Affect speaking skill
- Normal case: 5-year old child is able to
read and understand simple sentences.
- Without / less direction from adults.
- Abnormal case: child can't read, cannot
make sense of words in a text.
- Affected by social factors, health factors,
environmental factors.
- give impact to reading and writing skills.

25. Childhood bilingualism
• Children’s acquisition of languages start from
the first moment of their childhood and add
to its variety during school and develop
multifacets of personal, social, and economic
opportunities.
• There is no evidence that learning a 2nd
language has negative effects on
developments.

26. Childhood bilingualism
• Without an age-appropriate knowledge of a particular
language or languages, these children are often
misdiagnosed as encountering language delays and
disorders (Jim Cummins & Ors.)
• Concerns suggesting that children confusions in learning
multiple languages from their earliest childhood
(simultaneous bilinguals) and children acquiring knowledge
of another language at later stage of their childhood
(sequential bilinguals) might hamper both their linguistic or
cognitive development is frivolous.

27. Childhood bilingualism
• The inability to attain high levels of proficiency in multiple
languages is highly influenced by environmental situation rather
than limitation in the human capacity to educate themselve (Ellen
Bialystok (2001) & Ors).
• Ellen Bialystok added in 2009 that proficiency in multibilinguals
render cognitive flexibity as in the ability to combine the usage of
two different languages in a daily conversation (code switching).
• Wong-Fillmore (1991) – children must develop age appropriate
mastery of home language before being submerged in English.
• Lambert (1987) – Subtractive vs Additive bilingualism

28. Childhood bilingualism
Interactionist / developmental
• Perspective that take both nature and nurture
into account are the most plausible.
• Teachers and educators need to be aware that
knowing another language is not a disorder and
also that additive bilingualism is important for
both children and parents to maintain their self
esteem and experience cognitive development in
a language that they are familiar with.