The document discusses theories of language acquisition, including the idea that humans are born with an innate language acquisition device (LAD) and principles of universal grammar (UG) that provide a framework for acquiring language. It also discusses parameters that are language-specific and acquired during development. The critical period hypothesis and autonomous cognitive development are examined, as well as language development milestones from babbling to multi-word stages in early childhood.

2. INBORN KNOWLEDGE
LAD / UG
COGNITIVE
FEEDBACK DEVELOPMENT
ADULT CRITICAL
SPEECH PERIOD
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

3. COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Inborn
CRITICAL
FEEDBACK knowledge : PERIOD
LAD
ADULT
SPEECH
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

4.  nativism : grammatical knowledge – inborn
LAD (Language Acquisition Device)
 children are born with prior knowledge of
categories, operations, principles common
to all human languages:
UG (Universal Grammar)
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

5.  Principle of word order
UG X’ consists of X & Complement
Principle (UG) : inborn
 Parameter : X + complement [head-initial]
Complement + X [head final]
 parameters – language-specific/acquired
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

6. XP
spec X’
x comp
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

7.  language acquisition – autonomous cognitive
development
 15 year old retardate:
general cognitive ability – deficient
non-linguistic ability – preschool child
linguistic ability –fully developed
 cases of people normal IQ – have difficulty in
inflections for past tense & plural
 The boys eat four apple.
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

8.  normal linguistic development is possible
only if children are exposed to language
during a particular time frame.
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

9.  phonetic : slow carefully articulated higher pitched
with longer pauses
 lexical & semantic : restricted vocabulary;
concrete reference to here & now
 syntactic: few incomplete short sentences;
imperative questions
 conversational: more repetitions;
few utterances per conversation turn
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

10.  correcting errors:
Child: Want other one spoon, Daddy.
Father: You mean, you want the other spoon.
Child: Yes, I want other one spoon, please Daddy.
Father: Can you say “the other spoon”?
Child: Other . . . one . . . spoon.
Father: Say “other”.
Child: Other.
Father: Spoon.
Child: Spoon.
Father: “Other spoon”.
Child: Other. . .spoon. Now give me the other one spoon?
(O’Grady & Archibald, 2009; p. 362)
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

11.  recast : repeating the utterance,
making adjustment to its form/content
Child: Daddy here
Mother: Yes, Daddy is here.
Child: Him go.
Mother: Yes, he is going.
Child: Boy chasing dog.
Mother: Yes, the boy is chasing the dog.
Child: The dog is barking
Mother: Yes, he is barking at the kitty.
(O’Grady & Archibald, 2009; p. 363)
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

12.  important factor in the child’s language
acquisition process: actual use of sound and
word combination in interaction or in word
play.
 one, two, tie my shoe; three, four, shut the
door; five, six, pick up sticks; seven, eight, lay
them straight; nine, ten, a big fat hen.
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

13. Stage Typical age Description
Babbling and Cooing 1 to 8 months Repetitive CV patterns – ba, pa, ma
Hear the difference between [i] and
[a] and syllables like [ba] and [pa]
One-word stage 9-18 months Single terms: milk, cat, cup
holophrastic stage Single form functioning as a phrase or
sentence
Two-word stage 18-24 months clauses with simple semantic relations –
baby eat, dog bad, cat drink
Telegraphic stage or 24-30 months sentence structures of lexical rather
early multiword stage than functional or grammatical
morphemes- cat drink milk, this baby
all wet, daddy go
Later multiword stage 30+ months Grammatical or functional structures
emerge
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL

14. Brown, H. Douglas. 2007. Principles of Language Learning
and Teaching, 5th Edition. White Plains, NY: Pearson
Education.
O’Grady, William and John Archibald. 2009.
Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, 6th Edition.
Canada: Pearson Education.
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico
www.languagelinks.org
Dr. Jessie Grace U. Rubrico, Faculty of Education Universiti Malaya KL