Edi Brata discusses language acquisition in three sessions: 1) First language acquisition - Children acquire language naturally through exposure and without formal teaching. Nativist theories posit an innate language acquisition device. 2) Second language acquisition - Similar to first language but with native language interference. Requires sufficient exposure and practice using the new language. 3) Foreign language acquisition - Children can acquire any language like L1 if the environment provides sufficient exposure and use, though adults face disadvantages like a lack of a critical period. Both children and adults learn via similar cognitive mechanisms.

1. Edi Brata
Mathla’ul Anwar University
Psycholinguistics 2: Language Acquisition
(16th Session of Introduction to Linguistics)

2. Language Acquisition
First Second Foreign
Language Language Language
Acquisition Acquisition Acquisition
We have features for every step of the way

3. First Language
Acquisition
The process of how children acquire their native language

4. First Language Acquisition
•A child’s mind is like a blank slate •Children do not need any kind of
•All knowledge comes from formal teaching to learn to
experience speak.
•Environment shapes learning and •Children are born with a natural
behavior capacity to learn language.
•Children react to their •The brain contains systems for
surroundings recognizing patterns of sound.
•Children learn language from •Children are biologically
•Input programmed for language.
•Trial and error •Chomsky’s theories and “critical
period” theories are important in
•Error correction nativist theories.
Behaviorist Nativist

5. Noam Chomsky’s L-A-D
Chomsky’s theory of the LAD
(Language Acquisition Device)
states that every human is born
with innate principles of
language.
Children learn language
spontaneously and speak
creatively.
The “poverty of the stimulus
theory” states that what
children hear is incomplete and
often ungrammatical, and
cannot account for the creativity
of their utterances.

6. Critical Period of Age
Language Stage Beginning Age
» Crying! Birth
» Cooing! 6 weeks
» Babbling! 6 months
» Intonation patterns! 8 months
» One-word utterances! 1 year
» Two-word utterances! 18 months
» Word inflections! 2 years
» Questions, negations! 2 1/4 years
» Rare and complex constructions! 5 years
» Mature speech! 10 years

7. Language Acquisition Device
LAD can prevent the children from using incorrect rules of
language and can discover language rules in the process of
acquiring language.

8. Autonomous
Learner

9. Second Language
Acquisition

10. o Similar to first language acquisition (L1)
o Hypotheses maker
o Sufficient exposure and opportunities to
use the language
o Native language interference in second
language learning (L2)

11. Foreign Language
Acquisition

12. Chomsky states:
“… Language learning is not something that a child does
but it is something that happens to the child placed in an
appropriate environment,…”

13. Foreign Language Acquisition
Children can They need
These
acquire any environment that
preconditions
language since provide sufficient
make the learning
they also possess exposure to the
of EFL similar to
several qualities language and
that of English as L1
owned by L1 and L2 opportunities to
and L2
children. use it.

14. Qualities possessed by
Learners in FLL:
o UG wired in the brain
Foreign o (For children) critical period of age
Language in learning language
Acquisition o Environment/language community
o Sufficient exposure to the
language
o Social beings
o Sufficient opportunities to use the
language for communicative
purposes
o May take longer time

15. Second and Foreign Language Acquisition
Fundamental difference between L1 and L2/FL Acquisition:
• All children learn their first language easily and well
whereas adults vary in their ultimate mastery of a second
language.
• Children do not need to be taught their first language
whereas adults benefit from formal instruction.
• Children are intrinsically motivated to learn their native
language whereas adult mastery of a second language is
dependent upon attitude, motivation, and aptitude.

16. Second and Foreign Language Acquisition
Despite the disadvantages of learning a second language in
adulthood, adults are naturally endowed with important L2
learning abilities:
• mature problem-solving abilities
• general understanding about the nature of human
interaction
• competence in native language

17. Adult Learners
» Analytical learners
» Language inhibition, self-
esteem/confidence
» Insufficient time in learning
» Insufficient exposure
» Insufficient opportunities to use
the language
» Motivation
» Way of learning at school
» UG?
» Critical period?

18. Second Foreign
Language Language
Acquisition Acquisition
Language Learning

19. Signal Learning
Stimulus-Response
Chaining
Verbal Association
Learning Types
Multiple Discrimination
Concept Learning
Principle Learning
Problem Solving

20. Transfer
Simplification
Learning Interference
Strategies
Generalization

21. Sanguine
Choleric Personality Phlegmatic
Melancholic

23. Thank You
See You!!!