This document summarizes a group project completed by students at the University Central of Ecuador on language acquisition. It discusses three main theories of language acquisition: imitation theory, reinforcement theory, and the active construction of grammar theory. It also covers topics like the stages of language acquisition in children, including babbling and first words. The differences between first language acquisition and second language learning are mentioned. Finally, the key differences between language acquisition and language learning are summarized.

1. University central of ecuador
Faculty of philosophy letters and science
education
Plurilingue
Fourth semester
Didactic I
Members:
• Sebastian Betancourt
• Alexandra Chasi
• Melani Moreno
• Mayra Terán
• Gabriela Toapanta

2. Language
distinguishes
Humankind from
the rest of the
animal world
In fact
Is the great machine
tool which makes
human culture
possible

3. What is language ?
• we can say that it is a system of communication based upon
words and the combination of words into sentences.
• is an exclusively human property
• Language is foremost a means of communication, and
communication almost always takes place within some sort
of social context.
Bibliografia
Barber, Lexicon ]Charles, Beal joan, Shaw Philip (1993-2009) the english language , second edition . Cambridge university press
Julie S. Amberg and Deborah J. Vause, Cambridge University Press American English: History, Structure, and Usage Excerpt

4. THREE THEORIES OF LANGUAGE
ADQUISITION
IMITATION THEORY:
Children hear speech
around them and copy
it.
REINFORCEMENT
THEORY:
The way in which adults
coach children when
using language by praise
and by correcting the
children.
ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION
OF A GRAMMAR THEORY
As children continuously
receive language input
their language is revised
to more and more
become a model of adult
grammar.

5. Some theories

6. During the first year alone, infants achieve impressive
landmarks regarding three key language components
Timing Milestones
The Discovery of Manual Babbling
The Physics of Manual Babbling
Bilingualism and Early Brain Development

7. LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION

8.  ACQUISITION
 UNCONSIOUS PROCESS
 DOES NOT PRESUPPOSE
TEACHING
 CHILD CONTROLS PACE

9.  STAGES IN LANGUAGES
ACQUISITION
This process is not
instantaneous
The stages of
children acquiring
languages are
possibly universal
Each stage has a
specific
development.

10. The perception
and production
of speech
sounds
Stimuli
Listening technique
Environment
Parents
Babbling
At six months
Babies begins to
babble
Twelve consonants-
world’s languages
95 percent-
babbling
Deaf children
Hearing children
First words
Holoprastic «whole
phrase»
Baby can
communicate his
needs manually
Children have a
more complex
mental
representation

11. Segmenting
the speech
stream
ABILITY TO
SEGMENT
It is one of the
remarkable feats
of language
acquisition
Rythmic structure
of the ambient
language
The
development
of grammar
-The
acquisition of
phonology
-The
acquisition of
word meaning
-The
acquisition of
morphology
-The
acquisition of
syntax

12.  Setting parameters
The child does not have to formulate
a word-order rule.
They based on the languages they
hear around them.
Language acquisition is easy and
quickly.

13. Diferences between
first language and
second language

14. Language adquisition vs language learning
THEORY

16. Petitto, Laura Ann, How Children Acquire Language: A New Answer
D. Anderson, Language Variation Psycholinguistics

17. Theory of the
language
Acquisition

18. Language is a cognition that truly
makes us human. Whereas other
species do communicate with an
innate ability to produce a limited
number of meaningful vocalizations
(e.g. bonobos), or even with partially
learned systems (e.g. bird songs),
there is no other species known to
date that can express infinite ideas
(sentences) with a limited set of
symbols (speech sounds and words).

19. Thorndike, E. L. 1929. "Human Learning" New York, NY Johnson Reprint Corporation.
Thorndike, E. L. 1899. "The Mental Life of the Monkey" Psychological Review, Monograph Supplement, 3, No. 15.
Edward L. Thorndike. (1999) [1913], Education Psychology: briefer course, New York: Rutledge.
 The basics of this theory are that
children listen to verbalized
communication and repeat what
they hear. This method has been
studied by many behaviorists like
Pavlov, Skinner, Tolman, and
Thorndike.
Theory of Imitation

20. Piaget, J. (1971). "Biology and Knowledge" University of Chicago Press.
Chomsky, N. 1965. "Aspects of the Theory of Syntax" The M.I.T. Press.
Chomsky, N "Language and Responsibility", Pantheon, 1977.

22. •There is something children do not consider and which
is today in the minds of adults: adults know that learning
throughout life should be adopted as a strategic base for
their future careers.
Adults are used to memorize numbers, shapes,
this should be capitalized when choosing methods
for teaching .
•They are aware today that the expertise and skills needed
for work are constantly changing; so the key in the
information society is the familiar "learning to learn"
On the other hand, from a sociological point of
view
•Themselves "feel" what they are expressing is not
correct, it is not necessary, this aforementioned
perception is what Krashen ( 1981) calls "the monitor",
a mental device "tells" that what is being expressed is
wrong.
A distinctive feature those in adults marked the
consciousness they have of their own learning
process: their metacognition (O'Malley, 1993),
which develops to an early age, late teens.
Most adults have the perception of being mistakes.
• In the case of learning a language, it requires an experienced
instructor and expert on the subject of teaching in second
language in adulthood to guide efficiently.
Adult learners, through their metacognition, "know when
they do not know."

25. ACQUISITIONProceeds
rapidly
Unconscious
and effortless
Similar
stages of
development
Adult-like
mastery of
all aspects of
the language
Exposure to
spontaneous
speech is
sufficient.
No negative
evidence

26. LEARNING
Proceeds
relatively
slowly
Recognizable stages of
development but
subject to greater
individual variation
Effortful
Training and instruction
typically required in
addition to exposure to
spontaneous speech
Negative evidence
readily available
(particularly in
classroom setting)

27. OUR EXPERIENCE AS
GROUP
We felt
comfortable
Good
organization
We worked
together
We found
interesting
books about
this topic
We think
this topic is
really
important.