1st Language Acquisition

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1st Language Acquisition

• How do humans acquire speech

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Language acquisition

• We are not born speaking!
• We have a language instinct, but we must acquire
  our language nonetheless.
• If we think of all that is entailed in knowing a
  language, it seems a challenge.

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Language instinct

• Our language instinct does not tell us what
  specific language to learn or particular
  structures to memorize.
• It does provide us with an innate knowledge of
  basic language features, present in all human
  languages.
• LINGUISTIC UNIVERSALS gt UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
• Humans then learn to specialize this universal
  grammar for the particulars of their language.

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Innateness of language

• How do we really know this is an innate ability?
• The biologist Eric Lenneberg defined a list of
  characteristics that are typical of innate
  behaviors in animals.

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Innate behaviors . . .

• emerge before they are necessary.
• do not appear as the result of a conscious
  decision.
• do not appear due to a trigger from external
  events.
• are relatively unaffected by direct teaching and
  intensive practice.
• follow a regular sequence of milestones in
  their development.
• generally observe a critical period for their
  acquisition

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1. Emerge before necessary

• When is language necessary?
• When do children usually begin speaking/using
  language coherently?
• Is this criterion met?

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2. Are not conscious

• Does a child decide to consciously pursue certain
  skills?
• Do babies make a conscious decision to start
  learning a language?
• Is this criterion met?

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3. Are not triggered

• What would prompt a child to take up soccer?
• What would prompt a child to begin speaking?
• Is this criterion met?

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4. Cannot be taught

• We CAN teach grammar, and prescriptive rules of
  language. But were not talking about that here.
• We correct childrens errors sometimes. Does it
  help?
• In fact, coaching seems to hurt rather than
  help language ability in children.
• Is this criterion met?

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5. Follow milestones

• In spite of different backgrounds, different
  locations, and different upbringings, most
  children follow the very same milestones in
  acquiring language.
• For example, around 12months
• Around 24 months
• By 30 months
• Is this criterion met?

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6. Observe a critical period

• What is a critical period?
• For first language acquisition, there seems to be
  a critical period of the first five years, during
  which children must be exposed to rich input.
  There is also a period, from about 10-16 years,
  when acquisition is possible, but not
  native-like.
• For SLA, the issue is more complicated More
  later.
• Is this criterion met?

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The Critical Period Hypothesis

• CPH Proposed by Lenneberg
• This hypothesis states that there is only a small
  window of time for a first language to be
  natively acquired.
• If a child is denied language input, she will not
  acquire language
• Genie a girl discovered at age 13 who had not
  acquired her L1

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More evidence for the Critical Period Hypothesis

• Second Language Acquisition
• Younger learners native fluency.
• Older learners (gt17) never quite make it.
• ASL Acquisition
• Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs) have an advantage
  over later-learners of ASL in signing
• Aphasia
• Less chance of recovery of linguistic function
  after age 5.

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L1 acquisition

• Sound production/babbling
• Phonological acquisition
• Morphological/Syntactical acquisition
• Semantic development

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Acquisition of phonetics

• Few weeks cooing and gurgling, playing with
  sounds. Their abilities are constrained by
  physiological limitations.
• 4 months distinguish between a and i, so
  their perception skills are good.
• 4-6 months children babble, putting together
  vowels and consonants. This is not a conscious
  process! Experiment with articulation
• 7-10 months starts repeated babbling.
• 10-12 months, children produce a variety of
  speech sounds. (even foreign sounds)

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Acquisition of phonology

• 18 months Sound substitution dat wawa.
  Non-fixed perception of phonemes, entire words
  are single units, unaware of meaning distinctions
  due to single sounds
• 15-21 months words as a sequence of phonemes.
  Mastery of sounds differing maximally mama,
  dada. CV is main syllable structure. They reduce
  banana ? na.na 2 syllable words,
  stressed/unstressed

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The acquisition of morphosyntax

• At about 12 months, children begin producing
  words consistently.
• One-word stage (holophrastic stage)
• Name people, objects, etc.
• An entire sentence is one word
• Two-word stage
• Approximately 18-24 months
• Use consistent set of word orders, with structure
  determined by semantic relationships
• agentaction (baby sleep)
• possessorpossession (Mommy book)

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Acquisition of Semantics

• Overextensions
• Using moon for anything round
• Using dog for any four-legged animals
• Underextensions
• The word mammal may not include whales, etc

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Second Language Acquisition

• Differences from L1 acquisition
• Teaching Methods

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Terms/Associations

• Native Language 1st lang L1
• Second Language L2 target lang
• Second Lang Acquisition (SLA)
• Research investigates how people attain
  proficiency in a lang which is not their mother
  tongue

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Differences b/w L1 and L2

• Difference b/w child and adult grammars
• Difference b/w beginning and advanced L2
  learners grammars
• Interlanguage grammar
• Transfer

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Mastering the L2

• Communicative competence
• Grammatical accuracy
• Sociolinguistic ability

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Second Lang Teaching Methods

• Grammar-translation
• Direct method
• Audio-lingual method