Chapter 3 First language Acquisition Stages in the acquisition process

Cooing/Babbling stage: 3monts-------ten months A period in the course of child language acquisition in which the child produces nonmeaningful consonant and vowel sounds and their sequence. By the age of three months, it is observed that a child produces recognizable sounds such as velar consonant {k}, {g} and high vowels {i}, {u}.

By sixth months, a child can produce utterances of CV combination such as ba, ma, da,. Around nine months, a child can give a recognizable intonation patterns to the consonant and vowel sounds combination. By the age of ten and eleventh, a child can express his/her emotion and anger by using vocalization in their utterances. Note. In the process of language acquisition variation is possible. One-word or holophrastic stage: 1----1.5 years A stage in child language acquisition in which children are limited to one word at a time in their production. This one word function as a phrase or sentence such as up----- get me up, nana------------- it means the child wants a banana. Two-word Stage: 1.5-------2years A stage in the child language acquisition in which children start to put two words together.

Example: Sweater chair The child means that the sweater is on the chair. However, the adults and parents try to put sense of the words by applying the context, and the child receives feedback which confirms that the utterances work. Telegraphic Stage A stage in the course of child language acquisition during which time the children use utterances composed primarily of content words, having no function words (a, the, in, etc) an inflectional ending. Example: where my sock ---------- where is my sock no sit Dont sit here. Andrew want ball Developing Morphology In this stage, the child goes beyond telegraphic speech forms and includes some of the inflection morphemes that indicate the grammatical function of nouns and verbs used. The first to appear is usually the ing form in expression such as cat sitting and momy reading. Regular Plurals: The next development in the acquisition process is the marking of regular plurals with the s form, as in boys and dogs. However, this process is accompanied by overgeneralization such as foots and mans. Irregular Plural

Some children begin using irregular plural such as man, but when they try out the general rules on the forms they overgeneralize and make expression like mens, two foots or even two feetses. Developing Syntax In the construction of a sentence, children have their own way of expression and structure. For example: An adult says to a child to repeat this sentence. the owl who eats candy runs fast Child: owl eat candy and he run fast This sentence provides evidence against imitation as the base of a childs speech production. Three identifiable stages in the formation of questions and the use of negatives: Stage 1. Between 18- 26 months. Stage 2. Between 22-30 months Stage 3. Between 24-40 months Questions Stage one in the formation of question: A child usually adds a wh- form or utters the expression with a rising intonation. e.g. where kitty? Where house? SEE CAT? Stage 2. More wh-forms appear plus with the same intonation strategy. What book name? Why you smile? YOU WANT EAT?

Stage 3. The appearance of inversion and the using of wh- forms Can I help you? Will you help me? How that opened? Negatives Stage 1. In negatives, the child uses no in the beginning of any expression. No matter, no eat. Stage 3. Children use no in the middle of subj and verb He no bite you Stage 3. In this stage, auxiliary forms such as didnt, wont and isnt appear I did not caught, she wont let go. Development of Semantics The semantic development in a childs use of words is usually a process of overextension, later he/she realizes as more words are learned. During the process of overextension, a child usually overextends the meaning of a word, on the basis of similarities of shape, sound, size and texture, to other words. For example A child uses bow-wow to refer to a dog; other children often extend bow-wow to refer to cat, cow, and horse. When a child observe a boll, he usually extend the meaning of the ball to other round objects, but he does not make a mistake in picking of an apple form a basket containing apples, balls and other round objects. It means that childrens comprehension is always good. The realization of hyponymy and antonymous relation occur in the later age. And by the age of 5, children complete the greater part of the basic language acquisition process.

Caretaker Speech It is also called child directed speech or motherese. Definition: the simplified speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with a young child is called caretaker speech. Characteristics: Caretaker speech is characterized by simple sentence structure, asking questions with exaggerated intonation, and a lot of repetition.