I. What is Language Acquisition?

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to

perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the

picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary.

This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign. Language acquisition

usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native

language, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both

children and adults) of additional languages.

Before children put together their first two-word sentences, at very approximately 18

months of age, their language acquisition appears, in terms of what strikes the investigator’s

ear, to consist mainly in amassing a stock of words. The period from the child’s first ‘word’,

at very approximately 9 months, to the first sentences is then a conveniently delimited one for

an essay on early vocabulary.

The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes humans

from other organisms. While many forms of animal communication exist, they have a limited

range of no syntactically structured vocabulary tokens that lack cross cultural variation

between groups.

A major concern in understanding language acquisition is how these capacities are

picked up by infants from what appears to be very little input. A range of theories of language

acquisition has been created in order to explain this apparent problem including innatism in

which a child is born prepared in some manner with these capacities, as opposed to the other

theories in which language is simply learned.

Language acquisition is closely related to cognitive development, namely. first, if the

child is able to produce utterances which, based on the grammar which are neat, does not

automatically imply that the child has mastered the relevant languages well. Second, the
speaker must obtain the cognitive categories that underlie the various meanings expressive

natural languages.

II. RELATED THEORIES

Over the last fifty years, several theories have been put forward to explain the process
by which children learn to understand and speak a language. They can be summarized as
follows:

Theory Central Idea Individual most often

associated with theory

Behaviorist/ Children imitate adults. Their correct Skinner
Imitation utterances are reinforced when they get
what they want or are praised.
Innateness A child's brain contains special language- Chomsky
learning mechanisms at birth.
Cognitive Language is just one aspect of a child's Piaget
overall intellectual development.
Interaction This theory emphasizes the interaction Bruner
between children and their care-givers.

1. Behaviorism
B.F. Skinner described learning as a behavior produced by learner's response to
stimuli which can be reinforced with positive or negative feedback to environmental stimuli.
Skinner added that learning can be observed, explained, and predicted through observing
antecedents and consequences. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement
increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again. In contrast,
punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behavior
will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the
withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in the
learner. Punishment is sometimes used in eliminating or reducing incorrect actions, followed
by clarifying desired actions.
 Skinner's Behaviorist approach contends that children learn language through
imitation, repetition and the reinforcement of the successful linguistics attempts. Mistakes are
considered to be the result of imperfect learning or insufficient opportunities for practice. In
such, that a child having a pleasant learning experience (such as rewards or praise) is positive
reinforced. Through that positively reinforcing stimulus, a child's learning capacity is
triggered.
Beside there some truth in Skinner's explanation, but there are many objections to it,
such as:
 Language is based on a set of structures or rules.
 The vast majority of children go through the same stages of language acquisition.
 Children are often unable to repeat what an adult says.
 Few children receive much explicit grammatical correction.

2. Innateness

Language is not an autonomous system for communication. It is embedded in and

supplemented by gesture, gaze, stance, facial expression, voice quality in the full array of
options people can use for communicating (Clark, 2009). Learning is complex and the
context where it takes place is influenced by our learning experience due to our different
experiences. Clark (2009: 7) states that “in learning language, children may first rely on
nonlinguistic options, both in their initial understanding and in their own early use”.
The main Argument in this theory is that children are born with an innate knowledge
which guides them in the language acquisition task. The children’s ability makes the task of
learning a first language easier than it would otherwise be (Crain & Lillo-Martin, 1999).
Pinker (1994, p.26) claims that “the universally of complex language is a discovery that fills
linguists with awe, and is the first reason to suspect that language is not just any cultural
invention but the product of a special human instinct”.
According to Clark (2009) children beside their innate abilities; their acquisition of
language could also be affected by social interaction and cognitive development. Moreover,
Chomsky (2009) argues that Language learning is not really something that the child does; it
is something that happens to the child placed in an appropriate environment much as the
child’s body grows and matures in a predetermined way when provided with
appropriate nutrition and environmental stimulation.
3.The Cognitive Theory
The cognitive theory draws attention to the large increase in children's vocabulary at
around this age, suggesting a link between object permanence and the learning of labels for
objects.
According to the cognitive theorist all aspects that are learnt by an individual are as a
result of what learners have constructed or discovered their own mental process and
not through observable behaviour (Warren, 2012). Wilburg (2010) asserts that children
/learners come to school with knowledge, skills and related experiences to the learning
situations and this make them actively involved in their learning process. According to
Wyatt (2007), he describes the speech transmission between adult and child in Piaget theory
namely:
 Psychological level: the feelings of speech partners for each other, their relationship,
their mutual expectancies, and the respective levels of maturation, which determine
the choice of words by the speaker and the interpretation of their meaning by the
listener.
 Linguistic level: process of word finding; selecting the correct sounds and putting
them into correct sequences; putting words into correct grammatical order to form
sentences.
 Physiological level: Neural activities affecting the speaker‟s perceptual and
motor mechanisms and activating the hearing mechanisms of speakers and listener.
 Acoustic level: Sound waves travelling through the air between speaker and listener.
4. Input or Interactionist Theories

In contrast to the work of Chomsky, more recent theorists have stressed the
importance of the language input children receive from their care-givers. Language exists for
the purpose of communication and can only be learned in the context of interaction with
people who want to communicate. Interactionists such as Bruner suggested that the language
behavior of adults when talking to children (known by several names by most easily referred
to as child-directed speech or CDS) is specially adapted to support the acquisition process.

III. The Stages of Language Acquisition

There are four stages, how infants develop their first language acquisition.

a) First stage is word goo-goo- gaa-gaa.

 Those are the first languages which are expressed by baby. In this stage, baby try to

express what they want but baby only can speak goo-goo-gaa-gaa to express anything.

Whether baby is happy or hungry, baby always speak those words.

b) The second stage appears when children begin to say simple word such as mama and

water. In this stage, children have memorized some word in their mind. They also try

to imitate what is other people around them say. Then they say in simple word to

express something.

c) Third stage, children try to the real communication. In this stage children start to say

in a short sentence into ungrammatical such as “give milk” means that they want milk

and daddy home means that their father has returned.

d) Forth stage, children start to develop more and more complex word in a grammatical

concept or rule. In the age four and five, they can indentify word whether its word

plural or singular such as book and books. Actually in this stage, children still have

some errors in grammatical rules but, it is not commonly taught in American schools

until children are twelve or older.

IV. The Functions of Children Language

There are some of the functions of children’ language, namely:

a) Instrumental function

Child uses language to express needs and get what they want.

E.g. : want drink

b) Regulatory function

In this function that language is used to tell others what to do and child realizes

language is a useful tool as by using language they can get what they want.

E.g. : go away
c) Interactional function

Language which is used to communicate with other people and make a relationship.

E.g. : love you, daddy, thank you.

d) Personal function

- When the child used language to express feelings and opinions

- Realise language is more than demanding and get praised for using language.

E.g. : me good girl,

e) Those functions help the child to satisfy its physical, emotional and social needs.

Heuristic funtion

Language is used to get info about the environment or world. Child uses language to

ask questions about everything and he/she is always seeking an answer.

E.g.: what that tractor doing?

f) Imaginative function

- Language is used to tell stories and to create an imaginary situation.

- Child is able to recognize an object can be called many things.

E.g. : creating an imaginary friend.

These functions help the child come to make interaction with the environment around

them.

g) Informative function

- Child begins to use language to talk about kinds of new things.

- They learn to represent themselves using language.

E.g.: telling a story about what happened to them.

This function is representational stage where the child uses language to convey facts

and information.