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Issues in First Language Acquisition
Issues in First Language Acquisition
(PLLT) 31-43
3. Nature or Nurture?.- Nativists contend that a child is born with an innate knowledge of
a language, and that this innate property is universal. However, it hasn’t been proven
that there are “language genes” in our genetic information. Environmental factors
cannot be ignored. What is that innate knowledge of a language that “nature” provides
us with? And what is that knowledge “nurtured”, internalized and learned from the
environment and by teaching? Evidence has been found that there are common
patterns of linguistic and cognitive development across a number of languages and that
human beings are “bio-programmed” to proceed from stage to stage and “bloom” when
it is time.
4. Universals.- Language is universally acquired in the same manner, and deep structure
of language at its deepest level may be common to all languages. According to Maratsos
(1988), universal linguistic categories such as word order, morphological marking tone,
agreement, reduced reference of nouns and noun clauses, verbs and verb classes,
predication, negation and question formation are common to all languages. There are
principles and parameters which specify some limited possibilities of variation. For
example, the principle of structure dependency “states that language is organized in
such a way that it crucially depends on the structural relationships between elements
in a sentence” (Holzman:1988), apparently, this principle of structure dependency
eventually appears in the comprehension and production of a child. According to the
UG, languages cannot vary in an infinite number of ways. Parameters determine ways
in which languages can vary; for example, some languages are “head first” or “head
last”, where the main nouns go second in a sentence.
7. Imitation: Research has shown that echoing is a particularly salient strategy in early
language learning and an important aspect of early phonological acquisition. However,
the semantic data is not noticed. It has been observed in foreign language classes that
rote pattern drills evoke surface imitation where the repetition of sounds doesn’t lead
students to have the vaguest idea of what they are saying. Children, however, perceive
the importance of the semantic level of language, so if they imitate the surface
structure of the language, they won’t be able to understand what they are imitating.
8. Practice: Children like to play with language just as they do with other objects and
events around them. Children’s language seems to be a key to language acquisition.
When talking about practice, it is thought of as referring to speaking only. But we can
also think of comprehension practice.
9. Input: the speech that young children hear is primarily the speech heard in home, and
much of that speech is parental speech or the speech of older siblings. Children, after
consistent repeated of telegraphic speech in meaningful contexts, eventually transfer
correct forms to their own speech. For example, from saying “dat John” to “that’s
John”. It is clear from more recent research that adult and peer input to the child is
far more important than nativists earlier believed. Adult input seems to shape the
child’s acquisition, and the interaction patterns between child and parent change
according to the ingreasing language skill of the child.
10. Discourse: conversation is a universal human activity performed routinely in the course
of daily living, the means by which children learn to take part in conversation appear
to be complex. The child learns not only how to initiate a conversation but how to
respond to another’s initiating utterance and recognize the function of the discourse.
For example, when asked something, the child will identify whether he is being
requested for information, for an action, or for help.