LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

RUDNEY Q. BARLOMENTO
GSMLIS 101 – FOUNDATION OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
Acquisition of language is meant the process whereby children achieve a fluent control of their
native language. The term ‘acquisition’ is used rather than ‘learning’, because ‘learning’ tends to be
employed by psychologists in a more specific sense than is perhaps appropriate. It is a matter of
controversy whether the acquisition of language can be accounted for within current versions of
psychological theories of ‘learning’.

Language Acquisition has different stages:

 The Perception and Production of Speech Sounds

o Babbling (bababab, mamama
o First Words (mama, papa)
o Segmenting the Speech Stream
 The Acquisition of Phonology (anga instead of manga, uto instead of puto)
 The Acquisition of Morphology (mama didi)
 The Acquisition of Syntax (mama popo ko daper)
 The Acquisition of Pragmatics (Eat Eun fish)
 The Acquisition of Pragmatics
 The Acquisition of Signed Languages
 The Role of Imitation, Reinforcement, and Analogy

In the first few years of life, every typical child learns a language, his first language (or "native
tongue"). Although there are few outliers based on either physiological (such as deafness) or social
factors (such as "wolf children"), most kids can communicate freely by the time they start school.
Beyond adolescence, there is little improvement in our language skills, however learning does continue
throughout life in some areas, like vocabulary.

Thus, learning a first language is crucial from at least two perspectives: from a chronological
('first') and from a life-long one. Most people, however, acquire multiple languages. There are several
possible outcomes, and they all change gradually from one another. A child may grow up with exposure
to two (or even more*) languages, for instance if his parents speak different languages. Even when two
languages are being learned, we can still refer to this as "initial language acquisition." To put it another
way, a language is considered "first" and its learning "second" if another language has already learned.

First language acquisition happens when the learner, who is typically a kid, has previously been
unable to acquire a language. Monolingual refers to the use of only one language. Bilingual refers to the
less common situation where a youngster is simultaneously learning two languages, at least in Western
European nations. The process of learning a language through monolingual initial contact is by far the
one that has received the most research.
 Yule, George.  The study of language. Cambridge university press, 2020.

Kuhl P, Stevens E, Hayashi A, Deguchi T, Kiritani S, Iverson P (February 2006). "Infants show a
facilitation effect for native language phonetic perception between 6 and 12
months".  Developmental Science.  9