David Ortega

Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador

Language Acquisition
L1 Acquisition Observation

For this assignment, I have decided to analyze the following YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hnmfi-8df0&ab_channel=DailyDavidsons

In this video, it is possible to see an interview between a lady and a baby. The lady asks
questions as the baby reacts to them. The name of the baby is Jayden, and he is 2 years old. The
very first thing that I noticed was the way in which he identified himself as /din/. This is
interesting because he does not say his whole name, but only pronounces its second syllable
with an alveolar stop /d/ sound instead of using the alveolar flap or a glottal stop in
combination with a syllabic /n/ sound. Additionally, he seems aware of his age, but he cannot
demonstrate it using his fingers. Therefore, he might only be repeating what his parents told
him. Next, when the interviewer asks about his dad’s occupation, he seems to be aware of her
talking about his dad, so he responds /'dædə… 'dædəIja'dædə/. Due to his response, one
could assume that he can use the verb be, and that he understands that his dad is a dad. Then,
he also seemed able to understand the question, ‘can I see your muscles?’ because as soon as
he heard it, he lifted his arms in a way to actually show them. As he did this, he also
said /'mæʃəlz/. In conclusion, this baby seems to have an idea of how the English language
works, and that soon he will be able to learn a lot of new words and ideas.