First Language

Acquisition
Submitted by: Maham Saleem (09)
Reeha Sherazi (16)

Introduction
Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire
the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to
produce and use words and sentences to communicate.
First language acquisition refers to how a child develops its
ability to speak and use the language of its environment:
its native language or languages. It is distinguished from
second language acquisition which deals with the acquisition (in
both children and adults) of additional languages.
Language is part of the environment that a child is born into, and
it is even part of the environment before birth. Therefore, first
language acquisition begins at or before birth. Hence, we have to
begin by talking about babies.

Stages of First Language Acquisition

There are roughly six stages of acquisition:
 1. Prelinguistic Stage
2. Babbling Stage
3. First Words
4. Two-word Stage
5. Telegraphic Stage
6. Beyond Telegraphic Stage

1. The Prelinguistic Stage

The pre-linguistic stage, the first stage of language development
often occurs between zero and six months. Children in this
phase don't have developed language skills, so they
communicate with sounds. They cry, make cooing sounds and
utter nasal murmurs as their vocal tracts develop. Infants can
also recognize voices and sounds in addition to facial
expressions and voice tones.
2. The Babbling Stage
The second stage of a child's language development happens
between the ages of 6 and 9 months. Children begin to babble,
making noises and syllables that aren’t yet words. For instance,
sounds like, “Goo-goo”, “Ga-ga”, etc. Mouth muscles and teeth
grow to prepare children for more advanced talking.

3. The First Words Stage

Stage 3, the First Words Stage, also known as The
Holophrastic Stage, starts at about one year and continues for
approximately 6 to 12 months (up to approximately age 1-1/2
or 2 years old). During this time, their language skills usually
have increased enough for them to say single words that

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describe objects or identify their basic needs. Babbling may
overlap with the production of the first words, and indeed the
first words often exhibit the same structure as babbled
syllables, with a CV (consonant-vowel) syllable used as a
word. However, at this stage, meaning is attached to the
syllables produced by a child, and this characteristic
distinguishes a babble from a word.

Examples of some first words include:

1. [no]
2. [da] (dad)
3. [ma] (mom)
The sounds children produce are typically sounds in the
language of their environment, and they add to their repertoire
in a systematic way. Children can perceive more sound
segments than they can produce. As a result, they will often
substitute one sound for another in their own utterances. The
substitutions or alterations they make are systematic in nature;
they will always use the same sound as a substitute for their
intended sound, such as always using [w] for [l], producing
[wajk] instead of [lajk] for like. The substitutions and
alterations make articulation easier until they can develop
more control over the vocal tract. As control develops, more
sounds are added and a vocabulary is constructed.

4. The Two Words Stage

During this stage, the child can speak two-word sentences that
usually have some meaning. They group words together that

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 they learned during the holophrastic stage. Some examples
may include; “More food”, “Big cat”, “Thank mom”, etc.
4.The Telegraphic Stage
The telegraphic stage occurs between the ages of 24 and 30
months. Children can speak phrases that are not only longer
but also have more than two elements. For instance, a child
might say “The cat stand up on the table.” Correct grammar
still isn’t prevalent in this stage, but the sentence conveys that
the cat is standing up in addition to being on the table. The
child also develops the ability to understand basic
instructions, including two-part orders like "go to your table
and get your books."
5.The Multi-word Stage
Also known as the Beyond Telegraphic stage begins around
the age of 3 years and continues into fully developed language
skills. During this stage, children build increasingly complex
sentences that allow them to communicate their ideas better.
They also start to incorporate morphemes to make more
semantically sound phrases. For instance, they know to use
the word “dogs” instead of “dog” when referring to more than
one dog.
These are the stages a children go through while acquiring
their first language. By studying these stages it is easy to
observe how children learn their first language naturally and
effortlessly as compared to when they start learning a second
language.

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 Theories of Language Acquisition
Learning a second language is not easy, there are new rules of
grammar which come with many exceptions, new sounds that
are hard to make, endless lists of vocabulary to commit to
memory and so on. And yet, humans manage to learn the
basics of their very first language around the time they were
two years old; without the help of any textbooks.
Not only are children able to absorb the complicated rules of
grammar without formal teaching, they do so from a limited
vocabulary. Regardless of how much a child is spoken to,
they will not hear every possible word and sentence by the
time they begin speaking. Yet when they do start to talk,
children begin to follow grammatical rules and apply them to
form new, innovative phrases.
Seeking to explain this phenomenon of language acquisition
many theories were put forth. Some prominent theories
include:
1. The Nativist Theory
2. The Learning Theory
3. The Sociocultural Theory

1. The Nativist Theory

The most well-known theory about language acquisition is the
nativist theory, proposed by Noam Chomsky, which suggests
that we are born with something in our genes that allows us to
learn language. It proposes that there is a theoretical language

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 acquisition device (LAD) somewhere in our brains that is
responsible for learning a language the same way the
hypothalamus is responsible for maintaining your body
temperature. LAD enables children to effortlessly acquire and
understand language during early childhood.
According to Chomsky, the Language Acquisition Device
allows children to rapidly learn the rules and structure of their
native language(s) without formal instruction. It is like a built-
in instinct or cognitive system that helps children absorb the
complexities of language naturally and unconsciously as they
interact with their environment and hear people speak around
them. The idea is that this innate capacity for language
acquisition is present in the human brain from birth,
facilitating the learning of language in a relatively seamless
manner.
Although no such physical “language organ” exists in the
brain, language acquisition can be hampered if certain parts of
the brain are damaged during critical periods of language
development.
2. The Learning Theory
Another way to look at language learning is to treat it like
learning a new skill. The learning theory of language
acquisition suggests that children learn a language much like
they learn to tie their shoes or how to count; through
repetition and reinforcement. When babies first learn to
babble, parents and guardians smile, coo, and hug them for
this behavior. As they grow older, children are praised for

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 speaking properly and corrected when they misspeak. Thus,
language arises from stimuli and stimuli response. For
Instance, consider a child learning the word "cookie." When
the child sees a cookie (stimulus), they say "cookie"
(response). Over time, as this pattern repeats, the child
associates the word "cookie" with the actual object.
While this is logical, it fails to explain how new words or
phrases come about, since children are only parroting the
things they have heard from others.
3. The Sociocultural Theory
The interactionist approach (sociocultural theory) combines
ideas from sociology and biology to explain how language is
developed. It emphasizes the role of both innate abilities and
interactions with people. According to this theory, children
learn language out of a desire to communicate with the world
around them. Language emerges from, and is dependent upon,
social interaction. The Interactionist approach claims that if
our language ability develops out of a desire to communicate,
then language is dependent upon whom we want to
communicate with. This means the environment you grow up
in will heavily affect how well and how quickly you learn to
talk. For example, infants being raised by only their mother
are more likely to learn the word “mama”, and less likely to
develop “dada”. Among the first words we learn are ways to
demand attention or food. If you’ve ever tried to learn a new
language, you may recognize this theory’s influence.
Language classes often teach commonly used vocabulary and
phrases first, and then focus on building conversations rather

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 than simple rote memorization. Even when we expand our
vocabularies in our native language, we remember the words
we use the most.
Language acquisition is a complicated process influenced by
the genetics of an individual as well as the environment they
live in.