FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

A PAPER
Submitted to Fulfill Introduction to Linguistic

Arranged by:

1. Hasty Robiasih (K2221031)

2. Inez Ardelia Subiyanto (K2221037)
3. Kevin Naufal Fawwaz (K2221041)
4. Lidwina Prischa Malli Ngara (K2221044)

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TEACHER AND

EDUCATION FACULTY SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY
2022
 PREFACE

First of all, we would like to thank Allah SWT for giving the writer the opportunity to complete
this paper. We also thank Mrs. Hefy Sulistyawati S.S., M.Pd as our lecturers and our friends
who have supported the writing of this paper

The paper entitled "First Language Acquisition" is a paper that we made to fulfill the
Introduction to Linguistics course. The content of this paper discusses first language
acquisition which consists of definition about first language acquisition, factors, stages of
language acquisition, and other parts.

We hope that this paper is made with the aim of better understanding the material about first
language acquisition so that it can be useful in exams and in our future.

Lastly, with humility, if there are inconsistencies in sentences and mistakes, we apologize. We
remain open to criticism and suggestions from readers for the sake of perfection of the paper.

Surakarta, Mei 2022

The writers
.
 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. BACKGROUND

Definition of Language
Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by
means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture,
express themselves. Language is also the expression of ideas by speech-sounds combined into words.
Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering that of ideas into thoughts.

B. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM

In this section, after we know about the background above, we can formulate the
problem or material to be discussed as follows:
1. What is the definition of language acquisition?
2. What is a brief history of language acquisition?
3. What are the language acquisition hypotheses?
4. What are the factors that influence language development?
5. How about the stages of language acquisition?
6. How about the functions of children's language?

C. PURPOSE

What we want after getting the problem formulation is:

1. To know about definition of language acquisition
2. To know about a brief history of language acquisition
3. To find out what is included in the language acquisition hypothesis
4. To know the factors that influence language development
5. To know about the stages of language acquisition
6. To find out the functions of children's language
 CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION

A. Definition Of Language Acquisition

First Language (L1) Acquisition
First Language (L1) refers to a person's first acquired language. It is the language
that is most prevalent in the home as learners are growing up and the first language used
for communication (Goode, n. d.).
According to Bloomfield (1994), first language (native language/mother
tongue/arterial language/L1), is a language that a person has been exposed to from birth or
within the critical period.
Language is extremely complex, yet children already know most of the grammar
of their native language(s) before they are five years old (Adam, 1990). Children acquire
language without being taught the rules of grammar by their caregivers. First language
learners receive hours of naturalistic exposure to language from caregivers who scaffold
their language development (Tomasello & Brooks, 1999).

B. Brief History Of Language Acquisition

In nearly all cases, children's language development follows a predictable
sequence. However, there is a great deal of variation in the age at which children reach a
given milestone. Each child's development is usually characterized by gradual acquisition
of particular abilities: thus "correct" use of English/Ghanaian Language verbal inflection
will emerge over a period of a year or more, starting from a stage where verbal inflections
are always left out, and ending in a stage where they are nearly always used correctly
(Owu-Ewie, 2018).
There are also many ways to characterize the developmental sequence. On the
production side, one way to name the stages is as follows, focusing primarily on the
unfolding of lexical and syntactic knowledge (Owu-Ewie, 2018). Virtually, all children
go through these stages as they learn to use a language.

C. Hypothesis Of Language Acquisition

The Acquisition Learning hypothesis states that there is a difference between
language acquisition and language learning. During language acquisition, students
unknowingly acquire a language. This is comparable to learning a child's first language.
Language learning, on the other hand, occurs when students consciously discover and
learn language rules and grammatical structures.
D. Stages Of Language Acquisition

a. Pre-language stage (3-8 months).

The pre-linguistic stage is sub-divided into two stage; ‘cooing’ and ‘babbling’.
Cooing is a stage of infants’ pre-linguistic speech development and consists of the
production of single syllable, vowel-like sounds like ‘a’, ‘i’. Babbling typically follows
the cooing stage of pre-linguistic speech and usually emerges between three and six
months of age (Bukatko & Daehler, 2004). The characteristic of babbling is by
producing sounds with connected vowels and consonants such as mama, papa, dada.
Also during this stage, the child may be able to nod ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in response to questions
or point to things they want.

b. One-Word stage or Holophrastic stage (9-18 months)

A "one word = one sentence" pattern seems to exist in the utterances produced by
the child so the stage is referred to as the Holophrastic Stage. The meaning is attached to
the syllables produced by a child, and this characteristic distinguishes a babble from a
word.They learn to communicate this way and are able to explain wants and needs using
one-word utterances (Goode, n. d.). They learn to communicate this way and are able to
explain wants and needs using one-word utterances (Goode, n. d.). Examples of some
first words include:
[no], [ma] (mom), [dæ] (dad).
Words include social interaction words (e.g [bai bai] (bye-bye) [nai nai] (night-night)).

c. Two Word Stage (18-24 months).

At this stage, children begin to develop more complex phrases with multiple
words which form a more complete thought than in the previous stage. The child can
better define items and personal belongings by combining two words at a time. For
example, the child may point to a car and say “mommy car”, communicating that either
the child thinks that is his/her mother’s car or it actually is.

d. Telegraphic Speech (24-30 months)

In this stage, children begin stringing more than two words together, perhaps
three or four or five at a time. However, the style of speaking children use in this stage
resembles the way of writing that used to be used in telegrams. For example, to send
the message "We arrived in London on Sunday," someone might write "Arrived London
Sunday." It contains function words (pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions) and even
grammatical morphemes (-ed) are typically absent.

e. Developing Morphology
Morphological studies focus on word formation. For example, in
English. There is such a thing as a base verb, such as: watch, turn, lock. Then the verb
can be changed into the past form by adding -ed, it becomes: watched, turned, and
locked. An error for children with English as their first language is to add the -ed ending
to irregular verbs, such as:
Swimmed (Swam)
Sleeped (Slept)
 Drinked (Drank)
The words in brackets are the right one.

f. Developing Syntax
Up one level, which was only focused on words, now focused on sentences. At
this stage, children learn to make negative forms and interrogative sentences, even
though they are still wrong. For example, the sentence:
"I go to school"
(-) I not go to school (I don't go to school)
(?) Am I go to school? (Do I go to school?)
The sentences in brackets are the right one.

g. Developing Semantics
Suppose someone asks,
"Which tree has more apples?"
"Which glass has less water?"
At this stage, the child will try to find the correct answer by interpreting the
word more/less. In the developing semantics stage, children learn to interpret
sentences. Despite the fact that the child may still acquire other aspects of his first
language in later years, it can be assumed that by the age of five, the child has completed
a large part of his first language. According to some researchers, the child is already in
a good position to start learning a second (or foreign) language. However, most
children don't start trying to learn another language until a long period of time.

E. Factors That Affecting The Development Language

1. Motivation
Children learn faster when they understand the importance of understanding a
language and can see how it applies directly to their lives. A curriculum focused on
contextual topics has been found to help increase student enthusiasm for language learning.
When they are interested in learning a language and see meaningful connections in their
lives, they begin to take risks to produce the language. And it helps them learn it faster.

2. Support At Home
Exposure is an important element of language comprehension and language acquisition.
If the child's family speaks only one language, can they help if the student needs it? It
also plays a role in how much value parents value in learning additional languages. Parents
who prioritize language learning tend to force their children to continue to challenge, even
if they find it difficult.

3. Prior Linguistic Knowledge

Once a child has studied and acquired a language, their skill at learning another
will increase. Language learners have the ability to translate skills from one language to
another because they’re able to recognize the rules and patterns of language, even if the
vocabulary is different.

4. Learning Environment
Another key factor is how comfortable students feel in their language learning
environment. Does their classroom feel cold and tense, or positive and relaxing? What’s
the school’s culture and beliefs about language learning? We’ve found that a student’s
 learning environment has an impact on their motivation—a low anxiety language
learning environment increases the chance for acquisition.

5. Teaching Strategies
The strategies a language teacher uses have a big impact on language learning.
How does the teacher help students understand the concepts of a language? How does
the teacher take different learning styles into account, as well as different levels of
comprehension? For example, watching a film in the target language and writing and
performing skits in the target language reach multiple learning styles. Offering an
immersion experience helps students connect the language learning to their everyday
lives, but rote vocabulary memorization and grammar drills create 'meaning-less'
language lessons.

6. Comprehensible Input
Linguist Stephen Krashen is known for developing the input hypothesis of
second-language acquisition. In this context, the titular “input” is the language
curriculum. Krashen wrote that teaching at just any level of difficulty isn’t sufficient:
the input received by a student must be comprehensible. In other words, the curriculum
must reach a child at their current level and challenge them with activities and just 1
level beyond their current stage. If the material feels out of reach, the student can feel
“shut down” and have trouble engaging with the lesson. To make sure that students feel
motivated to learn, it’s important to ensure that they feel like they have the ability to
progress to the next level of learning.

7. Student Personality
A student’s personality can affect how they learn a second language. More
introverted students have been shown to take longer to acquire a language because
they’re more hesitant to make mistakes. Extroverted students, on the other hand, are
more likely to go out on a limb and try out their newly learned vocabulary. To ensure
that both personality types succeed, it’s important to create an environment where
students understand that mistakes are part of the learning process and it’s more
important to speak than to be perfect.

8. Age
While students of all ages can learn a foreign language, there is consensus that
certain aspects are affected by the age of the learner. It becomes harder for students to
have native pronunciation from the teen years. Some students also find that it’s more
difficult to fully acquire a foreign language as they get older, but this isn’t true of
everyone.

9. Comfort in their Country of Residence

A final factor in language learning is the child’s comfort in the current country of
residence. Most children move to a new country because of a parent's job, not by choice.
As a result, their motivation to learn a new language can depend on whether they’re
happy to be in a new place, or if they’ve come kicking and screaming. Luckily, even if a
child is unhappy at first, their attitude can shift if they feel welcomed by their teachers
and supported by their parents.

F. The Functions Of Children Language

 Heuristic Function
 Language is used to get info about everything in the environment or world. And the
child is always seeking an answer.
E.g.: What is that blender doing?
 Instrumental Function
Children use language to express needs and get what they want.
E.g. : want eat
 Interactional Function
Language is used to communicate with other people and make a relationship.
E.g. : love you, miss you, thank you.
 Personal Function
 Language to express feelings and opinions
 Realizing language is more than demanding and getting praised for using language.
E.g. : i'm good boy,
Those functions help the child to satisfy its physical, emotional, and social needs.
 Regulatory Function
Language is used to tell others what to do and the child realizes language is a useful
way to get what they want.
E.g. : keep silent.
 CHAPTER III

Conclusion
The native language is the first language a person learns. It is the most widely spoken
language at home when learners grow up and is the first language used for communication.
According to Bloomfield, the native language is a language that has been born or exposed to
a critical period. Children learn a language without being taught grammatical rules by their
parents. Native language learners are exposed to hours of natural language from tutors who
support language development.
There are several stages in language acquisition. That is, a preverbal sound that allows
a baby to cry, cry, or throat. The reason for the nature of wheezing is that the vocal tract of a
baby is more animal than an adult. Seconds is a one-word stage (say the noun around it). This
stage is called the holographic stage because it seems that there is a pattern of "one word = one
sentence" in children's speeches. Second stage third word. At this stage, the child continues to
build a vocabulary of sounds and words that can be produced according to the developmental
sequence that began in the early stages.
Language acquisition cannot be separated from language acquisition processes such
as average speech time, native language generation and inclusion.
Human language serves as a means of interpersonal communication to convey thoughts,
emotions, and many other forms of information. It is necessary for people's social life and
intellectual development. Language also stimulates the expression of human creativity. Poetry,
drama, novels, short stories, vocal music, and similar art forms are language-based.
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3. http://web.mnstate.edu/houtsli/tesl551/LangAcq/page1.htm

4. Fromkin, robert rodman & Nina Hyams, An Introduction to Language 1974

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