Psycholinguistics

Definition

 The study of the mental aspects of language and 

speech.
 primarily concerned with the ways in which
language is represented and processed in the brain.
 A branch of both linguistics and psychology,
psycholinguistics is part of the field of cognitive
science. Adjective: psycholinguistic.
 The term psycholinguistics was introduced by
American psychologist Jacob Robert Kantor in his
book An Objective Psychology of Grammar (1936).
Language acquisition

 Process by which human acquire the capacity

to perceive and comprehend language, as
well as to produce and use words and
sentence to communicate
First language acquisition

 The language(s) that an individual learns first

 Native language or mother tongue
First language acquisition

Sub – conscious learning Knowing through language

Learning from experiences: Picking up words and trying to
Books, movie, games, toys, ask for things and talking about
conversations experience

L1
First language acquisition

 4 stages;
 Pre – Speech Stage : 0 – 6 months
 Babbling stage : 6 -8 months
 One – word ( Holophrastic) stage – 9 – 18 months
 Combining Words ( Telegraphic) Stage – 18- 36
months
Second language acquisition
 Any language other than the first language
learned
 A language learned after the first language in
a context where the language is used widely
in the speech community
 E.g: in Brunei, their L1 is Bahasa Melayu and L2 is
English
Second language acquisition

Conscious learning Knowing about language

• Learning rules • Know grammar rules
• Grammar instruction • Memorized word list
• Error correction • Can describe language

L2
Second language acquisition
 Stage I: Pre-production
 This is the silent period. English language learners
may have up to 500 words in their receptive
vocabulary but they are not yet speaking.
 These new learners of English will listen attentively
and they may even be able to copy words from the
board. They will be able to respond to pictures and
other visuals.
 English language learners at this stage will need
much repetition of English.
Second language acquisition
 Stage II: Early production
This stage may last up to six months and students
will develop a receptive and active vocabulary of
about 1000 words. During this stage, students can
usually speak in one- or two-word phrases.
Second language acquisition
 Stage III: Speech emergence
 Students have developed a vocabulary of about
3,000 words and can communicate with simple
phrases and sentences.
Second language acquisition
 Stage IV: Intermediate fluency
 English language learners at the intermediate
fluency stage have a vocabulary of 6000 active
words. They are beginning to use more complex
sentences when speaking and writing .

 Student writing at this stage will have many errors

as ELLs try to master the complexity of English
grammar and sentence structure.
Second language acquisition
 Stage V: Advanced Fluency
 It takes students from 4-10 years to achieve
cognitive academic language proficiency in a
second language. Student at this stage will be
near-native in their ability to perform in content
area learning.
Language production

 Language production is the production of

spoken or written language. It describes all of
the stages between having a concept, and
translating that concept into linguistic form.
Language production
 4 stages

conceptualization
First, conceptualize what we wish to communicate

formulation
Formulate the thought into a linguistic plan

articulation
Execute the plan through the biological speech system

Self monitoring

Monitor the speech to check whether it is what we intend to say and how we intend to say it
Language production

 Levelt 1989: model overview

Language production

 Conceptualization
 This is when a speaker spontaneously thinks of what he or
she is going to say

 2 concurrent and parallel modes of thought

1. Syntactic thinking
2. Imagistic thinking
Language production

 E.g. synchronization test of image and

speech
A: Where’s my briefcase?
B:There’s your briefcase
Language production

 Formulation
 The process involve translating the conceptual
representation into a linguistic form
Language production
 Speech errors
“Speech errors allow to us to peek in on the production
process because we know what the speaker intended to say,
but the unintentional mistake freezes the production
process momentarily and catches the linguistic mechanism
in one instance of production” (Scovel,2009,p.32)
 

 Speech errors commonly called slips of the tongue or

tongue – slips
 
Language production

 Example of error
 The Lord is shoving leopard” instead of “The Lord
is a loving shepherd”
Language production

 Articulation
 A prepared speech or planned wordage
Language production

Human vocal apparatus

Language production

 Self – monitoring
 when the speaker reflects on what he or she has
said and makes an effort to correct any errors in
his or her speech
 Hesitation
Language production

 Dialogue example:
 I think it costs just about… uh .. Twenty – five
dollars
 They have to try to…uh…contact an attorney
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