FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

DEFINITIONS
First language (L1)
• Language a person learns from birth or speaks first

Second language (L2)

• Any language a person learns to speak other than
their native language
 CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN´S LANGUAGE

There are many similarities in the way their

language develops all over the world.
– A child’s basic capacity to learn any language is innate
– But a child acquires the specific forms / meanings
and connections of ONE individual language as a result
of prolonged exposure to a specific speech
community.

http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_kuhl_the_linguistic_genius_of_babies?language=en
 The First Stage of L1 Acquisition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7WAfwKi88Q

Pre-linguistic Stage
 Phonation stage - Birth - 2 months
– Utters vowel-constant sounds.
– Is already aware of the need to communicate
to get needs (cries/whimpers).

 Goo stage – 2 - 3 months

– Begins to recognize the intonation of L1.
• Attitudes and emotions of speaker
• Difference between statements and questions
 Stages of L1 Acquisition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7WAfwKi88Q

 Expansion – 4 - 6 months
– Babbling sound more speech-like
– Consonant sounds /p/, /d/, /m/ heard

 Canonical – 7 - 10 months
– Babbling has long & short groups of sounds
– Now uses non-crying sounds to gain attention (e.g. coughing)

 Variegated – 11 - 12 months
– Last step before child utters ‘real’ words
– Learns rhythm of patterns of speech
MODIFIED SPEECH

CRUCIAL ELEMENT
in language acquisition process
 CARETAKER TALK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtYojRu7ajY

The way adults modify their speech when

communicating with children
• Slower rate of speech
• Higher pitch
• Varied intonation
• Shorter, simpler sentence patterns
• Frequent repetition
• Paraphrase
• Reformulation
Phonation stage (a two-month-old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zegJJN0
x5ZM
 Goo (a 3-month-old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcHEdHNZvls
 Expansion (a 6-month-old)

https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AMP5GLCiVc
 Canonical (a10-month-old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCjWLe
as56U
 Variegated (a12-month-old)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2Cl
UvUY
 Stages of L1 Acquisition
Linguistic Stage
 Holophrastic (12 months to 17 months)
– One word linked to child’s own action or desire for an action
– Convey emotions and commands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E4ULZHjc0s
 Telegraphic (18 months to 24 months)
– Two word sentences with clear syntactic meaning
• Mommy up, baby fall down, kiss baby, more outside, all gone cookie

 Multiple Word ( 20 months to 27 months)

– Variety of sentences
– Use of questions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etDIWRzErKQ
 L1 Developmental Sequences

• Acquisition of Grammatical morphemes

• Acquisition of Negation (to deny, reject,
disagree with, and refuse something)
• Acquisition of Questions
 Acquisition of
Grammatical morphemes
Roger Brown’s study (1973):
- approximate order of acquiring grammatical morphemes
– Present progressive –ing (running)
– Plural –s (books)
– Irregular past forms (went)
– Possessive -’s (daddy’s hat)
– Copula (am/is/are)
– Articles (a/an/the)
– Regular past –ed (walked)
– Third person singular simple present –s (he runs)
– Auxiliary ‘be’ (He is coming)
 Acquisition of
Grammatical morphemes
e.g., “wug test” –

1) Here is a wug. Now there are two of them.

There are two ______.

2) John knows how to bod. Yesterday he did the

same thing. Yesterday, he_______.
– Through the tests, children demonstrate that they know the rules
for the formation of plural and simple past in English.
– By generalizing these patterns to words they have never heard
before, they show that their language is not just a list of
memorized word pairs such as ‘book/books’ and ‘nod/nodded’.
 Acquisition of Negation

Lois Bloom’s study (1991) – four stages

– Stage 1: ‘no’ – e.g., “No go”. “No cookie.”

– Stage 2: subject + no – e.g., “Daddy no comb hair.”

– Stage 3: auxiliary or modal verbs (do/can) + not

(Yet no variations for different persons or tenses)
e.g., “I can’t do it “, “He don’t want it.”
– Stage 4: correct form of auxiliary verbs (did/doesn’t/is/are) + not
e.g., He didn’t go. She doesn’t want it.
But sometimes double negatives are used
e.g., I don’t have no more candies.
 Acquisition of Questions
Lois Bloom’s study (1991):
Order of the occurrence of wh- question words
1. “What” - Whatsat? Whatsit?
2. “Where” and “who”
3. “Why” (emerging at the end of the 2nd year and becomes a
favorite at the age of 3 or 4)
4. “How” and “When” (yet children do not fully understand the
meaning of adults’ responses)
e.g., Child: When can we go outside?
Mother: In about 5 minutes.
Child: 1-2-3-4-5! Can we go now?
 Acquisition of Questions

Lois Bloom’s study (1991):

Six stages of children’s question-making
– Stage 1: using single words or single two- or three-word
sentences with rising intonation
(“Mommy book?” “Where’s Daddy?”)

– Stage 2: using the word order of the declarative sentence (“You

like this?” “Why you catch it?”)

– Stage 3: “fronting” - putting a verb at the beginning of a sentence

(“Is the teddy is tired?” “Do I can have a cookie?”)
 Acquisition of Questions
Lois Bloom’s study (1991) – six stages (II)
– Stage 4: subject-auxiliary inversion in yes/no questions but not in
wh-questions
(“Do you like ice cream?” “Where I can draw?”)

– Stage 5: subject-auxiliary inversion in wh-questions, but not in

negative wh-questions
(“Why can he go out?” “Why he can’t go out?”)

– Stage 6: overgeneralizing the inverted form in embedded

questions
(“I don’t know why can’t he go out.”)
THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO L1 ACQUISITION

1) Behaviourism: Say what I say

2) Innatism: It’s in the genes
3) Interactionist/Developmental perspectives:
Learning from inside and out

Bibliography: Lightbown, P.. Spada, N.(1993) “How languages are learned” 3 rd Edition
 BEHAVIOURISM: SAY WHAT I SAY
(B.F. Skinner)
L1 is acquired through
– Imitation
– Practice (Repetition)
– Stimulus & response
• Positive
• Negative
– Habit formation
– Nurture
Quality + Quantity of the language heard
(Receptive language)

Consistency of reinforcement by others

Shape a child's language development

(Productive language)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63ysqT5nu0&feature=related
 Children’s imitations
are not random

Their imitation is selective and

based on what they are
currently learning.
 Behaviorism: Say what I say
– Patterns in language
• Mother: Maybe we need to take you to the doctor.
Randall (36 months): Why? So he can doc my little bump?” (showing
the understanding of verb formation – similar to farmer – farm,
swimmer – swim, actor – act’)
• Son: I putted the plates on the table!
Mother: You mean, I put the plates on the table.
Son: No, I putted them on all by myself.
(showing the understanding of using ‘ed’ to make the past tense for a
verb” and the focus on the meaning, not form)

– Unfamiliar formulas
• Father: I’d like to propose a toast.
Child: I’d like to propose a piece of bread.
• Mother: I love you to pieces.
Child: I love you three pieces.
 Behaviorism: Say what I say
– Question formation
• Are dogs can wiggle their tails?
• Are those are my boots?
• Are this is hot?
– Order of events
• You took all the towels away because I can’t dry my hands.

Imitation and practice alone cannot explain some of the forms created
by children. Children appear to pick out patterns and then generalize
or overgeneralize them to new contexts. They create new forms or
new uses of words.
INNATISM: IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND
Innatism: We’re Born With It
(Noam Chomsky)
Humans
• are pre-wired
• the brain has a Language Acquisition Device (LAD)
• Learn if they try during the Critical Period of Activation
Language is like a muscle: If you don’t use it, you
lose it!
• Nature
 language learning to
acquisition walk
LAD: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION DEVICE
(BLACK BOX)
It contains all and only the principles which are universal
to all human languages.
(i.e. Universal Grammar – UG).
 If children are born
with UG.

What they have to

learn is

The ways their own

language makes use
of those principles
Children “know” certain things about language
just by being exposed to a limited number of
samples or experiences
Children acquire grammatical

rules without getting explicit

instruction.
 The biological basis for the Innatist position:

The Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH) – Lenneberg:

• There is a specific and limited time period for the
LAD to work successfully.
– Two Critical Periods
• Birth - 2 years
• Puberty
 The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position:
First Critical Period

Before 2
Learn L1
years
Exposed to L1 No
After 2
learning of
years
L1
Abnormal Language Development (CPH)

What happens when children are NOT exposed

to their L1?
– ‘Feral’ Children
https://youtu.be/cymZq1VblU0
 The Biological Basis for the Innatist Position:
Second Critical Period

Learn L2
Before
native
Puberty
mastery
Exposed to L2
Difficult /
After Puberty impossible to
learn L2
Interactionist
 Interactionist
(Piaget, Vygotsky)
Learning from the inside out

Language acquisition results from

• Children’s ability to learn from experience

• What they need to know is based on the
language they are exposed to
 Interactionist
Learning from the inside out

Piaget Vygotsky
• Cognitive development • Thought is internalized
(thought process) speech
determines language – Speech develops primarily
development from social interaction
– Language is represented • ZPD
by knowledge acquired via
physical interaction with the
environment
the innate environment
learning in which they
ability of develop
children

LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
 Notebook Homework: Recipe Time
You will need to write a recipe for what you understand about
the following concepts:

• Innatism

• Interactionist
• Piaget (Cognitive)
• Vygotsky (Speech)

Hint: Review cookbooks or recipes for layout ideas

Ingredients
 1 cup of imitation
 1 tsp practice
 1 tsp negative reinforcement
 ½ tsp habit formation
 3 cups positive reinforcement

Shamma, 2016