Tuesday, 27 May 2014
Monday, 26 May 2014
Stages of child language acquisition
All information on ages given here are approximation;
everyone is different in their own way.
Many people believed that language acquisition begins
when children starts to say their first word. This is incorrect, there has been
research done that shows that children begin acquiring language before that. Including
a research that suggested that unborn babies are influence be the sound of the
first language that penetrates the womb!
A lot happen linguistically during the first year of
life. Before they start talking, they are learning a lot about sound.
Pre-Verbal Stage (birth-11 months)
Infants
begin producing sound by gurgling and cooing. They start to produce talking sound
when they are around 7 months old. These sounds are known as ‘babbling’.
Whatever conditions they live in, every children babble, even if they are deaf.
Deaf children babbling are similar to a non deaf child. Their babbling often
covers a range of sound. Sounds located in the articulator positions are most
common, because they are easy to produce. They also produce many different
sounds, it like they are experimenting with it. They will produce a large
number of different sounds. Often they repeat syllables such as ‘da da’ or
produce a mix of syllables such as ‘da bu ma’. During this they begin to figure
out their vocal apparatus and discovering sounds close to their language(s) (phonetic
sounds). Babbling is when they begin to make ‘speech-like’ sounds.
As they
babble they often use body language to convey their message, such as making
faces or grabbing objects. This is all part of communication. Out of all
factors, the guardian has the most impact on a child. At an
early stage they will learn different kinds of action from their interactions
with their guardian. These actions are called eye gaze norm and turn
taking norm. Eye gaze norm is not universal but in countries where it is
socially used, child will learnt that when someone is talking to them or the
other way around, it is polite to look at them. Turn taking norm is when a
person decides to speak.
Holophrastic Stage (11-18 months)
This is when children start to discover that sounds have meanings
to it. They will begin to produce one word utterances. One word utterances are usually often used in
everyday interaction such as 'mama' and 'dada'. These common words are usually the
child first word. Sometime they come close in pronouncing a particular
word. Around this age children are
capable in producing around 50 words but they often use these words with a
variety of meaning. For example the child might use the word, ‘Moon’ to refer
to the moon in the sky, a cake or everything that resemble the shape of a circle! Even though they only know around
50 words, they have the capability of recognizing them before they actually pronounce
them.Telegraphic Stage (1.5-2.5 years)
Around this age children can produce a whole bunch of new words
and have the abilities to combine them into two-word utterances.
For example:
-Dad chair
-Doggy bad
This stage is usually referred as ‘word spurt’. At this stage the
child’s utterances only contain content words (open class words); there are no
function words (closed-class words) or morphemes. In other word the things they
say are non-grammatical.
Although just because they are non grammatical, research has
confirms that they combination of words are not random but carefully
structured. The syntax structure for location phases are always object/person +location.
The syntax structure for action utterances are always Person +action.
This stage is also when children stop mimicking the utterances
they hear around them and start to become creative in what they say.
Multi-Word Stage (2.5 years and onward)
In this stage children will jump from two-word utterances to
multiword stage. This is where the length of their utterances increases and
they begin to develop an understanding of morpheme and syntax. Even though
their utterances are sentence like, their use of function words and morphemes
are lacking. As time progresses grammatical parts start to make an appearance.
As their vocabulary expands rapidly, their grammar and use of pronunciation would
soon follow on.
Children development in language acquisition increase very
rapidly. Their capability in learning a language is far superior than at other
ages.
References:
Books:
-Unit 1, Area of Study 2, Language Acquisition
-Crystal, David, How Language Works, Penguin Australia, 2008
Websites:
- University of
Michigan (2006), Children’s Language Acquisition
-
Linguistics 001 (2003), Stages of
language acquisition in children
Time Line
Phase
|
Age
(months)
|
Primary
Mode
|
Lexemes
|
No.
Of lexemes per utterance
|
Syntax
|
Examples
|
Pre-Verbal
|
0-11
|
Body language, eye gaze, turn taking
|
No
|
None
|
No
|
crying
|
Holophrastic
|
11-18
|
Speech, body language
|
Yes
|
One
|
No
|
Bye
|
Telegraphic
|
18-30
|
Speech
|
Yes
|
Two
|
No
|
Me jump
|
Multi-Word
|
30 and onward
|
Speech
|
Yes
|
Many
|
Yes
|
Doggie and I run
|
The Behaviour Approach
It is amazing to
know that children can learn a language in a short period of time. There are
many theories that try to understand how children learn a language; one of them
is Behaviour Approach.
 |
| Figure 1. The mind behind this approach |
The
Behaviour Approach was developed by an American psychologist, author, inventor, and social
philosopher, Burrhus
Frederic Skinner (1904-1990) (refer to figure 1). This theory states that behaviourism of
human and animal is due to learning and reinforcement. Skinner believed
that behaviourist theory could be used to affect a learning history. He did an
experiment where he gathered a hungry rat and placed it in a small confinement
with a button (refer to figure 2). Whenever the rat pressed the button, it will received food. The result showed that after the rat
had received food, it continued to pressed the button, as the rat know that the
outcome come of is positive.
He did
another test with another rat where if it presses the button it will receive a
shock rather than receiving food. The outcome for this was that the rat pressed
the button less than the first rat. The overall result was that if an action proves
to have a positive effect, the organism is more likely to continue to repeat
this behaviour. However, if the outcome is negative, the organism is less
likely to repeat the behaviour.
 |
| Figure 2. Skinner's experiment with the rat |
The biggest
factor of theory is the environment that surrounds the organism; in this case
the child. The parent/guidance must be active during this progress, it
is important for them to become good role models, by modelling language for
their child to copy and providing them positive enforcement for them to
success. By this the child enriches he/her lexical development as the child
copies the lexemes heard. As well developing he/her syntaxic development as the
child learns key phrases during the interactions with other.
Example 1:
Parent: “Say bye bye”
Child: “Bye bye”
This shows
that the parent is requesting the child to say the word, ‘bye’. The child then
copy the parent. By this the parent is teaching the child that he/she should
say the word, ‘bye’ to person that is departing. Even though the child may not
know its semantic meaning of the word; ‘bye’, the child will get the idea of it
and use it whenever the same situation occurs. In order words the child’s behaviour would be
reinforced.
Example 2:
Parent: (pointing
at a doggie) “That a doggie”
Child: “Doggie?”
Parent: “Yes, doggie”
In this example the parent teaching the child what a dog is.
As the child repeats the phase, ‘doggie’, he/she would learn what it is (the appearance
of it) and will be able label it whenever the child sees it or other animal
similar to it.
As the two examples have shown, the Behaviour Approach is
an excellent method in helping the child in acquiring a language. As the children
mimic those around them, it will built up their list of lexemes and gradually
increase their syntax. This approach strongly shown that the guidance is the biggest impact toward the child. Their role is not just to take care of them
but to help them though the development in learning a language.
References:
Book:
Mulder, JM. Burridge, KB. Thomas, CT. (2001). Macmillan
English Language VCE Units 1 & 2, Macmillan Education Australia PTY LTD:
Claremont Street, South Yarra
Website:
-Northern Illinois University (2003), BF Skinner,
Behaviourism & Language Behaviour
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