Building Language Competence in First Language Acquisition

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Lieven
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Linguistic Representations ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
Distributional Learning

Most accounts of child language acquisition use as analytic tools adult-like syntactic categories and grammars with little concern for whether they are psychologically real for young children. However, when approached from a cognitive and functional theoretical perspective, recent research has demonstrated that children do not operate initially with such abstract linguistic entities, but instead on the basis of distributional learning and item-based, form-meaning constructions. Children construct more abstract, linguistic representations only gradually on the basis of the language they hear and use and they constrain these constructions to their appropriate ranges of use only gradually as well – again on the basis of linguistic experience in which frequency plays a key role. Results from empirical analyses of children’s early multiword utterances, the development of the transitive construction and certain types of errors are presented to illustrate this approach.

scholarly journals The traceback method in child language acquisition research: identifying patterns in early speech

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
STEFAN HARTMANN ◽  
NIKOLAS KOCH ◽  
ANTJE ENDESFELDER QUICK
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Test Corpus ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
Early Speech ◽  
Cognitive Plausibility

abstract This paper discusses the traceback method, which has been the basis of some influential papers on first language acquisition. The method sets out to demonstrate that many or even all utterances in a test corpus (usually the last two sessions of recording) can be accounted for with the help of recurrent fixed strings (like What’s that?) or frame-and-slot patterns (like [What’s X?]) that can also be identified in the remaining dataset (i.e., the previous sessions of recording). This is taken as evidence that language learning is much more item-based than previously assumed. In the present paper we sketch the development of the method over the last two decades, and discuss its relation to usage-based theory, as well as the cognitive plausibility of its components, and we highlight both its potential and its limitations.

Motion in first language acquisition: Manner and Path in French and English child language*

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 705-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
MAYA HICKMANN ◽  
PIERRE TARANNE ◽  
PHILIPPE BONNET
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Cognitive Factors ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Motion Events ◽  
English Child ◽  
French And English ◽  
Adults And Children

ABSTRACTTwo experiments compared how French vs. English adults and children (three to seven years) described motion events. Given typological properties (Talmy, 2000) and previous results (Choi & Bowerman, 1991; Hickmann, 2003; Slobin, 2003), the main prediction was that Manner should be more salient and therefore more frequently combined with Path (MP) in English than in French, particularly with four types of ‘target’ events, as compared to manner-oriented ‘controls’: motion up/down (Experiment I, N=200) and across (Experiment II, N=120), arrivals and departures (both experiments). Results showed that MP-responses (a) varied with events and increased with age in both languages, but (b) were more frequent in English at all ages with all events, and (c) were age- and event-specific among French speakers, who also frequently expressed Path or Manner alone. The discussion highlights several factors accounting for responses, with particular attention to the interplay between cognitive factors that drive language acquisition and typological properties that constrain this process from early on.

From Language Behaviour to Database: Some Comments on Plunkett's Paper

1990 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-205
Author(s):  
Roeland van Hout
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Exchange System ◽  
Computational Tools ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Catalytic Role

It is evident that the Child Language Exchange System—CHILDES—will play a catalytic role in the study of first language acquisition. Plunkett rightly concludes that this system has the potential of bringing together work on first language acquisition from a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives. The compilation of the CHILDES package, including a workbench with a set of computational tools, is an admirable achievement, which most certainly will have an impact on other branches in the study of language behaviour (e.g. discourse analysis, sociolinguistics).

Cross-linguistic studies of directionality in first language acquisition: the Japanese data – a response to O'Grady, Suzuki-Wei & Cho 1986

1989 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Lust ◽  
Reiko Mazuka
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Structure Dependence ◽  
Universal Structure

ABSTRACTElsewhere we have argued on the basis of cross linguistic studies of directionality effects on anaphora in child language, that there is no universal ‘forward directionality preference (FDP)’; rather such a preference is linked to languages with specific grammatical properties. Although such a preference has been attested in English acquisition, matched experimental designs in Japanese, Chinese and Sinhalese, for example, do not show this effect. In this paper we argue that current attempts to show that forward directionality effects can also be induced in Japanese acquisition do not succeed in supporting the FDP. Specifics of the design of stimulus sentences in these experiments vary previous cross-linguistic designs so as to favour forward directionality on independent grounds, and confound cross linguistic comparisons. They in fact support a universal structure dependence in children's hypotheses about directionality of anaphora’.

First Language Phonological Acquisition by a Two Years Old Mandailing Child

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wildan Iskandar ◽  
Lince Sihombing ◽  
D.P. Tampubolon
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Body Language ◽  
Phonological Acquisition ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Keywords Child

This study focused on describing: (1) what phones are acquired by a two years old Mandailing child. (2) how a two years old Mandailing child acquires the phonology production.  (3) how the phonological  productions of the words acquired by a two years old Mandailing child. A qualitative research was applied. The findings indicated that kinds of word are noun, adjective, verb and adverb and the most aspect of phonology found in this study is noun. The subject acquired the words through interaction with his family and sometimes used body language when he talked with his parents. The phonological production of the words acquired by the subject with several processes out of the twelve processes. Based on the findings, there are some suggestions: (1) Parents have to guide his child in learning to communicate as good as possible in order to the child can communicate well and effectively with other people in his environment, (2) In order to make a good communication and conversation, it is suggested to make approach to the child’s behaviors and habitual, (3) If parents want their child can acquire words well, they have to introduce words well and also guide him to pronounce it every day when they talk with him. Keywords: Child; Language Acquisition; and  Phonology

scholarly journals Bilingual First Language Acquisition: Evidence from Montreal

2008 ◽  
pp. 9-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Genesee
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
First Language ◽  
Adult Child ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Code Mixing ◽  
Control Code

Abstract Bilingual code-mixing is the use of elements (phonological, lexical, and morpho-syntactic) from two languages in the same utterance or stretch of conversation or in different situations. Bilingual code-mixing is ubiquitous among bilinguals, both child and adult. Child bilingual code-mixing has been interpreted by researchers and laypersons as an indication of linguistic confusion and incompetence. This article reviews a series of studies on French-English simultaneous bilinguals from Montreal that examined their code-mixing with respect to young bilingual children’s ability: to differentiate their developing languages, to control code-mixing in different communicative situations, to adjust their code-mixing in response to feedback from interlocutors, and to fill gaps in their developing language competence. Contrary those who view child code-mixing as evidence of confusion and incompetence, extant evidence indicates that it reflects linguistic and communicative competence even in very early stages of simultaneous bilingual acquisition.

First language acquisition and teaching

AILA Review ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 78-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madalena Cruz-Ferreira
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Development ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
First Language Acquisition ◽  
Folk Beliefs

“First language acquisition” commonly means the acquisition of a single language in childhood, regardless of the number of languages in a child’s natural environment. Language acquisition is variously viewed as predetermined, wondrous, a source of concern, and as developing through formal processes. “First language teaching” concerns schooling in the language that is intended to become the child’s first (or “main”) one. Mainstream teaching practices similarly take languages as formal objects, focusing on literacy skills, so-called phonological awareness, and other teaching about the language. This article gives a first overview of folk beliefs associated with language acquisition and teaching, highlighting whether and how they can guide applied linguists’ concerns about child language development and early pedagogical practices.

scholarly journals How diverse is child language acquisition?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Kidd ◽  
Rowena Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Learning And Development ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
History Of ◽  
Global North

A comprehensive theory of child language acquisition requires an evidential base that is representative of the typological diversity present in the world’s 7,000 or so languages. However, languages are dying at an alarming rate, and the next 50 years represents the last chance we have to document acquisition in approximately half of them. In the current paper we take stock of the last 45 years of research published in the four main child language acquisition journals: Journal of Child Language, First Language, Language Acquisition, and Language Learning and Development. We coded each article for the following variables: (i) language(s), (ii) topic(s), and (iii) country of author affiliation, from each journal’s inception until the end of 2020. We found that we have at least one article published on around 103 languages, representing only around 1.5% of the world’s languages. The distribution of articles was highly skewed towards English and other well-studied Indo-European languages, with the majority published on non-Indo-European languages having just one paper. There was a more even distribution of topics across language categories, but a vast majority of the research was produced in the Global North. The number of articles published on non-Indo-European languages from countries outside of North America and Europe is increasing; however, this increase is driven by research conducted in relatively wealthy countries. We conclude that, despite a proud history of crosslinguistic research, the goals of the discipline need to be recalibrated before we can lay claim to a truly representative account of child language acquisition.

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