Language acquisition by a lowland gorilla: Koko's first ten years of vocabulary development

This study investigates the development of early Persian vocabulary in the process of first language acquisition in case of an Iranian child at age 2. The child was named Melica in this paper and her speech was observed for the period of 6 months. The outcomes show that Melica could produce about 150 words and understand many more when she was 2 years old. Also she understood such meanings as “on”, “under”, and “in”. At that age, she mostly produced nouns, which represented more than half of her vocabulary. Observed for a period of six months, Melica showed a gradual development in word as well as in sentence production, though some discrepancies in the use of certain words, such as developmental errors and overextensions, were also reported.

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COVID-19 first lockdown as a unique window into language acquisition: What you do (with your child) matters.

10.31234/osf.io/5ejwu ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Natalia Kartushina ◽

Nivedita Mani ◽

ASLI AKTAN-ERCIYES ◽

Khadeejah Alaslani ◽

Naomi Aldrich ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Development ◽

Learning Environments ◽

Normative Data ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Limited Access ◽

Daycare Centers ◽

Child Interaction ◽

External Sources ◽

At Home

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting closure of daycare centers worldwide, led to unprecedented changes in children’s learning environments. This period of increased time at home with caregivers, with limited access to external sources (e.g., daycares) provides a unique opportunity to examine the associations between the caregiver-child activities and children’s language development. The vocabularies of 1742 children aged 8-36 months across 13 countries and 12 languages were evaluated at the beginning and end of the first lockdown period in their respective countries (from March to September 2020). Children who had less passive screen exposure and whose caregivers read more to them showed larger gains in vocabulary development during lockdown, after controlling for SES and other caregiver-child activities. Children also gained more words than expected (based on normative data) during lockdown; either caregivers were more aware of their child’s development or vocabulary development benefited from intense caregiver-child interaction during lockdown.

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Keeping up with the monolinguals

Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/dujal.6.1.03liu ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 41-64 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Liquan Liu ◽

Mengru Han ◽

René Kager

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

The Netherlands ◽

Developmental Delay ◽

Vocabulary Acquisition ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Expressive Vocabulary ◽

Dutch Version ◽

Bilingual Learners ◽

Dominant Language

Abstract Previous studies investigating possible differences between monolingual and bilingual infants’ vocabulary development have produced mixed results. The current study examines the size of the total receptive and expressive vocabulary, total conceptual vocabulary, and specific Dutch vocabulary of two hundred 8- to 18-month-old monolingual and bilingual infants born and living in the Netherlands. Families completed a Dutch version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories. Results illustrate that bilingual infants keep up with monolinguals even in Dutch receptive and expressive vocabulary sizes, showing no trace of delay in the development of the socially dominant language. The overall findings constitute an extension of work on vocabulary acquisition and challenge existing theories that suggest a developmental delay among bilingual learners. The equal pace of development between the monolingual and bilingual groups provides new insights into the influence and perhaps advantages of early bilingual language acquisition.

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Testing the acquisition of English productive and non-productive derivatives by native-Arabic speakers

ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/itl.113-114.01alq ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 113-114 ◽

pp. 203-220

Author(s):

Nassir Saleh Al-qadi

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Foreign Language ◽

Predictive Value ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Arabic Language ◽

Word Formation ◽

Contrastive Analysis ◽

Arabic Speakers ◽

Native Arabic Speakers ◽

Learning English

Abstract Vocabulary development can be achieved by helping the foreign learner of English to acquire productivity and non-productivity in English derivation. In addition, the English productive derivatives should be given special attention in teaching to and learning by native-Arabic speakers because the Arabic language is a language of derivation and it is highly productive. This paper tests how the adult native-Arabic speakers learning English as a foreign language acquire English productive and non-productive derivatives. This will be done by comparing productivity in standard written Arabic and standard written English through contrastive analysis. The concept of contrastive analysis (CA) is initially called upon the fact that Arabic is a language of productive derivation while English is a language of more than one source of word-formation; borrowing, compounding and derivation. Moreover, productivity in English is not high. Secondly, morphology is subject to avoidance phenomenon by foreign learners. Hence, the predictive value of CA and also its testing in this paper should be very helpful for English teachers to native-Arabic speakers learning English and other foreign learners, language acquisition researchers, applied linguists, methodologists and textbook-writers.

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Vocabulary in EFL/ESL Context: An Analysis of General English Textbook

European Journal of English Language Studies ◽

10.12973/ejels.1.1.15 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 15-23

Author(s):

Taj Mohammad

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Learning Needs ◽

Language Input ◽

Proper Context

<p style="text-align: justify;">Vocabulary plays an important part in an EFL/ ESL textbook. The language input contained in textbooks and the representation of dimensions in vocabulary activities may have various impacts on learners’ language acquisition and development. According to Webb and Nation, vocabulary development requires the establishment of certain learning situations. It is imperative to analyze whether the vocabulary exercises presented in the book serve the desired purpose or not. The present research analyzed present General English textbook to ensure that it fulfills the learning needs of students. During the analysis, it was found that most of the sections of the vocabulary are well presented with proper context. However, there were some sections which do not contextualize the vocabulary as presented in the book. These items need to be substituted. Certain sections of the vocabulary are above the level of learners and need to be replaced with the easy ones.</p>

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How arbitrary is language?

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2013.0299 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 369 (1651) ◽

pp. 20130299 ◽

Cited By ~ 83

Author(s):

Padraic Monaghan ◽

Richard C. Shillcock ◽

Morten H. Christiansen ◽

Simon Kirby

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Development ◽

Language Learning ◽

Large Scale ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Corpus Analysis ◽

Early Language ◽

Early Stages ◽

Early Language Development ◽

The Relationship

It is a long established convention that the relationship between sounds and meanings of words is essentially arbitrary—typically the sound of a word gives no hint of its meaning. However, there are numerous reported instances of systematic sound–meaning mappings in language, and this systematicity has been claimed to be important for early language development. In a large-scale corpus analysis of English, we show that sound–meaning mappings are more systematic than would be expected by chance. Furthermore, this systematicity is more pronounced for words involved in the early stages of language acquisition and reduces in later vocabulary development. We propose that the vocabulary is structured to enable systematicity in early language learning to promote language acquisition, while also incorporating arbitrariness for later language in order to facilitate communicative expressivity and efficiency.

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Individual differences in early vocabulary development: redefining the referential-expressive distinction

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000900011429 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 287-310 ◽

Cited By ~ 89

Author(s):

Elena V. M. Lieven ◽

Julian M. Pine ◽

Helen Dresner Barnes

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Development ◽

Relative Proportion ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Alternative Route ◽

Early Language ◽

Simple Scheme ◽

Stylistic Variation ◽

Early Language Development

ABSTRACTThe existence of stylistic variation between children in the early stages of language acquisition has been most frequently studied using Nelson's 0973) referential—expressive distinction. While the use of this distinction has generated a great deal of interesting research, there are a number of major problems associated with it. The present study presents a simple scheme, based on formal categories, for coding stylistic variation in the early lexicon. When applied to the first 50 and 100 words of 12 children collected between 0; 11 and 2; 3, the major dimensions of difference are found to be the relative proportion of common nouns and the relative proportion of frozen phrases. Moreover, the proportion of frozen phrases is also found to be significantly positively related to children's early productivity, suggesting that, rather than being a ‘deadend’ in early language development, the acquisition of frozen phrases may provide an alternative route into multiword speech.

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Extensive Reading: A Multifaceted Panacea for EFL Students at KKU

English Language Teaching ◽

10.5539/elt.v14n8p40 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (8) ◽

pp. 40

Author(s):

Ahmad I. Assiri ◽

Ahlullah Siddiqui

Keyword(s):

Reading Comprehension ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Language Learning ◽

English Language ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Teaching Methodology ◽

Extensive Reading ◽

Assigned Reading ◽

Basic Language ◽

Efl Students

This research aims to assess the importance of Extensive Reading (ER) in developing reading comprehension, vocabulary development, and speaking fluency among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students at King Khalid University (KKU). Most EFL students appear to be under pressure and confront anxiety while acquiring English language competency in basic language skills. According to MacIntyre and Gardner (1994, p. 284), language anxiety is the "feeling of tension and apprehension" with language learning, including listening, speaking, and language comprehension. One thought of making language learning an enjoyable activity is to make language acquisition a natural process instead of a forced and external one. According to Day & Bamford (2002), the goal of ER is to help students become fluent, independent, and confident readers. ER encourages L2 learners to explore the English language independently, especially in an EFL environment. ER inherently encourages language acquisition by allowing students to read extensively in a relaxed and natural environment, thus developing the basic nuances of the language effortlessly. This approach is also referred as uninterrupted sustained silent reading (USSR). Two distinct groups of students, namely experimental and control groups, will participate in this study. The results will help measure the effect of ER on students’ reading comprehension and speaking fluency. The experimental group will practice effortless ER for almost 12 weeks. Students' performance in the assigned reading task, vocabulary development, and speaking proficiency will be analyzed using SPSS. Finally, the researchers will suggest efficient measures to implement ER as a teaching methodology at the English department, and will also encourage implementation of an ER club at the faculty of languages and translation, KKU. 

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Wordbank: an open repository for developmental vocabulary data

Journal of Child Language ◽

10.1017/s0305000916000209 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 44 (3) ◽

pp. 677-694 ◽

Cited By ~ 106

Author(s):

MICHAEL C. FRANK ◽

MIKA BRAGINSKY ◽

DANIEL YUROVSKY ◽

VIRGINIA A. MARCHMAN

Keyword(s):

Language Acquisition ◽

Software Package ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Data Gathering ◽

Parent Report ◽

Web Interface ◽

Early Language ◽

Interactive Exploration ◽

Communicative Development ◽

Vocabulary Growth

AbstractThe MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) are a widely used family of parent-report instruments for easy and inexpensive data-gathering about early language acquisition. CDI data have been used to explore a variety of theoretically important topics, but, with few exceptions, researchers have had to rely on data collected in their own lab. In this paper, we remedy this issue by presenting Wordbank, a structured database of CDI data combined with a browsable web interface. Wordbank archives CDI data across languages and labs, providing a resource for researchers interested in early language, as well as a platform for novel analyses. The site allows interactive exploration of patterns of vocabulary growth at the level of both individual children and particular words. We also introduce wordbankr, a software package for connecting to the database directly. Together, these tools extend the abilities of students and researchers to explore quantitative trends in vocabulary development.

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The Role of Iconicity in Early Sign Language Acquisition

Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders ◽

10.1044/jshd.4903.287 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 49 (3) ◽

pp. 287-292 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

Michael D. Orlansky ◽

John D. Bonvillian

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Language Acquisition ◽

Young Children ◽

Sign Language ◽

Vocabulary Development ◽

Early Sign ◽

Very Young Children ◽

Deaf Parents ◽

Iconic Signs

A longitudinal study of sign language acquisition was conducted with 13 very young children (median age 10 months at outset of study) of deaf parents. The children's sign language lexicons were examined for their percentages of iconic signs at two early stages of vocabulary development. Iconic signs are those that clearly resemble the action, object, or characteristic they represent. Analysis of the subjects' vocabularies revealed that iconic signs comprised 30.8% of the first 10 signs they acquired. At age 18 months, the proportion of iconic signs was found to be 33.7%. The finding that a majority of signs in the subjects' early vocabularies were not iconic suggests that the role of iconicity in young children's acquisition of signs may have been overrated by some investigators, and that other formational features may be of greater importance in influencing young children's ability to acquire signs.

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