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.

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.

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

On the Relevance of the Pidginization – Creolization Model for Second Language Learning

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Valdman
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Second Language Learning ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Common Basis ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Mental Factor

Otto Jespersen was one of the first linguists to perceive a common basis underlying all types of language acquisition and learning. Comparing pidgins, broken or approximative version of a target language, and child language, he commented: “…. in all these seemingly different cases the same mental factor is at work, namely, imperfect mastery of a language, which in its initial stage, in the child with its first language and in a grownup with a second language learnt by imperfect method, leads to a superficial knowledge of the most indispensable words, with a total disregard for grammar”. (1921, 233–4)

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 Exploring the Uniqueness of Child Second Language Acquisition (SLA): Learning, Teaching, Assessment, and Practice

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenefer Philp ◽  
Margaret Borowczyk ◽  
Alison Mackey
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
First Language ◽  
Second Language Development ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Language Classrooms ◽  
Child Language Acquisition

This issue was designed to include a wide range of research on children's second language learning. Here we provide a short overview of each of the articles contained in this issue, many of which bring up novel ideas and topics, as well as new takes on familiar themes that sometimes challenge prior conceptions and, ideally, inspire new understandings of child language acquisition, and policies, and practices in instructed settings. The 15 articles in this issue are based in instructed and naturalistic settings and include reviews and experimental work, and collectively represent learners between 5 to 18 years old. The language backgrounds include Mandarin (first language [L1]), Arabic (L1), Basque (L1), Cantonese (L1), English (second language [L2]), Hebrew (L1, L2), Spanish (L1, L2), and Thai (L1). Topics include the uniqueness of child second language acquisition (SLA); learning in majority language classrooms; best practices in bilingual schooling, cognition, and SLA in younger learners; testing and assessment relating to age and language choice; and methodological contributions that arise from the particular challenges of researching child second language development in instructed and naturalistic settings.

scholarly journals Introduction: special issue on age effects in child language acquisition

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELMA BLOM ◽  
JOHANNE PARADIS
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Child Language ◽  
First Language ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Language Outcomes ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
L1 And L2

While age of acquisition effects have been researched extensively in adult second language (L2) acquisition, there is less research focused on examining age of acquisition effects in child language learners. Importantly, for child learners, delays in exposure to language can occur not only for a second but also for a first language (L1). In regard to delays in exposure, it is a widespread assumption that these are detrimental to language outcomes, and that younger is always better for successful language learning. One of the aims of this special issue was to take a closer look at the evidence for this assumption with respect to language learning within the childhood years, both for delayed L1 and L2 exposure.

scholarly journals Acquisition, Loss and Innovation in Chuquisaca Quechua—What Happened to Evidential Marking?

Languages ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
Susan E. Kalt
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Child Language ◽  
Epistemic Modality ◽  
Reverse Order ◽  
Related Variety ◽  
Child Language Acquisition ◽  
Statistical Studies ◽  
L1 And L2

Variation among closely related languages may reveal the inner workings of language acquisition, loss and innovation. This study of the existing literature and of selected interviews from recent narrative corpora compares the marking of evidentiality and epistemic modality in Chuquisaca, Bolivian Quechua with its closely related variety in Cuzco, Peru and investigates three hypotheses: that morpho-syntactic attrition proceeds in reverse order of child language acquisition, that convergence characterizes the emergence of grammatical forms different from L1 and L2 in contact situations, and that the Quechua languages are undergoing typological shift toward more isolating morphology. It appears that reportive -sis disappeared first in Bolivia, with eyewitness/validator -min retaining only the validator function. This finding seems to concord with reverse acquisition since it has previously been claimed that epistemic marking is acquired earlier than evidential marking in Cuzco. Meanwhile, Spanish and Quechua in nearby Cochabamba are claimed to mark reportive evidentiality via freestanding verbs of saying. I explore the reportive use of ñiy ‘to say’ in Chuquisaca as compared to Cochabamba and Cuzco and suggest the need for comparative statistical studies of evidential and epistemic marking in Southern Quechua.

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