Child Language Acquisition

Children have an amazing capacity to absorb language

Early interest in CLA.  Children at birth raised by deaf/mute nurses

Psamtik (Egyptian Pharoah, 7th c. BC) - told the children spoke Phrygian.

King James V (Scotland, 15th c.AD) told the kids spoke "verie guid Hebrew."

Akbar (Mogul Emperor, India, 16th c.AD) - told the kids didn't speak at all; concluded that languages was learned by example.

Phylogenetic studies - interested in the origin of language in general (Psamtik, James)

Ontogenetic studies -  development of language skills in the individual (Akbar). Modern studies of CLA are all ontogenetic

Longitudinal - same group studied over many years

Cross-sectional - many children of the same age studied 

Main question:  what aspects of language are inborn (innate, hard-wired)

      and what is acquired through experience? 

Probable answer:  the basic capacity to learn language is innate,

the form/meaning connections of particular languages are acquired

Three theoretical orientations (none is conclusive)

1. Cognitive theory-- Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

      Language acquisition follows cognitive development

      True, but why does language acquisition take place at all?

2. Behaviorist approach (popular until the late 1950's)

      Children learn through imitation and positive reinforcement

      Doesn't account for creative use of language

3. Generative approach -- Noam Chomsky (since 1957)

      Children born with LAD (Language Acquisition Device)

      LAD is a set of instructions for what a human language can look like,

      LAD separate from cognition or general intelligence

Four universal stages in cLA

1. Pre-speech.  Begins before birth; child becomes accustomed to "soundscape" of language 

2. Babbling stage.  random practice using organs of speech,

      no specific lexical meaning expressed

3. One-word (or holophrastic) stage.  sounds with specific meanings appear (the first words)

4. Combining stage -- syntax appears

By 5 or 6 children have sophisticated knowledge of their native language(s)

Conclusions about CLA

1) natural consequence of human society.

2) success of first language acquisition does not depend on intelligence

3) the ability to acquire language is innate,

      but the specific form-meaning connections are learned by exposure