First Language Acquisition

What Is Language? Language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures or written symbols. It is the human ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication and a language is any specific example of such a system. It enables humans to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas through verbal and non-verbal sounds, symbols and gestures.

Language Acquisition: Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

First Language acquisition: Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition which studies infants’ acquisition of their native language or mother tongue. It studies how children start understanding and speaking their first language. It is distinguished from second language learning which deals with the learning of additional languages both in children and adults.

Biological Clock Of First Language Acquisition: The process of language acquisition in human infants does not occur haphazardly. It takes place in a sequenced series of events called biological clock of child’s language acquisition. This biological clock is correct and same for all the human infants. Biological clock of human infant’s process of first language acquisition was given by Lenneberg and it can be written as:

Language Utterances Age

Crying Birth

Cooing 6 weeks

Babbling 6 months

Intonation pattern 8 months

1 word utterance 1 year

2 word utterance 18 months

Word inflections 2 years

Questions, negatives 2.5 years

Complex structure 5 years

Mature speech 10 years

In this biological clock, the age of onset is approximate but the order of events is always fixed.

Stages Of L1 Acquisition: There are six stages of L1 acquisition in children.

1. Pre talking stage (0-6 months) 2. Babbling stage (6-8 months) 3. Holophrastic stage (9-18 months) 4. Two-word stage (18-24 months) 5. Telegraphic stage (24-30 months) 6. Multiword stage (30+ months)

Pre-talking Stage: (0-6 months) During this stage, infants start their earliest vocalizations in form of involuntary crying, cooing and gurgling-sounds showing satisfaction, comfort or discomfort. They start paying attention to speech intonations and rhythms. Laughter appears around four months of age.

Babbling stage: (6-8 months) At this stage children start producing sounds like ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga. They start uttering different vowels and consonant sounds. They mostly babble most common consonant sounds.

Holophrastic stage: (9-18 months) At this stage infants utter their first recognizable word like mama, papa.

Two-word stage: (18-24 months) By 2 years, children start speaking in sentences made by combination of two words, e.g. ‘baby chair’, ‘mommy eat’. Their vocabulary moves beyond 50 words. Their sentences lack morphological, syntactic and grammatical structure.

Telegraphic stage: (24-30 months) By 2 and a half years, children start producing multiple word sentences, e.g. ‘cat drink milk’, ‘daddy go bye-bye’. Their vocabulary continue to grow and their pronounciation become better.

Multiword stage: (30+ months) By age 5, children start speaking complete sentences. They ask questions, give commands, narrate events etc. By age 6, the child knows about 13000 words. By age 8, they know about 28,300 words and their grammar become approximately like adults.

Theories of L1 Acquisition: In a broader sense, many theories and approaches have been emerged over the years to study and analyze the process of language acquisition. Three basis main theories are:

1. Imitation or Behaviorism theory 2. Innateness or mentalist theory 3. Interactionist or Developmental perspective theory

Imitation or Behaviorism theory: B.F Skinner put forwarded the behaviorist theory as THE OPERANT PROCESs. This theory states that language acquisition is a process of imitation, and reinforcement. It argues that children learn to speak by imitating the utterances heard around them and strengthen their responses by repetition, correction and other reactions that adults provide. Thus language is practice based. According to this theory Children start out as clean slates and language learning is process of getting linguistic habits printed on these slates. So, language acquisition is a process of experience and children acquire their first language step by step, which are as following:

1. Imitation 2. Repetition 3. Memorization 4. Controlled drilling 5. Reinforcement

Reinforcement is of two types:

1) POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT: Positive reinforcement results in increase of repetition process. For example, a child cries for candy, he receives the candy and learns that crying results in candy.

2) NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT: Negative reinforcement results in reduction of repetition process. For example, a child cries for candy, but he is slapped and he learns that slap is the consequence of crying. As a result the child ceases crying for the accomplishment of his desires.

Skinner named this process of learning by repeated training and reinforcement as Operant Conditioning.

Innateness or Mentalist Theory: In conflict to the Behaviorist Theory, Noam Chomsky presented “Innateness Theory” also known as “Mentalist Theory” in 1960’s.

This theory was of the view that children are born with an innate capacity for language development .Chomsky said that children are biologically programmed for language and language develops in the child in the same way of other biological functions.

Chomsky said that the innate knowledge in the child is embodied in a little black box called language acquisition device(LAD).

LAD: It contains all and only principles which are universal to all human languages. The child exploits its LAD to make sense of utterances heard around him ,deriving from this primary data present in LAD –the grammar of the language.

Chomsky than expanded the idea of LAD into Universal Grammar , a set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are common to all human languages. The presence of Universal Grammar allows children to deduce the structure of their native language from mere exposure . Primary data present in LAD and Universal Grammar is then used to make sentences or structures after a process of trial ad error , correspond to those in adult speech.

Interactionist or Developmental Perspective Theory: This theory was presented by Vygotsky. It states that language acquisition is an example of children’s ability to learn from experience. It says that what children need to know is essentially available in the language they are exposed to. Language develop in children by their interaction with the environment in which they develop. Vygotsky argued that language develops primarily from social interaction. He observed the importance of conversations which children have with adults and with other children and saw in these conversations the origins of both language and thought. This theory gives more importance to the environment but they also recognize a powerful learning mechanism in human brain. They say that the developing cognitive understanding is built on the interaction between the child and the things which can be observed, touched and

manipulated. Piaget says that language is not based on a separate module of mind. It can be explained in terms of learning in general. He says that language acquisition is similar to the acquisition of other skills or knowledge and language can be used to represent knowledge that children have acquired through physical interaction with the environment.

Second Language Acquisition:

Second Language: A language other than the mother tongue that a person or community uses. It is usually learnt for public communication, trade purpose, higher education and administration.

Second Language Learning: It is the process by which people learn a second language. Different techniques can be used for L2 learning, such as, classroom lectures, graphic organizers, maps, charts or by directly observing and interacting with native speakers.

Benefits: There are many benefits of learning a second language.

1. It increases brain health. 2. It can provide better job opportunities. 3. It improves cognitive ability of a person. 4. One can experience new cultures. 5. It increases attention abilities. 6. It effects one’s way of seeing the world.

Factors effecting L2 Learning: There are many factors which effect L2 learning. There are two types:

1. Internal factors 2. External factors

Internal factors: Internal Factors are those that the individual language learner brings with him or her to the particular learning situation. Age : second language acquisition is influenced by the age of the learner Children who have solid literary skill in their own language are in a last position to acquire a new language efficiently motivated ,old learner have to usually struggle to achieve native speakers equivalent pronunciation and intonation. Personality: Introverted or anxious learner usually make slower progress, particularly in the development of oral skills . They are less likely to take advantage of speaking or seeking apportunities outgoing students will not worry about making mistakes. They will take risks, and will give themselves much more practice. Motivation: Intrinsic motivation is correlated strongly with educational achievement students who enjoy language learning and take pride in their progress will do letter than those who don’t

Extrinsic motivation is also significant factor. ESL student who need o learn English in order to take a place at an American University or to communicate with a new English boy/girlfriend are likely to make greater efforts and greater progress. Experiences: Learners who have acquired general knowledge and experience are in a stronger position to develop a new language .The student who has already lived in 3 different countries and been exposed to various languages and culture has a stronger base for learning a further language. Cognition: generally , students with greater cognitive abilities will make faster progress . some linguistics believe that there is a specific ,innate language learning ability , that is stronger in some students than in others . Native Language: students who learn a second language which is from the same language family as their first language have much easier task than those who don’t for e.g. a Dutch child will learn English more quickly than a Japanese child .

External Factors: External factors are those that are characterize the particular language learning situation.

1) Curriculum: For ESL students it is important that the totality of their educational experience is appropriate for their needs. Language is less likely to place if students are fully submersed into the main stream programme without extra assistance or conversely not allowed to be part of the main stream until they have reached a certain level of language proficiency.

2) Instructions: Some language teachers are better than others at providing appropriate and effective learning experience for the students in their class rooms. These students will make faster progress. The science teacher who is aware that she too is responsible for the students’ English language development and makes certain accommodations will contribute to their linguistics development.

3)Culture and status: There is some evidence that students in situation where their own culture has a lower status than that of the culture in which they are learning the language make slower program.

4) Motivation: Students who are given continuing, appropriate encouragement to learn by their teachers and parents will generally fare better than those who are not for Example students from familiar that place little importance on language learning are like to progress less quickly.

5) Access to Native Speakers: The opportunity to interact with native speakers both within and outside of the classroom is a significant advantage. Native speakers are linguistic models and can provide appropriate feedback. Clearly Second Language learner who have no extensive

access to native speakers are likely to make slower progress particularly in the oral aspects of language acquisition.

Comparison between L1 and L2:

Feature L1 acquisition L2 (foreign language) learning

1. Overall success

children normally achieve perfect L1

mastery

adult L2 learners are unlikely to achieve perfect

L2 mastery

2. General failure

success guaranteed complete success rare

3. Variation little variation in degree of success

or route

L2 learners vary in overall success and route

4. Goals target language

competence

L2 learners may be content

with less than target language competence or

more concerned with fluency than accuracy

5. Intuitions children develop clear intuitions

about correctness

L2 learners are often unable to form clear grammaticality

judgments

6. Instruction not needed helpful or necessary

7. Negative evidence

correction not found

and not necessary

correction generally helpful

or necessary

8. Affective factors

not involved play a major role determining proficiency