Chapter 3: Language Acquisition Flashcards
Innate language faculty
A gen children supposedly possess containing the general principles to which any language in the world has to conform.
Language environment
The language input offered to a child and the interaction between child and environment.
Acquisition though interaction
The belief that children acquire a language via the interaction with other people.
Language input
The language children hear.
Pre-linguistic stage
The period prior to when a child uses its first word; the stage between birth and one year old.
Babbling
When squences of constantly repeated syllables are made.
One-word stage or two-word stage
When children begin to combine two or more words at a time; the stage from one to two and a half years of age.
Omissions
When needed words are not included.
Substitutes
When the wrong words are used to describe actions or things.
Overextension
To extend the meaning of a word too far.
Differentiation stage
When all kinds of different words appear in a child’s language; the stage between two and a half years old and five years old.
Overgeneralization
When a grammatical rule is applied where it should not be.
Developmental errors
Mistakes that children make that are a natural part of language acquisition.
Completion stage
When children know the basics of their first language; the stage from five years old.
Speech and language developmental disorder
When language related problems occur in the first five years of a child’s life.
Foreign language learning
Learning a foreign language in an environment which does not have the language as a medium of communication.
Second language acquisition
Learning a foreign language in an environment where the target language is spoken in the community.
Target language
The language that is to be learned.
First language
The first language someone learns.
Critical period
A certain period of time in a child’s life after which learning a language becomes harder.
Language aptitude
How much talent someone has for learning a language.
Transitional structures
When structures of the first language are applied in the learning of another language.
Interlanguage stages
Different levels or stages in the process of learning a second language.
Fossilization
When the second language acquisition process stops before it has reached its final level.
