Chapter 3: Language Acquisition

Question 1

Innate language faculty

Answer 1

A gen children supposedly possess containing the general principles to which any language in the world has to conform.

Question 2

Language environment

Answer 2

The language input offered to a child and the interaction between child and environment.

Question 3

Acquisition though interaction

Answer 3

The belief that children acquire a language via the interaction with other people.

Question 4

Language input

Answer 4

The language children hear.

Question 5

Pre-linguistic stage

Answer 5

The period prior to when a child uses its first word; the stage between birth and one year old.

Question 6

Babbling

Answer 6

When squences of constantly repeated syllables are made.

Question 7

One-word stage or two-word stage

Answer 7

When children begin to combine two or more words at a time; the stage from one to two and a half years of age.

Question 8

Omissions

Answer 8

When needed words are not included.

Question 9

Substitutes

Answer 9

When the wrong words are used to describe actions or things.

Question 10

Overextension

Answer 10

To extend the meaning of a word too far.

Question 11

Differentiation stage

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

Overgeneralization

Answer 12

When a grammatical rule is applied where it should not be.

Question 13

Developmental errors

Answer 13

Mistakes that children make that are a natural part of language acquisition.

Question 14

Completion stage

Answer 14

When children know the basics of their first language; the stage from five years old.

Question 15

Speech and language developmental disorder

Answer 15

When language related problems occur in the first five years of a child’s life.

Question 16

Foreign language learning

Answer 16

Learning a foreign language in an environment which does not have the language as a medium of communication.

Question 17

Second language acquisition

Answer 17

Learning a foreign language in an environment where the target language is spoken in the community.

Question 18

Target language

Answer 18

The language that is to be learned.

Question 19

First language

Answer 19

The first language someone learns.

Question 20

Critical period

Answer 20

A certain period of time in a child’s life after which learning a language becomes harder.

Question 21

Language aptitude

Answer 21

How much talent someone has for learning a language.

Question 22

Transitional structures

Answer 22

When structures of the first language are applied in the learning of another language.

Question 23

Interlanguage stages

Answer 23

Different levels or stages in the process of learning a second language.

Question 24

Fossilization

Answer 24

When the second language acquisition process stops before it has reached its final level.

Question 25

Order of acquisition

Answer 25

The order in which learners acquire a language.

Question 26

Positive transfer

Answer 26

When there are many similarities between the first and second language that help speed up the learning process.

Question 27

Negative transfer

Answer 27

When there are little similarities between the first and second language that do not help the learning process.

Question 28

Simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 28

When both parents teach a child different languages and the languages are acquired in parallel.

Question 29

Sequential bilingualism

Answer 29

When a child learns two languages, but acquires one before learning the other.

Question 30

Acquisition though imitation

Answer 30

The belief that frequent repetition of language forms would in the end lead children to adopt these themselves.