Language Acquisiton

Question 1

Language Acquisition

Answer 1

Children develop an understanding of pragmatic rules and the lexicon specific to the language they are exposed to.

Question 2

First Language Acquisition Theories

Answer 2

Cognition, imitation, reinforcement, innateness, interactionist , critical period, input.

Question 3

Cognition

Answer 3

Children begin speaking because they have ideas they wish to communicate, as proposed by psychologist Piaget.

Question 4

Imitation

Answer 4

Children acquire language through mimicking others.

Question 5

Reinforcement

Answer 5

Children learn through positive and negative reinforcement, receiving praise for correct language use and correction for errors.

Question 6

Innateness

Answer 6

Noam Chomsky, suggests that humans possess a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) inherently, facilitating language acquisition.

Question 7

Interactionist

Answer 7

Language acquisition in infants is heavily influenced by the linguistic environment and social interactions, particularly with caregivers during early childhood.

Question 8

Critical Period

Answer 8

The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) operates effectively when it receives appropriate stimulation within a specific timeframe and context

Question 9

Strong version

Answer 9

Children must acquire their first language before reaching puberty;
otherwise, their ability to learn languages from subsequent exposure will be severely compromised.

Question 10

Weak version

Answer 10

Children can learn languages at any age, the process becomes more challenging and less comprehensive after puberty

Question 11

Input

Answer 11

Emphasizes the relationship between language acquisition and the
environment

Question 12

The Linguistic capacity of children

Answer 12

Children are inherently equipped with a Universal Grammar, aiding them in constructing the grammar of their language

Question 13

Poverty of the stimulus

Answer 13

The linguistic input children receive is insufficient to explain their detailed language knowledge, thus suggesting an innate ability to learn language.

Question 14

Language Acquisition Device

Answer 14

A tool proposed by the Innateness Theory, which asserts that language is intrinsic to all human beings

Question 15

Stages in First Language Acquisition

Answer 15

The acquisition of a first language by children occurs in stages and is a universal phenomenon.

Question 16

1. Pre-talking stage / Cooing (0-6 months)

Answer 16

The baby begins to recognize his mother’s voice, and at the age of 5 and 6 months, he begins to use his voice, saying just vowels.

Question 17

2. Babbling stage (6-8 months)

Answer 17

Babbling is defined as the baby’s attempts at creating, experimenting, and imitating sounds

Question 18

During babbling stage…

Answer 18

Children demonstrate phonological
development as they produce and experiment with various phonemes (sounds), resulting in phonemic expansion, 150 different sounds during this stage.

Question 19

3. Holophrastic / One-word stage (9-18 months)

Answer 19

Of these sentences, 50% are nouns, 30 % are verbs and modifiers and 20% are questions and negatives.

Question 20

In one word stage children tend to….

Answer 20

overgeneralize. (a word is given a broader
meaning than it should have)

Question 21

4. Two-Word Stage (18-24 months)

Answer 21

Typically, one word serves as the subject, while the
other functions as the predicate.

Question 22

What do children employ at the two-word stage?

Answer 22

Infants begin to employ the present continuous
tense or the suffix (-ing) in words to denote actions occurring at the moment of speech.

Question 23

5.- Telegraphic Stage

Answer 23

The sentences that infants produce contain just enough
information to make sense or be understood.

Question 24

What happens at the telegraphic stage?

Answer 24

It is said that within this stage, children’s
vocabulary expands from 50 words to 13,000 words.

Question 25

6. Later multiword stage (30+months)

Answer 25

The vocabulary of infants experiences the most rapid
expansion, with numerous new words acquired daily.

Question 26

Characteristic of the later multiword stage.

Answer 26

Babbling ceases, and infants’ utterances begin to demonstrate communicative intent.

Question 27

The Acquisition of Phonology, Semantics, Morphology, Syntax,
Pragmatics in the first Language

Answer 27

Throughout these stages, children acquire the phonology, semantics,
morphology, syntax, lexicon, and pragmatics of their first language.

Question 28

Prosodic bootstrapping

Answer 28

Mechanism by which infants utilize the rhythmic and melodic features of speech to aid in the segmentation and comprehension of linguistic units.

Question 29

Prosodic cues

Answer 29

Do not explicitly label linguistic units or their
relationships but provide infants with tools to distinguish between different units of speech. (rythm and melody)

Question 30

Overextension of word meanings

Answer 30

Using a term like “dog” to refer to any fourlegged creature.

Question 31

Underextend word meanings,

Answer 31

Using “dog” solely to refer to the family pet and not to other dogs

Question 32

What is guided by general principles?

Answer 32

The development of children’s lexicon and their grammatical skills