Language Acquisition

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Understand the biological capacities that make language acquisition possible, as well as the role that social factors play in this process.
• A good understanding of the main principles and theories in the field of first language acquisition and bilingualism;

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Analyse, interpret and criticise academic texts and opposing positions

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Gain essential skills in analysing linguistic datasets
• Gain essential knowledge and skills to evaluate theoretical studies

The first few weeks will introduce you to some of the most important theories of first language acquisition as well as the main questions guiding research in this field, in particular how much of the acquisition process if innate and how much is social. These first sessions will also allow you to familiarise with the linguistic milestones reached by children from birth to about five years of age in the areas of vocabulary, morphosyntax and phonology. In the second part of the module the focus is shifted to language acquisition in bilingual contexts by both children and adults. The role that both linguistic and social factors play in the success of bilingual acquisition will be explored in detail. You will also learn about language attrition, when acquisition of a first language is interrupted and even reversed, and about the learning experience of ‘heritage language speakers’

Topics are likely to include:

 Biological Bases of Language Development. Exploring the ‘human language faculty’. Animal vs human language.

 Theories of language acquisition: Piaget, Vygotsky and Chomsky.

 Acquiring a first language: defining the task and main milestones

 Acquiring a first language: phonological, syntactic and lexical development

 Acquiring a first language: how much is innate?

 Acquiring a first language: the role of social interaction and gesture.

 The Critical Period Hypothesis.

 Child bilingual acquisition: exploring the role of input

 Child bilingual acquisition: biological foundations and lifelong consequences.

 Incomplete language acquisition: exploring heritage language acquisition.

 Adult bilingualism: exploring native language attrition

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

 1 lecture per week

 1 seminar per week

The lectures serve to introduce, analyse and investigate key aspects of language acquisition, bilingualism and attrition. The seminars provide you with preliminary general guidance to apply that knowledge to the analysis of real acquisition data which will be drawn from established datasets (e.g. CHILDES and ‘Talkbank’).

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

CHILDES Database.

Journal Articles

Ritchie, W.C. & Bhatia, K.T (1999). Child language acquisition: introduction, foundations, and overview. Handbook of child language acquisition, pp. 3-32.

Pearson, B. Z (2007). Social factors in childhood bilingualism in the United States. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28(3), pp. 399-410.

Senghas, A., & Coppola, M. (2001). Children creating language: How Nicaraguan sign language acquired a spatial grammar. Psychological Science, 12(4), pp. 323-328.

Hauser, M. D., Chomsky, N., & Fitch, W. T. (2002). The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?. Science, pp. 1569-1579.

Textbooks

Retherford, K. S. (2007). Guide to analysis of language transcripts. Greenville, SC: Thinking Publications.

Guasti, M. T. (2002). Language Acquisition: The growth of grammar. MIT Press..

Harley, T. (2001). The psychology of language. Psychology Press.

Lust, B.C. and Foley, C. (2004). First Language Acquisition: The Essential Readings. Blackwell.

Pinker, S. (1999). Words and rules. Basic Books..

Stillwell Peccei, J (2006). Child language: a resource book for students. Routledge.

Hoff, E. (2009). Language Development. Belmont, Ca: Wadsworth / Cengage Learning:.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External