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ENGB3 – Language Acquisition (Section A): Developing Speech
Phonological Development
Language development begins in the womb
DeCasper and Spence found that newborns sucked their dummies more when their mothers
read them the same story that they’d read aloud in the last six months of pregnancy
Pre-Verbal Stages
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Crying
Cooing and laughter (6 – 8 weeks)
Babbling – making vowel and consonant sounds (6 months)
Proto-words (invented words, used repeatedly to express a specific meaning)

Later Stages of Speech
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First word = 1 year old
At around 18 months, some use of stress to distinguish meanings (e
...
my car)
By 2 ½ they can use all of the vowels and 2/3 of the consonants
Consonants are first used correctly at the beginnings of words
Often simplify their pronounciation to make their words easier to say

Different Types of Sounds Produced
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Plosives – airflow is blocked for a brief time, e
...
p and b
Fricatives – airflow is partially blocked, air moves through, e
...
f and s
Nasals – air moves through nose, e
...
m and n
Laterals – tongue is placed on ridge of teeth, e
...
l

Early Phonological Errors
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Cluster reduction – when there are two or more consonants together in a word, a child
may drop one of the consonants e
...
‘geen’ instead of ‘green’
Deletion – “do” instead of “dog”
Substitution – “wain” instead of “rain”
Addition – “doggie”
Reduplication – “dada”

Mistakes happen as children can’t overcome the physical complexities of pronounciation
...
(Berko and
Brown’s ‘fis’ experiment demonstrates this)

ENGB3 – Language Acquisition (Section A): Developing Speech
Grammatical Development
One Word Stage/Holophrasic Stage – 12 months
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Nouns are largest word class (concrete)
Words are instrumental and interactional
Adult has to work out what child means based on context and intonation

Two Word Stage – 18 months
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Grammatically correct sequence
Child uses the key words, leaving out less important words
Some ambiguity, adult has to use context to understand meaning

Telegraphic Stage – 2 years
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Three or four word utterances
...
E
...
inflections

Overgeneralisations
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When grammatical rules are understood but applied to irregular situations, e
...
sheeps
Berko’s wug experiment

Questions
Three stages of acquisition:
1
...
Use of question words (who, what, where, when why)
3
...
Single dependence on ‘no’ and ‘not’
2
...
More complex – didn’t, isn’t, couldn’t, shouldn’t

18 months
2 – 3 years
3+ years

ENGB3 – Language Acquisition (Section A): Developing Speech
Inflections
Brown – children begin with inflections at 20 months old
...

2
...

4
...

6
...


–ing
Plural –s
Possessive –‘s
‘the’ and ‘a’
Past tense –ed
Third person singular verb ending –s
Auxiliary ‘be’

Cruttenden said inflections are acquired in three stages:
1
...
Consistent usage with some errors – understood the grammatical rule but misused in
the case of irregularities
3
...

2
...

4
...
Nouns
2
...
Adjectives

Semantics
Overextend and underextend meanings
Aitchinson’s stages of children’s linguistic development:
1
...
Packaging – understand the range of meaning, over/underextension occurs
3
...


Child Speech Acquisition Theories
Behaviourism/Imitation – Skinner
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Nelson found that if a parent
constantly corrected a child, the child
actually developed more slowly

Language is acquired through imitation and positive or negative reinforcement
(positive=praise or negative=correction)

Strengths
 Copy accent and dialect
 Politeness is taught this way
 Labelling is taught this way

Weaknesses
 Children make overgeneralisations but
they won’t hear these from adults
 Children might not always be corrected
where they’re wrong
 ‘fis’ experiment – children understand
correct pronunciation, but still can’t
pronounce it correctly themselves

Innate – Chomsky
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Inbuilt ability to acquire language
Each child has a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) – allows learn grammatical rules

Strengths
 Explains overgeneralisations
 Explains why children can talk despite
being exposed to adult speech with false
starts and interruptions
 Berko’s wug experiment shows how
children tend to apply grammatical rules

Weaknesses
 Interaction is important too

ENGB3 – Language Acquisition (Section A): Developing Speech
Cognitive – Piaget
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A child can only understand language when they understand a concept (e
...
can talk in
past tense when they know about time)
A child needs to develop certain mental abilities before they can acquire particular
aspects of language – comprehension before application
For example…
o Need to understand time before using past, present and future tenses
o Need to understand feelings such as emotions before using stative verbs

Input and Interaction – Bruner
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Linguistic interaction with caregivers is required – e
...
Child Directed Speech (CDS)
There’s a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) – this is where caregivers support
their children’s linguistic development in situations (e
...
meal times, bath time, games)

Critical Period – Lenneburg
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Without linguistic interaction before 5 or 6 years, a child’s language development is
severely limited



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