Transcript Slide 1

Language Acquisition
DEVELOPING LANGUAGE:
Language Acquisition
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Language Acquisition
The average child speaks his or her first words at
about a year old.
Between the ages of a year and 18 months, the child
speaks in single-word utterances:
Teddy
Mummy
Gone
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Language Acquisition
Occasionally, more than one word may seem to be
involved.
This happens when a group of words has been
learned as a single unit:
Allgone
Wassat
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Language Acquisition
Much of what is first learned serves a naming
function:
Juice
Biccy
Daddy
Sometimes, however, single words may convey a
multitude of meanings.
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Language Acquisition
Holophrases
This is the term given to single words which may
convey a multitude of messages.
The utterance Juice, for instance, may have many
meanings. Can you suggest some?
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Language Acquisition
A child’s understanding of words and syntax is more
advanced than his or her spoken language suggests.
Children between 12 and 18 months old respond to
two-word instructions such as:
Kiss teddy
Tickle daddy
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Language Acquisition
Two-word utterances
Two-word sentences usually begin to appear when the
child is about 18 months old.
This is known as the two-word stage.
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Language Acquisition
The two words are usually in a standard grammatical
sequence:
Subject/verb
Verb/object
Subject/object
Subject/complement
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–
–
–
–
Stephen sleep
Draw mummy
Louis juice
Daddy busy
Language Acquisition
When a child repeats adult utterances, some of the
words may be missed out.
The grammatical structure, however, usually mimics
that of the parent/care-giver.
The words uttered will also carry the meaning
(content words).
Adult: Danielle’s playing in the garden
Child: Play garden
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Language Acquisition
Try to assign different meanings to the following
two-word phrases:
Mummy sock
Paul eat
Teddy bed
Notice the reliance on intonation for meaning
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Language Acquisition
During this stage, the child often has trouble
separating possessive pronouns from personal
pronouns:
This is hims car.
I can see shes bed.
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My finished now.
Mys want to come in.
Language Acquisition
Children also often use the object case instead of the
subject:
Me want it
Him did it
Her gave me one
Thems all gone now
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Language Acquisition
… and the subject case instead of the object:
Let she do it
I gonna push they over
… and inconsistent use:
She like that, her do
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Language Acquisition
From the age of about two children begin producing
three- and four-word utterances.
Children become capable of distinguishing between
the subject and the object.
Adverbs are acquired to indicate time, manner and
place.
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Language Acquisition
As well as declaratives, other sentence moods will
be used, such as interrogatives.
Children begin to ask questions using the ‘what’,
‘where’, ‘who’ formation, rather than a reliance on
intonation.
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Language Acquisition
By the age of three, children can use:
• Determiners – a, the
• Inflexions on the ends of adjectives – bigger,
biggest
• Past tense formations – kicked
• Co-ordinating conjunction – and
• Auxiliary verbs - do, have, can and will
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Language Acquisition
By the end of the third year, children can use most
parts of speech more or less correctly, with
appropriate intonation and stress.
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