FIRST LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION

Aulia Salsabilla & Juwas Dwi Galita

 Definition
First Language Acquisition is the language that children
acquire in their first year of life, children acquire language
without overt instruction it is an innate predisposition the
children, even though this is not enough, we can say that this
is called language faculty, the fact that every human being is
endowed with language.
Basic Requirements
• Interactions with other language users, children must to hear
language and that way reproduce language
• The exposure to the language
• The cultural transmission, which means that language is acquired
in particular language-using environment, it is not genetically
transmitted
• The crucial requirement appears to be the opportunity to
interact with other via language
• Physical Conditions : to send and receives messages.
The acquisition schedule
At the same time that motor skills like walking, sitting, isung the
hands among other physical activities are developed, children
develop language, their mother tongue.
Language acquisition depends on the interplay with the social
factors in the child’s environment.
Children have a natural capacity to identify some aspects of
linguistic input during their early years of life, this acquisition
capacity need a constant exposure to the language where the
children will be actively practicing language, and the prove it when
they speak.
Language will vary from culture to culture, because of the milieu
where the child is expose for the first time.
• Noam Chomsky proposed that language development should be
described as language growth, because language can be
considered as an organ that develops just like another human
organ.
• Cognitive theory (by Piaget) : “language originates from thought”
Children’s speech as a whole single unit without considering
morphology or syntax.
Caretaker speech
Children are helped by the adults that surround their
environment on their language acquisition; this is given for typical
behavior of adults in the environment, adults that spend the most
part of their time with children, the mother, father or grandparents,
among others. The characteristic of cartaker speech is that is a
simplified speech style adopted by the caretaker, who interact with
a child.
The caretaker speech is characterized by simple structures and a
lot of repetition, if the child is indeed in this process of working out
a system of putting words and sounds together, then the child will
be internalized with language.
There is the speech of one mother to her 2 years child (Anderson et al., 1984)
• Mother : there’s your cup of tea
• Child : (takes cup)
• Mother : you drink it nicely
• Child : (pretends to drink)
• Mother : oh.. Is that nice?
• Child : (assents)
• Mother : will mummy drink her tea?
• Child : (assents)
• Mother : I will drink my tea
 Cooing Typical age

Babbling 3 – 5 months Vowel like sounds

One word stage 6 – 10 months Repetitive patterns

Two word stage 12 – 18 months Single or one semantic

meaning

Telegrafic stage 24 – 30 months Sentence struct

Multiword stage 30+ months Grammar or functional

The acquisition process
when the child is actively constructing forms in the process of acquisition of
language, the child is being taught and tested, that way the child will have a
better notion of language and develop it correctly
The use of sounds and word combinations are important either in the practice
and interaction with the language.
• Child : my teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them
• Mother : did you say your teacher held the baby rabbits?
• Child : yes.
• Mother : what did you say she did?
• Child : she holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.
• Mother : did you say she held them thightly?
• Child : no, she holded them loodely
The acquisition process
Morphology Syntax Semantic

In this process a child Here, they use imitation The semantics

incorporates some then they ask and repeat development in a child’s
inflexional morpheme what they heard use of words is usually a
which indicates the process of everextention
grammatical function of initially, followed by a
the noun and verbs. gradual process of
narrowing down the
application od each term
as more words are
learned.
Morphology (word – formation)
Inflectional morphemes : -ing and –s
Overgeneralization process : is the widespread application of
grammatical forms.
⁻ Plurals : e.g. foot – foots or footes instead of feet.
⁻ The use of irregukar plural
⁻ Possesive inflections
The use op past-tense morphemes ‘ed’ in the majority of verbs and
words.
E.g go,goed,instead of went
Syntax (word order)
Syntax is against the imitation because the child not only repeat utterances, the child has his own way of
expressing things.
Formation of questions and negatives form three stages.
• Stage one between 18 – 23 months
Begins with WH form (what, where) and a rise intonation at the end.
The negative form use of NO or NOT should be stuck at the beginning.
Where kitty? Doggie?
Where horse go? Sit chair?
• Stage two between 23 – 30 months
Use of more complex expressions, rising intonation continues.
Negitve DON’T and CAN’T are used and NO and NOT are placed in front of the verb rather than at the
beginning.
what book name? You want eat?
why you smilling? See my doggie?
• Stage three 26 – 40 months
Invention of subject and verb.
Negative incorporation of other auxiliary form such as DIDN’T and WON’T.
Will you help me? What did I do?
Semantics (the meaning of words)
the meaning of words is stuck and is difficult to know that the
child really wants to express.
Overextension : when the child uses the name of an object for
all the objects with the same characteristic, e.g. ball, for all rounded
objects.
Hyponymy : the generalization of a term, to describe other
terms.
E.g. : the word ball is extended to all kinds of round objects.
In terms of hyponymy children will almost always use the middle
level. On the other hand anatomys are acquired fairly late (after the
age of five) and distinctions between a number of other pairs such
as before and after buy or sell are late acquisitions.