English language Acqusition

1. Language Acqusition
ELT Teacher Training
Prepared by
Tarık İNCE

3. Unit 1 First Language Acqusition
Telegraphic speech
they are not list of words
they are meaningful and having word order but but not grammatical
Everybody learns language in the same sequence
But AGE and SPEED is different
Order of Acqusition of Grammar Morpheme
Present progressive
ing
Plural
S
İrregular Past form
Possessive
‘S
Copula
BE
Articles
Regular past ED
3th person Singular (S)
Negation 1. using no at the beginning no cookies
2.using don’t
4. notice tense and person
3. more complex sentences can’t
Questions
what where who why when
using rising intonation cookies?
using declarative sentence rising intonation
aware of the interrogative sentences
inversions and yes-no questions
why questions

4. Preschool years 4-6
Can ask questions
Give commands
Repeat real events
Create stories
Use basic structures
Continue to learn new vocabularies
Learn complex linguistic structures
Can use language in variety of situations
Interact with unfamiliar people on the phone
Start developing metacognitive awareness
School years
Understand differences between meaning and reprensentive
Different types of registers improve
Spoken register: knowing how to speak with people
Written register: knowing how to write people
Start using standard language in school
Give up ethnic and regional variety of language
Continue to improve vocabulary
Non-fiction text should be read
Understand writing representation of words

5. Approaches to native language acquisition
Behaviorism
say what I say
Kids are like a blank state
Errors can not be accepted
Accuracy is the most important thing
Environment imitation positive reinforcement practice
The quality and quantity of the language comes from environment
The permanent reinforcement is very effective
WEAKNESS:
Innatist
complex aspects of language
What about the creativity of children
Children never imitate randomly rather than selectively
it is all in your mind
Chomsky as other functions language acquisition is also pre programmed.
Learn to walk = learn to speak
LAD: it helps kids to acquire language
A kid has more language knowledge than he is exposed to.
This is called logical problem and it proves LAD
Chomsky says that a kid was born with a special ability to learn language
There is a black box in LAD which has universal rules of every language.
Limited ability of cognitively kids can learn language
UG

6. Interactionist / Developmental Perspective
Cognitivist + Interactionist = Learning from inside out
Interactionist position: human characteristics of a child
they give importance to environment
Supportive interactive environment
Zone of Proximal Development: kids conversations with adults
Child-directed speech: the language that used by adults
Paraphasing (explaining)
Slower rate of delivery
Higher pitch
More varied intonation
There is a strong relation between cognitive an language acqusition