Notting Hill College
TESOL Diploma
Module One
Done by: Eman El Sayed El Taher Mahmoud
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Essay (1) Describe the various stages of the first language acquisition.
Introduction Language is what we use spoken every day and we get it by acquiring not by learning. Moreover, a human may acquire more than one language as a first language which is something mainly related to his parent. If his mother and father are from different nationalities so, the child will acquire at least two first languages. In that case we call such his child a bilingual speaker. In the first section, we will highlight the theories of language acquisition and in the second section, we will put spot on stages of various stages of the first language acquisition which are the first sound or pre- production, babbling or early production, first word or speech emergent, the two word or beginning fluency and from telegraph to infinity (intermediate fluency and advanced fluency).
Section one : Theories of language acquisition In this section, we will highlight briefly the main theories of language acquisition, which are; 1. Imitation Theory 2. Reinforcement Theory 3. The Innateness Theory plus Active Construction of Grammar Theory
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1. Imitation Theory This theory focuses on the idea of that children acquire language by memorizing it from their parents. So, we learn grammar and acquire language by imitating adult. There are some comments on it; sometimes, we imitate our parents in learning grammar, but in some stages we build our own grammar rules that they are not exist in the adult rules. For example, If the first language is Arabic when we were toddlers we used to say" tata = "like walk in English", mum = "like eat in English" such words do not exist in the adult grammar rules or dictionary. Another example, if the first language is English, when the kid starts to learn how to use the past simple tense, he starts to say goed, eated , runed … etc these words are not acquired or imitated from adults.
2. Reinforcement Theory The basic idea of this theory is parents "correct" grammar of their children. This theory can be true if it is applied on the Arab culture because they do correct grammar for their young children. A little explanation for that in Arabic there is an article to address males and another one to address females so, if a kid uses the wrong article to address males, his parent will correct him. In the English culture , which the theory came from parents do not correct the grammar mistake of their kids i.e. If a kid says I goed to my grandpa , his parent will simply answer "yes".
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3. The Innateness Theory plus Active Construction of Grammar Theory Which means language is acquired by nature, we are made to talk. For me, I support the third theory because we do not acquire language of because of imitation or reinforcement but because it is something comes by innateness.
Section two: Various stages of the first language acquisition 1. Pre- production or the first sound: This stage can be called "the silent period. the period of this stage before six months or longer depending on the individual. In this period, babies are just newborns. They only make the sound crying and cooing, they can't express their feeling by talking only what they can do is making different sounds like crying. However, even if babies cannot talk, they can respond to the human voice by using sight. 2. Babbling or early production This period starts around from six months to eight. Babies start to babble by producing sounds with errors. They cannot make clear words but rather than this they can produce understood words like baba , mamma , bou which clear from these words that they refer to dad , mum and drink. Deaf children or non speaking deaf parents can babble also in this stage. Furthermore, babies in that period cannot produce a clear word or a sentence. Sometimes, some babies have delay in talking; therefore they may talk after eight months due to many factors. |Page4
3. First word or speech emergent This period lasts from nine months to eighteen months. Some scholar call it "Holophrastic" which means ( holo from "complete" or "undivided" plus "phrase" or "sentence"). In this period, babies start producing more clearly understood words. The words that have some errors in babbling stage, in this stage will be more clears and errors will decrease. On the other hand, number of vocabulary will increase. Some of children in this stage can say two words at once that depend on the parents and the skills that they give to their children. 4. The two word or beginning fluency This period usually starts from eighteen months to twenty four months. Now, children can speak sentences combined of many words. However, the grammar rules are not used well and also linked words for example children say me fall instead of I fell, mum shoes instead of my mum's shoes, car box instead of the car is in the box …etc. Also, they can say the names of their parents but with some error mistakes. There are still errors in pronouncing some sounds like "r" and "sh", parents should work on these errors otherwise a child may have speech problems. 5. From telegraph to infinity (intermediate fluency and advanced fluency) This period usually starts from twenty four months to infinity. Some scholars divide this stage into two stages; the first is "intermediate fluency" which starts from twenty four months to thirty months and they call it intermediate fluency, and the second starts from thirty months to infinity and they call it" advanced fluency".
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In the intermediate fluency period, children have less errors and more fluency. They are able to demonstrate higher order thinking skills. They can say more clear sentences with basic grammar rules i.e. I am playing, I am sad.. etc. After that period, there is advanced fluency period. A child communication is clear, he is fully understood.
Conclusion All three theories Imitation theory, Reinforcement theory, and the Innateness theory plus Active Construction of Grammar Theory, each one describe how children acquire a language. After that, we talked in details on the stages of acquiring the first language starting from no word till have a full clear sentence.
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References 1. http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/hurley/Ling102web/mod5_Llearning/5mod5.3_ acquisition.htm 2. http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/language-acquisition-overview 3. http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall_2011/ling001/acquisition.html 4. http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/ChildLangAcquisition.ht m 5. Notting Hill Book , Module 1
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