Representations of First Language Acquisition in the Speech of a 30 -month- old child
Keywords:
first language acquisition, child language development, words, advanced wordsAbstract
First language acquisition (FLA) describes the process by which children acquire their native language or languages in infancy without formal instruction. FLA occurs in a series of predictable phases, beginning with prelinguistic vocalizations (e.g., cooing, babbling), followed by one-word utterances around 1 year of age, and culminating in a base level of grammatically structured speech that approximates adult use by 4 or 5 years of age. FLA theorists such as Chomsky (nativist perspective), Skinner (behaviorist), and Bruner (interactionist), have offered different competing or complementary explanations of how the child learns phonology, vocabulary, and grammatical syntax. The rate and trajectory of acquisition are also influenced by a variety of factors, including caregiver input, cognitive development, and the child’s environment. However, these points in the child's development appear to be relatively similar across cultures, with children exhibiting these same stages of development, regardless of their culture. FLA is therefore representative of the human brain's inbuilt predisposition or capability and places FLA in the context of early development as a dialectical process between biology and experience. This research is descriptive qualitative research with the stages of data collection, data analysis, and data presentation. The sources and data in this study are transcriptions of recordings of the verbal speech of a 30-month-old child named Benjamin. The results show five syntactic forms used by Benjamin: plurals, possessives, basic verb tenses, pronouns, and question words.
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