First Language Acquisition

The process of learning a first language is truly amazing, especially considering how quickly it
happens. Before a child even starts school, they have already become a highly skilled user of
language, able to express themselves and communicate in ways that no other creature or
computer can match. The speed of this process, along with the fact that all children acquire
language without formal instruction, shows that humans are born with an innate ability to learn a
language. This suggests that every newborn child has a special built-in capacity for language.
However, this natural ability alone isn’t enough to learn a language.

Acquisition Process

For a child to acquire a language, there are some basic requirements. In the first two to three
years of life, a child needs to interact with other language-users in order to connect their innate
language ability with a specific language, like English. We’ve already seen in the case of Genie
(from Chapter 12) that if a child does not hear or is not allowed to use language, they will not
learn any language. Moreover, the specific language a child learns is not inherited genetically,
but rather acquired through exposure to the language in their environment (as discussed in
Chapter 2).

A child also needs to be physically able to make and hear sounds. While all infants make cooing
and babbling noises in the first year, babies who are born deaf stop making these noises after
about six months. Therefore, a child must be able to hear the language being used around them.
However, just hearing the sounds is not enough. For example, a deaf child, whose parents are
also deaf but who is exposed to TV and radio, may not learn to speak or understand English, but
they can learn American Sign Language, the language used to communicate with their parents.
Interaction with others through language is essential for language learning.

Input

In normal situations, infants benefit from the language input provided by the adults and older
children around them. These caregivers do not usually speak to the baby as if they are having a
conversation with an adult. Instead, they speak in a way that is simplified and exaggerated. For
example, instead of saying, “Let’s invest in blue-chip stocks,” they might say something like,
“Oh, goody, now Daddy push choo choo?” This type of speech, often referred to as “baby talk,”
involves simplified words (e.g., “tummy,” “nana”) and repetitive sounds that relate to things in
the child’s world (e.g., “choo-choo,” “poo-poo,” “wa-wa”). It is also characterized by the
frequent use of questions, slower speech, and higher intonation, often called “motherese” or
“caregiver speech.”

Caregiver Speech
Caregiver speech is special because it gives the child a chance to interact before they even
begin speaking. For example, if a mother is talking to her 1-year-old, she might say, “Look!” and
the child might touch pictures or smile in response. The mother then reacts as if the child’s
behavior is part of the conversation, saying things like, “What are those?” and, when the child
makes sounds, “Yes, there are rabbits.” This helps the child understand that their sounds are a
part of communication.

Caregiver speech is also simple and repetitive, often focused on the here and now. It provides a
good model for the child to begin learning language structures.

The Acquisition Schedule

All children generally develop language on a similar schedule. Much like how children develop
motor skills (e.g., sitting, crawling, walking), language development follows a biologically driven
timeline. Even before children start speaking, they are already processing what they hear. For
instance, a 1-month-old infant can tell the difference between sounds like [ba] and [pa], and by
three months, they may begin to respond to speech by making different sounds.

Cooing

The first type of speech-like sound a baby makes is called cooing. Between 1 and 4 months,
babies start making vowel-like sounds such as [i] and [u]. By 4 months, they begin making
sounds like [k] and [g], which are known as velar consonants. Studies show that babies can
distinguish between different vowels and syllables by 5 months.

Babbling

Around 6 to 8 months, babies start producing more complex sounds, called babbling. They begin
using combinations like “ba-ba-ba” and “ga-ga-ga.” As they get closer to 9 to 10 months, their
babbling starts to include intonation patterns, as well as combinations like “ba-da-da.” Babies at
this stage are also starting to imitate sounds and express emotions through their vocalizations.
Around 10 to 11 months, babies also begin using gestures like pointing, indicating they are linking
hand gestures with vocalizations.

At this stage, even though the sounds may not be meaningful to adults, they are part of the
baby’s process of understanding the social function of language.

The One-Word Stage

Between 12 and 18 months, children begin using single words to refer to objects or actions. For
example, a child might say “milk,” “cookie,” or “cat.” These words are used to refer to specific
things, but they can also function as entire phrases or sentences. This type of speech is called
holophrastic speech, where a single word expresses an idea that would typically require a full
sentence. At this stage, children are not yet combining words into more complex phrases, but
they understand that words can represent things and ideas.

The Two-Word Stage

Around 18 to 20 months, when children have learned around 50 words, they begin using two-
word combinations like “big boat,” “cat bad,” and “more milk.” The meaning of these phrases
depends on the context. For example, “big boat” might be understood as a statement (“The boat
is big”) or a request (“Give me the big boat”). These two-word combinations show that the child
is beginning to understand the rules of grammar and word order.

Telegraphic Speech

By the time children are 2 to 2.5 years old, they begin using longer strings of words, like “this
shoe all wet” or “daddy go bye-bye.” These sentences often leave out function words like “is” or
“the,” making them similar to a telegram. This is called telegraphic speech. At this point, children
also start to use some simple grammatical forms like prepositions (e.g., “in,” “on”) and verb
endings (e.g., “ing”).

By the age of three, children have a vocabulary of several hundred words and their pronunciation
is becoming clearer. This is when children begin to use language in more advanced ways and can
express more complex thoughts.

The Acquisition Process

Most children are not “taught” language directly by adults. Instead, they are actively
constructing their language abilities by observing and interacting with others. For example,
children imitate the language they hear around them, but they also experiment with new ways of
using language. In fact, children often create their own words and phrases. A famous example is
from a child named Noah, who, after hearing a toy dog called “Woodstock,” began using it as a
verb: “Don’t Woodstock me,” meaning, “Don’t do that.” This shows that children are not just
repeating what they hear—they are actively creating language based on their experiences.

Learning through Imitation?

Studies suggest that “imitation” is not the main way children learn to speak. For example, when
young children are asked to repeat phrases, they often only copy individual words, but not the
sentence structure. Here are two examples:
 • The dogs are hungry → dog hungry
• The owl who eats candy runs fast → owl eat a candy and he run fast

It seems that children understand what adults are saying, but they express it in their own way,
not by simply copying the sentence structure.

Learning through Correction?

Adults correcting children’s speech doesn’t seem to be a very effective way to teach them. For
example, even when adults correct a child’s mistake, the child often keeps using their own
version of the sentence. In this dialogue:

Child: My teacher holded the baby rabbits and we patted them.

This shows that even with correction, children still use the form they have constructed on their
own.

The Role of Word Play

A big part of how children develop language is through playing with sounds and words, either by
themselves or in interactions with others. For instance, a two-year-old child was recorded
playing with words while lying in bed alone, repeating phrases like “I go dis way” and “baby do
dis bib”. Word play helps children build their language skills.

Developing Morphology

By the time a child is two and a half, they start using more complex language, including things
like word endings. For example, they begin using the “-ing” form (like “cat sitting” or “mommy
reading book”), and later, prepositions like “in” and “on”. The next step is using the plural “-s”
(like “boys” or “cats”), though they might overgeneralize it, saying things like “foots” or “mans”.
Over time, they also learn irregular plurals (like “men” and “feet”) and past tense verbs (like
“came” and “went”).

Around this time, they also start using possessive forms, like “Karen’s bed”, and articles like “a”
and “the”. Eventually, they use past tense “-ed” (like “walked” or “opened”), though they might
say things like “goed” instead of “went”. The final stage is using present tense “-s” for verbs,
like “comes” or “knows”.

Developing Syntax

Syntax is the structure of sentences. Children typically go through three stages in how they form
questions and negatives.
• Forming Questions:
In Stage 1 (18–26 months), children add a “wh-” word (like “where”) to the beginning, or just
raise their voice at the end of a sentence (like “Where kitty?” or “Sit chair?”).
In Stage 2 (22–30 months), they begin forming more complex questions, adding words like
“What” and “Why” (like “Why you smiling?”).
In Stage 3 (24–40 months), children start using proper word order, like “Can I have…?” but may
still mix up some structures (e.g., “Why kitty can’t do it?”).
• Forming Negatives:
In Stage 1, children put “No” or “Not” at the beginning of a sentence (like “No mitten” or “Not sit
there”).
In Stage 2, they start using “don’t” and “can’t” (like “I don’t want it” or “You can’t dance”).
By Stage 3, they use past tense forms like “didn’t” and “won’t” (e.g., “I didn’t catch it” or “She
won’t let go”).

Developing Semantics

In the early stages, children sometimes use words in unexpected ways. For example, a child
might call both a dog and a fur coat with shiny eyes “bow-wow”. This is an example of
“overextension”, where children use a word too broadly, like calling any round object “ball”. Over
time, they learn to use words more accurately.

Later Developments

As children grow, they continue learning more complex concepts. For example, understanding
antonyms (like “more” vs. “less”) often comes later, after the age of five. Complex sentence
structures and extended speech are also learned later in childhood.

By the age of five, most children have completed the basic language acquisition process and can
use language well. However, it’s still common for them to struggle with second languages, which
is the focus of Chapter 14.