Reference No: KLL-FO-ACAD-000 | Effectivity Date: August 3, 2020 | Revisions No.

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MODULE
I. COURSE: E104|Principles and Theories of Language Acquisition

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

1. This training module is designed to engage the learner. Read and analyze the content of this module.
2. Complete/accomplish all the given tasks/assignments provided for at the given time and date set forth.
3. Do not write anything on this module. Put your answer/s on a separate sheet, handwritten or
computerized.
4. Duplication, reproduction of this module is prohibited unless permitted by the author.

II. SUBJECT MATTER

SUBJECT MATTER Time-Frame

LESSON 2 : Issues in First Language 12 hrs

Acquisition

III. COURSE OUTCOME

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. recognize the principles and theories in language acquisition;
2. define and explain the terms that are relevant to language development; and
3. identify the different factors that shape an individual in acquiring knowledge.

IV. ENGAGEMENT

A. Competence and Performance

Chomsky separates competence and performance; he describes 'competence' as an idealized capacity that
is located as a psychological or mental property or function and 'performance' as the production of actual utterances.

The concept of competence versus performance is fundamental to the study of language. This distinction
recognizes that the “mistakes” people make when speaking (performance) may not accurately reflect what they
actually know (competence). We all have made “slips of the tongue,” where we substitute a word or sound for
another or use a different grammatical form than intended, with sometimes humorous results. For example, you

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might say you need to go “shake a tower” instead of “take a shower,” ask someone to be “pacific” rather than be
“specific,” or accuse someone of telling a “lack of pies” rather than “pack of lies.” Performance errors can also be
found in comprehension, such as mishearing “just a position” for “juxtaposition.”

These kinds of mistakes do not mean that we have an inaccurate knowledge of language. Rather, a variety
of conditions, both internal to the individual (i.e., memory limitations or fatigue) and external (i.e., distractions or
interruptions) can cause a difference between what people know about their language and how they apply that
knowledge in real situations.

Noam Chomsky defined competence as the underlying knowledge each speaker-hearer has about the
language of his or her community. As such, competence is an ideal, which presupposes a “completely homogeneous
speech-community.” It is hypothesized as a psychological or mental property or function and therefore cannot be
directly observed. In contrast, performance refers to an actual communicative act of speaking or hearing. In this
distinction, performance is an incomplete and inaccurate demonstration of what an individual knows about his or her
language.

The competence-performance distinction is an important one in linguistics. One of the major goals of
linguistic research is to discover how children develop language. Another is to understand how language functions
within the human brain. One difficulty in conducting these types of language research is that actual speech contains
errors. In 1965, Noam Chomsky argued that the focus of linguistic theory must be on the underlying language system
(competence), not the act of speaking (performance). While performance errors may illuminate how language is
perceived and organized in the brain, the goal of a theory of language is not a description of what people actually
say. Rather, it is to describe the cognitive mechanism by which humans can produce an infinite number of sentences,
many of which they have never heard, from a finite number of words and grammatical structures. Therefore, it is
crucial to differentiate between competence and performance.

Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance has undergone some criticism, such as for
the emphasis on grammar in his definition of competence. Subsequently, Dell Hymes and others have introduced the
concept of “communicative competence,” which refers to an individual’s knowledge of how to use language
appropriately in different social and communicative contexts. The focus on language use has emerged in recent years
in a variety of areas, including language socialization research. This type of study examines how children from
different backgrounds are socialized to use language in culturally appropriate ways and how they develop
understanding of the social organization and worldview of their cultural group through the development of their
community’s language.

The distinction between competence and performance remains important to many areas of study (i.e.,
artificial intelligence and second language acquisition) and is widely applied. Nonetheless, as with the theory of
language for which this distinction was originally proposed, many questions and controversies remain. Yet, for
many, this is a useful heuristic device that allows us to consider and explain how in terms of our language abilities,
as in many other areas of human cognition, we may know more than we can demonstrate through our actions in daily
life.

B. Comprehension and Production

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Comprehension - is the words and word combinations that children understand.
Production - is the words and word combinations that children use.

Distinction between Comprehension and Production

At all ages in life, comprehension develops ahead of production. There is a five-month lag between the
time toddlers can comprehend 50 words and the time that they can actually produce that many. Comprehension
requires children to recognize the meaning of a word. But in the light of production, children must recall or actively
retrieve from their memories. They not only have to remember the word but also the meaning of the word. These two
concepts are still related. When a child's speed and accuracy of word comprehension is faster than they show a more
rapid growth of words understood and later produced.

C. Nature or Nurture
The nature vs. nurture debate is the scientific, cultural, and philosophical debate about whether human culture,
behavior, and personality are caused primarily by nature or nurture.

Nature is often defined in this debate as genetic or hormone-based behaviors, traits, and dispositions, while nurture
is most commonly defined as environment, culture, and experience.

TWIN AND IDENTICAL TWIN STUDIES

Several studies done on twins separated shortly after birth reveal that genetics do play a significant role in
the development of certain personality characteristics, sexual orientation, and religiosity. The bond between identical
twins was also suggested to be genetic by these studies, as 80% of identical twins reported that they felt closer to
their twin than they did to their closest friends, despite having just met their twin.

One study also suggested that genetics play a significant role in the development of personality:
Environment had little effect on personality when twins were raised together, though it did have an effect when they
were raised apart.

HOW NATURE AFFECTS MENTAL HEALTH

Nature, or genetics and disposition, has been proven to be an important factor in the development of some
mental health conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar, and major depression. Bipolar, for example, is four to six
times more likely to develop when there is a family history of the condition. However, although the importance of

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genetic factors cannot be denied, the development of mental illness is not entirely genetic. For example, identical
twins share their genes, yet if one twin develops schizophrenia, research shows the other twin only has a 50% chance
of also developing the condition. This indicates that nature, while it plays an important part, is not the only
contributing factor.

Another area where researchers may place more emphasis on nature than on nurture is that of addictions.
Research indicates that alcohol addiction, for example, can recur in families and that certain genes may influence
how alcohol tastes and the way it affects the body.

HOW NURTURE AFFECTS MENTAL HEALTH

Certain genetic factors may create a predisposition for a particular illness, but the probability that a
person develops that illness depends in part on environment (nurture). When a genetic variant indicates the
possibility of developing a mental illness, this information can be used to direct positive (nurturing) behavior in such
a way that the condition may not develop or may develop with less severity.

James Fallon, a neuroscientist who discovered that he had the brain of a psychopath, has stated that he
believes growing up in a nurturing and loving environment helped him become a successful adult and may have been
effective at preventing him from fully developing traits of psychopathy. Similarly, the basis for addiction is not
thought to be entirely genetic by most researchers. Environmental aspects, such as the habits of parents, friends, or a
partner, might also be significant factors contributing to the development of an addiction. A genetic predisposition to
alcohol addiction may be far more significant if one is routinely exposed to binge drinking or other forms of alcohol
abuse and comes to view this as normal alcohol use.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool recently found that while a family history of mental health
conditions was the second strongest predictor of mental illness, the strongest predictor was in fact life events and
experiences, such as childhood bullying, abuse, or other trauma. This supports the idea that nurture plays significant
role in the development of mental health issues.

NATURE VS. NURTURE IN THERAPY

In the mental health field, some therapeutic treatments and approaches may be nature-based or nurture-
based, depending on which paradigm to which they adhere. For example, an extremely nature-based approach might
seek to address mental health on a biological or genetic level, while a nurture-based approach could be more likely to
address a person’s learned beliefs and behaviors. Most approaches borrow from both nature and nurture-based
philosophies, and many seek to address the interaction between nature and nurture.

For example, using medication to treat a mental health issue may be a primarily nature-based approach,
while behavioral therapy, which stems from behaviorist psychology, addresses a person’s upbringing and
conditioning and takes a nurture-based point of view. Meanwhile, therapies based in cognitive psychology may be
more likely to address the effects of both nature and nurture.

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 It is possible to find a therapist who takes a more nature or nurture-based approach to treatment.
However, many therapists today consider multiple factors, including how the nature and nurture work together,
during a session.

HOW NATURE AND NURTURE INTERACT

Many scientists eschew the nature vs. nurture debate by emphasizing “nature x nurture.” In this schema,
nature and nurture are inseparable. Some genes, for example, cannot be activated without certain environmental
inputs. The development of vision is a prime example of this. People cannot develop normal sight without exposure
to visual stimuli.

Similarly, some environmental inputs may be undermined by some genes. For example, some lifelong
smokers may never experience smoking-related illnesses, and this may be due at least in part to their genes.
Environmental toxins may alter the expression of some genes, and genes for many behaviors presumed to have a
genetic basis have not been discovered.

Developmental systems theory, among other theories, presents an alternative to this debate that does not
require scientists to advocate either for nature or nurture.

D. Universals
Universal grammar, theory proposing that humans possess innate faculties related to the acquisition of
language. It is associated with work in generative grammar, and it is based on the idea that certain aspects of
syntactic structure are universal.

Universal grammar (UG), in modern linguistics, is the theory of the genetic component of the language
faculty, usually credited to Noam Chomsky. The basic postulate of UG is that a certain set of structural rules are
innate to humans, independent of sensory experience. With more linguistic stimuli received in the course of
psychological development, children then adopt specific syntactic rules that conform to UG. It is sometimes known
as "mental grammar", and stands contrasted with other "grammars", e.g. prescriptive, descriptive and pedagogical.
The advocates of this theory emphasize and partially rely on the poverty of the stimulus (POS) argument and the
existence of some universal properties of natural human languages. However, the latter has not been firmly
established, as some linguists have argued languages are so diverse that such universality is rare. It is a matter of
empirical investigation to determine precisely what properties are universal and what linguistic capacities are innate.

The theory of universal grammar proposes that if human beings are brought up under normal conditions
(not those of extreme sensory deprivation), then they will always develop language with certain properties (e.g.,
distinguishing nouns from verbs, or distinguishing function words from content words). The theory proposes that
there is an innate, genetically determined language faculty that knows these rules, making it easier and faster for
children to learn to speak than it otherwise would be. This faculty does not know the vocabulary of any particular
language (so words and their meanings must be learned), and there remain several parameters which can vary freely
among languages (such as whether adjectives come before or after nouns) which must also be learned. Evidence in
favor of this idea can be found in studies like Valian (1986), which show that children of surprisingly young ages
understand syntactic categories and their distribution before this knowledge shows up in production.

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 As Chomsky puts it, "Evidently, development of language in the individual must involve three factors:
genetic endowment, which sets limits on the attainable languages, thereby making language acquisition possible;
external data, converted to the experience that selects one or another language within a narrow range; [and]
principles not specific to the Faculty of Language."

Occasionally, aspects of universal grammar seem describable in terms of general details regarding
cognition. For example, if a predisposition to categorize events and objects as different classes of things is part of
human cognition, and directly results in nouns and verbs showing up in all languages, then it could be assumed that
rather than this aspect of universal grammar being specific to language, it is more generally a part of human
cognition. To distinguish properties of languages that can be traced to other facts regarding cognition from properties
of languages that cannot, the abbreviation UG* can be used. UG is the term often used by Chomsky for those aspects
of the human brain which cause language to be the way that it is (i.e. are universal grammar in the sense used here),
but here for the purposes of discussion, it is used for those aspects which are furthermore specific to language (thus
UG, as Chomsky uses it, is just an abbreviation for universal grammar, but UG* as used here is a subset of universal
grammar).

In the same article, Chomsky casts the theme of a larger research program in terms of the following
question: "How little can be attributed to UG while still accounting for the variety of 'I-languages' attained, relying
on third factor principles?"[7] (I-languages meaning internal languages, the brain states that correspond to knowing
how to speak and understand a particular language, and third factor principles meaning "principles not specific to the
Faculty of Language" in the previous quote). Chomsky has speculated that UG might be extremely simple and
abstract, for example only a mechanism for combining symbols in a particular way, which he calls "merge". The
following quote shows that Chomsky does not use the term "UG" in the narrow sense UG* suggested above:

The conclusion that merge falls within UG holds whether such recursive generation is unique to FL
(faculty of language) or is appropriated from other systems.

In other words, merge is seen as part of UG because it causes language to be the way it is, universal, and
is not part of the environment or general properties independent of genetics and environment. Merge is part of
universal grammar whether it is specific to language, or whether, as Chomsky suggests, it is also used for example in
mathematical thinking. The distinction is the result of the long history of argument about UG*: whereas some people
working on language agree that there is universal grammar, many people assume that Chomsky means UG* when he
writes UG (and in some cases he might actually mean UG*.

Some students of universal grammar study a variety of grammars to extract generalizations called
linguistic universals, often in the form of "If X holds true, then Y occurs." These have been extended to a variety of
traits, such as the phonemes found in languages, the word orders which different languages choose, and the reasons
why children exhibit certain linguistic behaviors. Other linguists who have influenced this theory include Richard
Montague, who developed his version of this theory as he considered issues of the argument from poverty of the
stimulus to arise from the constructivist approach to linguistic theory. The application of the idea of universal
grammar to the study of second language acquisition (SLA) is represented mainly in the work of McGill linguist
Lydia White.

Syntacticians generally hold that there are parametric points of variation between languages, although
heated debate occurs over whether UG constraints are essentially universal due to being "hard-wired" (Chomsky's

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principles and parameters approach), a logical consequence of a specific syntactic architecture (the generalized
phrase structure approach) or the result of functional constraints on communication (the functionalist approach).

E. Systematicity and Variability

 One of the assumptions of a good deal of current research on child language is the systematicity of the
process of acquisition.
 From pivot grammar to full sentences of almost indeterminate length, children exhibit a remarkable ability
to infer the phonological, structural, lexical, and semantic system of language.
 But in the midst of all this systematicity, there is an equally remarkable amount of variability in the process
of learning.
 Researchers do not agree on how to define various "stages" of language acquisition, even in English.
 In both first and second language acquisition, the problem of variability is being carefully addressed by
researchers.
 One of the major current research problems is to account for all this variability.

F. Language and Thought

 For years researchers have examined the relationship between language and cognition.
 Behaviorists think that cognition is too mentalistic to be studied by the scientific method.
 Piaget (1972) gives an opposing position. He claimed that cognitive development is at the very
center of the human organism and that language is dependent upon and springs from cognitive
development.
 Vygotsky (1962, 1978) claimed that social interaction, through language, is a prerequisite to
cognitive development.
 Thought and language were seen as two distinct cognitive operations that grow together. (Schinkle-
Llano 1993)
 One of the champions of the position that language affects thought was Benjamin Whorf, who with
Edward Sapir formed the well-known Sapir Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativity-namely, that
each language imposes on its speaker a particular "world view."
 The issue at stake in child language acquisition is to determine how thought affects language, how
language affects thought, and how linguists can best describe and account for the interaction of the
two.

G. Imitation

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  It is a common informal observation that children are good imitators. So we might think that
imitation is one of the important strategies a child uses in the acquisition of language.
 This is not inaccurate on a global level. Indeed, research has shown that echoing is a particularly
important strategy in early language learning and an important aspect of early phonological
acquisition.
 There are two types of imitation: - Surface structure imitation: where a person repeats or mimics the
surface strings, attending to a phonological code rather than a semantic code. - Deep structure
imitation: where a person concentrates on language as a meaningful and communicative tool.

H. Practice
 Do children practice their language? If so, how? What is the role of the frequency of hearing and
producing items in the acquisition of those items?
 A behavioristic view would claim that practice – repetition and association – is the key to the
formation of habits by operant conditioning.
 Practice is usually thought of as referring to speaking only. But one can also think in terms of
comprehension practice (the frequency of linguistic input to the child).
 Is the acquisition of particular words or structures directly attributable to their frequency in the
child‟s linguistic environment?
 Brown and Hanlon (1970) found that the frequency of occurrence of a linguistic item in the speech
of the mothers was a strong predictor of the order of emergence of those items in their children‟s
speech.
I. Input
 The role of input in the child's acquisition of language is undeniably crucial. Whatever one's position
is on the innateness of language, the speech that young children hear is primarily the speech heard in
the home, and much of that speech is parental speech or the speech of older siblings.
 Children react very consistently to the deep structure and the communicative function of language,
and they do not react overtly to expansions and grammatical corrections. Such input is largely
ignored unless there is some truth or falsity that the child can attend to.
 What many researchers have showed is that in the long run, children will, after consistent, repeated
models in meaningful contexts, eventually transfer correct forms to their own speech and thus
correct past mistakes.
J. Discourse
 A subfield of research that is occupying the attention of an increase number of child language
researchers, especially in an era of social constructivist research, is the area of conversational or
discourse analysis.
 While parental input is a significant part of the child's development of conversational rules, it is only
one aspect, as the child also interacts with peers and, of course, with other adults.
 While it used to be generally held that mere exposure to language is sufficient to set the child's
language generating machinery in motion, it is now clear that, in order for successful first language
acquisition to take place, interaction, rather than exposure, is required. Children do not learn
language from overhearing the conversations of others or from listening to the radio and must,
instead, acquire it in the context of being spoken to.

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  While conversation is a universal human activity performed routinely in the course of daily living,
the means by which children learn to take part in conversation appear to be very complex.
 How do children learn discourse rules? What are the key features children attend to? How do they
detect pragmatic or intended meaning? How are gender roles acquired? These and other questions
about the acquisition of discourse ability are slowly being answered in the research

A number of theories and issues in child language have been explored in this chapter with the
purpose of both briefly characterizing the current state of child language research and of highlighting
a few of the key concepts that emerge in the formation of an understanding of how babies learn to
talk and eventually become sophisticated linguistic beings.

V. ACTIVITIES
DIRECTIONS: Create a video of a demo teaching about the Issues in First Language Acquisition. Your video
should be audible. You can upload your video in our private group page.

VII. EVALUATION
Your output will be evaluated using the criteria below.
Criteria
Content - 15 pts
Organization - 15 pts
Grammar - 10 pts
Mechanics - 10 pts
Total - 50 pts

VI. REFERENCES
Brown,  Malmkjær,  K.,  &  Williams,  J.  (Eds.).  (1996). Performance and competence in second language acquisition. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.

Agin, D. P. (2010). More than genes: What science can tell us about toxic chemicals, development, and the risk to our children. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Alcoholism Nature vs. Nurture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dualdiagnosis.org/alcohol-addiction/nature-vs-nurture.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_grammar

https://www.kau.edu.sa/Files/0008718/Subjects/Chapter%202.pdf

Prepared by:

NOLI M. JAVIER
Instructor I

Checked by:

Department Module Editing Committee

Approved by:

BIBIANA JOCELYN D. CUASAY, Ph.D.

Module Editing Chair

AQUILINO D. ARELLANO, Ph.D., Ed.D.

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Research

Noted by:

MARIO CARMELO A. PESA, CPA

College Administrator

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