L1 Acquisition

IBU The first language
International Burch University

acquisition
associate professor Vildana Dubravac

What is language?
Why do we speak?
„The gift of language is the single human trait that marks
us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life.
Language is, like nest-building or hive-making, the
universal and biologically specific activity of human beings.
We engage in it communally, compulsively, and
automatically. We cannot be human without it; if we were to
be separated from it our minds would die, as surely as bees
lost from the hive.“ (Thomas, 1978: 89)
A system for communicating.
A system of communication consisting of

sounds, words, and grammar, or the system of
communication used by people in a particular
country or type of work.
A LANGUAGE IS A SYSTEM OF CONVENTIONAL
VOCAL SIGNS BY MEANS OF WHICH HUMAN
BEINGS COMMUNICATE.
A certain part of New Guinea:
One = 1
Two = 2
One and two = 3
Dog = 4
Dog and one = 5
Dog and two = 6
Dog and one and two = 7
Dog dog = 8
Dog dog and one = 9
and so on.
First language (mother tongue, native language, L1)
Additional language
Second language (L2)
Foreign language (Lf)
SLA
SA A D SD
1. Languages are learned mainly through imitation.
2. Parents usually correct young children when they make

grammatical mistakes.
3. Highly intelligent people are good language learners.
4. The most important predictor of success in L2 acquisition is

motivation.
5. The earlier an L2 is introduced in school programs, the greater

the likelihood of success in learning.
6. Most of the mistakes that L2 learners make are due to

interference from their L1.
7. The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading.

SA A D SD
8. It is essential for learners to be able to pronounce all the individual

sounds in the L2.
9. Once Ls know 1,000 words and the basic structure of a language,

they can easily participate in conversation with native speakers.
10. Ts should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners

should practise examples of each one before going on to another.
11. Ts should teach simple language structures before complex ones.
12.Ls’ errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to

prevent the formation of bad habits.
13. Ts should use materials that expose Ss only to language

structures they have already been taught.
14. When Ls are allowed to interact freely (for example, in group or

pair activities), they copy each other’s mistake.
SA A D SD
15. Ss learn what they are taught.
16. Ts should respond to Ss’errors by correctly rephrasing what they

have said rather than by explicitly pointing out the error.
17. Ss can learn both language and academic content (for example,
science and history) simulataneously in classes where the subject
matter is taught in their second language.
18. Classrooms are good places to learn about language but not for
learning how to use language.
Similarity in first language acquisition
12 months: a word or two that everyone recognizes
By the age of 2: at least fifty different words

mommy juice; baby fall down
By the age of 4: can ask questions, give commands, report real

events, create stories about imaginary events...
The school years
Metalinguistic awareness develops more slowly.

present progressive –ing
plural –s
irregular past forms went
possessive ‘s
copula (She is a nice girl)
article the and a
regular past –ed
third person singular simple present –s
auxiliary ‘be’
Developmental sequences:
present progressive –ing

plural –s
irregular past forms went
possessive ‘s
copula (She is a nice girl)
article the and a
regular past –ed
third person singular simple present –s
auxiliary ‘be’
Negation
No go. No cookie. No comb hair.
Daddy no comb hair. Don’t touch that!
I can’t do it. He don’t want it.
You didn’t have supper. She doesn’t want it.

I don’t have no more candies.
Where
When
Why
What
How
Who
Questions:
Cookie? Mommy book?
Where’s daddy? What’s that?
You like this? I have some? What’s that?
Can I go? Is that mine?

Is the teddy is tired? Do I can have a cookie?
Do you like ice-cream?

Can he eat the cookie? Where I can draw them?
Why can he go out? Why he can’t go out?
I don’t know why can’t he go out.

Theoretical approaches to explaining first language learning:
-Behaviourism
psychological theory of learning, influential in the 1940s and
1950s
language learning is the result of imitation, practice,
feedback on success and language behaviour
Mother: I love you to pieces.
David (4,1): I love you three pieces.

Innatism
Noam Chomsky: children are biologically programmed for language and that
language develops in the child in just the same way that other biological
functions develop.
-Universal Grammar
John saw himself.

*Himself saw John.
Looking after himself bores John.
John said that Fred liked himself.
John told Bill to wash himself.
John promised Bill to wash himself.
John believes himself to be intelligent.
*John believes that himself is intelligent.
Virtually all children successfully learn their native language at a time in life
when they would not be expected to learn anything else so complicated
Children successfully master the basic structure of their native language or

dialect in a variety of conditions
The language children are exposed to does not contain examples of all the
linguistic rules and patterns which they eventually know
Animals- even primates receiving intensive training from humans – cannot

learn to manipulate a symbol system as complicated as the natural
language of a three- or four-year-old human child
Limited correction
The Critical Period Hypothesis

-Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967):
contributed neurolinguistic data supporting a natural
predisposition in the child’s brain for learning the L1,
together with anecdotal observations that children were
also adept Lf learners.
-the loss of plasticity undergone by human brains by year

nine of life
-the completion of the process of lateralization by the

onset of puberty
-critical periods have been established for several

phenomena in animal behaviour, and in the development
of certain human faculties, such as vision.
The brain is pre-programmed to be shaped by certain experience in dramatic ways,
but only if it occurs within a biologically specified time period.
Genie – a deprived child
Genie was a 12-year-old girl who
was kept in isolation since birth.
When she was found she was

malnourished, deprived mentally and
physically from any type of
stimulation and was uttering infantile
noises, she had a strange way with
objects, she liked smelling them and
bringing them up to her face to feel
them and explore them, almost in a
way that an infant/child would in the
sensorimotor stage.
Genie did not speak at all Different language domains
when she was discovered. In may show different
the following months, she did acquisition paths, with
acquire some language, but different critical periods and
the process was slow and some may not be constrained
inefficient by critical periods at all.
Genie failed to develop Syntax, and specifically
normal syntax. syntactic movement, are
Her speech contained no affected by lack of language
question words, no input early in life.
demonstratives, and no Single words can be acquired
particles. Genie also failed to later in life, syntax can no
construct sentences derived longer be acquired normally.
by syntactic movement.
Victor of Aveyron
A child found in the wild of France
in 1799.
He was discovered at
approximately age 12; he had no
ability to speak, and elicited animal-
like behaviors, such as biting and
clawing.
He was taken into the house of
Jean Marc Itard, a medical
consultant to the National School of
the Deaf, who took a great interest
in Victor, and sought to teach him
to speak and behave like a human
being.
Victor succeeded in understanding
language and reading some single
words, but unfortunately that was
the highest language level that he Victor’s attempt to start acquiring
succeeded to reach. the language for the first time at the
age of 12 is just another evidence
for the brain lateralization before the
He only learned to spell the word period of puberty and impossibility
‘milk’ and the phrase ‘Oh my God’, to learn a language after this period,
but mastered in expressing his which is only justifying the existence
human emotions towards other of the critical period for language
people. acquisition.
children with hearing impairment
The Interactionist position
-the role of the linguistic environment in interaction with the child’s
innate capacities
-Jean Piaget - the developing cognitive understanding is built on the

interaction between the child and the things which can be observed,
touched, and manipulated.
- language is one of a number of symbol systems
which are developed in childhood
-Lev Vygotsky - language develops primarily from social interaction

- the child’s zone of proximal development (ZPD):
what the child could do in interaction with another.
Cross-cultural research
-CHILDES (Child Language Data Exchange System)
-child directed speech
Usage-based learning
-emphasis is more on the child’s ability to create networks of associations rather

than on processes of imitation and habit formation
-language acquisition is not seen as requiring a separate ‘module of the mind’ but
rather depends on the child’s general learning abilities and the contributions of
the environment.
Children learn language from their language experiences – there is no other way.
Simultaneous bilinguals
Sequential bilinguals
Code switching
BICS
CALP
Subtractive vs. additive bilingualism

L1 Acquisition

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IBU The first language

International Burch University

associate professor Vildana Dubravac

A system of communication consisting of

1. Languages are learned mainly through imitation.

2. Parents usually correct young children when they make

3. Highly intelligent people are good language learners.

4. The most important predictor of success in L2 acquisition is

5. The earlier an L2 is introduced in school programs, the greater

6. Most of the mistakes that L2 learners make are due to

7. The best way to learn new vocabulary is through reading.

8. It is essential for learners to be able to pronounce all the individual

9. Once Ls know 1,000 words and the basic structure of a language,

10. Ts should present grammatical rules one at a time, and learners

11. Ts should teach simple language structures before complex ones.

12.Ls’ errors should be corrected as soon as they are made in order to

13. Ts should use materials that expose Ss only to language

14. When Ls are allowed to interact freely (for example, in group or

15. Ss learn what they are taught.

16. Ts should respond to Ss’errors by correctly rephrasing what they

12 months: a word or two that everyone recognizes

By the age of 2: at least fifty different words

By the age of 4: can ask questions, give commands, report real

The school years

Metalinguistic awareness develops more slowly.

present progressive –ing

No go. No cookie. No comb hair.

Daddy no comb hair. Don’t touch that!

I can’t do it. He don’t want it.

You didn’t have supper. She doesn’t want it.

You like this? I have some? What’s that?

Can I go? Is that mine?

Do you like ice-cream?

Why can he go out? Why he can’t go out?

I don’t know why can’t he go out.

David (4,1): I love you three pieces.

John saw himself.

Children successfully master the basic structure of their native language or

Animals- even primates receiving intensive training from humans – cannot

The Critical Period Hypothesis

-the loss of plasticity undergone by human brains by year

-the completion of the process of lateralization by the

-critical periods have been established for several

When she was found she was

-Jean Piaget - the developing cognitive understanding is built on the

-Lev Vygotsky - language develops primarily from social interaction

-emphasis is more on the child’s ability to create networks of associations rather

Subtractive vs. additive bilingualism

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