THEORIES OF CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION.

than read in different articles on the theory of child language acquisition, I can say that
children acquire language quickly, easily, and without effort or formal teaching. It happens
automatically, whether their parents try to teach them or not. Although parents or other
caretakers don't teach their children to speak, they do perform an important role by talking to
their children. Children who are never spoken to will not acquire language. And the language
must be used for interaction with the child; for example, a child who regularly hears language
on the TV or radio but nowhere else will not learn to talk.

Children acquire language through interaction - not only with their parents and other adults,
but also with other children. All normal children who grow up in normal households,
surrounded by conversation, will acquire the language that is being used around them. And
it is just as easy for a child to acquire two or more languages at the same time, as long as they
are regularly interacting with speakers of those languages.

The special way in which many adults speak to small children also helps them to acquire
language. Studies show that the 'baby talk' that adults naturally use with infants and toddlers
tends to always be just a bit ahead of the level of the child's own language development, as
though pulling the child along. This 'baby talk' has simpler vocabulary and sentence structure
than adult language, exaggerated intonation and sounds, and lots of repetition and questions.
All of these features help the child to sort out the meanings, sounds, and sentence patterns of
his or her language.

During the first few years of life, as babies begin to say their first words, it is easy to keep
track of their growing vocabularies. Children typically understand or recognize more words
than they actually use when speaking. For example, a toddler might only say five different
words (e.g., dada, mama, doggie, bottle, more) but be able to understand many others like
pointing to the light when Mommy asks, beginning to cry when Daddy says, “Bye-bye” as
he leaves for work. Vocabulary development does not stop once a child can talk. In fact,
children learn many new words once they start reading and going to school.

Children learn language and increase their vocabulary in only one way — listening to the
people around them. The richer and more abundant the language they hear daily, the more
well developed their own language will be. In addition to normal conversation, however, you
have dozens of creative and enjoyable ways to increase.
In language development there is a genetic influence that can be seen in the correlation
between the intelligence of parents and the speed at which children develop their
communication skills during the first year of life. Temperament (which can also be innate)
exercises, in turn, an influence on language development of infants; The behavior of the
people around the child also exerts an influence; Parents and adults in general, children
usually speak a peculiar language, especially suitable for babies; the lens with the adult
talking to the child is also important. For example, if the adult encourages the child to speak
in ways that go beyond the level of competence of the child at the time, what is motivating
the next level of language skills.

David Crystal has the theory that children learn language in five stages, which aren’t clearly
defined and some tie in with each other.
These stages are:
Stage One:
This is where children say things for three purposes:
1. To get something they want
2. To get someone’s attention
3. To draw attention to something
Then they begin to make basic statements such as “daddy car”. During this stage children
begin naming things with single words and then move on to relating objects with other things,
places and people, for example, “there mummy”. They also relate objects with events, for
example, “bird gone”. At this early stage they don’t have much vocabulary so they use
intonation to ask a question. Children use words like: “there, want and allgone” to express a
full sentence. This could be said that part of this stage is holophrastic.
Stage Two:
This is when children usually ask questions, “where” questions come first. Their questions
often begin with interrogative pronouns (what, where) followed by a noun or verb such as
“where gone?”
Children become concerned with naming and classifying things by frequently asking
“Wassat?” They may also begin to talk about the characteristics of things for example:
big/small. Children are taught to learn things in opposite pairs such as up/down and hot/cold.
Stage Three:
By now children would be asking lots of different questions but often signalling that they are
questions with intonation alone, for example: “Sally play in garden mummy?” This is made
into a question by varying the tone of voice.
Children soon begin to express more complex wants by using more grammatically correct
language, for example: “I want mummy to take it work” meaning “I want mummy to take
it to work”. Verbs such as “listen” and “know” are also used. Children refer to events in the
past and less often in the future.
Stage Four:
This is when children use increasingly complex sentence structures and begin to:
 Explain things
 Ask for explanations using the word: “why?”
 Making a wide range of requests: “shall I do it?”
Now they are able to use complex sentence structures they have flexible language tools for
expressing a wide range of meanings. Probably the most remarkable development is their
comprehension of language and use of abstract verbs for example “know” to express mental
operations. They begin to communicate meaning indirectly by replacing imperatives such as
“give me” with questions; “can I have?”.
As well as saying what they mean they now have pragmatic understanding and suit their
utterances to context or situation. Children also use negation (denial/contradiction) for
example: “he doesn’t want one!” They don’t rely on intonation and signals anymore as they
explain more fully.
Stage Five:
By this stage children regularly use language to do all the things that they need it for. They
give information, asking and answering questions, requesting directly and indirectly,
suggesting, offering, stating and expressing. Children are now able to talk about things
hypothetically and conditionally for example “If I were you, I would…”
They are now able to explain conditions required for something to happen; “You’ve got turn
the tap on first in order to wash your hands”. As well as making general references to past
and future, children now talk about particular times such as: “after tea” and “before bedtime”.

I think the language is a necessary tool, in this world competitive, languages or languages
are key to our modern culture part, they help us to expand our knowledge and interact with
people from other parts of the world, which helps us to learn from the traditions of other
countries, establish friendships and business. In particular I haven’t learned perfectly another
idiom because in the society where I was when children there wasn’t interesting for anther
idiom, also the culture influence so much in the acquisition the other idiom, but nevertheless,
for the necessity and competence I acquiring a new language. There is some factor that I
consider for my learning like apply for a scholarship to another country, increase job
opportunities, between other.