1.

LANGUAGE AND HOW

IT IS ACQUIRED
 Chapter 1.The Acquisition of
Language
1. How Language Works.
When we study language, we are approaching what some might call the ‘human essence’, the
distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.
Descriptions of English and other languages
remained little changed from times of the Greeks
and Romans until this century. These
descriptions were based on an analysis of the role
played by each word in the sentence.
Structuralism
In the 1930s language was first described in
terms of structural frameworks. By varying the
words within these structural frameworks,
sentences with different meanings can be
generated. This method of linguistic analysis led
in English language teaching to the development
of the substitution table as a typical means of
explaining grammatical patterns. In a structuralist
view, sentence patterns were a series of slots into
which specified fillers could be placed. For
example:
Animate Subject transitive verb Direct Object
Jim visited Mary.
The Boy ate an apple.
It also represented a behavioral view of language,
where language acquisition was seen as a set of
learned habits.
Noam Chomsky
If all language is learned behavior, how is it that
young children can say things they have never
said before? How is it possible that adults all
through their lives say things they have never
said before? How is it possible that a new
sentence in the mouth of a four-year-old is the
result of conditioning? Noam Chomsky (1928 - )
Noam Chomsky, Language and Mind.
is an American linguist, political writer and a
leading figure in linguistics, (professor at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology), who in
1965 published a strong attack upon B.F.
Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, and explained his
rejection of the behaviorist model of language
acquisition by stating that children were innately
programmed to acquire language; he proposed
the existence of a “Language Acquisition
Device” (LAD). LAD is characterized as having
various innate linguistics properties:
1. The ability to distinguish speech sounds from
other sounds.
2. The ability to organize language into system
of structures.
3. The knowledge of what is possible and what
is not in any linguistic system.
4. The ability to construct the simplest possible
system based on the linguistic data to which one
is exposed.
Language Universals
Chomsky argued that children were innately
programmed to acquire language since they do it
so quickly and with limited (and less than ideal)
input. There must be certain language
universals in the human mind that make it
possible for a child to perceive the syntactic
patterns of the speech of his/her parents and
allow a person to utter or understand each new
combination of words. These innate principles
constitute the Universal Grammar and help
children discover the rules of their first language.
Universal Grammar does not provide
prefabricated rules; instead, it sets parameters
that must be fixed in response to the particular
input data to which children are exposed.
According to the Universal Grammar Theory,
there are basic grammatical elements that are
common to all natural human languages and that
predispose children to organize the input in
certain ways. For example, all languages have
vowels, yet each language has a set of vowels
selected from all the possible vowels available,
resulting in different phonological characteristics
in each language. The principles themselves are
believed to be innate, a product of LAD.
The universal principles that children discover
constitute the “core grammar” which is
congruent with general principles operating
across all languages. The “peripheral grammar”
consists of rules or features that are not
determined by Universal Grammar, but are
Language-specific, such as the relative clause
pattern in English that lacks a relative pronoun
(Give me the pen I write with). Rules of core
grammar are normally acquired earlier than
peripheral ones.
For example, all languages follow a certain word
order when using an object. There are no
languages that follow a random order (language
universal). This means that the choices are:
Subject-Verb-Object (SVO), Verb-Subject-
Object (VSO), Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) and
Object-Subject-Verb (OSV). When a child is
exposed to the language of a community, the
brain “marks” the forms to reflect the features of
that particular language. Children born into
Spanish, Chinese and English language
environments subconsciously select SVO; a child
born into an Arabic environment subconsciously
selects VSO; one born into a Korean
environment SOV, and so forth (peripheral).
These rules are often not consciously known by
the speakers of the language.
Surface Structure vs. Deep
Structure
Chomsky argued that when people learn a
language, they do it by learning how to put the
words in order, not which word follows another
word. They learn which word category (noun,
verb, etc.) follows which other category. We
understand the meaning of a sentence while
keeping in mind a number of grammatical rules;
there is an invisible superstructure holding the
words in place, somewhat like an inverted tree:
NP VP
Det A N V NP
The happy boy eats A N
Strawberry ice cream
In this case the rule says that the sentence (S)
contains a noun phrase (NP) and a verb phrase
(VP). The noun phrase contains a determiner
(Det), an adjective (A), and a noun (N). The verb
phrase contains a verb (V) and another noun
phrase which in turn contains an adjective and a
noun. There is no need to learn that the adjective
precedes the noun for the subject, and then have
to learn the same thing for the object, and again
for the indirect object (in case there is one);
people simply use the same kind of phrase in
many different positions in a sentence, including:
I like the happy boy.
I gave the happy boy a cookie.
The happy boy’s cat eats ice cream.
Chomsky stated that the meanings of sentences
could be explained this way. For example: The
sailor danced with a wooden leg has more than
one meaning. This meaning is the deep
structure, or abstract representation of the
relationships expressed in a sentence, and
Chomsky developed rules for transforming deep
structures into surface structures and for
relating sentences to each other.
In the sentence “He discussed sex with
Madonna”, the two meanings come from the Another example would be the close relationship
different ways in which words can be joined up in meanings between “Don’t give up just because
in a tree. For example, in tree No. 1 (where PP things look bad” and “it ain’t over till the fat lady
means prepositional phrase), sex is the matter to sings”.
be discussed, and it is to be discussed with
Madonna; alternative meaning comes from Chomsky also made a distinction between
analyzing tree No. 2: the words sex with competence (referring to an individual’s implicit
Madonna form a single branch of the tree, and or explicit knowledge of the system of the
sex with Madonna is what is to be discussed language) and performance (the actual
(This sentence is from an interview with Dennis production and comprehension of language in
Rodman, the basketball player, in Time specific instances of language use). Performance
magazine) is often imperfect, due to memory lapses, false
starts, slips of the tongue; thus, performance is
No. 1 not a perfect rendition of competence. This later
led to Hymes (1972) postulation of
S communicative competence, which has since
been modified and refined numerous times.
NP VP Some theorists assume that the same universals
that children use to construct their native
PRO V N PP language are available to adults; others believe
that they are no longer available and that
He discussed sex P NP different cognitive processed must be involved in
adult second/foreign language learning. Another
with Madonna theory holds that they are still available to adults
but are less accessible because of multi-rational
constraints related to aging, linguistic constraints,
No. 2 and the fact that the second language involves
two languages – the target language and the
S
learner’s native language.
NP VP

PRO V NP

He discussed N PP

sex P NP

with Madonna
 2. The Brain and Language
The brain is the most complicated part of the
human body and less is known about it than
about any other part. It is quite small – a normal
human brain weighs about one kilogram, and a
bigger brain does not mean a better brain.
The brain receives information from the world
through the sensory system. This information is
gathered through the eyes, nose, eras, mouth, and
surface of the body; scientists have not been able
to find any limit to the amount of information
that the human brain can store.
On opening the skull, one sees the outer surface
of part of the forebrain, a wrinkle surface called
the cerebral cortex (cortex means “bark”). The
cerebral cortex deals with higher cognitive
processing.
The Brain
THE CEREBRAL CORTEX
The outer surface of the cerebral hemisphere, the
cerebral cortex, has a surface area of one to two
square feet – an area that is larger than it looks
because of the folds, or convolutions that allow
the cortex to fit compactly inside the skull. The
convolutions give the surface of the human brain
its wrinkled appearance, its ridges and valleys.
The cerebral cortex is divided into four areas
called the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal
lobes.
The most recently evolved part of the cerebral
cortex, the neocortex, has its full complement of
nerve cells at birth. Even if an individual lives
more than one hundred years, no new nerve cells
are formed in this part of the brain. Yet the most
rapid growth of the neocortex occurs during the
first ten years or so of life. What, then, is
growing?
NEURONS
Neurons are brain cells consisting of a compact
cell body, dendrites, and axons. They are
responsible for information processing through
the conversation of electrical and chemical
signals. A normally functioning neuron is
continuously firing, integrating, and generating
information. Although a single neuron can
receive signals from thousands of other cells, and
its axon can branch repeatedly, sending signals to
thousands more, neurons generally connect most
with other neurons that are close-by, forming
what are called neural networks.
The receptive branches of the nerve cells, called
dendrites, are responsible for most of this
postnatal growth. Dendrites are extensions of the
nerve cell membranes that receive the input from
other nerve cells (while the axons are the
transmitters of this output). The small gap
separating axons and dendrites is called a
synapse. Dendrites increase in number with use
and decrease with disuse.
Increases in cortical growth as a consequence of
stimulating environmental input have been
demonstrated at every age, including very old
age. The greatest changes, however – as much as
16 percent increases – have been noted during
the period when the cerebral cortex is growing
most rapidly – the first ten years.
Since no two human brains are exactly alike, no
one enriched environment will completely satisfy
all learners for an extended period. The range of
enriched environments for human beings is
endless. For some, interacting physically with
objects is gratifying; for others, finding and
processing information is rewarding; and for still
others, working with creative ideas is most
enjoyable. But no matter what form enrichment
takes, it is the challenge to the nerve cells that is
important. Data indicate that passive observation
is not enough; one most interact with the
environment.
Learning is a critical function of neurons. It
cannot be accomplished individually – it must be
done by groups of neurons.
To our brain, we are either doing something we
already know how to do or we are doing
something new. Research long ago noted the
importance of automaticity, or seemingly
effortless performance made possible by
extensive experience and practice. As a person
gains knowledge or skill, the neural pathways
become more and more efficient. This speeds up
electrical transmission and reduces interference
from other reactions in nearby cells,
strengthening the pathways between
interconnected neurons, creating neural
networks.
SENSORY AND MOTOR CORTEX
Different regions of the sensory cortex receive
information about different senses. For example,
cells in the parietal lobe take in information from
the skin and touch, pain and temperature;
whereas the cells in the occipital lobe receive
visual information from what we see. Stimuli
from the ears reach the cells in the temporal lobe
near areas of the cortex that are involved in
understanding language. The motor cortex
follows the same pattern. Neurons in specific
areas of the motor cortex initiate voluntary
movements in specific parts of the body, some
controlling movement of the hand, others
stimulating movement of the foot, the knee, the
ear and so on.
ASSOCIATION CORTEX
Parts of the cerebral cortex that are not directly
involved with receiving specific sensory
information or initiating movement are called
association cortex. These are the areas that
perform such complex cognitive tasks as
associating words with images and other abstract
thinking. Recent research has pinpointed areas
associated with concrete nouns and abstract
nouns, verbs, and so on, but much of this
research is still incomplete.
Most pathways to sensory organs or muscles
cross over as they enter or leave the brain. As a
result, the left hemisphere receives information
from and controls movements of the right side of
the body, while the right hemisphere receives
input from and controls the left side of the body.
A striking idea emerged from observations of
people with brain damage: damage to limited
areas of the left hemisphere causes some loss of
the ability to use or comprehend language;
damage to corresponding parts of the right
hemisphere usually does not. By the nineteenth
century, it was apparent that language centers,
such as Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area, are
almost exclusively on the left side of the brain.
This suggested that one hemisphere is specialized
in a function with which the other side seems not
to be involved at all. During the 1960s, studies
by Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, and their
colleagues firmly established that there are
indeed some differences between the
hemispheres. More recently, new technologies,
such as electroencephalograms (EEGs),
computer-assisted tomography (CT scanning),
positron emission tomography (PET scanning)
and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are
allowing psychologists to view the brain while it
is functioning. These techniques have helped
reveal that some complex mental functions
appear to be handled in one particular area of the
brain and the others are not as localized as
previously believed.

Damage to the association cortex in the frontal

lobe near motor areas that control facial muscles
can cause problems in the production of speech.
This part of the cortex on the left side of the
brain is called Broca’s area. It was named after
Paul Broca, who in the 1860s described speech
difficulties that result from damage to the region.
Damage to Broca’s area the mental organization Based on the symptoms of damage to brain areas,
of speech to suffer. A person can still sing with combined with anatomical evidence of
ease, but has great difficulty speaking, and what connections among these areas, Wernicke and,
the person says is often grammatically incorrect. later, Norman Gerschwind, proposed a model of
Each word comes out slowly. One patient with how language is understood and produced.
aphasia who was asked about a dental According to this model, language information
appointment said haltingly, “yes …Monday… reaches Wernicke’s area from either the auditory
Dad and Dick…Wednesday 9 o’clock… 10 cortex for spoken language or from visual cortex
o’clock …doctors… and…teeth.” The ideas – for written language. In Wernicke’s area, the
dentist and teeth – are right, but the fluency is words are interpreted and the structure of a
gone. verbal response is formed. The output from
Wernicke’s area goes to Broca’s area, where a
Damage to a different association area can leave detailed program for vocalization is formed. This
fluency intact but disrupt the ability to program is relayed to adjacent areas of the motor
understand the meaning of words. Wernicke’s cortex to produce speech.
area, described in the 1870s by Carl Wernicke, is
on the left side, in the temporal lobe, near the HEARING THE SPOKEN WORD
primary receiving area in the cortex of hearing.
Wernicke’s area is involved in the interpretation
of speech and, because it also receives input from
the visual cortex, is also involved in interpreting
written words. Damage to Wernicke’s area
produces complicated symptoms. A person with
Wernicke’s aphasia may have difficulty
comprehending speech and may also produce
speech that is fluent but difficult to comprehend.
For example, a patient asked to described a
picture of two boys stealing cookies behind a
woman’s back said, “mother is away here
working her work to get better, but when she’s
looking the two boys looking in the other part.
She’s working another time”.

Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are connected

by a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate
fasciculus.
 SEEING THE WRITTEN WORD
BILINGUALISM AND THE BRAIN
Researchers have discovered that the age at
which a second language is acquired determines
just where that language is “stored” within the
brain. When both languages are learned at the
same time early in life, they are represented in
areas that have considerable overlap; they are, in
essence, learning two first languages. These are
compound bilinguals (people who have one
meaning system from which both languages
operate).
Coordinate bilinguals, on the other hand, are
people who learn a foreign language in a separate
context, they have two meaning systems (e.g. a
child that speaks one language at home and is
taught school subjects in another). A second
language acquired during the teenage years is
represented in separate locations in Broca’s area
from the ones registering activity for the native
language.
The Divided Brain in a Unified Self
Lateralization is a slow process that begins tendency in adults to overanalyze and to be
around the age of 2 and is completed around too intellectually centered on the task of
puberty; nevertheless, it has been found that foreign language learning.
children up to the age of puberty who suffer
injury to the left hemisphere are able to relocate
linguistic functions to the right hemisphere (but
comparable damage in an adult usually leads to
aphasia).

The precise nature and degree of lateralization

vary quite a bit among individuals. For example,
among about a third of left handed people, either
the right hemisphere or both hemispheres control
language functions. Only about 5 percent of
right-handed people have language controlled by
the right hemisphere.

The hemispheres work so closely together, and

each makes up so well for whatever lack of
ability the other may have, that people are not
aware that their brains are made up of two
partially independent, somewhat specialized
halves. In fact, even if the activity of one
hemisphere is dominant, the effect is usually
detectable only as differences in certain mental
abilities or cognitive styles. For example, a
person with a dominant right hemisphere may
learn toward musical rather than foreign
language studies.

Although the two hemispheres are somewhat

specialized, the differences between them
should not be exaggerated. People are not left
brained or right brained in the same way that
they are left or right handed. Normally the
corpus callosum (a massive bundle of more
than a million fibers that connects the two
hemispheres) integrates the functions of the
two hemispheres so that people are not aware
of their “two brains”.

It is possibly lateralization that makes it

difficult for older people to easily acquire
fluent control of a second language. Many
adults manage to learn new languages, but it
is a more demanding task. The dominance of
the left hemisphere may contribute to a
3. Learning First and Second languages
First Language Development
How do children learn all the rules of their
mother tongue without formal study? How can
we explain the fantastic journey from the first
anguished cry at birth to adult competence in a
convincing case that thought is more than
language? From the first word to tens of
thousands?
Studying shortly after birth, a baby brain cells
proliferate widely, making connections that may
shape a lifetime of experience. The brain
produces trillions more connections between
neurons than it can possibly use. The waves of
mental activity actually change the shape of the
brain, carving patterns that will enable the new
born infant to perceive a father’s voice, a
mother’s touch, a shinny mobile hanging over the
crib.
At birth, a baby’s brain contains a hundred
billion neurons, roughly as many nerve cells are
there are stars in the Milky Way. Although the
brain contains almost all the nerve cells it will
ever have, the pattern of wiring between has not
yet stabilized.
What wires a child’s brain, say Neuroscientists,
is repeated experience. Each time a baby tries to
touch a tantalizing object or gazes intently at a
face or listens to a lullaby, tiny bursts of
electricity shoot through the brain, knitting
neurons into circuits. Around the age of two
months, for example, the motor-controlled
centers of the brain develop to the point that
infants can suddenly reach out and grab a nearby
object. Around the age of four months, the cortex
begins to refine the connections needed for depth
perception and binocular vision. Infants’
language development goes through certain
stages, no matter what the language is, and seems
to develop about as quickly as the growing brain
can handle it. Around the age of twelve months,
the speech centers of the brain are poised to
produce what is perhaps the most magical
moment of childhood: the first word that marks
the flowering of language.
During their first year, infants the world over
make the same babbling sounds (bababababa,
mamamama). These babblings, which begin at
about four months of age, are the first sounds
infants make that resemble speech. Although
meaningless to the baby, they are a delight to
parents. By 6 months of age, infants in English-
speaking homes already have different auditory
maps (as shown by electrical measurements that
identify which neurons respond to different
sounds) from those in, for example, Swedish-
speaking homes.
At about nine months, babies who hear only
English start to lose their German gutturals and
French nasals. At this time, too, they begin to
shorten some of their vocalizations to da, and ma.
These sounds, which soon replace babbling,
seem very much like language. Babies use them
in specific contexts and with obvious purpose.
Before there are words, in the world of the
newborn, there are sounds. As small as babies,
children babble and coo and cry. But most of all,
they listen. Speech does not develop in isolation;
there must be speech input, for example, French
children are exposed to French and German
children to German. In English there are
phonemes such as the sharp ba’s and da’s, drawn
out ee’s and ll’s and sibilant ss’s. In Japanese
they are different – barked hi’s, merged rr / ll’s.
When a child hears a phoneme over and over,
neurons in his ear stimulate the formation of
dedicated connections in his brain’s auditory
cortex.
Long before infants actually begin to learn
words, they can sort through a jumble of spoken
sounds in search of the ones that have meaning.
From birth to four months, babies are “universal
linguists” capable of distinguishing each of the
150 sounds that make up all human speech. But
when a child hears a phoneme over and over,
neurons from his ear stimulate the formation of
connections in his brain’s auditory cortex. In
English-speakers, the neurons in the auditory
cortex that respond to ra lie far from those that
respond to la. But for Japanese where the sounds
are nearly identical, neurons that respond to ra
are practically intertwined with those for la. As a
result, a Japanese-speaker will have trouble
distinguishing the two sounds. By just six
months, they have begun the metamorphosis into
specialists who recognize the speech sounds of
their native tongue.
Researchers find evidence of these tendencies
across many languages. In one experiment babies
listened as a tape-recorded voice repeated vowel
and consonant combinations. Each time the
sound changed a toy bear in a box was lit up and
danced. The babies quickly learn to look at the
bear when they heard sounds that were new to
them. Studying Swedish and American six-
month-olds, psychologist Patricia khul found
they ignored the subtle variations in
pronunciation of their own language’s sounds,
for instance, the different ways two people might
pronounce “ee” – but they heard similar
variations in a foreign language as separate
sounds. The implication? Six-month-olds can
already discern the sounds they will later need
for speech.
By eight to nine months, comprehension is more
visible, with babies looking at a ball when their
mothers say “ball”, for example. According to
psychologist Donna Thal, it is still impossible to
gauge just how many words babies understand, at
this point, but her recent studies of slightly older
children indicate that comprehension may exceed
expression by a factor as high as a hundred to
one.
By 12 months, infants’ babbling has acquired the
sounds of their language. As they reach the end
of the first year, specific attempts are made to
imitate words and speech sounds heard around
them, and about this time they utter their first
“words”. By about 18 months of age these words
have multiplied considerably and are beginning
to appear in combination with each other to form
two-word and three-word “sentences” –
commonly referred to as “telegraphic utterances”
– such as “all gone milk”, bye-bye Daddy”,
“gimme toy”, and so forth.
SOURCES OF INPUT
Input (up to the age of three) is considered to
come from parents and other caretakers. Input is
usually one of two types in an infant’s life:
Baby Talk: when an adult repeats words exactly
the way the baby says them, or they say
simplified vocabulary items such as “choochoo”
for train and “tummy” for stomach.
Motherese or Caretaker Speech: Parents are the
brain’s first and more important teachers. The
more words a child hears, the faster he or she
learns language. And researchers have found that
children who don’t play much or are rarely
touched develop brains 20% to 30% smaller than
normal for their age. These new insights stress
the importance of hands-on parenting, of finding
time to cuddle a baby, talk with a toddler, and
provide infants with stimulating experiences.
Among other things, parents appear to help
babies learn by adopting the rhythmic, high-
pitched speaking style.
The heart rate of infants increases when listening
to Motherese, even Motherese delivered in a
foreign language. Moreover, motherese appears
to accelerate the process of connecting words to
the object they denote. A six-month-old can
recognize the vowel sounds that are the basic
building blocks of speech. Twelve-month-olds,
directed to “look at the ball” in Parentese, direct
their eyes to the correct picture more frequently
than when the instruction is delivered in normal
English. Talking to a baby a lot, researchers have
found, also speeds up the process of learning new
words. For example, recent studies show that the
size of toddlers’ vocabularies depends in a large
part on how much their mothers talk to them.
Compared with conversations among adults,
parents’ speech to children is slower, more
exaggerated in pitch, more directed to the here
and now. Topics are frequently contextualized,
often in a visual or tactile way. It is grammatical,
with slower, shorter sentences, affectionate
encouragement, higher pitch, exaggerated
intonation, duplication of syllables, reduction of
consonant clusters and using the present tense
instead of past or future.
Most parents do not correct the grammar of their
young children; they are more concerned about
what is said than about its form. When the little
boy with chocolate crumbs on his face says, “I no
eat cookie,” the mother is more likely to respond,
“Yes, you did eat it,” rather than asking the child
to say, “I didn’t eat the cookie.” Meaning is
being reinforced, not form.
INTERACTION AND LANGUAGE
DEVELOPMENT
For language to develop there must be
interaction in addition to meaningful input. For
example, deaf parents of hearing children were at
one time advised to have their children watch a
lot of television. In no case did the children learn
English because it is difficult for a child to figure
out what the characters in the televised world are
talking about, while their parents use sign
language to communicate. In addition, television
is unresponsive; it does not reply. Human
speakers also tend to talk about the here and now
in the presence of children; thus it is not difficult
for the child to figure out what is meant,
especially if many of the content words are
already known.
Children typically discover that things have
names before the age of eighteen months. Parents
usually do not notice, because adults expect
things to have names. But the youngsters, the
naming discovery can be a shock, as described
by Helen Keller. Helen Keller was deaf and blind
from the age of two. Then, when she was six, her
teacher held her hand under a flow of water and
spelled out the word w-a-t-e-r on the other. She
later wrote. “Somehow the mystery of language
was revealed to me. I knew that w-a-t-e-r meant
the wonderful cool something that was flowing
over my hand. That living world awakened my
soul…, set it free! Everything had a name…
every object which I touched seemed to quiver
with life.”
By around age 3, children can comprehend an
incredible quantity of linguistic behavior; their
speech capacity mushrooms as they chatter
nonstop. This fluency continues into school age
as children internalize increasingly complex
structures, expand their vocabulary and sharpen
communicative skills. At school age, children not
only learn what to say but what not to say as they
learn the social functions of their language.
When they reach school age, they continue to
internalize increasingly complex structures,
expand their vocabulary (the average six-year-
old commands about 13,000 words), and sharpen
communicative skills. By the time they graduate
from high school, the average American knows
about 45,000 words.
CRITICAL PERIODS
Many scientists believe that in the first few years
of childhood there are a number of critical or
sensitive periods, or “windows,” when the brain
demands certain types of input in order to create
or stabilize certain long-lasting structures. The
window of acquiring syntax may close as early as
five or six years of age, while the window for
adding new words may never close. The ability
to learn a second language is highest between
birth and the age of six then undergoes a steady
and inexorable decline. This plasticity of the
brain enables children to acquire not only their
first language but also a foreign one.
The brain’s growth spurt draws to a close around
the age of 10. Starting at this age or earlier, the
excel connections, or synapses, that are seldom
or never used are drastically eliminated. The
experiences that drive neural activity are like the
sculptor’s chisel, chipping away at a lump of
stone. By the end of adolescence, around the age
of 18, the brain has declined in plasticity but
increased in power. Whether the potential for
greatness is realized as a gift for mathematics or
a brilliant criminal mind depends on patterns
etched by experience in those critical early years.
Language develops as a result of the complex
interplay between the uniquely human
characteristics of the child and the environment
in which the child develops.
Order of Acquisition
Children’s language acquisition is best explained
as a developing system with its own interim
rules. This sequence of development is called
order of acquisition.
1. ONE WORD STAGE: The earliest
stage of grammatical development hardly seems
like grammar at all, since only single words are
involved. Most of the words at this stage seem to
have a naming function:
Mama, dada, cookie, doggie
This stage is most noticeable between
18 months.
2. TWO-WORD STAGE: At around
eighteen months, vocabulary growth reaches the
rate of a new word every two hours that the child
will maintain through adolescence.
Children also begin to string two or more
words together at this age. As soon as
two-word utterances are made, they show
the target word order:
possessor / possessed – Mommy shoe
actor / action – Daddy sleeping
action / object – Drink milk
noun / location – Ball floor
3. TELEGRAPHIC STAGE: by age 2,
spoken vocabulary probably exceeds 200 words.
And at this age, many children produce sentences
that are three or four words in length, and
combine these words in different ways to
produce a variety of grammatical constructions.
Typical sentences at this stage include:
Mommy go store.
-vs.- Mommy is going to the store
Him got car.- vs.- he’s got a car.
Towards the age of 3, there is a major
grammatical advance, with the
appearance of sentences containing more
than one clause:
I let go ‘cos it hurted me.
Children can speak in grammatically
correct sentences; the most common
error is overgeneralization: for example:
the child puts a regular suffix, like the
past tense –ed, onto a word that forms its
past tense in an irregular way (i.e., goed).
4. FUNCTION WORD STAGE:
according to numerous studies in first language
acquisition, children develop grammatical
morphemes, like the third person singular –s, or
–ed for past tenses in a remarkably similar
sequence. The following list shows the
approximate order of their acquisition:
a. Present progressive: Mommy running
b. Plural –s: Two books
c. Irregular past forms: Baby went
d. Possessive ‘s: Daddy’s hat.
e. Present tense of be as copula: Annie is a nice
girl.
f. Articles the and .
g. Regular past –ed: She walked.
h. Simple present, third person singular –s: She
runs.
i. Present tense of the verb be as an auxiliary is
learned last: He is going.
Children may master these morphemes at
different ages, but the order of acquisition is very
similar.
Second Language Learners
Learning a second language in a natural
acquisition context or “on the street” is not the
same as learning in the classroom. A natural
acquisition context is that in which the learner is
exposed to language at work or in social
interaction; if the learner is a child, it occurs in a
school situation where most of the other children
are native speakers of the target language and
where instruction is directed toward native
speakers rather than towards learners of the
language.
Order of Acquisition and Order of
Difficulty
Several studies in second language acquisition in
natural settings (non-instructional environment)
found that second language learners, even those
coming from different first language
backgrounds (e.g. Spanish and Chinese),
acquired grammatical morphemes in much the
same way that first language learners do, and this
natural sequence is not determined by the
learner’s first language.
However, related studies have found that the
order of difficulty (from easy to more difficult)
for second language learners is:
1. Plural –s
2. Progressive –ing
3. Present tense of be as copula
4. Present tense of verb be as an auxiliary
5. Articles the and a
6. Irregular past forms
7. Simple present, third person singular
8. Possessive’s
For example, processing the third person –s is a
complex operation. Speakers have to keep track
of the following details:
• Whether the subject is the third person or
not.
• Whether the subject is singular or plural
• Whether the action is present or not
• Whether the action is habitual or going on at
the moment of speaking.
The order of difficulty cannot be interpreted as
an order of acquisition; researchers have realized
that it is not necessarily true that things that are
easy to use are learned first and vice-versa. An
order of acquisition cannot be based solely on an
order of difficulty. In addition, the frequency of
occurrence of the language items also affects the
order of acquisition, as well as the need to use it
when communicating.
Learning another language does not follow a
linear sequence, nor is a language learned
through the process of erecting a linguistic
“building” in a step-by-step manner, one
linguistic “brick” at a time, with the easy
grammatical bricks at the bottom of the wall,
providing a foundation for the more difficult
ones.
An organic approach to grammar dramatizes the
fact that different forms enable learners to
express different meanings. Learners, in fact,
“grow” their own grammars. Learners do not
master an item and go on the next; instead, they
learn a variety of things simultaneously (and
some better than others). This implies that
language learning is an extremely complex
phenomenon.
A child or an adult learning a second language is
clearly different from a child learning a first
language in terms of both personal characteristics
and conditions for learning. All second language
learners, regardless of age, have already acquired
at least one language (with the exception of
children that grow up in a bilingual home
environment). This prior knowledge can be an
advantage in the sense that the learner has an
idea of how languages work. On the other hand,
it can also lead learners to make incorrect
guesses about how the second language works
and this may cause errors which a leaner of a first
language may not take.
The Role of L1 in Language
Learning
During the 1950s most linguists believed that
errors were due to interference from the mother
tongue, and they placed a great deal of
importance on contrastive analysis. According
to this theory, if linguists could analyze the
systems of both the first and second languages,
they would be able to identify and predict the
errors that would occur during second language
learning. For example, if the first and second
languages were similar, language learning would
be easy, but if the languages were dissimilar,
learning the second language would be more
difficult. This theory was based on the
behaviorist model of learning: language is
basically a set of conditioned verbal habits
learned through pattern drills; mistakes represent
the persistence of old habits and the failure to
learn new ones.
Examples of typical interference errors are:
I am agree with you.
Put attention!
However, contrastive analysis was not a very
good predictor of errors in L2. Research has
shown that learners appear to go through
basically the same stages in the process of
learning a language. In a breakthrough study,
Corder (1967) found that second language
learners produced errors that were both
systematic and creative in nature. His work gave
rise to the field of error analysis, which
examined systematic errors to determine that
underlying rule-governed behaviors of learners.
These studies show that though some errors are
due to transfer from the learner’s native
language, many have nothing to do with the first
language, rather, are based on developmentalism
(learning develops in stages as learners interact
with the environment). Errors reflect the
learner’s creative capability of using language,
for example:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs
Outside a Hong Kong tailor’s
shop
English Well Talking
Outside a shop.
In Case of Fire Do your utmost
to alert hotel porter
At a hotel.
At first, L2 learners rely heavily on L1 structures
and even vocabulary to get meaning across. As
the L2 becomes more internalized, the L1 is
relied upon less and less. Investigations of errors
by second language learners have revealed
surprising statistics. Although some errors are the
direct result of native-language interference, the
percentage is not as large as had previously been
believed. The errors tabulated by Dulay and Burt
(1973) indicated that only 3% of the errors in
their study were due to interference and 85% of
the errors were developmental.
Selinker (1972) coined the term into language to
refer to errors due to interference from L1 and
intralanguage to refer to errors caused by the
target language itself. Each new feature of
language acquired by the learner requires
adjustments in the learners developing
competence: some of the rules the learner
acquires may be permanent or stable, while other
may be constantly changing. The emphasis
shifted to explaining mistakes in terms of the
developmental stages the learners go through in
actively constructing their second language
competence; this occurs regardless of their first
language.
The most recent research in errors of second
language learners supports the following
assumptions: errors occur both as the result of
interference from the mother tongue and as a
result of incomplete transitional grammar of the
learner; language learning is characterized by the
creation of language and by the comparison of
the learners interim language system with that of
adult or native speech.
Probably a lot of mistakes are caused by a variety
of factors. A learner may overgeneralized a rule
or may assume that a structure can be used in the
same way as in the first language, on the basis of
evidence that it sometimes is and thus
overapplying it. Other factors can contribute, too;
learners may be more likely to make mistakes
with a certain tense, for instance, if they are
concentrating on another one, or to make more
mistakes if they are tired. The same mistake
might have different origins on different
occasions.
 4. Acquiring a language: Krashen’s
Hypotheses
Stephen Krashen is
an American linguist,
currently the author
of more than 175
articles and books in
the field of ELT,
whose ideas have had
a great impact on
modern language
teaching programs. He summarized his
theoretical research by stating the following five
hypotheses about second language acquisition.
The Acquisition / Learning
Distinction Hypotheses
Krashen made a distinction between learning and
acquisition, where adults are seen as having two
distinct and independent ways of developing
competence in a second language:
Acquisition is a subconscious process similar, if
not identical, to the way children develop ability
in their first language.
Learning refers to the conscious knowledge of
the rules of grammar of a second language and
their application in production.
The Natural Order Hypothesis
In this hypothesis, krashen maintains that
acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in
a predictable order when that acquisition is
natural (i.e. not by formal classroom learning).
This natural order is not identical to first
language order, but there are some similarities
and second language learners pass through
predictable stages as well. Regardless of the
learner’s first language, all learners seem to
acquire many features of the second language in
similar order. However, this is not always the
case. Researchers have found that there are
exceptions.
The Monitor Hypothesis
The third hypothesis set forth by Krashen, is
directly related to his position on learning /
acquisition. It states that acquisition is the sole
initiator of all second-language utterances and is
responsible for fluency, while learning
(conscious knowledge of rules) can function only
as an “editor” or “Monitor” for the output.
The monitor functions only when there is
sufficient time, the focus is on form, and the
language use knows the rule being applied. This
hypothesis takes into consideration three types of
monitor users:
1. Over-monitor users are learners who
seldom trust their acquired competence, and
verify every sentence they produce by using their
learned competence. Such speakers are sure to
speak hesitantly and with no fluency.
2. Under-monitor users are speakers who do not
really care about correctness, only about
meaning. These speakers are usually very
talkative in their mother tongue and, although
they may make more mistakes than over-monitor
users, they also convey more meaning.
3. Optimal-monitor users are acquirers who
manage to use the monitor only when it is
appropriate, e.g. when writing. Optimal-monitor
users usually give the impression that they posses
more competence than under-monitor users of
the same level of acquisition, because they can
use their learned competence together with the
acquired competence, and in many cases can use
their mother tongue’s grammar adopted, with
logical changes, to English by means of the
monitor.
The Input Hypothesis
Krashen was among the first to question the
facilitative effect of simplified input for all
groups of learners. For Krashen, simplified input
can only help those who are in the beginning
stages of language development. He suggests that
the single most important factor for language
development is not simplifies input, but what he
terms Comprehensible Input. According to the
hypothesis, we acquire language proficiency…
“…by going for meaning, by focusing on what is
said rather than how it is said. We are aided in
this process by extralinguistic context (e.g.
pictures and hand movements), and our
knowledge of the world. We do not acquire by
first learning about the structure of the
language. We try to understand the message and
the structure is thereby acquired”.
(Krashen 1985).
The input hypothesis maintains that more
language is acquired only when students are
exposed to comprehensible input –language that
contains structures that are “a little bit beyond” a
current level of competence, but which is
comprehensible through the use of context,
knowledge of the world, and other extralinguistic
cues. The language the students hear or read
should contain language they already know as
well as language they have not yet seen.
The input should be at a slightly higher level than
the student is capable of using, but that he is
capable of understanding. Krashen suggests that
if the input is too easy, the learner won’t learn
anything new; if it is too hard, he claims that it
would be beyond the learner’s grasp.
A second part of the input hypothesis maintains
that speaking fluency cannot be taught directly,
but rather “emerges” naturally over time.
Krashen maintains that although early speech is
not grammatically accurate, accuracy will
develop over time as the acquired word hears and
understand more input.
A third part of this hypothesis states that input
need not be deliberately planned to contain
appropriate structures: if communication is
successful and there is enough of it, input is
provided automatically. Krashen (1985) states:
“the best input is not grammatically sequenced.
Rather, if the acquirer understands the input
presented, and enough of it is made available, the
structures will be automatically sequenced… The
acquirers will receive comprehensive input
containing structures just a little beyond them if
they are in a situations involving genuine
communication, and these structures will be
constantly provided and automatically reviewed.
They need not worry about missing the past tense
forever. With natural comprehensible input, the
hypothesis predicts that they will hear the past
tense again and again.
Krashen also proposed the presence of the “silent
period”, a period of time before the acquirer
actually starts to speak. The silent period is
noticeable in child second language acquisition:
young children in a new country may say nothing
(except for some memorized phrases) for several
months. According to the input hypothesis, there
is a time during which they are building up
competence via input, by listening and
understanding. When they are ready, they start to
talk. This initial silent period has been
incorporated into Krashen and Terrel’s natural
approach.
A number of studies have now demonstrated that
comprehensive input may facilitate language
development, but it does not guarantee mastery
of the language. Learners need exposure to the
specific types of input that the learner needs to
acquire. This may vary from learner to learner,
but all learners benefit from input received and
used in language-promoting interaction.
The Affective Filter Hypothesis
Krashen’s fifth hypothesis states that
comprehensible input can have its effect on
acquisition only when affective conditions are
optimal, when the acquirer…
• is motivated
• has self-confidence and good self-image
• has a low level of anxiety
The affective filter acts like a gate controlling
the amount of input received. When learners
become defensive, the affective filter is high and
comprehensible input is prevented from entering.
If they are relaxed and in a pleasant environment,
more acquisition will take place. This is why it is
important to provide an appropriate environment
in the classroom, eliminating anxiety and
encouraging students.
In recent years, Krashen’s theories have been
repeatedly questioned. In spite of the many
criticisms on a variety of points, his theories have
had a strong influence on language teaching.
Virtually everyone recognizes the need to
provide learners with “comprehensible input”
and finds his recommendations that affective
considerations are of primary importance very
appealing.
 5. Characteristics of Language Learners
Children as Language Learners
Children, given a normal developmental
environment, acquire their native language
fluently and efficiently; moreover, they acquire it
“naturally”, without special instruction, they
experience a considerable amount of the
language in situations where they are involved
with communicating with an adult (usually a
parent); their gradual ability to use language is
the result of many subconscious processes.
Cognitive Development: generally we think that
children easily “acquire” a second or foreign
language, but, in fact, it implies a tremendous
cognitive and affective effort. Young second
language learners begin the task of language
learning without the benefit of some of the skills
which adolescent and adult learners have.
School-age children may actually have difficulty
in acquiring a foreign language for a multitude of
reasons. Ranking high on those reasons are a
number of complex personal, social, cultural and
political factors at play in elementary school
teaching. Depending on their age, children are
still at the developmental stage that centers on
the “here and now” and the functional purpose of
language. The fact that they have little awareness
for the language used to describe and explain
linguistic concepts means that rules,
explanations, and other even slightly abstract talk
about language must be approached with extreme
caution. They still have far to go in the area of
world knowledge before they reach the levels
already reached by adolescents and adults. And
children learning a foreign language in school are
under a traditional expectation of learning instead
of natural language development.
• Don’t use terms like “future perfect” or
“hypothetical situation” to express grammar.
• Avoid rules that are stated in abstract terms
(Don’t tell first graders: “to transform an
affirmative statement to negative, add the
auxiliary do or does and not”).
• Show them patterns (“Notice the –ed at the
end of the word”) and examples (“this is the
way we say something happened yesterday: I
watched TV.”) to call their attention to certain
grammatical concepts.
• Certain more difficult concepts or patterns
require more repetition than adults need. For
example, repeating certain patterns (without
boring them) may be necessary to get the brain
and the ear to cooperate.
Most young learners do not feel nervous about
attempting to use the language. However, even
very young (pre-school) children differ in their
nervousness when faced with speaking a
language they do not know well. Some children
chatter away happily in the new language; others
prefer to listen and participate silently in social
interaction with their peers. Fortunately, for these
children, the learning environment rarely puts
pressure on them to speak when they are not
ready.
Attention span: one of the main differences
between adults and children is attention span.
Children definitely do not have short attention
spans – just put a child in front of a TV with a
favorite cartoon show and they will stay riveted
to their seats. The short attention span comes
only when they are bored; they find something
useless, or too difficult. The teacher’s job, then,
is to make language lessons interesting, lively,
and fun.
• Activities should be design to capture their
immediate interest, since children are focused on
the immediate here and now.
• A lesson needs to have a variety of activities
to keep interest and attention alive.
• A teacher needs to be animated, lively, and
enthusiastic about the subject matter. The
teacher’s energy will be infectious to others.
Children need a certain exaggeration to keep
spirits buoyed and minds alert.
• A sense of humor will go a long way to
keep children laughing and learning.
• Children have a lot of natural curiosity.
This helps the teacher maintain attention and
focus.
Sensory input: children need to have all five
senses stimulated. Activities should go beyond
the visual and auditory modes.
• Pepper the lesson with physical activity,
such as having students act out things (role-play),
play games, or do TPR activities.
• Projects and other hands-on activities will
help children internalize language.
• Sensory aids will also help children
internalize concepts: the taste of foods, liberal
doses of audio-visual aids, songs, music – all
these are important elements in children’s
language teaching.
• Nonverbal language is important, as
children notice facial features and gestures.
Affective factors: children may have as many
inhibitions as adults do about learning a
language! They are extremely sensitive,
especially to peers: what do others think of me?
What will so-and-so think when I speak in
English? Children are in many ways more fragile
than adults; their egos are still being shaped.
Teachers need to help them overcome potential
barriers to learning.
• Help students laugh with each other at
various mistakes that they all make.
• Be patient and supportive, to build self-
esteem, yet at the same time, be firm in your
expectations of students.
• Elicit as much oral participation as possible
from students, especially the quieter ones, to give
them plenty of opportunities for trying things out.
Authentic, meaningful language: children are
focused on what this new language can actually
be used for right here and now. They are less
willing to put up with language that doesn’t hold
immediate rewards for them.
• Children are good at sensing language that is
not authentic; it will simply not be accepted.
• Language needs to be firmly context
embedded. Story lines, familiar situations and
characters, real-life conversations, meaningful
purposes in using language – these will establish
a context within which language can be received
and sent and thereby improve attention and
retention.
A whole language approach is essential. Don’t
break up language into too many bits and pieces
or students won’t see the relationship to the
whole.
Adults as Language Learners
Adults usually learn a foreign language in a
classroom setting; they may or may not be
motivated by the need for communication itself,
but rather by some type of extrinsic motivation
(i.e. promotion, career, etc.); they are often
distracted by problems and have other priorities
or they are impatient and under pressure to learn;
and contrary to children learning their first
language, they frequently need a teacher. They
may also believe that knowing a language is
knowing “about” (i.e., rules, definitions, etc.)
instead of knowing how to use it.
Most adult students are quite comfortable with
structured learning environments. The linguistic
support given in this environment allows students
to practice within a controlled framework and
build their confidence.
Older learners are often forced to speak – to meet
the requirements of the classroom or to carry out
tasks such as jobs interviews.
One condition which appears to be common to
learners of all ages is access to modified input.
This adjusted speech is called caretaker talk for
first languages, and foreign talk or teacher talk
for second languages. Most people who interact
regularly with foreign language learners seem to
have an intuitive sense of what adjustments are
needed to help learners understand.
Error correction tends to be limited to corrections
of meaning – including errors in vocabulary
choice – in first language acquisition. In informal
second language acquisition, errors which do not
interfere with meaning are usually overlooked.
Most people would feel they were being impolite
if they interrupted and corrected someone who
was trying to have a conversation with them!
Nevertheless, they may “correct” if they cannot
understand what the speaker is trying to say.
Thus, errors of grammar and pronunciation are
rarely remarked on, but the wrong word choice
may receive comment from a puzzled
interlocutor. The only place where error
correction is typically present with frequency is
the language classroom.
Adults are no less successful in learning a foreign
language than children are. Adults have the
advantage of being able to learn and retain a
larger vocabulary. They can utilize various
deductive and abstract processes to shortcut the
learning of grammatical and other linguistic
concepts. And, in the classroom, they usually
learn faster than a child. So, while children, with
their fluency and naturalness, are often the envy
of adults struggling with foreign languages,
children in classrooms may have some
difficulties.
 ACTIVITY.

Work in pairs. Complete the following chart showing the profiles of four language learners:
a) A child learning his or her first language
b) A child learning a second language informally
c) An adolescent learning a second language in a formal language learning setting
d) An adult learning a second language in a formal setting

Use a + for a characteristic which is usually present, a – for a characteristic which is usually absent, and a?
for cases where the characteristic or condition is sometimes present, sometimes absent, or where you are
not sure of your opinion.

Learner Characteristics Child L1 Child Adolescent Adult

(informal) (formal) (formal)
1. The learner already knows another language.
2. The learner is able to engage in problem
solving, deduction, and complex memory
tasks.
3. The learner can define a word, say what
sounds make up a word, or state a rule such as
“add an s to form the plural”.
4. The learner’s general knowledge of the
world is extensive.
5. The learner is nervous about making
mistakes and sounding “silly”.
Learning conditions
6. The learning environment allows the learner
to be silent in the early stages of learning.
7. There is plenty of time for language learning
to take place, plenty of contact with proficient
speakers of the language.
8. The learner receives corrective feedback
when he or she makes errors in grammar or
pronunciation.
9. The learner receives corrective feedback
when he or she uses the wrong word.

From how languages are learned (1993) by Patsy Lightbrow and Nina Spada, OUP