Psycholinguisticsby Mariana De Luca

mariana.deluca@cms.k12.nc.us

First Language Acquisition

Theories

Behaviorism

Imitation Reinforcement Analogy

Skinner

The Innateness Hypothesis

Universal GrammarGrammar Construction

Chomsky

Do Children Learn through Imitation?

Do Children Learn through Correction and Reinforcement?

Stages in Language Aquisition Pre-linguistic stage (birth to six months): The baby cries, coos,

laughs, and makes other sounds. Babbling (six to 12 months): The baby makes nonspecific sounds

from all human languages. One-word (holophrastic) stage (1 year): The child speaks single

words in isolation, in his or her first language. Two-word stage (24 months): The child forms two-word phrases or

strings that reflect the language being acquired. The vocabulary increases; the child begins to learn words at the rate of one word every two waking hours.

Telegraphic speech (30 months): Children begin to utter short phrases like telegraph messages, without formal grammatical structure.

Fluent speech (three years +): The child learns grammar and syntax (patterns of sentence formation) with surprising rapidity and accuracy; sentences increase in length and complexity.

Pre-linguistic Stage

Babbling Brrrr, brrrr, bbbb, dadada, lala…

Holophrastic or Word Stage

Up!

Down!

Cheerios!

Two Word Stage

Hi Mommy!

Bye bye boat

More wet

Telegraphic Stage

Cat stand up tableWhat that?Andrew want that.No sit there.Ride truckShow mommy that

Language ExplosionLook mommy,

how I climbI know what

to do

I like to play with something

else

The Acquisition of Pragmatics

Theories of Second Language Learning

-Tabula rasa-Stimuli

-Conditioning- Reinforcement

-Innate predispositions-Systematic, rule governed

acquisition-Creative construction

-Whole person-Social interaction

-Cognition and context-Discovery Learning-Learn how to learn

Empowerment

Behaviorist Cognitive Constructivist

Bilingualism vs. Second Language Acquisition

Bilingualism SLA

Simultaneous acquisition of two languages

Acquisition of L1 Acquisition of L2

•Unitary system hypothesis•Separate systems hypothesis

Fundamental difference hypothesis

Same stages of LA as monolingual children

L2ers construct interlanguage grammars

Unconscious process Conscious process

Codeswitching L1 Interference

An Innatist Model: Krashen’s Input Hypothesis

1. Acquisition – Learning Hypothesis2. Monitor Hypothesis3. Natural Order Hypothesis4. Input Hypothesis5. Affective Filter Hypothesis

Instructional ImplicationsBehaviorist

Language from dialogues, and drills from teachers

Structured by grammatical complexity

Similar proficiency levels

Structured repetitions and drills

Students repeat immediately

Errors corrected immediately

Cognitive Natural language from

the teacher, classmates or books

Unstructured but made comprehensible by teacher

Similar proficiency levels

Language production is expected to occur naturally

Silent period Errors not corrected

Constructivist Natural language from

the teacher, classmates or books

Unstructured but focused on communication

ELL and native speakers

Speaking occurs naturally

No pressure to speak

Meaning negotiated

Key terms

From “Principles of Language Learning and Teaching”

Transfer, Interference, overgeneralization (pp.102,103)

Zone of Proximal Development (p.13)Fossilization (p.270)Codeswitching (p.139)Interlanguage (p.256)