Is there a critical Age Hypothesis for first language acquisition? If so, why?

What are the benefits of learning a language early versus later?

What do you know about the brain and how it processes language?

Neurolinguistics: neural and electrochemical bases of language development and use

Psycholinguistics: acquisition, storage, comprehension and production

THE HEMISPHERES

LATERALIZATIONLATERALIZATION

Connections between the brain and the body are almost completely

CONTRALATERALCONTRALATERAL

WHICH FOOT DID YOU USE?WHICH FOOT DID YOU USE?

WHICH HAND DID YOU USE?WHICH HAND DID YOU USE?

LEFT hemisphere DOMINATES the right

For over 90% of right-handed people and approximately 70% of left-handed people language centerslanguage centers are in the left hemisphereleft hemisphere..

BROCA'S AREABROCA'S AREA

at the base of the motor cortex; responsible for organizing the articulatory patternsorganizing the articulatory patterns of a language and directing the motor cortex when we want to talk.

Controls the use of inflectional morphemes (e.g. plural; past tense markers; etc.) as well as fuction words (e.g. determiners, prepositions, etc.).

LANGUAGELANGUAGE PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

WERNICKE'S AREAWERNICKE'S AREA

Near the back section of the auditory cortex; involved in the comprehension of words and sentences and the selection of words from the mental lexicon.

LANGUAGE PERCEPTIONLANGUAGE PERCEPTION AND COMPREHENSIONAND COMPREHENSION

PRODUCING A SPOKEN WORDPRODUCING A SPOKEN WORD

WERNICKE'S AREA WERNICKE'S AREA (accessing the lexicon)

arcuate fasciculusarcuate fasciculus (phonetic info)

BROCA'S AREABROCA'S AREA (interprets info; trasmits, articulatory info)

motor cortexmotor cortex (muscles movement)

How do we learn a language?

What processes are involved?

How do we learn to talk?

INNATENESS HYPOTHESISINNATENESS HYPOTHESIS

IMITATION THEORYIMITATION THEORY

ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION of a ACTIVE CONSTRUCTION of a GRAMMAR THEORY GRAMMAR THEORY

CONNECTIONIST THEORY and CONNECTIONIST THEORY and SOCIAL INTERACTION THEORY SOCIAL INTERACTION THEORY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeYkGsWtUVY

Children must:

Be able to identify the sounds of the L they hear (phonemes)

Learn how to produce each allophone of these phonemes

Decode the large string of sounds

Combine the sounds

How and when babies begin to How and when babies begin to talk?talk?

COOING COOING (2-4 months) - vowel like sounds

- palatal like sound

- articulatory practice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KHZe0rr8q8

BABBLINGBABBLING (4-6 months)

- syllable-like sequences (C+V)

- production of labials /b/ and /m/

- articulatory and muscles practice

Repeated and canonical Repeated and canonical babbling babbling (7-10 months)

[mamamamama]

Variegated babblingVariegated babbling (10-12 months) [bugabimo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDx26C479BI

Children arrive at the idea of a word Children arrive at the idea of a word as a sequence of phonemes whose as a sequence of phonemes whose pronunciation is systematic and predictable.pronunciation is systematic and predictable.

They first master souds that differ They first master souds that differ maximally from one another. maximally from one another.

Children of all backgroundsChildren of all backgrounds, , PROVIDED PROVIDED THEY HAVE ENOUGH INPUTTHEY HAVE ENOUGH INPUT, ,

will learn a language and master the will learn a language and master the phonological system of their native Lphonological system of their native L

ONE-WORD STAGE ONE-WORD STAGE (12 months) "holophrastic""holophrastic"

-the single words are used for: naming, commenting, requesting, etc.

- phrases single words

e.g. "What's that?" "Whasat?"

TWO-WORD STAGE TWO-WORD STAGE (18-24 months) "telegraphic""telegraphic"

- the word-order has a semantic relation

- omission of function words (e.g. Prepositions, auxiliaries, articles, etc.)

By the age of 6 children have a By the age of 6 children have a vocabulary approaching.....vocabulary approaching.....

ALL CHILDREN TEND TO GO THROUGH ALL CHILDREN TEND TO GO THROUGH THE SAME STAGES OF ACQUISITION!THE SAME STAGES OF ACQUISITION!

MOTHERESEMOTHERESE

Child direct speechChild direct speech

Comfort languageComfort language (it captures babies attention)

"Universal language""Universal language"

Simple, slow, repetitive, clearSimple, slow, repetitive, clear

L1 ACQUISITION CRITICAL AGE L1 ACQUISITION CRITICAL AGE HYPHOTESIS HYPHOTESIS

E. Lenneberg proposed that "innate behaviors have a critical periodcritical period" that is a period of time in an a period of time in an individual's life during which a behavior must be individual's life during which a behavior must be acquired.acquired.

The critical period for first language The critical period for first language acquisition is assumed to extend from birth acquisition is assumed to extend from birth to approximately the onset of puberty.to approximately the onset of puberty.

GENIEGENIE ISABELLEISABELLE 14 years old

She was beaten for making noises

Abused and isolated

When found was completey silent

Never learned grammar or how to speak properly.

6 and a half years old

Kept isolated but never abused.

Always with her mom who was deaf

After been taught for two years (at Ohio State University) her language and intelligence were normal

BILINGUALISMBILINGUALISMBilingual: a person able to hold a conversation with

monolingual speakers of two different languages.

1) Simultaneous bilingualism

2) Sequential bilingualism

3) Second-language acquisition

FirstLanguage Acquisition

BILINGUALBILINGUAL vs vs MONOLINGUALMONOLINGUAL Are bilingual children less intelligent than monolingual

children?

Vygotsky: "being able to express the same thought in different languages enables the child to see the language as one language as one particular system among manyparticular system among many, to view its phenomena under more general categories and this leads to awareness awareness of these linguistics operations.of these linguistics operations."

Bilingual children go through the same Bilingual children go through the same stages of language acquisition as stages of language acquisition as monolingual children of each of the two monolingual children of each of the two languages.languages.

Second-Language Acquisition Second-Language Acquisition Critical HypothesisCritical Hypothesis

Is there an optimal age for Second Language Acquisition?

Can we talk about mutiple critical periods? And what do we mean with that?

Critical Age for Pronunciation:Critical Age for Pronunciation: -An upper limit for the acqisition of phonology

has been proposed as being the age of 6 "in many individuals" and the age of 12 for the rest. (Long, 1990)

- Scovel: "Joseph Conrad phenomenon".

Critical Age for Syntax Grammar:Critical Age for Syntax Grammar: -The critical age for syntactical/grammatical

accuracy is likely to be around 15.

BUT some argue that there is no critical age in terms of acquiring the syntax of a second language.

Social and psychological factors Social and psychological factors such as motivation and language aptitude can motivation and language aptitude can compensate compensate for the negative effects of maturation.