First and Second Language Acquisition
Linguistics Tripos Part II: Paper 15
MML Tripos Part II: Paper Li.15
Paper Coordinator 2013/14: Dr Henriëtte Hendriks
A specimen exam paper and reading list are available from the Linguistics Resources on CamTools.
Aims
- Provide an overview of the major steps in children’s cognitive development
- Provide an overview of the major developmental steps in first language acquisition
- Provide an overview of the major developmental steps in second language acquisition
- Comparison of first and second language acquisition by adding bilingual acquisition
- Introduction of the most influential approaches (cognitive and linguistic) explaining the steps in child first language acquisition
- Introduction of the most influential approaches explaining the steps in adult second language acquisition
- Highlight the role of methodology in the discovery of information regarding language acquisition specific to the approach
Scope
- Basic knowledge about children’s cognitive and linguistic development
- Basic knowledge about adults’ cognitive and linguistic development towards the second language
Teaching
Proposed lecture schedule/topics to be covered:
Michaelmas Term (First language acquisition)
1. First sounds (babbling) and studies on language-specific babbling, the perception of different sounds, and methodologies used (preferred-looking paradigm)
2. Pre-linguistic communications (gestures, pointing). What children know and how we know they know.
3. First words (are they words or sentences) and studies regarding the mapping of words and meanings. Discussion of experimental studies and theories on word learning.
4. Early two-word combinations and first utterances containing visible grammar and what word-order means at this stage. Observations and experimental studies; explanations in UG, bootstrapping accounts, and usage-based accounts.
5. The acquisition of morphology and its role in the full picture. Issues regarding the overgeneralization of rules, etc. How languages differ in this area.
6. Syntax beyond the clause: subordination, coordination and the understanding of temporal successive events versus causal relations.
7. Pragmatic understanding of intention and discourse structure.
8. What simultaneous bilinguals tell us about language development.
Lent Term
9. The linguistic knowledge the second language learner starts out with depending on different accounts. Is this different from bilingual learning or for third language acquisition?
10. The non-linguistic knowledge the second language learner brings to the task and is it helpful?.
11. First words (are they words or sentences?) and the use of the context in communication. First word combinations: the use of word order versus other devices, and the acquisition of word order across different languages.
12. The acquisition of morphology and reflection on the role of morphological properties of the source versus target language.
13. Acquisition of syntax proper.
14. Acquisition of appropriate mapping of form and meaning in various referential domains (person, time and space).
15. What is learnable and unlearnable in a second language?
16. Language attrition.
Teaching
You will receive sixteen lectures in total, eight in Michaelmas Term and eight in Lent Term. You will also have eight supervisions, normally three during Michaelmas Term, four in Lent Term and one in Easter Term. The Department will also be providing four hours of optional practical classes.
Assessment will be by a three-hour written examination.
Go to other Part II Linguistics papers:
- Linguistic Theory (Linguistics Tripos Part IIB only)
- Phonetics
- Phonology and Morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics and Pragmatics
- Historical Linguistics
- History of the French Language
- First and Second Language Acquisition
- Psychology of Language Processing and Learning
- Language Typology
