Language Acquisition: Theories, Stages, and Bilingualism

The assignment content provided describes the process of acquiring language, including first language acquisition in children and second language acquisition by adults. The content outlines the five stages of first language acquisition: (1) Crying stage, (2) Babbling stage, (3) Holophrastic stage, (4) Two-words stage, and (5) Telegraphic stage. It also describes the six stages of language acquisition in children, which include (1) Crying stage, (2) Babbling stage, (3) Holophrastic stage, (4) Two-words stage, (5) Telegraphic stage, and (6) Later multi-word stage. Additionally, the content explains the five stages of second language acquisition: (1) Pre-production, (2) Early production, (3) Speech emergence, (4) Intermediate fluency, and (5) Advanced Fluency. Overall, the assignment aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the process of acquiring language.

BLOG: LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
WHAT IS LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
5th August 2019
As said by Oliver Wendell Holmes, language stands as the blood of the soul into which thoughts
run and out of which they grow. Fundamental to modern linguistics include the view reflecting
the concept that human language stands as a natural object. Human language is species-specific
capability to acquire language, tacit knowledge of human beings which makes them able to cope
up with the huge complexity and distinct nature of language. It is the capacity of human to use
language in an appropriate manner for free. Language is extremely complex but over the years, a
human being grasps it which ultimately makes the human being to think, and communicate his
thoughts. Before the age of five, a child becomes able to know most of the intricate system of
language. Children control conjoining sentences, asking questions, negate sentences, using
pronouns, forming relative clauses, and inflecting verbs and nouns. Some say that no one can
teach the rules of grammar to the children and their parents are not aware of morphology,
phonology, semantic and syntactic rules.
It is very obvious to state that children do not learn a language by simply memorizing some
sentences. Rather, they use to acquire the asset of grammatical rules whereas no one uses to
teach the children about what grammar is and how to use it. Language acquisition is influenced
by individual differences, engagement, motivation along with some other variables. It is claimed
that the language a child learns by his/her own is a native language which influences the process
of acquiring the second language in a positive manner. The acquisition of a second language
should be explored in bilingualism context. It is already proven by different researches on
language acquisition, that having strong and effective knowledge about mother tongue based on
bilinguals, promotes learning and cognitive development. Thus, the education on mother tongue
is vital in the educational development of a child.
Definition and Concept of Language Acquisition

Language acquisition refers to the process by applying which human beings use to acquire the
ability to perceive as well as comprehend language and the ability to produce as well as use
words along with sentences for communicating with others. The ability to comprehend language
is gaining the strength of being aware of language as well as understanding it. A human being
uses to acquire the first language by at his/her childhood and such acquisition of the first
language refers to the way a child learns his/her native language. Babbling is treated as the
earliest version or form of a child's language acquisition. This is because infants use to produce
different kinds of sounds on the basis of what kind of language input they receive. Thus,
language acquisition starts from the time when an infant starts receiving language inputs and
reacts upon such inputs by creating sounds.
Language stands as a cognition which truly makes human different and highly advance than
other species. Whereas other living species use to communicate with their innate ability of
producing a few numbers of meaningful vocalisations like bonobos, or sometimes with partially
learned systems like bird songs. Till date, no other species like human are found who can express
their infinite ideas or sentences with symbols (words and speech sounds). The ability of getting
and understanding a language is genetically inherited. It is also mentionable here; that the
specific language children use to speak is environmentally and culturally transmitted into them.
Children acquire their very first language without any tutoring. Researchers have shown that
infants at their age of twelve months have sensitivity in relation to grammar which is required for
understanding causative sentences. They start acquiring languages by responding to their
caretakers (mothers). Children do not get any formal teaching from their parents on native
language. Parents try to reinforce the verbal behaviour of their child with smiles or some other
ways. Language acquisition means a process whereby a child achieves fluent control over his/her
native language. A language is learned by children because they use to possess an inborn ability
that allows them to acquire language as a normal maturational process. Children have an innate
device for acquiring a language.
Motivation uses to play a pivotal role while it comes to learn a language. For some people,
learning a language seems natural and easy but for others, it is tough and complex. This is
because a different individual holds different abilities of learning and such abilities often affected
greatly by a number of different factors. These factors affect language learning as well as or

promote language learning. These factors include motivation, self-motivation, personality,
learning styles, cognitive styles, self-regulation of a student, and the strategies of language
learning. The individual differences or other traits that are also responsible for promoting
language learning are creativity, anxiety, self-esteem, intention to communicate, and beliefs of
the learner. All these traits contribute to effective language acquisition.
Language acquisition uses to vary from one person to another due to language structure and
individuality. Cummins describes language acquisition as attribute-based and input-based
proficiency. Attribute-based proficiency of language acquisition is something which is
influenced strongly by the attributes of an individual learner, such as personality variables and
cognitive which are relatively stable. On the other side, the input-based proficiency of language
acquisition does not depend only upon the individual learner's attributes but also depend upon
the quantity and quality of input, related to the second language, the learner receives from the
environment.
Theories of Language Acquisition
There are a number of theories that use to describe the way language is acquired by human
beings, learned by them, and taught by them. The basic theories of language acquisition are
Behaviourist theory, Mentalist theory i.e. Innatism, and Cognitive theory or Rationalist theory.
As per its essence, behaviourist theory is a psychological theory. It was founded by J. B. Watson
and it is a theory based on learning of native language and advanced with traditional grammar.
Behaviourist theory was supported by B. F. Skinner, Leonard Bloomfield, A.W. Staats, and
O.N. Mowrer. This theory emphasises on the significance of verbal behaviour. In behaviourist
theory, it is believed that infants use to learn verbal language from others i.e. from their parents
and family persons through a procedure which involves imitation, practice, and rewards. The
persons, who take care of an infant, provide an environment of rewards and stimuli. When a
child attempts to imitate or to use oral language the patterns of speech and sounds they use are
usually praised and get affection from their caregivers for such efforts. Thus, affection and praise
become the prizes or rewards they get for attempting to imitate or use oral language. As per

behaviourist theory, language acquisition stands as an output of experience, a conditioned
behaviour, and a process based on stimulus-response. This theory says that language acquisition
is both practice based, and mechanical. It results from proper nurturing and imitation,
reinforcement, memory, repetition, and motivation play a vital role in language acquisition or
language learning.
Mentalist theory of language acquisition was developed by Noam Chomsky. The key principle
of this theory reveals that everybody uses to learn a language not just they are subjected to a
similar process of conditioning, but for possessing an inborn capability that permits them to
acquire a language as a process of normal maturational. The mechanism of learning in kids is
inborn and the process through which it works in works through unique. According to this
theory, language acquisition stands as a result of conditions, and it is an in-born and innate
process. This theory says that language is not just behaviour like other behaviours but it is a
species-uniform and species-specific mental process. It believes that children use to learn
languages by the application which makes language acquisition rule-based. Language learning or
acquisition is generative, analytic, and creative. As per this theory, exposure plays a highly
significant role in language acquisition and it is a result of the surrounding environment or
nature.
Cognitive theory or Rationalist theory is based on the assumptions such as learning is a result
of internal mental adaptive power and activity and the learner or acquirer of language comes
with skills, knowledge as well as related experiences that are associated with the learning
situation. It does not result from stimuli that are externally imposed on human beings. Cognitive
theorists use to believe that the act of language acquisition is a subordinate part in cognitive
development and it depends on the act of attaining various concepts. As per this theory, at first
children use to learn the world, and then they need to map language on that prior gaining
experience. Furthermore, these theorists also believe that language is one of the aspects of human
cognition. Infants should learn about the world around them by involving themselves in
construction and active experimentation.
Acquisition of First Language

When a human being is born, he/she does not use grammar while adopting the first language.
There are some stages through passing which, the native language is acquired by a human and
through passing every stage he/she comes closer to an adult's language. The stages of a child's
first language acquisition, are as follows:
1. Pre-talking stage or Cooing (0 to 6 months): This is a stage where vowel-like sound inspires
a child to respond to the human sounds definitely by turning head, rolling eyes to search for the
speaker or the producer of such vowel-like sound and occasionally by some sounds of chuckling.
For instance, Rihana, at her age of just 4 months, demonstrates the pre-talking stage of language
acquisition by producing or responding with vowel-like sounds like "oh", "uh", and "ah. During
these days, she finds it difficult to produce vowel sound ‘I' except when she screams.
Furthermore, during this stage, she is not able to produce consonant sounds such as [b], [m], or
[p] yet.
2. Babbling stage (6 to 8 months): In this stage, infants use to produce consonant-vowel
combinations. The sounds they produce are in babbling form such as [da-da-da] or [ma-ma-ma]
or and [na-na-na] or [ba-ba-ba].
3. Holophrastic stage (9 to 18 months): In this stage children produce a single sentence for the
first time. Holophrastic is the first single word produced by children which represent their feeling
in a sentence. In this stage, a child uses a single word for expressing a specific emotional state.
For instance, Jian's at his age of 8 months pronounce ‘adi' by which he denotes his daddy. During
the 9th month to 17 months, he improved his vocabulary by more than double.
4. Two-words stage (18 to 24 months): After that with times, the single word sentence as a child
produces turns into a two-word sentence. Two-word stage refers to the stage where a child
produces mini sentences (two-word sentences) with semantic relations. Children start to form
two-word sentences show a definite semantic and syntactic relations as well as an intonation
contour of the two words that extend the entire utterance instead of being separated through a
pause between the two words.
5. Telegraphic stage (24 to 30 months): This stage of language acquisition is just a descriptive
term as children do not leave out non-content words deliberately, as adults do by sending

telegrams. When a child starts producing utterances in longer than 2 words, such utterances
appear like a sentence; they have constituent and hierarchical structures same as syntactic
structures that found in adults sentences.
6. Later multi-word stage (more than 30 months): At this particular stage, children use to
increase their very fast by adding many new words every day without any babbling. Their
utterances include communicative intent.
Acquisition of Second Language
The process of acquiring the second language includes five steps such as Pre-production, Early
production, Speech emergence, Intermediate fluency, and Advanced Fluency.
Stage 1: Pre-production is a silent period and in this stage, a language learner uses 500 words
in his/her receptive vocabulary without speaking. Few students use to repeat everything they
listen and in doing so, they are parroting instead of producing language. In this stage, the new
learners listen attentively and often use to copy new words from the blackboard. This stage of
acquiring a second language makes them capable of responding to pictures as well as other
visuals. Moreover, they become able to duplicate and understand movements and gestures to
show their comprehension.
Stage 2: Early production stage includes the followings:
 Asking yes/no as well as either/or questions.
 Accepting one/two-word responses.
 Giving learners the opportunity of participating in some class activities.
 Using pictures to support their questions.
 Modifying the content information.
 Building vocabulary by using pictures or other visuals.
 Providing listening activities.
 Simplifying the materials of content that are required to use and focusing on the key
concepts and vocabulary.

 Supporting the learning process with graphs and charts, and graphic organisers.
Successful completion of this stage assists a student to produce one/two-word responses, use
familiar phrases and key-words along with present-tense verbs.
Stage 3: Speech emergence comprised of the following tasks:
 Speaking out easy to understand stories phonetically.
 Reading short and modified texts related to content.
 Completing graphic organisers by using word banks.
 Understanding as well as answering questions about graphs and charts.
 Matching vocabulary words with definitions.
 Participate in duet, pair and choral reading activities.
 Writing and illustrating riddles.
 Understanding teacher explanations along with two-step directions.
 Composing brief stories on the basis of personal experience.
 Writing dialogue journals.
This stage helps students to have good comprehension, produce simple and understandable
sentences. Moreover, in this stage students make pronunciation and grammar errors and use to
misunderstand jokes frequently.
Stage 4: Intermediate fluency is a stage of language learning where the learner uses gain
excellent comprehension, whereas makes some grammatical mistakes while communicating in
oral and written form. The learners this stage have around 6000 active vocabularies and they start
using complex sentences while speaking as well as writing and are intending to express their
opinions and share thoughts. Comprehension of literature along with the content of social studies
is increasing. At intermediate fluency stage, learners found using strategies they have adopted
from the native language they learned during their childhood for learning content in the second
language. In this stage, students try to share their thoughts and opinion by using complex
sentence structure whereas many of them use to translate written assignments or projects from
their native language. In this stage, they become capable of understanding more complex
sentences and concepts.

Stage 5: Advanced Fluency, in this stage of acquiring the second language, students become
able to achieve proficiency in the cognitive academic language in second language. Their ability
to perform in the content area oriented learning enhances in this stage. Furthermore, in this stage,
the students have a near-native speech level. This is the final stage of acquiring second language
and in order to reach this stage, every student needs to get proper assistance and support from
teachers, which is very crucial in acquiring a second language successfully.