Language acquisition is a process that can happen at any point in human life.
However, when we
talk about the first language acquisition by a child, we refer to the process or way by which
children learn their native language. (Learn about the nativist theory of language acquisition)
Learning a new language can be extremely difficult, but yet you look at little children that are not
yet five and they have already mastered most of the grammar of their native language. Children
learn their native language without being taught the rules of grammar by their parents or
guardians. Also, parents themselves do not consciously know the many rules of grammar. So
how do children acquire language?
The development of language is one of the most important elements of a child's early growth as
it enables them to communicate their wants and needs to those around them. Adequate language
development results in children being able to function as they age into adolescence and
adulthood. We call the process of learning a language 'undergoing the stages of language
development'.
There are four main stages of normal language acquisition: The babbling stage, the Holophrastic
or one-word stage, the two-word stage and the Telegraphic stage. These stages can be broken
down even more into these smaller stages: pre-production, early production, speech emergent,
beginning fluency intermediate fluency and advanced fluency. On this page I will be providing a
summary of the four major stage of language acquisition.
The first main stage of language acquisition in children follows their initial crying and fusing
periods. The pre-linguistic stage typically occurs anywhere within the first two and four months
of a child's life. This stage tends to last until the child is seven months old, though this varies
depending on their individual development. Some of the sounds, such as crying, are non-
reflexive. Others, such as cooing, are 'alleviation sounds' and are a result of the beginning of
vocal tract development. Babies aged six to seven months may also engage in vocal play
In the first two months of life, the cooing is involuntary, but at approximately two months of age,
infants can intentionally produce cooing sounds. In regard to receptive language, children in the
pre-linguistic stage are able to perceive and react to sound. At this stage, however, they are
unaware of the meaning of these sounds.
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Babbling
Within a few weeks of being born the baby begins to recognize it’s mothers’ voice. There are
two sub-stages within this period. The first occurs between birth – 8 months. Most of this stage
involves the baby relating to its surroundings and only during 5/6 – 8 month period does the
baby begin using it’s vocals. As has been previously discussed babies learn by imitation and the
babbling stage is just that. During these months the baby hears sounds around them and tries to
reproduce them, albeit with limited success. The babies attempts at creating and experimenting
with sounds is what we call babbling. When the baby has been babbling for a few months it
begins to relate the words or sounds it is making to objects or things. This is the second sub-
stage. From 8 months to 12 months the baby gains more and more control over not only it’s
vocal communication but physical communication as well, for example body language and
gesturing. Eventually when the baby uses both verbal and non-verbal means to communicate,
only then does it move on to the next stage of language acquisition.
Holophrastic / One-word stage
The second stage of language acquisition is the holophrastic or one word stage. This stage is
characterized by one word sentences. In this stage nouns make up around 50% of the infants
vocabulary while verbs and modifiers make up around 30% and questions and negatives make up
the rest. This one-word stage contains single word utterances such as “play” for “I want to play
now”. Infants use these sentence primarily to obtain things they want or need, but sometimes
they aren’t that obvious. For example a baby may cry or say “mama” when it purely wants
attention. The infant is ready to advance to the next stage when it can speak in successive one
word sentences.
Two-Word Stage
The two word stage (as you may have guessed) is made of up primarily two word sentences.
These sentences contain 1 word for the predicate and 1 word for the subject. For example
“Doggie walk” for the sentence “The dog is being walked.” During this stage we see the
appearance of single modifiers e.g. “That dog”, two word questions e.g. “Mummy eat?” and the
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addition of the suffix –ing onto words to describe something that is currently happening e.g.
“Baby Sleeping.”
During the two word stage, children begin to subconsciously apply grammatical rules when
formulating basic phrases. This includes depicting events via grammatical functions and, in some
instances, beginning to use inflections. By the end of the two-word stage, a child can produce
many different sounds and syllables to formulate basic words and sentences. This enables them
to communicate what they want or feel.
Telegraphic Stage
The final stage of language acquisition is the telegraphic stage. This stage is named as it is
because it is similar to what is seen in a telegram; containing just enough information for the
sentence to make sense. This stage contains many three and four word sentences. Sometime
during this stage the child begins to see the links between words and objects and therefore
overgeneralization comes in. Some examples of sentences in the telegraphic stage are “Mummy
eat carrot”, “What her name?” and “He is playing ball.” During this stage a child’s vocabulary
expands from 50 words to up to 13,000 words. At the end of this stage the child starts to
incorporate plurals, joining words and attempts to get a grip on tenses.
As a child’s grasp on language grows it may seem to us as though they just learn each part in a
random order, but this is not the case. There is a definite order of speech sounds. Children first
start speaking vowels, starting with the rounded mouthed sounds like “oo” and “aa”. After the
vowels come the consonants, p, b, m, t, d, n, k and g. The consonants are first because they are
easier to pronounce then some of the others, for example ‘s’ and ‘z’ require specific tongue place
which children cannot do at that age.
As all human beings do, children will improvise something they cannot yet do. For example
when children come across a sound they cannot produce they replace it with a sound they can
e.g. ‘Thoap” for “Soap” and “Wun” for “Run.” These are just a few example of resourceful
children are, even if in our eyes it is just cute.
Passing through the various stages of language development is critical for any child. This is
because language is the primary way for children to communicate with those around them.
Completing the four main stages of development allows children to progress into adulthood with
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the vital skill of verbal communication. Proper language development is also important due to
the way that it impacts a child's PIES; their physical, intellectual, emotional and social
development.
For example, a child is more emotionally satisfied if they can verbalise how they're feeling.
Another example is that children can socialise easier once they can communicate with one
another to play games, learn from one another or share. Language development also enables
children to think for themselves and to more readily learn about the world around them by
reading materials such as books.
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Reference
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