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DEFINITION
DEFINITION
According to a study from Minnesota State University, first language acquisition is a process on how a child develops its ability to speak and to use the language of its environment. It is a complex process that starts from the first stage of birth. This process piques the linguists’ interest because it occurs remarkably quickly in the children themselves without the need of precise instructions. Meanwhile, Cambridge Dictionary defined first language as the language that someone learns to speak first. Children start to acquire their first language since birth, and they can master the language even before they reach 3 years old depends on their development because each child has their own pace in development. First language is not also necessary only one language because some kids acquire more than one language at a time. For example, if a kid is raised in a bilingual or multilingual family, they tend to acquire more than one language as their first language. Whereas, according to Oxford Dictionary, acquisition can be defined as the act of getting something, especially knowledge, a skill, etc. To go further a bit in details, under acquisition of language, there are 5 stages which are cooing, babbling, first word stage, two words stage and telegraphic speech.
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
During the first 20th century, a theory called The Behaviorist Perspective was founded by J.B Watson and the leading figure of this theory is B.F Skinner who expanded the idea and even developed a concept.
But the Behaviorist Theory was challenged by Noah Chomsky with his theory called Universal Grammar. He argues that instead of learning language through imitation and repetition from the interaction with the environment, he believes that we all were born with an innate capability specialized for language within ourselves. And from that, the theory expanded with the belief that there is an outline that contains a set of common principles that underlie and are applicable to all languages and it can be understood by our ability that we were born with.
Furthermore, following the theory, Noah Chomsky has developed another theory called Critical Period theory where this theory is related to how human beings’ biological body has a feature that concentrated on acquiring the first language. This theory believes that this feature is only accessible during puberty or even before the puberty itself. As a result, according to this theory if we are about to compare a toddler and an adult in acquiring new language, we can se that the toddler will acquire the language at a very remarkably speed and they will most likely will obtain the native speakers’ fluency compared to the adult.
2 CONCEPTS
2 CONCEPTS
Babbling
Babbling
Babbling is a stage that occurs during infants which will influence the capability of acquiring language. Babbling focuses on the combination of consonants and vowels. First, the infants usually will produce it one by one like “ma” and “da”. Next, they will start producing it repetitively which is also called repetitive babbling. Some examples of babbling are like ‘ma ma” or “da da”.
This stage usually occurs in during infant usually by 6-8 month but, it is important to note that it is different for every child. One of the factors babies start to babble is when the people around the baby start to talk more to the baby. Yes, the more you talk, the more likely they would start to imitate the words by babbling. So, babbling actually influenced by the surroundings. There is a query among people whether crying is also considered a babbling or not. So, the answer is no because baby start crying since birth meanwhile babbling starts a little bit later.
Caregiver Speech
Caregiver Speech
According to Oxford Reference, A speech style often used by adults and older children when talking to infants or young children, characterized by shortened sentences, simplified grammar, restricted vocabulary, slow speech with many repetitions, diminutive and reduplicative words. Caregiver helps children with their developments especially in acquiring language. There are few characteristics of caregiver speech which are simple sentence structures, repetition and most importantly to note that it is restricted to here and now. Meaning that, the topic that parents are talking about to their infants must be something that is present and also visible for the infants.
The are so many significances of caregiver speech. One of the many significances is it captures the infants’ attention as the parents tend to use a higher pitch and various of intonations. When the infants are focus, they tend to learn and absorb more quickly. Other than that, when the parents use a simpler vocabularies and grammar while doing the caregiver speech, it helps children to understand the context easier. Besides, this method does involve a lot of interaction between the infants like parents would ask and respond to the infants. This encourages the development of the infants’ communication skill.
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOPIC AND REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TOPIC AND REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
To start off, from the video you can see that the father talks to his son as if his son is able to answer the question. The inclusiveness is the highlight of showing the caregiver speech. The father still included his son despite the kid not being able to properly answer him. Technically, you can hear that his son answered him but by babbling. This situation is normal especially for parents who try to talk to their children who are still not being able to talk properly.
In that video, the father used the caregiver speech method by repeating the same question like “what are you saying?" and “what was it?”. By doing this, the father could reinforce memory. Children’s memory are amazing. They could memorize so much in a short term. Hence, repetition is important to help the children to memorize new words and new sounds.
For the kid, from that video you can hear he babbles “nananana”. This is called repetitive babbling. The reason why babies babble could vary. But, most importantly, babies babble when they pay their attention to you. This might be a way for them to communicate with the people around them.
BACKGROUND OF THE REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
BACKGROUND OF THE REAL WORLD EXAMPLE
The kid in the video is called Gunho and his full name is Park Gunho. According to DramaList, he is a mixed of Korean-Swiss parent. His acquired a language which is Korean and English. According to Allkpop, he also has a sister called Na Eun who is a fluent multilingual speaker. Her sister speaks Korean, English, German and Spanish. From that, we can assume that Gunho grows up in a multilingual family because his mom speaks German, English and Korean while his dad speaks Korean only. This might be one of the reasons why his ability to acquire language is faster than the average child’s. He has a surrounding where people would talk to him for most of the time. Also, he is one of the kids that was featured in a show called the Return of Superman. In that show, it captures the daily routine of his life. From that, we could see the way his ability to acquire language was influenced a lot by his surroundings.
INTERESTING ASPECT
INTERESTING ASPECT
An interesting aspect about Gunho is the experience of growing up in a multilingual household cause not everyone has that experience. He grew up in a environment that speaks mostly Korean and English and sometimes German language. By having this experience, it allows him to communicate fluently in Korean and English. This also facilitates his language development because he could differentiate the distinct grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation at a very young age.
PERSONAL OPINION
PERSONAL OPINION
I personally love that the fact that the father used caregiver speech with Gunho because as what I can see after watching few episodes of the show is his communication skill does developed and he can speak sentences at a young age. As for Gunho, he has the experience growing up in a multilingual family even her sister acquired 3 first languages at a very young age. So, from my point of view, Gunho is also capable of speaking more languages as he grows up. But again, it is important to note that development is different for every child. But, parents can still work on it if they wanted to.
OVERALL CONCLUSION
OVERALL CONCLUSION
To conclude, first language acquisition is quite a complex process to be explained even though it is a normal event during our childhood. The factors of acquiring first language also could vary for every child like interactions, innate capability and also environmental exposure. But it is still important to educate ourselves and public regarding on this matter because acquiring first language actually plays a very important role throughout our life. For example, it enhances our communication skill, encourages cognitive growth, it is also the basic for children to grow as a multilingual speaker and in most cases, it shows our personal and cultural identity.
In this case, Gunho really shows that being a mixed of Korean-Swiss and lives and raised in Korea does not stop his ability to acquire Korean and English despite English being a foreign language in Korea. Hence, it is not impossible to acquire more than one language as long as the environment and the interaction of the infants is bilingual or multilingual.
REFERENCES
REFERENCES
DEFINITION :
Houts-Smith, L. (2010). First language acquisition. Minnesota State University Moorhead. https://web.mnstate.edu/houtsli/tesl551/LangAcq/page1.htm
Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). First language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/first-language-acquisition/9102F98D8CDC8BC5CA80E5D8AB832DAB#overview
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. (n.d.). Acquisition (noun) - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes. Oxford University Press. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/acquisition?q=acquisition
BACKGROUND :
Theories of first language acquisition. (n.d.). Theories of first language acquisition. https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/94445636/70360007-libre.pdf
Simply Psychology. (n.d.). Language acquisition. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html
ScienceDirect. (n.d.). Behavioral theory. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/behavioral-theory
2 Concepts :
BABBLING :
Pathways.org. (n.d.). Babbling. Pathways.org. https://pathways.org/babbling/
CAREGIVER SPEECH :
Oxford Reference. (n.d.). Behavioral theory. Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095549708
REAL WORLD EXAMPLE :
@username. (2024, June 15). [Brief description of the video]. TikTok. https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSYUcUNxv/
BACKGROUND OF REAL WORLD EXAMPLE :
Soccer player Park Joo Ho's daughter Naeun impresses with her ability to speak 4 languages on 'Superman is Back'. (2018, August 6). Allkpop. https://www.allkpop.com/article/2018/08/soccer-player-park-joo-hos-daughter-naeun-impresses-with-her-ability-to-speak-4-languages-on-superman-is-back
MyDramaList. (n.d.). Park Joo Ho. MyDramaList. https://mydramalist.com/people/20966-park-joo-ho
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