English Language

1. Lecture One
Beginnings of Language
Development

2. Stages of development …
• NB: Children do not all develop at the
same pace.
• However: Children all around the world
do pass through the same set of stages.
There is a universal pattern of
development, regardless of the language
being acquired.

3. Before birth …
• Evidence suggests that
even in the womb, the
growing baby
acclimatises to the
sounds of its native
language.
• Mehler 1988: French
new born babies were
able to distinguish French
from other languages.

4. Crying …
• First few weeks:
child expresses itself
vocally through
crying.
• Signals hunger,
distress or pleasure.
• Instinctive noise (so
not language).

5. Cooing …
• Also known as
gurgling or mewing.
• 6-8 weeks old.
• ‘Coo’, ‘ga-ga’ and
‘goo’.
• Child develops
increasing control
over vocal chords.

6. Babbling …
• Most important stage
in the first year.
• 6-9 months old.
• Sounds begin to
resemble adult sounds
more closely.

7. Babbling …
• Consonant and vowel
combinations: ‘ba’,
‘ma’ and ‘da’.
• Bilabial sounds most
common (i.e. using
the lips).
• When these sounds
are repeated =
reduplicated
monosyllable.

8. Babbling …
• These sounds have
no meaning.
• Baby makes far more
noise than before.
• Exercises and
experiments with its
articulators (parts of
the body that make
sounds).

9. Phonemic expansion …
• Phoneme: smallest
element of sound in a
language that can display
contrast and hence change
meaning or function of a
word, e.g. initial sounds
in ban and Dan.
• During babbling, number
of different phonemes
produced increases
(expands).

10. Phonemic contraction …
• 9-10 months.
• Number of phonemes
produced reduces to
those found in the
native language
(contracts).
• Baby discards sounds
not required.

11. Phonemic contraction …
• Evidence: noises
made by children of
different nationalities
starts to sound
different.
• Experiments: native
adults have
successfully identified
babies from own
country.

12. Intonation …
• Intonation patterns begin to resemble
speech.
• Common: rising intonation at end of
utterance.
• Other variations in rhythm/emphasis may
suggest greeting or calling.

13. Gesture …
• Although they do not yet have the power
of speech, desire to communicate indicated
through gesture.
• Example: point to object and use facial
expression, ‘What’s that?’.
• Beginnings of pragmatic development
(i.e. recognising that social context affects
meaning).

14. Understanding …
• Although child may
not begin to speak,
they might understand
meanings of certain
words.
• Word recognition:
usually evident by
end of first year.
• Common: names,
‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.

15. The first word …
• Somewhere around 12
months the child
makes its first
recognizable word.

16. New vocabulary …
• Acclimatised
• Instinctive
• Cooing
• Babbling
• Bilabial
• Re-duplicated monosyllable
• Phonemic expansion
• Phonemic contraction