CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background
Mother language of the children is part of their personal, social and
cultural identity. The word mother means the prime care giver of a child. It
can refers to the childs mother, father, or anyone who the closets and the
most frequently communicate with the child since the child still a baby. The
word Tongue in this sense means the language that is primarily spoken by
this caregiver. Therefore, when the words mother and tongue are analyzed.
The impact of the first language is that it brings about the reflection and
learning of successful social patterns in acting and speaking. While some
argue that there is no such thing as "native speaker" or a "mother tongue", it is
important to understand that the key terms as well as understand what it
means to be a "non-native" speaker and the implication that can have in
childrens life.
Furthermore, most of people thought that children learn the correct
structure of a language by listening to the people around them. Languages are
shared with them and understand by those who are familiar with the symbols.
Nonetheless, learning a first language is something every child does
successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for formal
lessons. With language so close to the core of what it means to be human, it is
not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received so much
attention.
A baby starts

to

communicate

at

birth through

non-verbal

communication such as, facial expressions, cries, body movement and other
sounds like intonation in people speech around them.
Therefore, the author deliberately raised themes relating to language
acquisition in humans especially in children which is "Mother Tongue
Acquisition in Children.

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The author choose this topic in order to know how the process of
mother tongue acquisition in the children and what stages that passed by the
children in that process until they understand what people say then able to say
word by word until forming a sentence.
B. Identification of Problems
Based on the background above, this problem can be formulated as follows:
1.
What is a language acquisition?
2.
How the process of mother tongue acquisition in child?
3.
Where does the child acquiring their mother tongue?
4.
What are the stages of mother tongue acquisition in child?
C. Limitations of Problems
To avoid a wide problem that can affect confusing of the topic, the
author specified the discussion to studied mother tongue or first language
acquisition in children.
D. Objectives
1.
Theoretical Benefits
This paper is expected to increase knowledge about mother tongue and
2.

how children acquiring that language.

Practical Benefits
This paper is expected can be used as a source of reference, especially
about mother tongue/ first language.

CHAPTER II
FRAME OF THEORIES

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A. Definition of Mother Tongue/ First Language

Mother tongue is ancestral language that may or may not be spoken in
the home and the community. According to Calvet (1987) cited in Salomone
(2010:85) children with no longer speak within the family that echoes similiar
conflicts within society, while McCarty (2008) cited in Ball (2009:61) said that
the term mother tongue to embrace the conceptualization of language as the
living root of contemporary cultural identities. McCarty (2008) takes the view
that a person may be seen as having a mother tongue as a result of their familial
or ancestral ties to a particular language as well as by exerting their agency in
determining whether or not they are heritage language learners of that heritage
language and heritage culture.
.
B. Definition of Language Acquisition
In understanding language acquisition, several theories have been put
forward to explain the process by which children learn to understand and speak
a language, such as behaviorism, innateness, and interactive.
The first theory is Behaviorism . In this theory, language acquisition is
like any kind of cognitive behavior. According to Skinner (1957:22)
behaviorism is like earlier emphiristists, he takes learning to be function of
experience. He also developed a theory of reinforcement to account for the
development in the individual human being of certain responding. It is learnt
by reinforcement and shaping. He also calls this operant conditioning where
the child goes through trial-and-error, in other words, where the child tries and
fails to use correct language until it succeeds with reinforcement and shaping
provided by the parents gestures, such ass smiles, attention and approval which
are pleasant to the child. Parents, whom ignore unfamiliar sounds and show
increased attention to the reinforced phonemes, extinguish the acquisition of
phonemes and morphemes. The morphemes then become refined into words by
shaping. Parents accuracy will lead to total extinguishment of the child
pronunciation and finally by selective reinforcement and behavior shaping,
words will be shaped into telegraphic two word sentences, later into sentences

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until the full language has been acquired. Skinner differentiated between two
types of verbal responses that make by a child.
The second theory is innateness by Chomsky (1960s) cited in Urka
(2010:42) argues that the ability of language acquisition is innate. Children will
automatically acquire language by being exposed it. There is no need for
operant conditioning. This ability is supported by what Chomsky calls a LAD
(innate language acquisition device) an inbuilt mechanism that automatically
allows a child to decode any spoken language it hears around it. Chomsky
suggests that all languages share a similar deep structure despite the differences
in their surface structure. The LAD supplies humans with the transformational
grammar, which simply means the process of translating underlying meaning
into speech.
The last theory is social interactionist argued by Bruner (1983) cited in
Garton (1995:6) proposed that a child learns to use language, rather than
learning language per se. That is, he emphasised the communicative aspect of
language development rather than the structural nature of language. He was
concerned with demonstrating the childs capacity to communicate with other
who have the same culture.

CHAPTER III
DISCUSSION
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A. The Process of Mother Tongue Acquisition in Children

As we know in the previous chapter, mother tongue refers to the first
language learned at home in childhood and still understood by the person at the
time the data was collected. If the person no longer understands the first
language learned, the mother tongue is the second language learned. For a
person who learned two languages at the same time in early childhood, the
mother tongue is the language this person spoke most often at home before
starting school. The person has two mother tongues only if the two languages
were used equally often and are still understood by the person. For a child who
has not yet learned to speak, the mother tongue is the language spoken most
often to this child at home. The child has two mother tongues only if both
languages are spoken equally often so that the child learns both languages at
the same time.
Based on the previous chapter, there are some theories that explained by
the experts about how the children acquire their mother tongue. Now here the
author discussing about the process in each theories. The first is behaviorism.
In this acquisition process, adult around the child give a stimulus so that the
child will responses. But, if the children make a mistake, the adults
automatically reinforce and correct childrens utterances in order to make the
child get used to say the correct language. In sum, this theory, the children
acquire their mother tongue by habituation self to say the correct language.
The second is innateness theory. In this theory, the children are born
with an innate capacity for language development. When the child's brain is
exposed to speech, it will automatically begin to receive and make sense of
utterances because it has been programmed to do so. This theory suggested that
the human brain has a language acquisition device which enables children to
use the language around them to work out what is, and what is not
linguistically acceptable. Moreover, this form also provides young children
with an innate understanding of the underlying grammatical rules that govern
language usage. In short, although some linguistic interaction with

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parents/carers was necessary, there was a genetic element innate in the human
brain. So, in this theory, the process in acquiring the mother tongue is happened
in the brain with the innate ability to use language since the birth.
The last theory is social interactionist. In this theory, the children
acquiring their mother tongue by hear and watch the closest people and the
most frequently interact with them. It can be their mother, father, or anyone
else. Moreover, in this acquisition process, utterances are simplified, intonation
patterns are distinctive, extra information is given for clarification, and
questions invite direct interaction with the child.

B. The Stages of Mother Tongue Acquisition in Children

Sounds From birth, baby make and respond to sounds. First there is
crying and gurgling. The next stage is cooing. This sound is commonly heard
when the baby is in a pleasant mood. As early as a month, infants make these
sounds in response to the attention they get. This is called the pre-verbal speech
or the development of expressive language.
BABBLING6 TO 9 MONTHS:
Within a few weeks of being born the baby begins to recognize its
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 6 - 8 month period does the baby begin using its
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.
HOLOPHRASES--12 TO 18 MONTHS:
The second stage of language acquisition is the holophrastic or one
word stage. This stage is characterized by one word sentences. In this stage

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nouns make up around 50% of the babys 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 arent that obvious. For example a baby may cry or
say mama when it purely wants attention.
TWO-WORD SENTENCES18 TO 20 MONTHS:
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.
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.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION

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Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity

to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. First
language acquisition is the ability of human to acquire their mother tongue from
their early age. There are four theories to describe the process of children in
understanding

and

practicing

their

first

language,

behaviorist/imitation,

innateness, cognitive, interaction.

The significance of first language acquisition for children are to express
needs and get what they want, used to tell others what to do, and tell stories and
to create an imaginary situation.
There are several stages which going through by the child during the first
acquire language. Stage which is referred are bubble/paralinguistic (first and
second) stage, and linguistic: holophrastic stage (first linguistic stage) such as :
vocalization sounds, stage one-word or holophrastic, two-word stage, two-word
stage, speech telegraphic. The discussion in each stage of child's first language
acquisition have in common, namely the process of phonology, morphology,
syntax, semantics, pragmatics.

REFERENCES

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