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INTRODUCTION
Language is every where in human society, across every culture. For most people, it is
an effortless ability that we acquire before we learn how to dress ourselves. Some people feel
that they even think using language, that an important part of their thoughts involves a kind
of internal monologue. Yet, language is not a simple thingit is actually quite complex and
we need to be able to use it quickly. Since Antiquity, a central concern of theories of language
has been the question whether language is predominantly a matter of nature or of
nurture. British Empericism and German Romantic ideas, interacting in complecated ways,
set the stage for much of 19th century linguistic thinking, which culminated in the various
structuralist schools of the first half of the 20th century. Instead of embarking upon the
impossible task of giving an overview of all current theories of languange.
2. CONTENT
Language As An Object Of Psychological Study
1. sound system
There are two important aspects : first, they have no independent
meaning. So, there is nothing about the b sound in the word bird that
itself means birdthe sounds are arbitrary. Other languages use
different sounds to refer to the same thing. The reason that this is
important is that it makes language very flexible. The second important
thing to know about sound segments is that they cannot be combined in
any old waythey are governed by rules that are specific to each
language. These are not eighth grade English grammar rules that must
be memorized and have a thousand exceptions. These are rules that
one knows unconsciously by virtue of knowing the language and, almost
by definition, dont have random exceptions. For example, in English it is
possible to have the sounds t and l together, like in the word little.
2. Phonetics
articulation refers to which parts of the vocal tract (i.e., the throat, mouth,
and nasal passages) are involved in making the soundfor example, a b
sound is made using our two lips (abilabial place), whereas d is made
by placing the tongue against the ridge right behind the top front teeth
(the alveolarridge, and the so-called alveolar place of articulation).
3. Phonology
5. Sentence Structure
Words, including their internal sounds and structure, are crucial to
languages, but language doesnt occur as just a set of isolated words,but
instead as word put together in systematic, rule-governed ways. Syntax is
the study of how sentences are formed. This is important part of language
for psycholinguistic researchers, because it poses many questions about
how people understandthese groupings of words.
6. Meaning
1. INTRODUCTION
Language is a central role in our daily lives, like talking about complex thoughts and
ideas, ordering lunch, reading a magazine, or persuading someone to do a favor. Its hard to
imagine if a someone going through an entire day without using reading. reading, producing,
or understanding a single word. if you needed to get a ride from your friend and you
couldn't use language in any form to communicate, how would you say?
2. CONTENT
The Acquisition of Language
Language Acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring first and
second languages. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language natural
communication in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but
with the messages they are conveying and understanding. Hypothesized that ther is a fairly
stable order of acquisition of structures in language acquisition, that is, one can see clear
similarities across acquirers as to which structures tend to be acquired early and which tend to
be acquired late (Brown, 1973; Dulay and Burt, 1975). Acquirers need not have a conscious
awarness of the rules they prossess, and may selfcorrect only on the basis of a feel for
grammaticalilty. Language learning is natural. Babies are born with the ability to learn it and
that learning begins at birth. All children, no matter what language their parents speak, learn
language much the same way. This learning takes place in three basic stages.
When babies are born, they can make and hear all the sounds in all the languages in
the world. Thats about 150 sounds in about 6500 languages. In this stage, babies learn
which phonemes belong to the language they are learning and which dont. The ability to
recognize and produce those sounds is called phonemic awareness, which is important for
children learning to read.
Language Development
Language develops at different rates in different children, but most children follow
this pattern:
Birth
When babies are born, the babies already respond to the rhythm of language. They
can recognize stress, pace, and the rise and fall of pitch.
Six Months
As early as four months, infants can distinguish between language sounds and other
noise, like the difference between a spoken word and a clap. By six months, babies have
begun to babble and coo and that is the first sign that the baby is learning language
Eight Months
Babies can now recognize these sound groups as words, they may not know what the
words mean.
Twelve Months
Children are able to attach meanings to words, and once they can do that, they can
begin to build a vocabulary.
Eighteen Months
Children must know how to use the words they are learning. In this stage of language
development, children are able to recognize the difference between nouns and verbs. And the
first words in a childs vocabulary are nouns.
Twenty-Four Months
Children recognize more than nouns and verbs and understand basic sentence
structure. They can use pronouns, And know the right order of words in a sentence and can
create simple sentences like "Me cookie?" (which means "May I have a cookie?")
Thirty to Thirty-Six Months
By this age, about 90% of what children say is grammatically correct. The mistakes
they make are usually mistakes like adding -ed to irregular verbs to form the past tense.
CONCLUSION:
REFERENCES
Cowles, H. Wind. 2011. Psycholinguistic. New York: Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Acquisition_of_language.
Cornelia, Hamann.2004. Language Acquisition. MIT Press. Introduction, Chapter 1,2 and 8.
Fernandez, Eva and Helen Smith. 2011. Fundamental of Psycholinguistics. New York: Willey
Blackwell.