Mini-Lesson

Child Language Acquisition

How do children acquire spoken language so quickly? This lesson covers the stages of speech, the domains of development and the competing theories that explain them.

You will meet the stages from babbling to telegraphic, and the theorists Skinner, Chomsky, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. Press Start.

Spoken · stages

Stages of spoken acquisition

Speech develops in predictable stages (ages approximate):

Cooing (~6 weeks) and babbling (~6 months) — repeated consonant-vowel sounds.
Holophrastic / one-word (~12 months) — one word carries a whole meaning.
Two-word (~18 months) — emerging word order.
Telegraphic (~2 years) — content words kept, function words dropped.
Post-telegraphic — inflections, function words and complex clauses appear.

Terms: holophrastic = one word for a whole idea; telegraphic = content words only, like a telegram.

Quick check

Name the stage

?An 18-month-old says daddy car, combining two words with emerging order but no grammatical words. This is the:

Spoken · domains

Domains and errors

Development spans several domains:

Phonological — mastering sounds; simplifications like wabbit for rabbit.
Lexical / semantic — vocabulary growth; overextension (all animals are dog).
Grammatical — virtuous errors such as goed and sheeps.
Pragmatic — social skills: turn-taking, politeness, requests.

Berko's wug test showed children apply grammatical rules to invented words, strong evidence of rule-learning.

Quick check

Explain the error

?A child says two mouses. Applying the regular plural -s to an irregular noun is best described as:

Theory · nature vs nurture

Skinner and Chomsky

The core debate:

Skinner (behaviourism): children learn by imitation and reinforcement (praise and correction). Weak at explaining virtuous errors and rapid acquisition.
Chomsky (nativism): an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and universal grammar; children create novel sentences and the input is often too limited (the poverty of the stimulus).

Attribute: imitation/reinforcement = Skinner; LAD/universal grammar = Chomsky.

Sort it

Sort each idea to its theorist

Tap an idea, then tap the theorist it belongs to.

🔁 Skinner

🧠 Chomsky

👥 Vygotsky / Bruner

Theory · cognitive & social

Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner

Three further theorists:

Piaget (cognitive): language follows cognitive readiness; children use a concept only once they understand it.
Vygotsky (social interactionist): language grows through interaction; the zone of proximal development is what a child can do with help.
Bruner: the Language Acquisition Support System (LASS) — the scaffolding carers provide, e.g. shared book-reading.

Link: Bruner's LASS deliberately answers Chomsky's LAD — support matters, not just an innate device.

Quick check

Whose concept?

?A carer supports a child within what she can nearly do alone, gradually reducing help. This zone of proximal development idea comes from:

Match it

Match theorist to idea

Tap a theorist on the left, then their idea on the right.

Theorist

Idea

Recap

The big ideas to take away

Stages: cooing, babbling, holophrastic, two-word, telegraphic, post-telegraphic

Domains: phonological, lexical/semantic, grammatical, pragmatic

Errors: overextension and virtuous errors show rule-learning (Berko's wug test)

Nativism: Chomsky: LAD and universal grammar

Behaviourism: Skinner: imitation and reinforcement

Social/cognitive: Piaget, Vygotsky's ZPD, Bruner's LASS

You can now describe the stages and evaluate the theories of spoken acquisition. Press Finish to see your score.

🏆

Mini-lesson complete!

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You have worked through Child Language Acquisition for Edexcel A-level English Language. 🎉

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Next: test yourself in the Evaluate stage Confidence Quiz, then lock it in with Verify.

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