LIN2430

Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition

8 points - 3 hours per week - Second semester - Clayton

Objectives On the successful completion of this subject, students should have developed an understanding of the major theoretical approaches to child language acquisition; skills in the collation, analysis and interpretation of child language data; and insight into the processes involved in comprehending and producing speech.

Synopsis The first part of the subject traces the development of child language from pre-speech to the later stages of acquisition, including the development of communicative competence. It examines the development of the child's phonological, syntactic, morphological and semantic system and attempts to account for this development by considering various linguistic models and theories. The second part of the subject focuses on the comprehension and production of speech. Experimental evidence as well as data from naturalistic observations (including speech errors) are examined to determine the psychological validity of the various models and theories which have been proposed to describe the processes involved in comprehending and producing speech.

Assessment Written assignment (2500 words): 35% - Test: 35% - Classwork including oral and written work: 30%

Recommended texts

Garton A and Pratt C Learning to be literate: The development of spoken and written language 2nd edn, Blackwell, 1998

Back to the 1999 Arts Handbook