LIN3430 - Psycholinguistics and Child Language Acquisition

Leader: Dr Anna Margetts

Offered

Not offered in 2007

Synopsis

The first part of the unit 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 unit focuses on the comprehension and production of speech. Experimental evidence are examined in order to determine the psychological validity of the various models and theories which have been proposed to describe the process involved in comprehending and producing speech.

Objectives

As for LIN2430 and in addition a deeper understanding of the theoretical issues involved in the study of psycholinguistics and child language acquisition.

Assessment

Written research assignment (2750 words): 50%
Class test (equivalent 1500 words): 40%
Class participation: 10%
Students at third-year level will be required to answer some different questions in the test and will need to include greater theoretical depth in the essay.

Contact hours

2 hours (1 x 2 hour seminar) per week

Prerequisites

A second-year sequence in Linguistics.

Prohibitions

LIN2430