LIN2430

Psycholinguistics and child language acquisition

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Edina Eisikovits

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First 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 (3000 words): 50%
* Classwork including oral and written work: 50%

Preliminary reading

Wells G The meaning makers Hodder and Stoughton, 1987

Recommended texts

Garton A and Pratt C Learning to be literate: The development of spoken and written language Blackwell, 1989
Ingram D First language acquisition CUP, 1989