Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-54txb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-04T18:06:16.376Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Widening the field: The process of language acquisition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2009

Edith L. Bavin
Edith L. Bavin
Affiliation:
School of Psychological Science, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia. [email protected]://www.latrobe.edu.au/psy/staff/bavine.html
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evans & Levinson (E&L) argue against Universal Grammar on the basis of language diversity. A related and fundamental issue is whether the language input provides sufficient information for a child to acquire it. I briefly discuss the more integrated approaches to language acquisition which focus on the mechanisms, and research showing that input cues provide valuable information for the language learner.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 5 , October 2009 , pp. 449 - 450
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Archibald, L. M. & Gathercole, S. E. (2007) The complexities of complex memory span: Storage and processing deficits in specific language impairment. Journal of Memory and Language 57:177–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E. & Goodman, J. (1999) On the emergence of grammar from the lexicon. In: Mechanisms of language acquisition, ed. MacWhinney, B., pp. 29–79. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bates, E. & MacWhinney, B. (1987) Competition, variation and language learning. In: Mechanisms of language acquisition, ed. MacWhinney, B., pp. 157–94. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bavin, E. L., Wilson, P., Maruff, P. & Sleeman, F. (2005) Spatio-visual memory of children with specific language impairment: Evidence for generalized processing problems. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 40:319–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gathercole, S. E. & Baddeley, A. D. (1989) Development of vocabulary in children and short-term phonological memory. Journal of Memory and Language 28:200–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Höhle, B., Weissenborn, J., Kiefer, D.Schulz, A. & Schmitz, M. (2004) Functional elements in infants' speech processing: The role of determiners in the syntactic categorization of lexical elements. Infancy 5:341–53.Google Scholar
Hollich, G. J., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R. M. (2000) Breaking the language barrier: An emergentist coalition model for the origins of word learning. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 65(3), Serial No. 262.Google ScholarPubMed
Jusczyk, P. (1997) The discovery of spoken language. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kuhl, P. K. (2004) Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5:831–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leonard, L. B., Ellis Weismer, S., Miller, C. A., Francis, D. J., Tomblin, J. B. & Kail, R. V. (2007) Speed of processing, working memory, and language impairment in children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 50:408–28.Google Scholar
Lieven, E. V. M., Behrens, H., Speares, J. & Tomasello, M. (2003) Early syntactic creativity: A usage-based approach. Journal of Child Language 30:333–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacWhinney, B., ed. (1999) The mechanisms of language acquisition. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Mintz, T. H. (2006) Finding the verbs: Distributional clues to categories available to young learners. In: Action meets words: How children learn verbs, ed. Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R. M., pp. 31–63. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, J. W., Evans, J. L. & Gillam, R. B. (2009) Relation of auditory attention and complex sentence comprehension in children with specific language impairment: A preliminary study. Applied Psycholinguistics 30:123–51.Google Scholar
Rice, M. & Wexler, K. (1996) Toward tense as a clinical marker of specific language impairment in English-speaking children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 39:1239–57.Google Scholar
Saffran, J. R., Aslin, R. N. & Newport, E. (1996) Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science 274(5294):1926–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slobin, D. I., ed. (1985a) The cross linguistic study of language acquisition, vol. 1. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., ed. (1985b) The cross linguistic study of language acquisition, vol. 2. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., ed. (1992) The cross linguistic study of language acquisition, vol. 3. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., ed. (1997a) The crosslinguistic study of language acquisition, vol. 4. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Slobin, D. I., ed. (1997b) The cross linguistic study of language acquisition, vol. 5. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Smith, L. B. (1999) Children's noun learning: How general learning processes make specialized learning mechanisms. In: The emergence of language, ed. MacWhinney, B., pp. 277–303. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Thiessen, E. D. (2009) Statistical learning. In: The Cambridge handbook of child language, ed. Bavin, E. L., pp. 35–50. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2003a) Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2009) The usage-based theory of language acquisition. In: The Cambridge handbook of child language, ed. Bavin, E. L., pp. 69–87. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Valian, V. (2009) Innateness and learnability. In: The Cambridge handbook of child language, ed. Bavin, E. L., pp. 15–34. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Werker, J. & Curtin, S. (2005) PRIMPAR: A developmental framework of early speech processing. Language Learning and Development 1:197–234.Google Scholar
Werker, J. F. & Tees, R. C. (1984) Cross-language speech perception: Evidence for perceptual reorganization during the first year of life. Infant Behavior and Development 7:49–63.Google Scholar