Early language perception and production

LET-NTCM1602 Vroege taalperceptie en-productie

Lectures take place on Friday 10.45 12.30 in E1.02
Credits: 5EC
Lecturer
Paula Fikkert

p.fikkert@let.ru.nl

kamer E6.05

Content
In this course you study how infants learn to understand and produce their mother tongue, focusing on
the acquisition of the sound system. During the first year of life infants develop from being so-called
'universal' listeners into 'language-specific' listeners as they become increasingly sensitive to languagespecific features of the sound system of their native language. There is a lively academic debate about
how they do this, how children represent language in their brains, and which factors influence
acquisition.
In this course we discuss the main views on the nature of the language acquisition process from both
the perspective of infant speech perception and of early child language production.
Course organisation
The first block of six lectures provide an overview of the methods and milestones in early language
perception and production. In the second block of the course you will work on a research proposal,
which you will present and discuss during the classes.
Lectures - overview
Class
1

Date
4 Sept

Topic
No Class

11 Sept
18 Sept

3
4
5
6

25 Sept
2 Oct
9 Oct
16 Oct

7
8

6 Nov
13 Nov
20 Nov

27 nov

10
11

4 Dec
11 Dec

12

18 Dec

Objectives

Introduction and Methods

Reading
Johnson & Zamuner (2010)

Early sensitivity to sound patterns:

perception

Gerken 2002

Babbling and first words

Early predictors
Words and rules

Fikkert 2010
tba
Tba guest Tania Zamuner,
University of Ottawa

Introduction
No Class
Research
questions
Background
Methods
Predicted results
and discussion
Presentations

Kuhl 2008

You will get insight in and knowledge of methods used to study early language perception and
production and knowledge of the main milestones of early phonological acquisition. You will be able
to critically review the literature on the topic and to write a research proposal.
Examination
Essay (40%) after block 1
Research proposal (60%) after block 2
Weekly assignments for block 1:

Read the literature for that week carefully, formulate a critical / discussion point, give
your rationale and suggest a new research question for follow up investigations to
solve the observed problem of your critical / discussion point. This may be done in
couples.
Find a new article or paper in connection to your discussion point, either with
supportive or conflicting evidence
Mail before Thursday 13:00 hr (1 pm) a file with:
your name(s) and student number(s)
your critical / discussion point + rationale + research question for new
investigations (app. 300 words)
Reference + summary (or pdf) + rationale for choice of the additional article or
paper

Requirements for the second part of the course follow

Literature
Johnson, E. & T.S. Zamuner (2010). Experimental Approaches to Infant Language Acquisition. In:
Blom & Unsworth (eds.), Experimental Methods in Language Acquisition Research, John Benjamins.
Gerken, Lou Ann (2002). Early sensitivity to linguistic form. Annual Review of Language Acquisition
2 (2002), 136
Kuhl, P.K., Barbara T. Conboy, Sharon Coffey-Corina, Denise Padden, Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola &
Tobey Nelson (2008). Phonetic learning as a pathway to language: new data and native language
magnet theory expanded (NLM-e). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 363, 9791000.
Fikkert, P. (2010). Developing representations and the emergence of phonology: evidence from
perception and production. In: Fougeron, Khnert, dImperio, Valle (Eds.), Laboratory Phonology
10: Variation, Phonetic Detail and Phonological Representation (Phonology & Phonetics 4-4). Pp.
227258.