Early Children Language Development
Richard Tang Kin Wa
Introduction
• Children begin to speak at the age of 1. Although their utterances
are not adult-like yet, children continuously make remarkable
progress in language learning across childhood.
• This research investigates the pattern of children’s phonological
acquisition and linguistic development with the aid of language
samples obtained from a British English speaking child, Lucy, at 3
ages: 17 months (T1), 25 months (T2), and 36 months (T3).
Hypothesis
• Fricatives cannot be acquired before stops are acquired.
• The acquisition of the syllable structures of English occurs in gradual
way. CV (consonant-vowel) is the most precocious syllable while
syllables with clusters are always the last.
• As children’s linguistic competence continues to develop, their
vocabulary goes through a major enlargement, and sentences built
from distinct word classes emerge over time.
Methodology
• Transcripts of language sample from Lucy at different times are
retrieved from CHILDES Database.
• Speech sounds that she has acquired and those she has trouble
pronouncing as well as her word usage are examined.
Findings
1. Percentage of the total acquisition of stops and fricatives at
different times
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Findings Discussion
2. Average proportion of different syllable structures in each CV > Clusters
utterance at different times • The CV syllable is the first structure to be dominated by Lucy at T1.
• Children’s first words tend to be simple in structure, consisting of CV
syllables for the most part (Ohala, 2008)
T1 89% 2% 9% • Lucy only starts to produce clusters at T2, when she handles the
singleton consonants quite well.
• Syllables with complex onsets or complex codas (clusters) always
T2 45% 10% 39% 6% appear finally (Fikkert ,1994).
• Lucy does many F.C.D. in T1 to utter CV words.
• ∵ children sometimes appear to avoid producing certain sounds,
T3 31% 22% 35% 12% preferring words with sounds they have mastered (Leopold, 1947).
• In T2, words undergo much fewer F.C.D. because Lucy has nearly
completed the acquisition of VC and CVC syllables.
CV VC CVC Syllable with clusters
• But there is an ↑ in the usage of C.C.R. strategy in T2, which also
3. Comparison between the percentage occurrence of F.C.D. and means that children begin to attempt producing clusters from 2
C.C.R y/o (McLeod, Doorn, and Reed, 2001).
Sentences develop as more word classes acquired
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3 • In T1, Lucy produces mainly nouns and verbs.
• The most common word classes to appear first seem to be nouns
% final consonant deletion 46 8 0
(ca.60%) and verbs (ca.20%), (Crystal, 1997).
% consonant cluster reduction 14 25 0 • Lucy continues to acquire more word classes from T2 to T3,
especially pronouns, which always serve as a subject, an essential
4. Acquisition of different part of speech at different times element in a sentence.
• With the remarkably ↑ in the usage of pronouns, sentences start to
emerge and develop in Lucy’s utterances.
• Before children turn 3 it is likely to have utterances similar to
sentences (Yule, 1996).
• Noteworthily, in T3, Lucy uses conjunctions, a word that can connect
clauses to make a complex sentence.
• Children between 2 and 3.5 start to package one clause with another
to make their first complex sentences. (Kie, 1995, 2016)
Conclusion
• Children learning English nevertheless go through similar stages in
phonological development, although not precisely the same ages
Discussion (Ohala, 2008).
• Children make rapid and remarkable progresses in language learning,
Stops > Fricatives
always improving with a big step closer to the resemblance of adult
• Lucy has all the stops in English acquired in T2, when her fricatives
language. (Ohala, 2008; Thuresson, 2011)
just begins to develop.
• ∵ Stops present the sharpest possible contrast with vowels and
provide the most obstructive break in the acoustic stream of
References
speech sounds (Vihman, 1996) • Vihman, M. (1996). Phonological development: The origins of language development in the child. Wiley. • Ohala,
D. (2008). Phonological acquisition in a first language. • Fikkert, P. (1994). On the acquisition of prosodic structure.
• Production of stops starts before 2 y/o, but children may not master • Leopold, Werner F. (1947). Speech Development of a Bilingual Child, Vols 2. • McLeod, S., Van Doorn, J., &
Reed, V. (2001). Normal acquisition of consonant clusters. • Crystal, D. (1997): The Cambridge encyclopedia of
all fricatives until 7 or 8 (Ohala, 2008). language-second edition. • Yule, G. (1996): The study of language – Second edition. • Kies, D. (1995, 2016).
• So, stops are acquired before fricatives (Fikkert, 1994). papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/ldgev.htm • Thuresson, J. (2011). The syntactic development in the earlier
stages of children’s first language acquisition.