First Language Acquisition

Course content

Learning a language is easy – any child can do it! Notwithstanding its apparent ease, acquiring a language is one of the major feats in child development, and it sets humans apart from other species. At the same time, language acquisition does not happen overnight, and children make errors along the way (e.g., *singed; *No Peter like chocolate).
What do these errors tell us about language and how children acquire it? We will look at lots of data from children to address this and the following questions: What is special about language in relation to other cognitive skills? How is language represented in the brain, and how does the brain develop in children? Is there an innate component to language acquisition? What types of input are necessary for children to acquire language? How do children learn language sounds, words and sentences? Why do children acquire languages much more easily than adults?