Child Language Acquisition Theory 1

Child language acquisition theory – chomsky, crystal, Aitchison &
piaget
Chomsky
Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human language. Chomsky believes that
every child has a ‘language acquisition device’ or LAD which encodes the major principles of a language and its grammatical
structures into the child’s brain. Chomsky points out that a child could not possibly learn a language through imitation alone
because the language spoken around them is highly irregular – adult’s speech is often broken up and even sometimes
ungrammatical.
Evidence to support Chomsky’s theory
 Children learning to speak never make grammatical errors such as getting their subjects, verbs and objects in the wrong
order.
 If an adult deliberately said a grammatically incorrect sentence, the child would notice.
 Children often say things that are ungrammatical such as ‘mama ball’, which they cannot have learnt passively.
 Mistakes such as ‘I drawed’ instead of ‘I drew’ show they are not learning through imitation alone.
 Chomsky used the sentence ‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’ , which is grammatical although it doesn’t make
sense, to prove his theory: he said it shows that sentences can be grammatical without having any meaning, that we can tell
the difference between a grammatical and an ungrammatical sentence without ever having heard the sentence before, and
that we can produce and understand brand new sentences that no one has ever said before.
Evidence against Chomsky’s theory
 Critics of Chomsky’s theory say that although it is clear that children don’t learn language through imitation alone, this
does not prove that they must have an LAD – language learning could merely be through general learning and
understanding abilities and interactions with other people.
David Crystal’s Theory On Child Language Acquisition
David Crystal has the theory that children learn language in five stages, which aren’t clearly defined and some
tie in with each other. These stages are:
Stage One:
This is where children say things for three purposes:
1. To get something they want
2. To get someone’s attention
3. To draw attention to something
Then they begin to make basic statements such as “daddy car”

During this stage children begin naming things with single words and then move on to relating objects with
other things, places and people, for example, “there mummy”. They also relate objects with events, for
example, “bird gone”.
At this early stage they don’t have much vocabulary so they use intonation to ask a question. Children use
words like: “there, want and all gone” to express a full sentence. This could be said that part of this stage is
holophrastic.(one word stage)
Stage Two:
This is when children usually ask questions, “where” questions come first. Their questions often begin with
interrogative pronouns (what, where) followed by a noun or verb such as “where gone?”
Children become concerned with naming and classifying things by frequently asking “Wassat?”
Stage Three:
Children soon begin to express more complex wants by using more grammatically correct language, for
example: “I want mummy to take it work” meaning “I want mummy to take it to work”
Verbs such as “listen” and “know” are also used. Children refer to events in the past and less often in the
future.
The basic sentence structure has expanded such as: [subject]+[verb]+[object]+[adverb or any other element
used] Sentences like: “You dry hands” and “A man dig down there” begin to appear and auxiliary verbs are
used in sentences such as “I am going” and phrases like “on the table” [preposition]+[article]+[noun]
Stage Four:
This is when children use increasingly complex sentence structures and begin to:
 Explain things then ; Ask for explanations using the word: “why?”
 Making a wide range of requests: “shall I do it?”
Now they are able to use complex sentence structures they have flexible language tools for expressing a wide
range of meanings.
Children also use negation (denial/contradiction) for example: “he doesn’t want one!” They don’t rely on
intonation and signals anymore as they explain more fully. They are now able to use auxiliary verbs .
Stage Five:
By this stage children regularly use language to do all the things that they need it for. They give information,
asking and answering questions, requesting directly and indirectly, suggesting, offering, stating and expressing.
By this stage children are very comfortable with all questions beginning with words like: “What?” and “When?”
where the subject and verb are reversed such as “what does that mean?”
Development of Grammar
The learning of grammar is an unnoticeable process and it happens very quickly. Over three or four years,
children master the grammar of the language. (The child’s language Grammar development is noticed by the
four main stages of his acquisition. )
Active with Passive
Crystal carried out an experiment testing whether children at certain ages used active or passive sentences.
His study shows that at around 3 years old, none of the children produced a passive sentence. However as he
tested older children they were beginning to use more passive sentences. At 7 years, the ability to use passives
dramatically increased.
Jean Aitchison
Jean Aitchison is a Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication in the Faculty of English
Language and Literature at the University of Oxford.his idea is that “language has a biologically organized
schedule”.
1. Labeling – The first stage and involves making the link between the sounds of particular words and
the objects to which they refer e.g. understanding that “mummy” refers to the child’s mother. In other words,
associating a name with something.
2. Packaging – This entails understanding a word’s range of meaning. This is when over extension and Under
extension become a obstacle in the development of the language.
3. Network Building – This involves grasping the connections between words; understanding that some
words are opposite in meaning. Aitchison argued that there are some children learn faster than others. She
believed that the speed of learning is influenced by both innate abilities and environment. Language is
partly learned by imitation, so parents and brothers/sisters play a role in the acceleration of learning the
language. Baby talk whilst learning to speak could delay the child in learning to speak later on. Speech
timetable created from birth to ten years old.

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Child language acquisition theory – chomsky, crystal, Aitchison &

Evidence to support Chomsky’s theory

Evidence against Chomsky’s theory

understanding abilities and interactions with other people.

David Crystal’s Theory On Child Language Acquisition

tie in with each other. These stages are:

This is where children say things for three purposes:

1. To get something they want

2. To get someone’s attention

3. To draw attention to something

Then they begin to make basic statements such as “daddy car”

example, “bird gone”.

holophrastic.(one word stage)

example: “I want mummy to take it work” meaning “I want mummy to take it to work”

 Making a wide range of requests: “shall I do it?”

four main stages of his acquisition. )

Active with Passive

Jean Aitchison is a Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication in the Faculty of English

associating a name with something.

extension become a obstacle in the development of the language.

timetable created from birth to ten years old.

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