Planet Word Lesson Notes

Children learn to speak around the age of 2.
Dad/Mum usually a childs first words.

Forbidden Experiment: Victor
-Caught (feral) and taken to Paris having never experienced society.
-Couldn't speak.
-Never learned to speak (died age 42).
-Victor is evidence of the C.A.P (critical acquisition period).

Prof Steven Pinker
-Children associate lexis with context.
-Children play with language in order to hone language skills.

Jean Berko-Gleeson: The 'Wug' Test 1958
-Supports Chompskys L.A.D
-Children add 's' to words to pluralise etc.

Learning language needs to be a natural process.
Language defines our identity.

Child Language Skills
-Create individual phonemes and phonetics.
-To use and understand a vocabulary of words.
-Use of prosodic features such as pitch, loudness, speed & intonation to convey meaning.
-Structure interactions with others.
-Subtleties of language such as politeness, implication and irony.