Introduction

We are designed to walk….That we are taught to walk is impossible. And pretty much the same is true of language. Nobody is taught language.

Noam Chomsky, The Human Language Series program 2, 1994

A normal human being can go through life even without

learning how to read or write. This has been proved by millions and

this same millions of people speak and understand and discuss

complex or even abstract ideas just as well as those who are

schooled. Learning a language and learning to read and write are

somehow different.

Children have the sensory and motor abilities to produce and

comprehend even in the period of life before language acquisition

occurs. Early exposure to a particular language produces a

"neural commitment" to the acoustic properties of that language

and that this neural commitment interferes with foreign language

processing, making it less efficient.

A string of studies conducted revealed a great deal about

language acquisition, about what a child does and does not do in

the process of acquiring a language. A child learns his words

through committing the sounds in his memory; and by constantly

hearing these sounds as they occur in different sentences.

All children acquire language in the same way, regardless of

what language they use or the number of languages they use.

Acquiring a language is like learning to play a game. Children must

learn the rules of the language game, for example how to articulate

words and how to put them together in ways that are acceptable to

the people around them. In order to understand child language

acquisition, we need to keep two very important things in mind:

First, children do not use language like adults, because

children are not adults. Acquiring language is a gradual, lengthy

process, and one that involves a lot of apparent 'errors'. But these

'errors' are in fact not errors at all, but a necessary part of the

process of language acquisition. That is, they should not be

corrected, because they will disappear in time.

Second, children will learn to speak the dialect(s) and

language(s) that are used around them. Children usually begin by

speaking like their parents or caregivers, but once they start to mix

with other children they start to speak like their friends of their age.

The way children speak cannot be controlled - they will develop

their own accents and they will learn the languages they think they

need. If you don't like the local accent, you'll either have to put up

with it or move to somewhere with an accent you like. On the other

hand, if you don't like your own accent, and prefer the local one,

you will be happy. A child will also learn the local grammar. It might

be judged wrong in school contexts (and all children will have to

learn the standard version in school) but if adults in the child's

community use them, they are not "wrong" in child language.

Like the rest of us, children are individuals. What makes

them different from adults, as a whole, is that children are reared in

adult worlds according to adult expectations. Children learn to

model their behavior on what goes on around them, be it dress

codes, body language, table manners or language uses, usually first

through their caregivers or parents and later through peers in their

family, neighborhood or school. That is, children are learning how to

function adequately in their environment, and much of this learning

takes place through language itself. We talk to children to tell them

about our adult world and they learn about the world from what we

tell them. But they also learn about our language, from how we use

it to tell them about other things and most commonly when we

answer their questions. This means that language learning is going

on whenever language is used around children. 

Springing from the abovementioned contexts, this study will

present findings (though limited) of a 4 year old boy’s language

acquired. Implications will also be presented in an attempt to chain

the data on psycholinguistic principles.

Statement of the Problem

This study attempts to capture a description of language

acquired by a 4 year old boy. This description will be on the

ollowing:

1. Grammaticality,

2. Grammatical Categories or Syntactical Categories, and

3. Grammatical Morphemes.

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of the study is to capture a description

of the language acquired by the subject. Particularly, this study

should be able to describe:

a. grammaticality,

b. grammatical categories or syntactical categories, and

c. grammatical morphemes.

Methodology

The researcher based her study on a video recorded language

use of the subject. It was ensured that the recording was in such a

way that the language use was spontaneous while at play with

others about his age. Participant observation was also utilized.

Dialogs were transcribed or the purpose o description.

Data Presentation and Discussion

This part presents the data gathered backed with related

literature and studies in an attempt to capture a description of the

language acquired by the subject.

Leonard Bloomfield (in 1933) wrote that the acquisition of

language “is doubtless the greatest feat any one of us is ever

required to perform.” Despite the complexity of the aspects of

language – children, before the age of 5 already know most of the

intricate system we have been calling the grammar of a language.

Before they can add 2 + 2, children are conjoining sentences, asking

questions, selecting appropriate pronouns, negating sentences,

forming relative clauses, and using the syntactic, phonological,

morphological, and semantic rules of the grammar.

Indeed, children do not wake up one morning with a fully

formed grammar in their heads or with all the “rules” of social and

communicative intercourse. Linguistic knowledge develops by

stages. Each successive stage more closely approximates the

grammar of the adult language. Observations of children in

different language areas of the world reveal that the stages are

similar, possibly universal. Some of the stages last for a short time;

others remain longer. Some stages may overlap for a short period,

though the transition between stages is often sudden.

The Intellectual Feat Required

The First Sounds

The stages of language acquisition can be divided into pre-

linguistic and linguistic stages. Most scholars agree that the

earliest cries, whimpers, and cooing noises of the newborn, or

neonate, cannot be considered early language. Such noises are

completely stimulus-controlled; they are the child’s involuntary

responses to hunger, discomfort, the desire to be cuddled, or the

feeling of well-being. During the earliest period, the noises

produced by infants in all language communities sound the same.

Children who are born deaf also produce these same sounds, even

though they receive no auditory stimuli.

The Babbling Stage

Usually around the sixth month, the infant begins to babble.

The sounds produced in this period seem to include a large variety

of sounds, many of which do not occur in the language of the

household. Deaf children also babble similar to that of normal

children. Hearing children born of nonspeaking deaf parents also

babble. Therefore, babbling does not depend on the presence of

acoustic, auditory input. During this period, children learn to

maintain the “right” sounds and suppress the “wrong” ones. The

pitches, or intonation contours, of infants’ utterances begin to

resemble the intonation contours of sentences spoken by adults.

However, babbling does not seem to be a prerequisite for language

acquisition. This stage is therefore pre-linguistic.

The First Words

Varying from child to child and regardless of how intelligent

the child is, sometime after one year children begin to use the same

string of sounds repeatedly to “mean” the same thing. Most

children seem to go through the “one word = one sentence” stage.

These one-word “sentences” are called holophrastic sentences. At

this stage, the child uses only one word to express concepts or

predictions that will later be expressed by complex phrases and

sentences.

Many studies have shown that children in the holophrastic

stage can perceive or comprehend many more phonological

contrasts than they can produce themselves. At this stage

therefore, it is not possible to determine the extent of the grammar

of the child simply by observing speech production.

The Two-Word Stage

The production of two-word utterances occurs around the time

of the second birthday of children. At first these utterances appear

to be strings of two of the child’s earlier holophrastic utterances,

each word with its own single-pitch contour. Soon after this

juxtaposition, children begin to form actual two-word sentences

with clean semantic and syntactic relations. The intonation contour

of the two words extends over the whole utterance rather than

being separated by a pause between the two words. At this stage

there are no inflections for numbers, person, tense, and so on.

Pronouns are also rare. There is no three-word stage.

Supporting the stages of language acquisition are theories of

child language acquisition.

Theories of Child Language Acquisition

Do Children Learn by Imitation?

Various theories have been proposed to explain how children

manage to acquire the adult language. There are those who think

that children merely imitate what they hear. Imitation is involved to

some extent, of course, but the sentences produced by children

show that children are not imitating adult speech.

Even when children are deliberately trying to imitate what

they hear, they are unable to produce sentences that cannot be

generated by their grammar. Neither can the “imitation” theory

account for another important phenomenon. There are children who

are unable to speak for neurological or physiological reasons; yet

these children learn the language spoken to them and understand

what is said. When they overcome their speech impairment they

immediately use the language for speaking.

Do Children Learn by Reinforcement?

A theory of language acquisition suggests that children learn

to produce “correct” sentences because they are positively

reinforced when they say something right and negatively reinforced

when they say something wrong. This view assumes that children

are being constantly corrected for using “bad grammar” and

rewarded when they use “good grammar”. Studies report that

reinforcement seldom occurs, and when it does, it is usually

incorrect pronunciation or incorrect reporting of facts that is

corrected.

Attempts to “correct” a child’s language seem to be doomed

to fail. Children do not know what they are doing wrong and are

unable to make corrections even when they are pointed out.

The “imitation” and “reinforcement” theories fail. Neither is

unable to account for the nonrandom mistakes children make. It

appears that the child is equipped from birth with the neural

prerequisites for language and language use, just as birds are

biologically “prewired” to learn the songs of their species. Our

linguistic ability permits us to acquire any human language to which

we are exposed. So, children born of Zulu English-speaking

environment will learn English, and vice versa.

Related Studies

A study titled “Children and Primary Language Acquisition”

conducted by the University of Michigan, Department of Psychology

revealed that fathers tend to play physically with their boys but talk

and otherwise communicate socially and verbally with their girls,

which may contribute to age differences in language skills.

In another study, “Gender Differences in Child Language

Development” conducted by researchers from Northwestern

University and Haifa University it was shown that there are gender

differences in brain activity and proposed that distinctions may date

back to early human history. The evidence of early civilizations

indicates that men relied on a limited, immediate signal to make

instant fight-or-flight decisions while women used context and

abstract thinking in decision-making, skills that are still highly

relevant in contemporary culture.

In addition, the study reported that girls experience the

cognitive changes that affect language acquisition at age 14 to 20

months while boys exhibit changes later, between 20 and 24 months

of age. This can explain why girls often speak sooner than boys,

use larger vocabularies and speak in multiple-word sentences or

phrases.

From the Australian Council of TESOL Associations in an

International TESOL Conference, a paper titled “Understanding

Children’s Language Acquisition” was presented. This was

undertaken as a response to the lack of awareness about the

indigenous language situation in Queensland, Australia. Data were

videotaped and samples were transcribed. Semi-structured

interviews were also conducted. The videos show how children

spoke with other indigenous people (peers, staff or family members)

in addition to how they spoke with non-indigenous peers and staff.

It highlighted the differences in the ease of communication between

these interactive situations, as well as demonstrating that these

children are learners of Standard Australian English (SAE).

The interviews gleaned information about differing language

backgrounds and schooling experiences. Recurring themes

occurred, including – the complex history behind the current

language situation; children’s language learning needs not being

recognized – or catered for – at school; and the need for local

indigenous staff to assist staff who do not speak the same language

as the children. The study forwarded recommendations including:

provision of “language aware” services to young children in terms

of language acquisition, language situation, language structure; and

multilingualism; understanding, valuing and using children’s home

language/s in educational settings; and localized trainings for

educators and related stakeholders. It also forwarded three broad

goals, i.e. to utilize and develop their first language; to assist them

in learning Standard Australian English (SAE); and to engage them

with the traditional language/s of their cultural heritage.

Subject

Cyrus Gabriel Adlao Olmedo is a 4-year old boy. Three adults

keep him company during day time and seven adults at night time.

He is exposed to cartoons on television for an average of three

hours per day. The adults keeping him company speak either the

local dialect or Tagalog and intermittent English.

Cyrus started school at the age of three. At four, he is

enrolled in a nursery class using Tagalog as its medium of

instruction. He is physically active and talkative.

Data Presentation and Discussion

This part of the paper presents the data collected through

video recording (at play time) and observations made on the

subject. Dialogs in the video record were transcribed and presented

below:

Table 1. Data Gathered and Grammaticality

Dialogue Grammaticality

Grammatical/Syntactic Category

Grammatical MorphemeNoun/Pro- Verb

noun1. Sa Toy Kingdom adi... (This is rom the Toy

Kingdom…)C

Toy Kingdom

Adi

Number Inlection

2. Angry Bird yan na green…

(That is a green “angry bird”…)

C Angry Bird

Yan

Number Inlections

3. Waya na..isa yang..nagsasakay…nagsasakay..

(No more..only one..riding… riding…)

C Isa Nagsa

sakay Time

Inlection

4. One, two, three .. andito na…

(One, two, three.. it’s here…)

C One, Two, Three

andito

Number Inlection

5. Hindi naka-close…naka-open(It’s not closed.. it’s open)

C (naka)-close

(naka)-open

Derivative (?)

6. Ayaw ko…ayaw ko..(I don’t like.. I don’t like..)

C Ko Ayaw Person

Number

7. San ang yeyo angry bird ko?

(Where’s my yellow angry bird?)

C Angry Bird

Ko ‘San

Number

Person

8. Ano yon nahuyog? (What has allen?)

C Nahuyog

Time

9. Di ba may guitar ikaw? Don sa bahay?

(Is it not that you have a guitar? There in the house..)

Inc Guitar Ikaw Don Bahay

Number

Person

10. Sige na, hindi man ikaw nagmo-move(Come on, you’re not

moving..)

C Ikaw Nagmo-move

Number

Person

Time11. Mata ko ikaw next time.. Inc Ko/ Ikaw Mata Numb

(I’ll wake you up next time..) er Perso

n Time

12. Kasi stuff toy yang yan…di ba? Stuff toy yang yan… Yeyo sya ‘tas yeyo Sponge Bob

(Because it’s just a stu toy, isn’t it?..it’s a stu toy..it’s yellow and yellow stuu toy)

C

12. Uy, meron ako sig-sine(Hey, I have something like this..)

C

13. Sabi ko nga sayo kakareach ko yan….hindi ikaw kay kaka-reach ko ya Ha, ano?

(As I have told you, I can reach it.. not you because I

can reach it..ha, what?)

C

14. Uy, sa yabas yang ako mag-motor cross..

(Hey, I’ll play motor cross outside..)

C

15. 15. Uy, diba dayawa sa imo?…’tas dayawa sa akon?

(Hey, you have two, right.. and I have two also..)

C

16. Wag yan kasi hindi sya taga-dyan kay red

(Not there because he’s not rom there because he’s

red..)

C

17. Hindi, kasi hindi ikaw boys…girl ikaw

(No, because you’re not boys you’re a girl..)

C

18. Uy, sino nag-bite? Ayoko yan…

(Hey, who bit this? I don’t like that..)

C

19. Pag-naubos ko na adi… Inc

maghingi ikaw..(I I inish this.. you ask..)

20. Wag lang mga adi…kasi natutuyog

(Not these because they are sleeping..)

C

21. Waya pa sip-on…pag hiccups hindi mawara yan..

(No cold yet.. when you hiccups..it will not

disappear..)

Inc

No, ayoko!(No, I don’t like..)

C

Yehey! Sasakay sya. Uy, mga toys. I-park toy kay

sayi sira din…ah..haha…pa-backwards ganito yan!!!

(Yehey, he’s going to ride..Hey, toys..Park the toy because they are in also…

ah..haha..it should be backwards..like this..)

Inc

Ako si Mr. Pogi…ano man ikaw na gusto mo pa-

yayk (like)..(I am Mr. Pogi..what about

you..what do you like..)

Inc

I-picture mo na..kaiha man…i-picture mo na kami…tapos mag picture video na agad…

(You take the picture..it’s taking long to take the picture o us..ater the

picture ..take the video immediately..)

C

Patay na yong monster…pag-punta sa akin ng monster

ma-roar ako..rooaarrr!(The monster is dead..i the monster comes to me I’ll

roar.. rooaarr!)

C

Anong movie yan? Bakit may heart man?

(What movie is that? Why does it have a heart?)

C Movie Yan Heart

Number

Ako na win…ako na win…!!!(I win.. I win..!!)

Inc Ako Na-win NumberPersonTime

From the transcribed dialogues, it is shown that the 4-year old

subject utilizes six general functions of language and these are the:

instrumental, regulatory, representational, interactional, personal

and heuristic functions.

It also appears that with the mean length of utterances (MLU) not lesser than five (5)

morphemes on average – the subject is at the stage of grammar acquisition. It is observed

however, that connectors are still missing in several of the string of utterances (25, 26, 27, 28,

31 and 33). But basically, word order is acceptable.

Declarative sentences are well in order (e.g. 1, 2, 6, 9 and 18) and so are the

interrogative ones (9, 11, 12, 22, 25 and 34).

Ninorte-Samarnon utterances were limited to dialogues: 1 – adi (this), 3 - nagsasakay,

(riding) 4 - nagsasakay (riding), 13 – man (emphatic expression), nagmo-move (moving), 16 -

sig-sine (like this), 22 - imo (yours), 25 – nag-bite (bit), 26 – adi (this), 27 – adi (this), 28 – sip-

on (cold), 30 – sira (they), and 31 – man (emphatic expression) or particularly only the

demonstrative: “this” singular near the speaker, pronouns : “yours” (possessive) and “they”

3rd person plural, “sip-on” noun; verbs: “riding” and “moving” – progressive; the emphatic

expression “man”; and the prefix “nag” in verbs. The subject is poor in his native tongue (L1);

and conversant in Tagalog (L2).

The occurrence of English words is more numerous than the native tongue. These are

found in dialogues: 1 – Toy Kingdom (proper noun), 2 - Angry Bird (proper noun) & green

(noun), 5 - one, two, three (nouns), 7 - close and open (used as modifiers), 9 - Angry Bird

(Proper noun), 11 – guitar (noun), 13 - move (verb), 14 – next time (temporal signal), 15 -

stuff toy (noun) and Sponge Bob (proper noun), 17 - reach (verb), 23 – motor cross (noun), 24

– boys and girl (nouns), 25 – bite (verb), 28 – hiccups (noun), 30 – toys (noun), (i)-park (verb),

(pa)-backwards (adverb), 31 – like (verb), 32 – (i)-picture and (i)-video (verbs), 33 – monster

(noun) and (ma)-roar (verb), and 35 - (na)-win (verb). Most of the words are nouns and

verbs.

On estimate, most of the utterances are Tagalog (L2), next are utterances in English

(Target Language) and last are utterances in the native tongue (L1)).

Indeed, children learn to construct sentences, most of which they have never

produced before. Children learn to understand sentences they have never heard before; they

construct the rules that permit them to use the language creatively and no one teaches them

these rules. Their parents are no more aware of the phonological, syntactic, and semantic

rules than are children.

Conclusions

The following are conclusions:

1. The subject is at the stage of grammar acquisition. This is evidenced by the declarative

and interrogative dialogues where word order is correct. This may be considered an advance

feature in the language acquisition stage of a 4-year old boy.

2. Six general functions of language were evidenced. These are: instrumental,

representational, regulatory, interactional, heuristic and personal functions.

3. Connectives were found missing in few dialogues; and is therefore a deficit.

4. Inflections (number and tense) are not yet established. This is also a deficit.

5. The subject is conversant in Tagalog (L2) which is the medium of instruction.

Implications to Teaching Language in Pre-School

Implications include:

1. The non utilization and development of the first language in educational settings may

hamper the learning capability of the pupils as they progress to higher grades with the

implementation of K2 – 12 program of the Department of Education.

2. The conclusions forwarded imply the valuing and engaging of children’s home language in

the classroom situation.

References

Language Acquisition, Chapter 10. Introduction to Language

Gender Differences in Child Language Development.http://www.ehow.com/list 6122997

Children and Primary Language Acquisition.http://www.ehow.com/list html1#ixzz29F6HK9Q

Australian Council of TESOL Associations – International TESOL Conference:Understanding Children’s Language Acquisition. July 10, 2012 Goid Coast Queensland.Denise Angelo, Sophie McIntosh and Nina Carter (Central, South and North Queensland Schooling Support Unit DET (Qld)

Applied Linguistics for Communication Arts. Tayao, Ma. Lourdes et al., 1997. UP-OU.