LING270 Language Acquisition

Instructor
Charles Yang

608 Williams Hall (215-898-7849)


Description
How do children learn language so effortlessly?
Why is language learning so much harder for adults?
How do we develop “accents”?
Does learning a language affect the way we think?
How does Autism affect language learning?
How does language learning interact with other cognitive developments?
Why can’t other animals use language at all?
How does language develop in tandem with other cognitive systems?

This course is a broad introduction to how children learn to speak. We will be traversing the entire path of language acquisition, starting from the womb, and ending with language learning by adults, language change as a result of language learning, and the aptitude for language (and related abilities) in other species.


Textbook
Charles Yang (2006). The infinite gift (TIG) New York, Scribner.
Supplemented by research papers/reviews from academic journals.

Requirements
o comments/reactions to assigned research journal papers (about 8): 50%

    The student is to provide, in relation to the materials discussed in the lectures, critical discussion of the reading that is not a mere summary of the results. These could include (a) alternative explanations for the reported findings, (b) potential problems in the experimental design, (c) possible extensions of the study, (d) implications for a broad theory of language acquisition with special emphasis on cross-linguistic research, etc. Full credit will be given only when at least one of these criteria is met

o midterm exam (Oct 20th, in class): 20%

    3-4 Short essay questions based on materials from the readings. Extra credit questions will be given as well

o final paper (due last day of the exam period): 30% (No final exam)
   
    The final paper can in principle be based on any topic of language acquisition, cognitive development, etc. as long as it makes specific connections to the materials discussed in the course. Typical topics include, but are not limited to, (a) a book review of recently published academic treatment of child language acquisition, (b) a literature review of a precisely defined research topic that is appropriate in scope, (c) an experimental proposal to investigate unresolved problems, which, in some cases, can be informally carried on adult subjects, from which the conclusions would hold equally for children, (d) computational or corpus studies of child language acquisition, (e) an evaluation of a research topic in an adjacent field (e.g., educational linguistics, second language acquisition, cognitive and conceptual development, etc.) that makes use of the materials from the course. The student must meet with the instructor to discuss the final paper and obtain the instructor’s approval before carrying out research and writing.


Schedule with slides and reading assignments

Date	Topic	Reading Assignments
9-10	Introduction	TIG: Chapter 1
9-15	Learning to listen (zipped ppt file; large)	Werker 1995 Due 9-22
9-17	Learning to listen  (zipped ppt file; large)
9-22	Learning to listen (and starting to talk)	Jusczyk (1999) Due 9-29. Optional: Gambell & Yang (2006)
9-24	Word segmentation
9-29	Word segmentation	Smith (1990) Due 10-6.
10-1	Early words
10-6	Early words	Pinker (1995) Due 10-13.
10-8	Morphological learning
10-13	Irregular verbs	No readings this week.  Optional: Yang (2002: chapter 3)
10-15	Irregular verbs	Wug pictures (zip)
10-20	In class midterm
10-22	Learning word meanings	Gleitman (1990). Due 10-29.
10-27	Learning word meanings/Categories
10-29	Learning words through syntax	Tomasello (2000) Fisher (2002). Due 11-5.
11-10	Toward grammar	Valian et al. (2008). Due 11-17.
11-12	Learning phrase structures
11-17	The nature of early grammar	Wang et al. (1992), Bloom (1990). Due 11-24.
11-19	Evaluating productivity and item-based learning	Read this paper if you are interested in the details
11-24	Innateness of abstract knowledge	Chomsky podcast
11-26	Thanksgiving	Read TIG Ch 6 & 7
12-1
12-3
12-8
12-10