Descripción y contextualización de la asignatura

This course aims to bring students closer to the study of early language acquisition through their familiarization with current research oriented to the study of the language development of monolingual and bilingual children (0-8 years) in their first language(s).

Convocatoria ordinaria: orientaciones y renuncia

Class sessions in this course of 3 ECTS credits will be organized as follows:



• Lectures on concepts and contents concerning the topics listed in the program will comprise most of the class time together, as well as some practical exercises. Written materials and/or references will be provided throughout the course.



• Regular assistance and active participation of the student will be crucial in order to obtain the credits corresponding to the subject (20% of the final mark). Moreover, students are expected to participate in class and to meet the deadlines of the exercises set, among them (at least) one oral presentation (30% of the final mark) and one written one (50% of the mark).



• The oral task will consist of the presentation of the main content of a research paper, previously agreed with the teacher. In the 15-20 minutes presentation students will demonstrate:

The aim of the paper, some of the most relevant contents, including some examples, tables and/or figures, but only if necessary for comprehension, the dscussion and/or conclusion.

o Each student should provide his/her classmates with a 2- to 3-page hand-out of the presentation.

o Students will be requested to auto- and hetero-evaluate oral presentations.



• The written task will consist of a short essay of 6-10 pages, based on the discussion of some theoretical and/or methodological aspects of one of the papers presented in class compared with at least ONE additional piece of research published.



The final mark will be the sum of the three partial marks mentioned: active participation in class (20%), oral presentation (30%) and essay (50%).

Convocatoria extraordinaria: orientaciones y renuncia

The final mark will be the sum of the marks obtained in the oral presentation (40%) and essay (60%).

Temario

This course aims students to come closer to the study on early language acquisition, through their familiarization with current research oriented to the study of the language development of monolingual and bilingual children (0-8 years) in their first language(s).



During the course, students will be able to:



-Familiarize with different theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of child language.

Become aware about theoretical and empirical questions such as the ones concerning the initial and- later linguistic competence of children, as well as the ones related to the changes observed in children`s performance during the first years of life: laterality, critical period, nature / nurture...

-Practice with at least one of the methodologies used recently in experimental research oriented to the study of linguistic performance during the first years of life in vocabulary, phonology or morphosyntax.

- Plunge in the variability of bi- or multilingual acquisition processes looking for the effect of the interlinguistic influence in early bilingualism.



Class sessions in this course of 3 ECTS credits will be organized as follows:



- Lectures on concepts and contents concerning the topics listed in the program will conform most of the class time together with some practical exercises. Written materials will be provided along the course.



- For this reason regular assistance and active participation of the student will be crucial in order to obtain the credits corresponding to the subject (20% of the final mark). Moreover, students are expected to participate in class, and to present on time the exercises proposed, among them (at least) one oral presentation (30% of the final mark) and a written one (50% of the mark).



- The oral task will consist of the individual presentation of the main content of a research paper, previously accorded with the teacher. In the 15 minutes (maximum) presentation students will expose the most relevant (theoretical and/or methodological) aspects of the paper and should provide his/her classemates with a hand out of 2 to 3 pages.





The handout will have the following contents:



- On the top of the first page: a) Title and author(s) of the paper, b) first and last name of the author of the hand out and c) presentation data

- Paper subject (2-3 lines)

- In a schematic way, more relevant contents including some relevant example, table and/or figure, but only if necessary for comprehension. The sequence of contents should be the same as the one of the presentation, though not necessarily the same as the sections in the original paper.

- Conclusion (Optional).

- Reference(s): complete reference of the text reported.



o Students will be requested to auto- and hetero-evaluate oral presentations.



- The written task will consist in a short essay of 6-10 pages to be presented before 30th March. The essay can be based on:



1) The discussion of some theoretical and/or methodological aspect of one of the papers presented in class compared with some additional piece of research published as paper, chapter....

or

2) The design of an empirical (mini-)research based on some of the texts discussed during the oral presentations.



The final mark will be the sum of the three partial marks mentioned: active participation in class, oral presentation and essay.







UNIT 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF CHILD (AND ADULT) LANGUAGE Description, goals. Some basic terms: perception / comprehension / production / processing, correct / acceptable / incorrect / error, competence / performance . Some methods used in the study of early child language.

UNIT 2. THE ACQUISITION OF FIRST LANGUAGE. Some language- development models Some debates: nature vs. nurture; acquisition vs. learning maturation / continuity The critical period Biological and linguistic maturation

UNIT 3. EARLY BI- or MULTILINGUALISM Typology Grammatical fusion and separation L1 / L2

UNIT 4. PHONETIC AND PHONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT Segmental inventories. VOT Syllabic structure

UNIT 5. MORPHOSYNTACTIC DEVELOPMENT Holophrase > complex utterances Assessment: MLU Morphologic overregularisation and their interpretation lexical and functional categories The acquisition of Gender. Code mixing and code switching. Interlinguistic influence: (in)vulnerability across domains

UNIT 6. COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION OF VOCABULARY Some models of lexical activation. The MacArthur-Bates tests: CDI-I, CDI-II, CDI-III. Adaptations to some languages.



UNIT 7. LINGUISTIC PERCEPTION (0-3 YEAR-OLDS)

Bibliografía

Bibliografía básica

Ambridge, B. & E. Lieven (2011), Child Language Acquisition. Contrasting Theoretical Approaches. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Belinchón, M., J. M. Igoa, A. Rivière (1998)4, Psicología del lenguaje. Investigación y teoría. Madrid: Trotta.

Crain, S. & D. Lillo-Martin (1999), An Introduction to Linguistic Theory and Language Acquisition. Massachussets: Blackwell.

De Houwer, A. (2009), Bilingual First Language Acquisition. Bristol-Buffalo-Toronto : Multilingual Matters.

Guasti, M.T. (2002), Language Acquisition. The Growth of Grammar. Cambridge MA-London: The MIT Press.

Karmiloff, K. & A. Karmiloff-Smith (2001), Pathways to Language. From Fetus to Adolescent. Cambridge (MA): Harvard U.P.

Lleó, C. (1997), La adquisición de la fonología de la primera lengua y de las lenguas extranjeras. Madrid: Visor.

Locke, John L. (1995), The Child's Path to Spoken Language. London: Harvard University Press.

McDaniel, D.; C. McKee & H.S. Cairns (eds.) (1996), Methods of Assessing Children¿s Syntax. Massachussets: MIT.

Meisel, J. (ed.), (1994), Bilingual First Language Acquisition: French & German Grammatical Development. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Meisel, J. (2007), Exploring the limits of the LAD. Universität Hamburg. Arbeiten zur Mehrsprachigkeit-Working Papers in Multilingualism, 80.

Meisel, J. (2011), First and Second Language Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Montrul, S. (2004), The Acquisition of Spanish. Morphosyntactic development in monolingual and bilingual L1 acquisition and adult L2 acquisition.

Newport, E., D. Bavelier & H. Neville (2001), ¿Critical thinking about critical periods: perspectivas on a critical period for language acquisition¿. In E. Dupoux (ed), Language, Brain and Cognitive Development. Essais in Honor of Jacques Mehler. MIT, 481-502.

Pérez-Leroux, A.T. & W.R. Glass (eds.) (1997), Contemporary Perspectives on the Acquisition of Spanish. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.

Serra, M.; E. Serrat, R. Solé, A. Bel & M. Aparici (2000)¿ La adquisición del lenguaje. Barcelona: Ariel.

Snyder, W. (2007). Child Language. The parametric Approach. New York: Oxford University Press.

Vega, M. y F. Cuetos (1999), Psicolingüística del español. Madrid: Trotta.

Yang, Ch. (2007)2, Knowledge and learning in natural language. New York: Oxford

Bibliografía de profundización

Cantone, K.; Kupisch, T.; Müller, N. & Schmitz, K. (2008), Rethinking Language Dominance in Bilingual Children. Linguistische Berichte 215, 307-343.







Montrul, S. (2008), Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism. Re-examining the Age Factor. [Series on Studies in Bilingualism]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.







Snyder, W. (2007). Child Language. The parametric Approach. New York: Oxford University Press.







Yang, Ch. (2007)2, Knowledge and learning in natural language. New York: Oxford University Press.

Revistas

Applied Psycholinguistics



Bilingualism: Language and Cognition



Brain and Language



Cognition



First Language



Infancia y Aprendizaje



International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism



International Journal of Bilingualism



Journal of Child Language



Language Acquisition



The Language Learning Journal



Lingua



Linguistische Berichte



Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism



Probus



Second Language Acquisition.