Introduction to Psycholinguistics
Senior 6 · Psychology (Languages)
Introduction to Psycholinguistics
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
Adults learning Hindi often struggle to hear the difference between two “t” sounds: one made with the tongue tip against the teeth, the other with the tongue curled back. To most English speakers they sound the same. In 1984 Janet Werker and Richard Tees, in Vancouver, Canada, tested babies from English-speaking homes. Each baby sat on a parent’s lap and heard one sound repeated; if the baby turned its head when the sound changed, a toy lit up as a reward, so turning showed the baby had noticed the change.
Most babies aged 6 to 8 months turned their heads at the Hindi contrast they had never heard at home. By 10 to 12 months, very few did. Babies of the same age growing up with Hindi still could. Within their first year, infants move from being able to notice the sound differences of any language to specialising in the sounds of their own.
Definition
Language acquisition: the process by which people come to understand and use a language. First language (L1) acquisition: how infants and children acquire the language or languages they hear from birth.
Babbling: repeated consonant–vowel syllables such as “ba-ba-ba”, usually starting around 6 to 10 months.
Holophrase: a single word used to express a whole idea, as when “milk!” means “I want milk now”.
Telegraphic speech: short utterances of content words without small grammatical words, such as “mummy go”.
Overregularisation: applying a grammar rule to words that are exceptions, such as “goed” or “mouses”.
Child-directed speech: the simplified, high-pitched, slow and repetitive way many adults talk to young children.
Figure 1. The main stages of early language development (approximate ages).
| Stage | Typical age | What the child does |
|---|---|---|
| Crying and reflexive sounds | 0 to 2 months | Cries that differ with hunger, pain or tiredness |
| Cooing | From about 2 months | Vowel-like sounds (“ooo”, “aah”) and laughter |
| Babbling | From about 6 months | Repeated syllables; by 10 months babbling begins to sound like the home language |
| One-word (holophrastic) stage | From about 12 months | First words; one word stands for a whole sentence |
| Two-word stage and vocabulary spurt | From about 18 months | Words learned rapidly; two-word combinations (“more milk”) |
| Telegraphic stage | From about 2 years | Short sentences without small grammar words (“daddy go car”) |
| Complex sentences | From about 3 years | Questions, negatives, joined clauses; overregularisation errors |
| Later development | 5 years and beyond | Jokes, stories, politeness, reading and writing, awareness of language itself |
TED: “The linguistic genius of babies”, Patricia Kuhl. Watch for how researchers test whether babies can tell sounds apart, and at what age babies begin to specialise in the sounds of their own language.
Important
Evaluate the evidence. Stage descriptions are averages: healthy children may speak their first words anywhere between about 8 and 18 months, and the order is more reliable than the timing. Werker and Tees’ findings have been widely replicated with other contrasts and languages, though infants keep some ability to relearn contrasts with enough exposure. Most stage research comes from English and European languages; children learning Bantu languages such as Kinyarwanda must also master noun-class prefixes and tones, which have been studied far less. Claims about “normal” ages should not be applied mechanically to children everywhere.
Warning
Common mistake: treating “goed” or “mouses” as signs of slower learning. Overregularisation is evidence that the child has learned a rule; the exceptions come later.
Tip
Memory hook for the order: “Cry, Coo, Babble, One, Two, Telegraph, Complex”.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the text, the table, Figure 1 and the exercises.
