Language Development

Course goals

After the course students will have knowledge of the most important ideas and questions in the research domain of language acquisition.
Primarily first language acquisition, with extensions to foreign language acquisition. Students will have knowledge of the terminology and research methods used, and understand the position of current language acquisition research in the broader field of cognitive science.
 

Content

The ease and uniformity which which children learn their native language is astonishing, and poses various puzzles for linguists and developmental psychologists. As a matter of fact, “learning” is not really the appropriate term; knowledge of one’s native language is acquired spontaneously. It grows or develops automatically. Learning a foreign language is anything but automatic. This course takes the perspective of current linguistic theory and aims to provide a better grasp of the question of what acquiring a native language really comes down to: what properties or rules are acquired, and what properties or principles are part of the (innately given) language faculty. Clearly, different theories make different claims about these divisions, and these will be examined and illustrated by means of some clearly defined topics from experimental research.The question of how language theoretical research can contribute to better insight in native language acquisition also invites a counter question: how can acquisition research contribute to new insight in the general theory of language systems? Answers to both questions will be discussed extensively in this course. Equipped with this theoretical baggage, students will also be invited to look at similarities and differences between acquiring a native and acquiring a foreign language.

Additional information

Please note: the time slot shown here is not yet final and may still be modified until the 3rd Wednesday in September. 

This course is equivalent to the following course:
Eerste taalontwikkeling (TL2V14103)

If you have already completed this courses, you may not take Language Development due to too much overlap in content.