- "Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate."
The study of the process of acquiring a first or second language.
Linguistics: The study of language structure, including phonology (sounds), morphology (word formation), syntax (sentence structure), semantics (meaning), and pragmatics (language use in context).
Psycholinguistics: The study of how people acquire, use, and understand language, looking at the cognitive processes involved and the brain mechanisms that underlie language.
Sociolinguistics: The study of how language varies across social groups, including factors such as regional dialects, gender, age, and social class.
Second language acquisition: The study of how people learn a second (or third, fourth, etc.) language, including the factors that influence success, the stages of language development, and the role of age in language acquisition.
Bilingualism: The study of how people use two or more languages in their daily lives, including the cognitive and social benefits and challenges of bilingualism.
Translation and interpretation: The study of how to convey meaning from one language to another, including the skills and strategies needed to produce accurate and effective translations.
Language pedagogy: The study of how to teach languages to others, including the most effective teaching methods, assessment techniques, and materials.
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL): The study of how technology can be used to enhance language learning and teaching, including the use of multimedia, online resources, and language-learning apps.
Corpus linguistics: The study of large collections of language data, using computational tools to analyze linguistic patterns and identify linguistic features.
Language policy and planning: The study of how language is regulated and promoted by governments, institutions, and communities, including the role of language in identity, education, and global communication.
First language acquisition: Refers to the process of learning a natural language (e.g., English, Spanish) as a child, with little or no formal instruction. This typically occurs in the first few years of life, and involves both spoken and written language.
Second language acquisition: Refers to the process of learning a second language (e.g., French, Chinese) after the first language has already been acquired. This can occur at any point in life, and can be facilitated through formal language instruction or immersion in a language community.
Foreign language acquisition: Refers to the process of learning a language that is not commonly spoken in one's native language community. This may include learning a language for academic or professional purposes, or for personal enrichment.
Simultaneous language acquisition: Refers to the acquisition of more than one language at the same time, usually in a bilingual or multilingual environment.
Sequential language acquisition: Refers to the acquisition of multiple languages sequentially, with the second language being learned after the first language has already been acquired.
Heritage language acquisition: Refers to the acquisition of a language spoken by one's ancestors or family members, often outside of the home country or culture.
Sign language acquisition: Refers to the acquisition of a visual-gestural language used by the deaf and hard of hearing community, which involves manual gestures and facial expressions.
Computer-assisted language acquisition: Refers to the use of technology to facilitate language acquisition, including online courses, language-learning apps, and digital language practice tools.
- "The capacity to use language successfully requires one to acquire a range of tools including phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary."
- "Human language capacity is represented in the brain."
- "Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences, which is based on a syntactic principle called recursion."
- "These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation, and coordination."
- "Speech perception always precedes speech production, and the gradually evolving system by which a child learns a language is built up one step at a time."
- "The distinction between individual phonemes is the initial step in language acquisition."
- "Language acquisition usually refers to first-language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, whether that be spoken language or signed language."
- "It refers to an infant's simultaneous acquisition of two native languages."
- "First-language acquisition deals with the acquisition of the native language, while second-language acquisition involves acquiring additional languages."
- "In addition to speech, reading, and writing a language with an entirely different script compounds the complexities of true foreign language literacy."
- "Linguists who are interested in child language acquisition have for many years questioned how language is acquired."
- "The question of how these structures are acquired, then, is more properly understood as the question of how a learner takes the surface forms in the input and converts them into abstract linguistic rules and representations."
- "Language acquisition involves structures, rules, and representation."
- "Language can be vocalized as in speech, or manual as in sign."
- "Language acquisition involves acquiring phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and an extensive vocabulary."
- "Even though human language capacity is finite, one can say and understand an infinite number of sentences."
- "These three mechanisms are: relativization, complementation, and coordination."
- "Speech perception always precedes speech production in first-language acquisition."
- "Language acquisition is one of the quintessential human traits."