Language acquisition

Language acquisition is the development of the ability to understand and use a language. It can occur through exposure, deliberate learning, or both.

Statistical learning: Learning patterns by tracking how often events or features occur together. Infants can use distributional patterns in speech to find likely word boundaries.
Phonological development: The development of the ability to perceive and produce the sound patterns of a language. Learning a language begins with distinguishing and producing its meaningful sound contrasts.
First-language acquisition: The development of a person's first language, usually beginning in early childhood. It is the clearest case of language developing alongside early cognitive and social growth.
Babbling: An early stage of vocal development marked by repeated syllable-like sounds. Babbling gives infants practice producing speech-like patterns before their first words.
Noam Chomsky: An American linguist whose work argued that human language depends on an innate capacity for grammar. His challenge to behaviorist accounts shaped modern debates about how children acquire grammar.
Joint attention: A social interaction in which two people attend to the same object or event. Shared attention helps connect a caregiver’s words with objects and actions.
Vocabulary acquisition: The process of learning words and their meanings. Word learning supplies the labels and concepts needed for increasingly complex communication.
Second-language acquisition: The process of learning a language after a first language has already been acquired. It differs from first-language development in prior knowledge, learning conditions, and often age.
Holophrastic stage: An early language stage in which a single word can express a phrase-like meaning. A word such as “up” may communicate a request that adults interpret from context.
B. F. Skinner: An American psychologist who developed behaviorism and analyzed learning through reinforcement. His account of verbal behavior became a prominent target of Chomsky’s critique.

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