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CHAPTER THREE LANGUAGE ACQUISITION This chapter includes a discussion of the theories of language acquisition as well as, several of the standardized tests utilized in the assessment of a child's language. Furthermore, the administration and scoring of the Hearing and Speech Scale of the Griffiths Scales is briefly discussed. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Interest in child language and its development first grew in the scientific climate of positivism and evolutionism in the second half of the 19 th century. It was influenced by Darwin's evolution theory. The initiators of child language investigation were philosophers, physicians, psychologists and educationalists (Mussen, et. al., 1984; Oskaar, 1983). A German physiologist, Wilhelm Preyer, was the first to systematically research a child's entire development, including his language development. In the daily observation of his son, from birth to the end of the third year, a lot of attention was given to motor development, as well as to psychological development, with special emphasis to the development of the senses, memory, language and will. His work was commended for having considered the field as a whole and with scientific precision. The writings of his observations were recorded in a diary format and its merit found its way to places which include America, France, Poland and Bulgaria. Through the activities of psychologists and educationalists, on is able to divide the child language research of the late 19 th century into two separate trends, which diverge from one another (Oskaar, 1983). Preyer and his followers, belong to the so called "intellectualist trend", which according to Stern and Stern (1907), "overestimates the intellectual meaning of the child's first language phase and also the child's independence in language production" (p.6). 37
Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology, started a new era, namely, the "voluntarist" (Oskaar, 1983). This was the name given to the second trend. Wundt and his followers considered language acquisition mostly as a product of imitation, and the first attempts at language as manifestations of emotion. Wundt, who closely observed the sound development of his own children, considered child language as a product of the child's environment in which the child participates almost entirely passively. According to Wundt (1911), a child is said to imitate most easily those sounds which he perceives most clearly. The lively discussion which took place at the turn of the century between the "intellectualists" and the "voluntarist", showed that the well-known opposing opinions on the origin of language from Greek philosophy - the nature-nurture debate - had also been carried over to child language research (Oskaar, 1983). In 1907, a climax of child language research was reached by work completed by two psychologists, Stern and Stern. Their impetus lay in the syntheses of the two theoretical trends mentioned above. They considered the realisation of child language to be the result of a convergence it was stated that, only in the continuous cooperation of the inner, compelling aptitudes for speaking and the external factors of environmental language which offer these aptitudes, contact points and the material for their realization, can the child's language acquisition take place (Stern & Stern, 1928, p.129). Their research was based upon detailed observation of two of their children until after the first four years, and it was supplemented from data from a third child and from relevant German and international literature. Stern and Stern (1928) divided the general trend of child language development into a preliminary stage and four further stages. They state that the main tasks in the acquisition of spoken language can be regarded as fulfilled by the fourth or fifth year of life. The stages proposed by Stern and Stern (1928) are as follows: 38
Page 1 and 2: A REVISION OF A SECTION OF THE HEAR
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS ii Page ACKNOWLED
Page 5 and 6: CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY Problem fo
Page 7 and 8: LIST OF FIGURES vi Page Figure 1 Po
Page 9 and 10: Table 24 The responses given to the
Page 11 and 12: The major findings of the present s
Page 13 and 14: Die hoof bevindinge van die huidige
Page 15 and 16: Holt (1979) has comprehensively sum
Page 17 and 18: Figure 1 Population of South Africa
Page 19 and 20: of disabled people increases slowly
Page 21 and 22: second language or culture. Hamblet
Page 23 and 24: ange from birth to three years of a
Page 25 and 26: Africa cannot be separated from the
Page 27 and 28: 14 Hence, this study was aimed at p
Page 29 and 30: highly verbal in nature which is li
Page 31 and 32: perceptual-performance, quantitativ
Page 33 and 34: acquisition of this complex ability
Page 35 and 36: assessment of young children in Sou
Page 37 and 38: Table 1 Griffiths (1960) scoring cr
Page 39 and 40: that the two scales produced signif
Page 41 and 42: 28 (GQ) and in their performance on
Page 43 and 44: 30 British counterparts with respec
Page 45 and 46: 32 concluded that the Griffiths Sca
Page 47 and 48: 34 languages are usually successful
Page 49: individual been assessed. Hence, wh
Page 53 and 54: ecome evident. Questions include th
Page 55 and 56: Plays language games (pat-a-cake, p
Page 57 and 58: 36-54 months. Grammar developmental
Page 59 and 60: understands, and, if the child appe
Page 61 and 62: 48 the child's performance on each
Page 63 and 64: 50 manipulate simple toys according
Page 65 and 66: children's verbal responses. The re
Page 67 and 68: CHAPTER FOUR METHODOLOGY PROBLEM FO
Page 69 and 70: Bailey (1987) lists several advanta
Page 71 and 72: espondents, many mailed questionnai
Page 73 and 74: he studied the 2 Griffiths manuals
Page 75 and 76: 62 written responses of the complet
Page 77 and 78: Stage 5 The most frequently suggest
Page 79 and 80: 66 The subjects in the present stud
Page 81 and 82: Table 6 Demographic data for Sample
Page 83 and 84: In the present study, parents were
Page 85 and 86: Stage 6 Stage 7 For the large revis
Page 87 and 88: number of stimuli from the revised
Page 93 and 94: 80 Table 13 indicates the responses
Page 95 and 96: Table 15 Frequency and percentages
Page 97 and 98: highest and lowest mean numbers of
Page 101 and 102:
88 Table 21 indicates the frequency
Page 103 and 104:
65 months elicited the highest mean
Page 105 and 106:
Table 24 The responses given to the
Page 107 and 108:
Table 26 Means and Standard deviati
Page 109 and 110:
Table 28 The responses given to the
Page 111 and 112:
impacted on the spread of obtained
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER SIX CRITICAL EVALUATION AND
Page 115 and 116:
proposed criteria. Regarding Griffi
Page 117 and 118:
include: LIMITATIONS The limitation
Page 119 and 120:
e included into the Hearing and Spe
Page 121 and 122:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Aldridge-Smith, J., Bi
Page 123 and 124:
110 Development Bank of South Afric
Page 125 and 126:
112 Scale scores of 3-5 year old bo
Page 127 and 128:
University Press. Lister, C. (1981)
Page 129 and 130:
Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul. Kegan Paul.
Page 131 and 132:
Minnesota Press. Thomas, H. (1970).
Page 133 and 134:
APPENDIX A Letters and questionnair
Page 135 and 136:
Questionnaire attached to above let
Page 137 and 138:
APPENDIX C Letter to parents for th
Page 139 and 140:
Biographical questionnaire for pare
Page 141 and 142:
APPENDIX E Riordan (1978). The valu
Page 143:
130
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