Bachelor's Programmes - Catalogue 2020/2021 | Psychology (in English) | PSYE114

PSYE114 Language Acquisition

Annotation:

This course introduces students to the fascinating area of research on how children acquire language. Topics include the main theoretical approaches to language development, research methodologies, mechanisms of word learning, grammar development, pragmatics, narratives, etc. This broad overview of the field will also cover briefly bilingual language acquisition, language impairments, the co-development of language and mind and cross-cultural, cross

linguistic studies. As part of the course students choose relevant subtopics for group work and oral presentations.

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Psychology (in English)

Lecturers:

Assoc. Prof. Elena Andonova, Ph.D

Course Description:

Competencies:

Students who complete this course:

1) will know:

 Basic terminology and main topics in the area

 Specific examples of the methods and findings in the field

2) will be able to:

 Discuss theoretical topics on language acquisition

 Analyze data on language acquisition
Prerequisites:
PSYE315

Types:
Full-time Programmes

Types of Courses:
Lecture

Language of teaching:
English

Topics:

  1. Major Theoretical Approaches. Nativism, Usage-based approaches, Behaviorism, etc.
  2. Research Methodologies. Child Directed Speech. Parents' role & styles.
  3. Gesture. Speech Perception. Word Learning.
  4. Grammatical Development. Narratives.
  5. Individual Differences. Bilingualism.
  6. Pragmatics. Impairment. Interventions.
  7. Student Presentations and Projects.
  8. Test.

Bibliography:

Germain, N., Gonzalez‐Barrero, A. M., & Byers‐Heinlein, K. (2022). Gesture

development in infancy: Effects of gender but not bilingualism. Infancy, 27(4), 663 -681.

 Iverson, J. M., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2005). Gesture paves the way for language development. Psychological Science, 16(5), 367-371.

Mani, N., & Ackermann, L. (2018). Why do children learn the words they do?. Child Development Perspectives, 12(4), 253-257.

 Ferguson, B., Graf, E., & Waxman, S. R. (2018). When veps cry: Two-year-olds

efficiently learn novel words from linguistic contexts alone. Language Learning and Development, 14(1), 1-12.

Bates, E., & MacWhinney, B. (1989). Functionalism and the competition model. In B. MacWhinney, & E. Bates (Eds.), The crosslinguistic study of sentence processing, (pp. 3–73). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 Tomasello, M. (2000). The item-based nature of children’s early syntactic

development. Trends in cognitive sciences, 4(4), 156-163.