Linguistics 2244A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: 6 Years, Metalinguistic Awareness, Eric Lenneberg

• School: Western University
• Department: Linguistics
• Course: Linguistics 2244A/B
• Professor: J. Garavito

Document Summary

True or false: according to functional approaches, linguistic input is a necessary and sufficient condition to develop a specific language, for behaviourists, learning language is very different from a rat learning to press a button for food. If innatists are right, dolphins, bonobos and chimpanzees probable cannot learn a human language. To finish some loose ends from chapter 1: the critical period; bilingualism. To examine the differences between acquiring a first and a second language. Acquisition: the grammar is acquired without conscious knowledge, as it is in the first language. It is said that language and grammar becomes part of procedural memory, which is unconscious (implicit) Procedural memory is in fact inaccessible to conscious knowledge). Generally acquisition takes place in a natural setting. It is often said that, in the classroom, a communicative approach is necessary for acquisition. Because language develops naturally, it exhibits stages. Knowledge of vocabulary is conscious (but the grammatical aspects of words are unconscious.