Ling 51/Psych 56L: Acquisition of Language

Mondays, Wednesday, & Fridays, 2:00-2:50pm in HSLH 100A
Professor: Lisa Pearl, Department of Language Science & Cognitive Sciences,
SSPB 2219 & SBSG 2314
Office hours: Wednesday 3:00pm - 4:00pm in SBSG 2314
Email is the best way to reach her to schedule an appointment not during this time.

Teaching Assistants:
Alandi Bates
Location for office hours: SSPB 2211
Office hours: Th 12-3pm

Lev Nachman
Location for office hours: SST 663
Office hours: T 1-4pm

Katie Turner
Location for office hours: CNLM lobby
Office hours: MWF 1-2pm

Email is the best way to reach the TAs to schedule an appointment not during these times.

This class has a message board to facilitate communication about the course administrivia and content. Please go there first to see if someone has already asked your question before emailing the TAs or professor. It may be that your question is already answered there, and this will allow you to get a quicker response to your question.

Welcome to the class webpage!
Note: All assignments, all lecture notes, and most reference readings can be found by clicking on the relevant link in the schedule section. In addition, any reference readings that are password protected can be accessed by using the username and password found in the relevant post of the Discussions on the message board.

The material for the class that you are responsible for is covered completely in the course lecture notes, available (sometimes with accompanying podcasts) for download through the schedule section. However, reference materials are often helpful for understanding the material in the lecture notes, and will come primarily from the textbook, videos, websites, and short articles. Accompanying reference material for each lecture can be found on that day's "Reference Material" column in the schedule section.

Language is an incredibly complex system of knowledge. Not only are there multiple levels of representation - sounds and words and phrases and whole utterances and meanings - but within a given level, even simple forms can be derived from multiple interacting pieces of knowledge. Yet as speakers of any given language, we are often blissfully unaware of how much we need to know in order to be able to communicate with language.

One of the most striking things about language is that all typically-developing children learn their native language flawlessly, especially when compared to adults trying to accomplish the same task. This is true despite adults' superior cognitive skills. Children of the world seem somehow suited for language acquisition in a way that adult humans - and other animals - are not.

In this class, we survey the broad topic of language acquisition, focusing not only on children's developmental trajectory, but also on what knowledge of language is, how language acquisition relates to cognition in general, and acquisition of language by speakers with sensory or cognitive deficits. Topics include the biological basis of language, levels of linguistic knowledge, language and cognition, and language in special populations.

This course counts as a category III GE course. After completing this course, successful students will be able to do the following:

  • Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the theories, sources, and interpretations of human language acquisition behavior at the individual level.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of contemporary and historical perspectives on human language acquisition behavior.
  • Understand and explain the scientific/interpretive methods used in (i) the acquisition of knowledge about human language learning behavior and (ii) the testing of competing theories about human language acquisition.
  • Critically evaluate methods, findings, and conclusions in the research literature on human language acquisition behavior.