Psych 56L/Ling 51: Acquisition of Language

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2-3:20pm in SSL 270
Instructor: Lisa Pearl, Department of Cognitive Sciences, SBSG 2314
Instructor Office Hours: Tuesday 11:30am - 1:00pm
Email is the best way to reach her to schedule an appointment not during these times.
Teaching Assistant: Lawrence Phillips, Department of Cognitive Sciences,
Location for office hours: SST 679
Office Hours: Monday 10:30am - 12:00pm, Thursday 3:30pm - 5pm
Email is the best way to reach him to schedule an appointment not during these times.

Announcements:

  • 3/1/11: Remember that there is no class on 3/3. The next class is 3/8 - we'll finish up the last few slides on non-verbal false belief tasks from lecture 15, and then move on to language in special populations (guest-lectured by Lawrence).
  • 2/24/11: HW2 will be returned on 3/1. Please remember to pick it up.
  • 2/3/11: Review questions are available for lexical development.
  • 1/27/11: Lecture 8 (Phonological Development III) has been updated to (hopefully) fix all the typos we discovered in class today. If you downloaded the notes previously, be sure to download the updated version.
  • 1/25/11: Remember to pick up your graded HW1, and to bring your phonology feature charts with you to class on Thursday.
  • 1/20/11: The coursebook is now available on reserve at Langson library. Also, lecture 6 (Phononological Development I) has been re-uploaded, with errors fixed.
  • 1/06/11: Review questions are available for the biological bases of language.
  • 1/05/11: The location for the TA office hours has now been determined: SST 679.
  • 1/04/11: Welcome to the class webpage!
    Note: All assignments, all lecture notes, and some 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 first set of lecture notes (Introduction to Language Acquisition), which can be downloaded from the schedule section.
    Please note also that the first set of review questions (for the introductory material) and the first homework are available to be downloaded using the links on the schedule page.

Language is an incredibly complex system of knowledge. Not only are there multiple levels of representation - sounds and words and phrases and meanings - but within a given level, even simple output 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 normally-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.

The material for the class that you are responsible for is covered completely in the course lecture notes, available for download through the schedule section. However, reference readings are often helpful for understanding the material in the lecture notes, and will come primarily from the coursebook, websites, and occasionally short articles. These can all be found on the readings section and the schedule section.