Undergraduate Course: First Language Acquisition (Honours) (LASC10029)
Course Outline
| School |
School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College |
College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type |
Standard |
Availability |
Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) |
SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Credits |
20 |
| Home subject area |
Language Sciences |
Other subject area |
None |
| Course website |
None |
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| Course description |
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the principal findings, concepts and models in the field of first language acquisition. The central question addressed is: How is it that all healthy children acquire language in a relatively short space of time and seemingly without extensive external assistance? Concentrating primarily on phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax, the course surveys and examines theories that have been proposed to explain the observed developmental phenomena in these domains. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites |
Visiting students should have at least 3 Linguistics/Language Sciences courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| Prospectus website |
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/visiting-exchange/courses |
Course Delivery Information
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
After successful completion of this course the student will have gained understanding of the basic issues in first language acquisition including:
- What relative roles linguistic input and biological factors play in language acquisition?
- What models have been proposed to explain the acquisition of speech abilities, phonology, inflectional morphology and syntax?
- How children initiate the acquisition of syntax and semantics without a priori knowledge of the target language?
- How does bilingual first language acquisition proceed?
Students will also have gained experience in analysing learner data using the concepts and models taught in the course. |
Assessment Information
| Critical reviews (50%) and a data analysis project (50%) |
| Please see Visiting Student Prospectus website for Visiting Student Assessment information |
Special Arrangements
| Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser |
Dr Mitsuhiko Ota
Tel: (0131 6)50 3949
Email: mits@ling.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary |
Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel:
Email: S.Fong@ed.ac.uk |
|
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1 September 2010 6:12 am
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