Postgraduate Course: First Language Acquisition (LASC11013)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | The aim of this course is to introduce students to the principal findings, concepts and models in the field of first language acquisition. |
| Course description |
How is it that all typically-developing children acquire language in a relatively short space of time and seemingly without extensive external assistance? To answer this question, the course examines the ways in which aspects of language -- such as phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax -- develop in children, and then discusses theories that have been proposed to explain the observed developmental phenomena in these domains.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 27,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
169 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Coursework 1 ¿ Critical review (50%, max 3,000 words)
Coursework 2 ¿ Data analysis (50%, max 2,500 words) |
| Feedback |
Coursework 1: Advice on how to write a critical review will be provided as feedforward activity during a tutorial session. Written feedback on submitted work will be provided.
Coursework 2: Demonstrations and exercises on how to analyze corpus data using specialist software will be provided during tutorial sessions. Written feedback on submitted work will be provided. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- describe how language development unfolds in infants and children
- discuss the extent which language acquisition is dependent on various biological, linguistic, cognitive and environmental factors
- explain theories of language acquisition
- critically evaluate theoretical and empirical work on first language acquisition
- analyse developmental data using theories and models discussed in the course
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Reading List
There is typically one required reading per lecture and further optional readings. Here are indicative required readings for the first week:
Clark, E. (2016). First language acquisition. Chapter 1 [pp. 1-22]. Cambridge University Press.
Karmiloff, K. & Karmiloff-Smith, A. (2001). Pathways to language: From fetus to adolescent. Chapter 2 [pp. 10-42]. Harvard University Press. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Written communication
Data processing and quantitative analysis |
| Keywords | language acquisition,learning,development,infants,children |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Mitsuhiko Ota
Tel: (0131 6)50 3949
Email: mits@ling.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Sasha Wood
Tel:
Email: swood310@ed.ac.uk |
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