3 Psychological features of speech activity and learning foreign languages at various age stages

3.1 Personality and speech. Speech development at various age stages

The marvelous capacity for acquiring competence in one's native language within the first few years of life has been a subject of interest for many centuries. "Modern" research on child language acquisition dates back to the latter part of the eighteenth century, when the German philoso­pher Dietrich Tiedemann recorded his observations of the psychological and linguistic development of his young son. For a century and a half, few if any significant advances were made in the study of child language; for the most part research was limited to diary like recordings of observed speech with some attempts to classify word types. Not until the second half of the twentieth century did researchers begin to analyze child language system­atically and to try to discover the nature of the psycholinguistic process that enables every human being to gain fluent control of an exceedingly complex system of communication. In a matter of a few decades, some giant strides were taken, especially in the generative and cognitive models of language, in describing the acquisition of particular languages, and in probing universal aspects of acquisition.

This wave of research in child language acquisition led language teachers and teacher trainers to study some of the general findings of such research with a view to drawing analogies between first and second language acquisition, and even to justifying certain teaching methods and techniques on the basis of first language learning principles. On the sur­face, it is entirely reasonable to make the analogy. After all, all children, given a normal developmental environment, acquire their native languages fluently and efficiently; moreover, they acquire them "naturally," without special instruction, although not without significant effort and attention to language. The direct comparisons must be treated with caution, however. There are dozens of salient differences between first and second language learning; the most obvious difference, in the case of adult second language learning, is the tremendous cognitive and affective contrast between adults and children.

This chapter is designed to outline issues in first language learning as a foundation on which you can build an understanding of principles of second language learning. A coherent grasp of the nature of first language learning is an invaluable aid, if not an essential component, in the con­struction of a theory of second language acquisition. This chapter provides an overview of various theoretical positions in first language acquisition, and a discussion of some key issues that are particularly significant for an understanding of second language learning.

Speech as psycholinguistic notion

Speech is one of the most complex forms of the highest psychological functions. The speech activity (SA) is characterized with the polysemy, the multilevel structure, the mobility and the communication with the rest psychological functions. An implementation of the speech activity is provided with the range of complex psychological mechanisms at all phases (levels) of its realization. These mechanisms were and they still are subjects of study for many psychologists and psycholinguists (74, 81, 95, 98, etc.). The most complete characterization of psychological mechanisms of speech activity (SA) is presented in researches of a national psycholinguistic school ("school by V.A. Artemov - N. I. Zhinkin - I.A. Zimnaya"). In researches by N.I. Zhinkin and I.A. Zimnaya, the holistic scientific concept of psychological mechanisms (PMs) of speech activity is presented. According to this concept, the main PMs of speech activity are: the comprehension mechanism of mnemonic arrangement of SA (first of all it's the mechanism of speech memory), also the mechanism of the predictive analysis and speech synthesis(the mechanism of the speech prediction or, what's the same, the prediction of speech). The most complete variant of this concept is reviewed in researches by I.A. Zimnaya, which is titled "Linguistic psychology of speech activity".

The most important mechanism of SA undoubtedly is the comprehension mechanism. This mechanism provides intellectual analysis as from the content side of speech (first of all) so the structural arrangement and language processing. The comprehension mechanism is implemented through analytic-synthetic activity of cerebral cortex, by basing on recruitment of all essential mental activities and operations (comparison, matching, general conclusion, grading, analysis and synthesis). First of all the subject of speech (reflected in SA with fragment, occurrence, event of surrounding reality) is to be comprehended. On basis of the mechanism, motives and purposes of speech communication are realized in full measure, orientation in condition of speech activity happens (particularly, complex overall analysis of speech communication situations). It's impossible to implement planning and programming of speech activity without recruitment of this mechanism. Due to the operation of this mechanism, the control of speech activity processing and its outcomes takes plece.

No less important function is given to the "mnemonic mechanism" in realization of speech activity, including mechanism of speech memory. It also provides all aspects of speech activity, including and "the content aspect" of speech and the aspect of language processing. Reflection of its subject in speech – one or other fragments of surrounding reality - is impossible without actualization of knowledge and conceptions, which are existed in the memory, about the surrounding part of the world. Like this it's impossible without actualization of image-conceptions, existing in consciousness, about signs of language and rules of its application in the process of speech communication. Both items are provided by the operational mechanisms of permanent memory. For example, processes of actualization and appropriate use of statements of the active vocabulary in speech. Besides that, here is other functions speech memory:

– actualization of knowledge and conceptions about realization approaches of speech activity (first of all, about ways of realization of speech communication);

– knowledge of social rules ("norms") of speech communication in different situations of SA realization;

– actualization and applying traditionally well-established for this language norms and rules of speech statements (orthoepic, grammatical, stylistic, orthographic items, used in writing speech), appropriate to the "language norms" definition;

– actualization ("retrieving from memory") of speech, language and social "etalons" of those units and items, from which appropriate aspects of speech activity are piled up (for example, etalons of standard sound image of separate words and word combinations, "grammatical" etalons of word-forms, speech-motive ethalons, which are necessary for the process of speech realization due to pronunciation plan, etc.).

No less important role in SA realization is given to the processes of short-time operational memory. The process of direct generation (creation) and perceptions of any speech statements, the realization of actions, piling up this process and operations, are not possible without keeping in memory of all components, creating this statement (during the period of its generation and analysis).

The psychological mechanism of "anticipatory analysis and synthesis" (speech predicting) became the subject of an active study in the national psycholinguistics only in the 70 years of the XX century. However the predicting mechanism of speech activity is not yet studied sufficiently up to the present time.

According to the opinion of A.A. Leontev an action of this mechanism can be described from the view point of "heuristic principle" as arrangement of speech activity. According to this principle speech activity must foresee the link, in which the strategy choice of speech attitude would be done, also admit different handling ways by making statements at individual stages of speech generation (perception). Thereupon the important thing is application of theory of psycho-physiologic arrangement of movement ("models of future"), created by N.A. Bernstein.

While considering appearance and realization of an arbitrary movement, N.A. Bernstein conceive its sequence in the following stages:

1) perception and estimation of a situation;

2) defining outcomes of a situation as a result of activity;

3) what ought to be done to come to this outcome

4) what way it should be accomplished by (last two stages piles up the programming of the given task solution).

Obviously, "to extrapolate" the future (the second stage) brain must be able not only to reflect existing, but to construct a model of a future situation ("the model of desirable future"). It differs from "the model of present time": "There are two categories (forms) of perceptible world constructing in brains, which exist as a kind of unity. These models are: the model of past-present time, or become time, and the model of the forthcoming time. The second one crossflows as a continuous stream into the first one., they sufficiently differ from each other First of all the first model is unique and categorical whereas the second one can rely only on extrapolation with either probability measure.". An outcome is picked up out of possible predictable outcome, and an action is programmed with only reference to the outcome. The notion which N.A. Bernstein denoted with the "extrapolation" definition, nowadays defined as "probabilistic forecasting" of the highest nerve activity in psychology and physiology.

So, SA in all its kinds is provided by means of complex mechanism of the human nerve activity. Processes of comprehensions, keeping in memory, advance reflection serve as internal mechanisms, which are necessary to realize an activity of the primary operating mechanism of speech, which is defined by N.I. Zhinkin as an unity of two links - the mechanism of words composition out of elements and composition of phrase-announcements out of words. Psychological and speech mechanisms are complex multilink formation, each of whose links are tightly related with others.

General forms of speech activity.

Speech activity is provided with such kinds as speaking, listening, writing ability and reading (I.A. Zimnaya). These forms of SA are represented as main forms of people communication in verbal intercommunicating.

According to the opinion of I.A. Zimnaya, the definition of translation as a form of SA isn't self-obvious. At any rate, it can't be graded as a main form of SA, because it isn't directly related with neither forming processes and thought formulating (as a subject of SA), nor activity due to its analysis and processing. It mainly provides a possibility of joint speech activity of people, speaking and writing in different languages (e.g. using different system of language signs in speech communications).

Especially we should mention such a form of conscious human activity as thinking ability. I.A. Zimnaya says that thinking ability is lawfully denoted as a SA form, if it is considered as a peculiar kind of intercommunication, communication of a human with himself. However unique grading of thinking ability as a form of speech activity, in our opinion, is not quite lawfully. The simplest, but unprejudiced analysis of thinking process indicates that it's concerned equally with as speech activity (particularly, generation and perception processes of speech statements) so thinking processes of analytic synthesis human activity. Interpretation of thinking process in contemporary psychology also provides nonverbal, so-called non-vocal forms of its implementation (on basis of visual efficient and visual figurative thinking). Although non-verbal approaches of thinking process realization (in comparison with approaches of speech thinking) in analytic synthesis of human activity are not ranked so high (as major psychologist think, not more then 10%), it can't be ignored completely. Hence thinking process ought to be considered as an approach of speech-thinking, but not as person's speech activity. With references to the conditions and forms of realization of SA, thinking process, is directly related with internal human speech. According to the conception by I.A. Zimnaya, thinking process often precedes main forms of personal communication with other people (speaking, listening, reading and writing ability), by carrying out a role of mental "draft", preparation of speech activity "in internal plan", self-examination of execution correctness of such SA forms as speaking and writing ability.

All kinds of speech activity have many common things and at the same time differ from each other according to several parameters. Due to I.A Zimnaya, the most important parameters are:

a) the nature of verbal (speech) intercommunication;

b) the role of speech activity in verbal intercommunication;

c) the direction of SA to receive or to send messages;

d) the link with means of thought formation and formulation;

e) the nature of outer expression;

f) the nature of feedback, enabled in SA processes.

Let's consider distinctive features of various forms of speech activity on the assumption of these parameters.:

1. According to the nature of speech intercommunication, SA can be divided into forms, realizing verbal communication, and forms, realizing written communication. Speaking and listening fall into first category. Exactly these forms of SA, in the first instance, develop in ontogenesis as realization approaches of personal communication with other people. A human has heritable predisposition to these forms of SA ("readiness"). It is based on the following points.

First of all, people have a unique specific apparatus to realize psychological intellectual activity ( the outcome of which is - SA), namely availability of cerebral hemispheres of the cerebral cortex. The highest (cortical) sections of cerebrum, providing human ability to become proficient in speech activity, have been already formed to a considerable extent (approximately at two-thirds) by birth moment. Its intensive formation take place for the first year of a baby life, so-called "pre-speech period" of SA formation, and by the moment of acquiring expressive outer speech, cerebrum cortex have already been formed as morphofunctional thing to a considerable extent.

Secondly, "heritable readiness" is determined by a special structure of individual anatomic parts of human organism, "responsible for acquiring of sounding articulate speech" and taken after "the peripheral speech system". By the moment of a baby birth, this speech system have formed to a considerable extent, and during the "pre-speech" period (the first year of life), its "psychic physiological tuning" takes place. "Breakage" of formation of specified structural systems of speech activity in the pre-natal development period or during the childbirth, always brings to the breaches of speech formation (SA). Therefore diagnosing a condition of the peripheral speech system and a neurophysiologic inspection along with psychological-pedagogic "testing" certainly are included to the program of complex special-pedagogic (logopaedics) examinations.

Reading and writing ability belong to the second forms of speech activity. These forms of SA are being formed on the basis of two first ones - speaking and listening (writing ability unseldom is defined as the reflection of spoken language "in written form"). By being secondary ones due to appearing, reading and writing abilities represent more complex forms of SA. The pedagogical practice indicates that to possess this kinds of SA a special purposeful training (systemic education according to the specified program) is necessary .

– According to the role carried out during the communication process, forms of SA are divided to reactive and initial ones. Speaking and writing ability are initial processes of speech communication, which stimulate listening and reading. Listening and reading act as responsive reactive processes, and, at the same time, they are necessary conditions of processes of speaking and writing ability. I.A Zimnaya pays our attention on the fact that listening and speaking in the psychological view are as active as initial forms ofSA. In the regular version, they represent processes of "internal psychological activity". The last circumstance has an important meaning in "the methodical plan" and must be taken into account by correction pedagogues who work with children, having problems in development.

According to the direction of speech activity, provided by person, to receive or to send speech messages, forms of SA are defined as receptive ones (e.g. based on perception processes, "receptions") and productive ones. By means of productive forms of SA (speaking, writing ability), a person provides the creation and sending of a speech message. By means of receptive forms of SA (listening, reading), the receiving and further processing of a speech message are provided. These two pairs of SA's forms differs among themselves according to approaches of its psychological-physiological arrangement. While providing receptive forms of SA, first of all, acoustic and optic analyzers operate, in productive ones speech-motive and speech-acoustic analyzers are mainly equipped. Receptive forms of SA in many respects are defined by a condition and particulars of acoustic and optic perception, but productive ones are defined by a condition and a development grade of the motion sphere.

- Different forms of speech activity suggest different ways of formation and formulation of a thought (the subject of SA), various forms of arrangement of speech communication and appropriate speech forms. There are three forms, according to I.A. Zimnaya's definition, which are outer verbal, outer writing and internal speech. Speech, being mainly a facility and a form of speech, provides this function by means of various kinds and forms of speech. Three main speech forms can be distinguished:

1) verbal (outer speech) - expressive (colloquial) speech and impressive speech (e.g. perception and speech comprehension);

2) written speech, including writing and reading abilities;

3) internal speech, providing and mediating both first two forms of speech, which are verbal and written ones.

At the same time, thinking can be considered as a process of thought formation by means of internal speech, speaking and writing abilities as outer approaches of formation and formulation of a thought in verbal and written ways of communication. (Writing ability serves to fixing purposes of written ways, and sometimes verbal ways of formation and formulation of a thought.)

The main forms of verbal expressive speech are monologic, dialogic and group speech (polylogue), which can be defined with the common notion "spontaneous speech". Indicated kinds and forms of speech "constitute" live colloquial speech. However there are such forms of verbal speech, which don't take the direct part in colloquial speech, although they are its essential conditions. It's repeatable and so-called nominative speech.

– Similar forms of speech activity differ from each other according to the character of feedback, realizing these processes. So in both productive forms of SA (speaking and writing abilities) nerve-muscular feedback is realized from organ-performer (an articulation device of a writing hand ) to cerebrum section, "organizing" the program of this activity. This feedback (by mechanism of "reverse afferentation" ) executes the function of internal control and adjusyment. At the same time in regulating writing abilities at initial stages of its comprehension by children both forms of muscle control take part (internal "scoring" of a word which is planned to be written or its pronunciation in outer speech and afferent nervous impulses from arm muscles, executing both motions).

Alongside with an internal feedback productive kinds of SA are regulated also by an external feedback (acoustical perception). In both receiptive kinds of SA - hearing and reading - the feedback is carried out mainly on internal channels of the semantic control and the semantic analysis, its mechanism is still insufficiently studied and clear. If during reading the feedback effect can be noticed in regressive movements of eyes and pauses of look fixing, at hearing this effect in general doesn't observed and controlled by internal nervously-muscular communication. It defines great complexity of management and a data structure of kinds of SA. Special experimental researches (L.A.Chistovich, А.Н. Sokolov, V.I.Beltjukov, etc.) established, that the feedback mechanism of speaking process is used in receiptive kinds of SA, first of all in hearing processes. It has been established, that the feedback mechanism of speaking process is used and in receiptive kinds of SA, first of all in hearing processes. During perception of speech "motor-speaking activity" is manifested in two basic forms: in increase of a muscular tone in peripheral organs (mainly articulation) of the speech device and in the form of specific micromovements of these bodies (first of all movements of language). According to "the kinematic scheme" these micromovements almost completely correspond to movements of articulation bodies of speaker, whose speech the listener perceives. Thus, listener as though reproduces (in internal motor speaking plan) after the speaker his speech statement. Such, minimally delayed reproduction of perceived speech provides its more exact and full perception. Experts, who deal with children's speech formation (or its restoration at adults), must consider this feature of process of hearing as kind of SA. Here it is possible to allocate two basic aspects.

First, a methodical substantiation of use of loud and whispered pronunciation of the text during reading, repetition of the speech statement for the best perception of the turned speech.

Secondly - interpretation of "phenomenon" of a correct pronunciation not only from the point of view of conformity to phonetic norms of the native language, but also from the point of view of a qualitative level of formation of universal psychology physiological mechanisms of "feedback", which provides realization of speech activity. The Logopaedist in his correctional work should make a start from following methodical position: the better the child speaks, the better he perceives the speech of people addressed to him.

All kinds of speech activity differ from each other according to the character of external expressiveness. Speaking and writing act as external clearly defined processes of creation and expression of a mental problem (and also transfers of the information) for others. Hearing and reading (in its typical variant of reading «silent reading ») are externally not expressed - by language means - processes of internal mental activity. This circumstance, must be considered by correctional teachers during lessons with children having deviations in development. The constant ("continuous") monitoring by teacher the speech activity of hearing and reading can be carried out by means of adjusting references and the instructions, "specifying" questions, the educational and game tasks, activating children's attention and perception process, etc.

The analysis of qualitative features of the basic kinds of SA shows, that this activity in all cases is carried out by two subjects: on the one hand, speaking and writing (the individual who is carrying out an initial, productive kinds of SA), and with another - listening and reading (the person perceiving and analyzing speech, speech statements speaking or writing).

At the same time for speech activity in all its kinds there is a number of general characteristics. According to concept I.А Ziminya such characteristic are:

1) the structural organization including phase or level structure and operational structure;

2) the subject (psychological) content;

3) the unity of the internal and external parts;

4) unity of its content and realization forms.

The major characteristic of SA is the unity of the internal and external maintenance - the external executive, realizing part and internal, externally not observable part.

Recently the feature of speech formation in ontogenesis were studied by many researchers - psychologists, linguists, teachers, defektologists, physiologists, representatives of other sciences within the framework of which speech activity was studied from various positions. Among works of domestic scientists it is necessary to name, first of all such researchers as L.S. Vygotsky, D.B. Elkonin, S.L. Rubinstein, F.A. Sohin, G.L. Rozengard, P.M. Boskis, etc. In research works of scientists on linguistics of children's speech the certain sequence of speech formation was defined: from a stage of babble till seven-nine years (A.N. Gvozdev, N.I.Lepskaja, S.N.Tsejtlin, A.M.Shahnarovich).

In psycholinguistic laws of speech activity's formation in ontogenesis are the subject of special research works; recently they have made separate area of this science – developmental psycholinguistics. For some decades of existence of psycholinguistics in different scientific schools several theoretical concepts were worked out in which from the psycholinguistic positions were identify common patterns of first language acquisition and development of child's skills of speech activity.

The most objective and scientifically proved concept about laws of formation of speech activity in ontogenesis, in our opinion, is the theoretical model developed by A.A. Leontiev. In his works the detailed critical analysis of psycholinguistic models of speech ontogenesis, developed by foreign scientists.

Ontogenesis of linguistic ability represents the most complicated interaction, on the one hand, process of dialogue of adults with the child, on the other hand - development of child's subjective and cognitive activity.

Periodization of speech development. Characteristics of the successive stages of speech development in childhood

In the psycholinguistic concepts of «speech ontogenesis» A.A. Leontiev leans on methodological approaches of outstanding linguists and psychologists of XIX-XX centuries – V. Humboldt, P.O. Yakobson, L.S. Vygotsky, V.V.Vinogradova, A.N.Gvozdev, etc. As one of basic conceptual positions A.A. Leontiev points out the following statement of V. Humboldt: « Children language acquisition is not an adaptation of words, their folding in memories and revival by means of speech, but development of linguistic abilities in years and exercises».

Process of speech activity formation (also acquisition of the native language system) in ontogenesis in the concept of «speech ontogenesis» A.A. Leontiev subdivides into a number of the successive periods, or "stages":

1-st - preparatory (from the moment of a birth till 1 year);

2-nd – pre-preschool (from 1 year till 3 years);

3-rd - preschool (from 3 till 7 years);

4-th - school (from 7 till 17 years).

The first stage of speech formation lasts for first three years of child's life. Development of children's speech till three years (according to the accepted in psychology traditional approach), is subdivided into three basic stages:

1) pre-speaking stage (the first year of life) in which the periods of buzz and babble are distinguished.

2) the stage of primary development of language (pregrammar) - the second year of a life and

3) the stage of grammar mastering (the third year of a life).

A.A. Leontev specifies, that time frameworks of these stages are extremely divergent (especially to three years); besides in development of children's speech we can distinguish the acceleration – a shift of age characteristics on earlier age stages.

Language, being means of realization of SA as it was marked above, represents system of special signs and rules of their combination. Besides the internal maintenance signs on language have also the external form - sound and writing. The child begins development of language with development of the sound form of language sign's expression.

Laws of the speech phonetic part's formation in ontogenesis of speech activity were an object of research of many authors: P.M. Boskis, A.N. Gvozdev, G.A. Case, F.А Ray, etc. Data of these researches are generalized and analysed by E.M. Vereschagin, D. Slobina, A.A.Leontev, A.M. Shahronovich, and others. We shall specify some of these laws.

Development of an articulation of speech sounds – is very complicated problem, though the child starts "to practise" in pronouncing sounds already from one and a half-months, for mastering utter speaking skills he needs four-five years. All normally developing children have a certain sequence in development of the language sound form and in development of pre-speech reactions: buzz, "pipe", babble and its «complicated variant» - so called, modulated babble.

When a child is born, his appearance he marks by crying. Cry – is the first voice reaction of the child. Child's crying stir up activity of articulatory, voice, respiratory parts of speech apparatus.

For the child of the first year of a life «speech training» in pronouncing sounds is some kind of game, involuntary action which gives a pleasure to the child. The child persistently, during many minutes, can repeat the same sound and thus practise in its articulation.

The period of buzz is noted in all children. Already in 1,5 months, and then - in 2-3months the child shows voice reactions in reproduction of such sounds as [a-a-bm-bm, bl, u-gu, bu etc.] they later become basis for formation of articulate speech. Children of all nations of the world are similar in buzz (under the phonetic characteristics).

In 4 months sound combinations become complicated: appear new, type of sounds [ fn-agn, lya-alya, rn, etc.] Child while buzzing plays with his articulation apparatus, sometimes repeats the same sound, getting pleasure from it. Child usually buzz when he is dry, fed and healthy. When one of relatives is near and starts " talking" to the child, he with pleasure listens to sounds and as though "picks up" them. On a background of such positive emotional contact child starts to imitate adults, tries to diversify his voice expressive intonation.

According to of some experimental researches, by 6 months sounds, pronounced by children, start to remind sounds of their native language. It has been checked up in the following psycholinguistics experiment. The examinee, were carriers of different languages (English, German, Spanish, Chinese) listened to the records of crying, buzzing and babbling of children who were brought up in corresponding language environments. Only at listening recordings of six-seven-mouth children examinees could distinguish with the big degree of reliability sounds of native language for them.

During buzz (the pronouncing of separate sounds modulated by a voice, under the characteristics corresponding vowels) the sound part of children's speech does not have four major features inherent in speech sounds:

(a) correlation;

(b) the "fixed" localization (a "stable" articulation);

(c) constant articulation positions;

(d) relevance, i.e. conformity of these articulations orthopedic (phonetic) norms of the native language.

Only during babble (which is expressed in pronouncing combinations of the sounds corresponding a syllable, and various on volume and structure of syllabic numbers) these normative features of sound pronunciation gradually start to be shown. During this period the «syntagmatic organization» of speech is formed: «structure» of a syllable is formed (occurrence of «protoconsonant» and «protovowel»), division of a stream of speech into syllabic quantums which indicates the formation of child's physiological mechanism of syllable formation.

2-3 months child's speech activity receives new "quality". There appears a kind of original equivalent of a word, namely - the closed sequence of syllables incorporated by accenting, melody and unity of way of articulation bodies. This structurally organized sound production (Pseudo-words), as a rule, «chorus»: "words" have an accent on first "syllable", irrespective to the native language of the child. Pseudo-words does not have denotation (the first and basic component of value of a high-grade word) and serve only for expression of this or that «vital» to need or yet completely realized "estimated" attitude to an external world.

At normal development of the child in 6-7 months «buzz» gradually passes in babble. At this time children say syllables like [ba-ba, dja-dja, da-da, etc.], correlating them with the certain surrounding people. During dialogue with adults the child gradually tries to imitate intonation, rate, a rhythm, melody to reproduce numbers of syllables; the volume of babble words which the child tries to repeat for adults extends.

In 8,5-9 months babble already has the modulated character with various intonations. But not all children develop in this process is equally: decrease in acoustical function brings to the "attenuation" of buzz, and this can be granted as diagnostic symptom.

In 9-10 months there is a quantum leap in child's speech development. There appears first "normative", "subjectively relevant" words (corresponding lexical system of the native language). The circle of articulations within two-three months does not extend, it is equal as there is no reference of sounds to new subjects or phenomena.

In 10-12 months child uses all nouns (which is the only part of speech presented in child's "grammar") uses in the Nominative case in a singular form. Later child tries to connect two words in a phrase (Mum, give!) (approximately in one and a half year). Then the imperative mood of verbs is acquired (Go-go! Give-give!). Traditionally it is considered, that when child uses words in plural forms mastering of grammar begins. Depending on individual distinctions in rates of psychophysical and cognitive development all children differently move ahead in language (LINGUISTIC) development.

"Suspension" of phonetic development during this period of «speech ontogenesis» (for 3-4 months) is connected with substantial growth of number of words of the active dictionary and, that is especially important, with the advent of the first presence of real generalizations, which according to L.S. Vygotsky correspond, under the concept of «syncretic coupling of subjects to casual attributes ». In child speech appears a language sign. The word starts to act as structural unit of language and speech. « If earlier separate pseudo-words arose on a background semantically and articulation not differentiated babble speech now all child speech becomes verbal ».

Child's mastering of sound sequence in a word is a result of development of conditional communications' system. The child imitates by borrows certain sound combinations (variants of sound pronounce) from surrounding people's speech. Mastering language as complete system of signs, the child masters sounds at once as phonemes. For example, the phoneme [р] can be said by the child differently - in a normative variant. But in Russian these distinctions are not essential to dialogue because do not conduct to formation of different words on sense or different forms of a word.

According to several researchers, the phonemic hearing is formed at very early age. At first the child learns to separate world around sounds (a door scratch, rain noise, miaow of a cat) from sounds of the speech turned to him. The child actively searches for a sound designation of elements of surrounding world, catching them from lips of adults. However, he uses the borrowed funds in adult phonetic language "in his own way."

The presence of such laws allows suggests to say that the child is in the process of language acquisition creates his own intermediate language system. Subsequently, the voicing (defined by sonority voices) becomes differential contrast of the speech sound feature that allows your child to double its supply of classes of consonants. Child can not borrow such rules from adults. It is not because child cannot pronounce, say, the sound [d] - he knows how to pronounce it, but thinks that the sound can only occur at the beginning of the word. Later, this "system of rules" is corrected and the child "brings" it to the adult's system of language. When we talk about the phonetic part of speech, it is clearl, thatchild must not be able to pronounce sound adequately to perceive its differential signs. This is illustrated by the following example of dialogue with an adult and a child:

- What is your name?

- Malina ( Marina).

- Malina?

- No, Malina.

- Well, I say - Malina!

- Malina, Malina!

- Oh, so your name is Marina?

- Yes, Malina!

These examples shows that a child who cannot pronounce the sound [r], adequately differentiates it from the opposition sound. Therefore he rejects adult imitation of the pronunciation though himself can't express differentiation in pronunciation between correct and incorrect variant.

According to the facts mentioned above, we conclude that first of all child masters purely external (i.e, sound) the structure of the sign, which subsequently, in the process of operating with signs, causes the child to its correct functional use.

In the initial period of language acquisition the scope of bubble and meaningful words in the active vocabulary of the child expands. This stage is characterized by increase of child's attention to the surrounding speech, in this period significantly increases the activity of child's speech. Words which child uses usually "ambiguous", "semantically polyphonic", simultaneously by one word or word combination child represents several concepts: the "bang" - has fallen, lies, stumbled, "give" - give me, give, offer, "Bibi" - walks, rides, car, airplane, and bicycle.

After one and a half years growth of child's active vocabulary can be noticed, there appears first sentences consisting of the whole words and amorphous word-roots.

Pedagogical observations show that children do not immediately acquire correct reproduction of the language signs: some language features assimilate earlier, others later. The easier word's pronunciation and structure, easier child remembers it. During this period, all of the following factors play particularly important role:

a) imitation (reproduction) of surrounding speech;

b) formation of a complex system of functional (psychophysical) mechanisms for implementation of speech;

c) conditions in which the child was brought up (the psychological situation in the family, caring attitude to the child, full speech environment, adequate communication with adults).

Characteristic indicator of children's active speech development at this stage is the gradual assimilation of grammatical categories.

In this period we can point out a separate "sub stages" - physiological grammar acquisition period - "when a child uses in communication grammatical sentences without proper registration of their constituent words and phrases": Mom, give me a dolly ("Mom, give me the doll "), Katy no ka ("Katy there is no cars "). In normal speech development, this period lasts from several months to six months.

In preschool period of speech development we can see various phonetic infringements children's speech: they pass many sounds of a native language (don't say absolutely), rearrange, replace sounds with more simple on an articulation sounds. These lacks of speech (which are defined as «physiological speech disorders») explain age imperfection of the articulation apparatus, and also an insufficient level of phonemic perception's development (perception and differentiation of phonemes). At the same time at this period coomonly seen reproduction by children of intonation-rhythmic, melodic contours of words.

N.S.Zhukov noticed that the quantum leap in development of child's speech occurs from the moment when he can correctly construct simple sentences and change words in cases, numbers, persons and times. By the end of the preschool period children communicate among themselves and people surrounding them, using simple sentences the simplest grammatical categories of speech.

Parents and educators must know that the optimum and intensive period in child's speech development is the 3rd year of life. During this period all functions of the central nervous system, which provide the formation of system of conditioned-reflex communications, more easily amenable to pedagogical influence. If conditions of development are adverse at this time, formation of speech activity can delay in development or even proceed in the "deformed" variant.

Many parents evaluate their child's speech development only according to the accuracy sound pronunciation . Such approach is incorrect because the rate of children's speech formation is a timely development of the child's ability to use their vocabulary in speech communication with others in a different sentence structures. At 2,5-3 years children use sentences of three-four words using different grammatical forms (go - goes – we go – I don't go; doll – to a doll - a doll).

Pre-school stage "of the speech ontogenesis is characterized by the most intensive children's linguistic development. Often a qualitative leap in expanding of active and passive vocabulary can be seen. Child begins to use all parts of speech in the structure of formed during this period linguistic ability gradually form habits of word formation.

The process of language acquisition proceeds so rapidly that after three years, children with a good level of speech development freely communicate not only with the help of grammatically well-formed simple sentences, but some types of complex sentences. At this time, an active vocabulary of children reaches 3-4 thousand words, formed by more differentiated use of words in accordance with their values, children master the skill of inflection and word formation.

In the preschool period, phonetic aspects of speech is formed actively, children master the ability to reproduce the words of varying syllabic structure and sound pronounce. Even if there exist individual errors, they usually can be found in the most difficult in pronunciation words, infrequent or unfamiliar words. Adults have only once correct child and to give a sample of correct pronunciation and organize a small "speech practice" in the normative pronunciation of words as a child quickly introduce a new word in their own independent speech.

By the end of the preschool period of speech development children normally acquire phrase speech, which is phonetically, lexically and grammatically correctly issued. Deviations from orthoepy norms of oral speech (separate "phonetic" and "grammatical" errors) have no fixed character and at corresponding pedagogical "updating" by adults are quickly eliminated.

Sufficient level of phonemic hearing allows children to learn the skills of sound analysis and synthesis, which is a prerequisite for learning literacy in the period of schooling.

Analysis of the formation of different sides of verbal activity in children from the standpoint of psychology and psycholinguistics has a direct bearing on the problem of connected speech during preschool childhood. In preschool period the child's speech as a means of communication with adults and other children is directly related to the specific situation of visual communication. Being realized in dialogue form, it is pronounced situational (caused by a situation of verbal communication) in nature. With the transition to preschool age, the emergence of new activities, new relationships with adults are the differentiation of functions and forms of speech. The child appears form of speech messages in the form of story-monologue about what happened to him is in direct contact with an adult. With the development of independent practice in the child there is a need to formulate their own plan, in the argument about the method to practical action. There is a need for speech, which is clear from the context of the speech - a connected speech context. The transition to this form of speech is determined primarily by assimilation of grammatical forms deployed statements. Simultaneously, and the further complication of the dialogical form of speech, both in terms of its content and in terms of increased language capabilities of the child, the activity and its involvement in the live speech communication.

Features of the formation of coherent monologic speech of preschool children with normal language development are considered by LP Fedorenko, FA Sokhin, O. Ushakova and etc. Researchers note that at the age of 2-3 the elements of monologue speech appear in the utterances of normally developing children. From 5-6 years child begins to acquire rapidly monologic speech, as by this time the process of phonemic speech development is completed and children mostly learn morphological, grammatical and syntactical structures of the native language (A. Gvozdev, GA Fomichev, V. C. Lotarev, O. Ushakov, etc.). From the age of 4 children acquire such types of monologue speech as a description (a simple description of the subject) and the narrative, and in the seventh year of life - short arguments. Quotes from children of five or six years now quite informative, it has certain logic of presentation. Often, their stories are full of fantasy, desire to invent episodes, which they did not have in their life experience.

However, a complete acquisition of monologue speech by children is possible only in conditions of aimed education. To the necessary conditions of successful monologic speech acquisition the development of special reasons, the need for use of monologic utterances; formation of different types of control and self-absorption of the syntax are include. Acquisition of monologic speech is possible regulatory, planning functions of speech appear (Vygotsky, Luria, A. Markov, etc.). Studies of a number of authors have shown that preschool age children can learn skills of planning monologic utterances (L.R. Golubeva, N.A. Orlanova, etc.) This, in turn, is largely determined by the gradual formation of child's inner speech. According to A.A. Lublin and other authors, the transition of foreign "egocentric" speech to the internal normally occurs in 4 to 5 years.

It should be noted that the acquisition of connected speech is possible only if there exists a certain level of vocabulary and grammatical structure of speech formation.

Research works of A.N. Gvozdev show that seven year old child masters speech as a full means of communication.

In the school period of speech development improvement of coherent speech continues. Children consciously learn grammatical rules of free speech processing, fully master the sound analysis and synthesis. At this stage writing speech is formed.

The child's speech development - is a complex, diverse and fairly lengthy process. Children do not immediately take possession of the lexical-grammatical system, inflection, word formation, sound pronunciation and syllabic structure. Some groups of linguistic signs acquired much later than others. Therefore, at various stages of children's speech development, some linguistic elements are already assimilated, others – acquired partly. At the same time mastering speech phonemic structure is closely related to the progressive formation of a common vocabulary and grammatical structure of the native language. In general, the ontogenesis of linguistic ability is a complex interaction with on the one hand, the process of adult-child communication and the process of subjective and cognitive activity development, on the other.

Theories of first language acquisition

Everyone at some time has witnessed the remarkable ability of children to communicate. As small babies, children babble and coo and cry and vocally or nonvocally send an extraordinary number of messages and receive even more messages. As they reach the end of their first year, children make spe­cific attempts to imitate words and speech sounds they hear around them, and about this time they utter their first "words." By about 18 months of age, these words have multiplied considerably and are beginning to appear in two-word and three-word "sentences"—commonly referred to as "tele­graphic" utterances—such as "allgone milk," "bye-bye Daddy," "gimme toy," and so forth. The production tempo now begins to increase as more and more words are spoken every day and more and more combinations of two- and three-word sentences are uttered. By about age three, children can comprehend an incredible quantity of linguistic input; their speech capacity mushrooms as they become the generators of nonstop chattering and incessant conversation, language thereby becoming a mixed blessing for those around them! This fluency continues into school age as children internalize increasingly complex structures, expand their vocabulary, and sharpen communicative skills. At school age, children not only learn what to say but what not to say as they learn the social functions of their language.

How can we explain this fantastic journey from that first anguished cry at birth to adult competence in a language? From the first word to tens of thousands? From telegraphese at eighteen months to the compound complex, cognitively precise, socioculturally appropriate sentences just a few short years later? These are the sorts of questions that theories of language acquisition attempt to answer.

In principle, one could adopt one of two polarized positions in the study of first language acquisition. Using the schools of thought referred to in the previous chapter, an extreme behavioristic position would claim that children come into the world with a tabula rasa, a clean slate bearing no preconceived notions about the world or about language, and that these children are then shaped by their environment and slowly conditioned through various schedules of reinforcement. At the other constructivist extreme is the position that makes not only the rationalist/cognitivist claim that children come into this world with very specific innate knowledge, predispositions, and biological timetables, but that children learn to func­tion in a language chiefly through interaction and discourse.

These positions represent opposites on a continuum, with many pos­sible positions in between. Now we are going to analyse main positions in the study of first language acquisition.

The theory of imitation

The "oldest" one - is the theory of imitation. It has adherents even nowadays. The essence of this theory: the child hears speech samples around and imitates these designs.

This theory, in our opinion, is not convincing enough and "exhaustive". We give only a few objections. Even from a large mass of diverse mono-sentences, which adults use, child among the first sentences, almost naturally, "selects" statements like "Mom", "Daddy," " Grandmom " "Auntie", "Uncle," "Father," "Give», «Take» and some others. On this objection the adepts of the Imitation Theory give the following argument: first words, sentences reportedly consist of the most common in the articular pronunciation sounds and the articulation of these sounds, the child has the ability to perceive visually.

However, until now there is no clear definition of criteria of sounds' articulatory complexity (simplicity) and their hierarchy according to this feature. There is no evidence to suggest that, for example, the sound [d] more difficult or easier to sound [b], although the latter usually comes before the sound [d]; just as there are no grounds to assert that the sound [l] easier or harder then the sound [r] , [f] easier or harder then [h], etc.

Of course, it does not depend on sounds' articulatory "simplicity" or "complexity", especially in their "observability" and "unobservability" (blind children without other anomalies, learn the sounds in the same sequence as others). The point is in functional significance for the formation of language phonetic(or rather - phonemic) sounds system. Sounds [a] [a], [i]; [m], [p], [b], [t>], [t], [d], [d>], [n] comes first, not because they are articulatory "easier" then others, but because they are mostly pronounced ([a] - [o] [p] - [a] [p] - [m] [p] - [t]; [t>] - [d>];, etc.) and provide the necessary basis for the formation of other sounds (or rather - phonemes). With these basic sounds (phonemes) child is able to build the first words-sentences codified language to communicate, seeking to satisfy their needs (biological or social).

Numerous targeted surveillance of a language ontogenesis, and experimental studies have shown invalidity of Imitation Theory (275, 278, 284, etc.). In particular, it was proved that children usually do not use those sentences (syntactic structures) which are heard from mother. If the "average" child of 18-20 months, is offered to repeat the word "doll", "sit", "on", "table", he will do it (of course, with a particular pronu

nciation of most words). However, having the ability to repeat isolated words, child can not repeat the sentence "The doll sits on the table". He will say: "Doll" or "Doll sits", or "Dolly table" and not otherwise, because in this age of syntactic and semantic components of its linguistic mechanism "work" in that way, and any kinds of imitation can not change this mechanism (to special events children's "repeating" phrases are include). In addition, words which child repeats only at the insistence of adults, as a rule, would not be included into child's independent speech.

Behavioristic Approaches

Language is a fundamental part of total human behavior, and behaviorists examined it as such and sought to formulate consistent theories of first language acquisition. The behavioristic approach focused on the immedi­ately perceptible aspects of linguistic behavior—the publicly observable responses—and the relationships or associations between those responses and events in the world surrounding them. A behaviorist might consider effective language behavior to be the production of correct responses to stimuli. If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual, or conditioned. Thus children produce linguistic responses that are rein­forced. This is true of their comprehension as well as production responses, although to consider comprehension is to wander just a bit out of the publicly observable realm. One learns to comprehend an utterance by responding appropriately to it and by being reinforced for that response.

One of the best-known attempts to construct a behavioristic model of linguistic behavior was embodied in B.F. Skinner's classic, Verbal Behavior (1957). Skinner was commonly known for his experiments with animal behavior, but he also gained recognition for his contributions to education through teaching machines and programmed learning (Skinner 1968). Skinner's theory of verbal behavior was an extension of his general theory of learning by operant conditioning. Operant conditioning refers to con­ditioning in which the organism (in this case, a human being) emits a response, or operant (a sentence or utterance), without necessarily observable stimuli; that operant is maintained (learned) by reinforcement (for example, a positive verbal or nonverbal response from another person). If a child says "want milk" and a parent gives the child some milk, the operant is reinforced and, over repeated instances, is conditioned. According to Skinner, verbal behavior, like other behavior, is controlled by its consequences. When consequences are rewarding, behavior is main­tained and is increased in strength and perhaps frequency. When conse­quences are punishing, or when there is a total lack of reinforcement, the behavior is weakened and eventually extinguished.

Skinner's theories attracted a number of critics, not the least among them Noam Chomsky (1959), who penned a highly critical review of Verbal Behavior. Some years later, however, Kenneth MacCorquodale (1970) published a reply to Chomsky's review in which he eloquently defended Skinner's points of view. And so the battle raged on. Today vir­tually no one would agree that Skinner's model of verbal behavior ade­quately accounts for the capacity to acquire language, for language development itself, for the abstract nature of language, or for a theory of meaning. A theory based on conditioning and reinforcement is hard-pressed to explain the fact that every sentence you speak or write—with a few trivial exceptions—is novel, never before uttered either by you or by anyone else! These novel utterances are nevertheless created by the speaker and processed by the hearer.

In an attempt to broaden the base of behavioristic theory, some psy­chologists proposed modified theoretical positions. One of these positions was mediation theory, in which meaning was accounted for by the claim that the linguistic stimulus (a word or sentence) elicits a "mediating" response that is self-stimulating. Charles Osgood (1953, 1957) called this self-stimulation a "representational mediation process," a process that is really covert and invisible, acting within the learner. It is interesting that mediation theory thus attempted to account for abstraction by a notion that reeked of "mentalism"—a cardinal sin for dyed-in-the-wool behaviorists! In fact, in some ways mediation theory was really a rational/cognitive theory masquerading as behavioristic.

Mediation theories still left many questions about language unan­swered. The abstract nature of language and the relationship between meaning and utterance were unresolved. All sentences have deep struc­tures—the level of underlying meaning that is only manifested overtly by surface structures. These deep structures are intricately interwoven in a person's total cognitive and affective experience. Such depths of language were scarcely plumbed by mediational theory.

Yet another attempt to account for first language acquisition within a behavioristic framework was made by Jenkins and Palermo (1964). While admitting that their conjectures were "speculative" and "prema­ture," the authors attempted to synthesize notions of generative linguistics and mediational approaches to child language.They claimed that the child may acquire frames of a linear pattern of sentence elements and learn the stimulus-response equivalences that can be substituted within each frame; imitation was an important, if not essential, aspect of establishing stimulus-response associations. But this theory, too, failed to account for the abstract nature of language, for the child's creativity, and for the inter­active nature of language acquisition.

It would appear that the rigor of behavioristic psychology, with its emphasis on empirical observation and the scientific method, only began to explain the miracle of language acquisition. It left untouched genetic and interactionist domains that could be explored only by approaches that probed more deeply.

The theory of innate language knowledge

The theory of innate linguistic knowledge, rather "young" and popular in the last three or four decades. Supporters of this theory (239, 275, etc.), believe that child is born with certain genetically determined knowledge "of language universals: universals of semantic, syntactic, lexical, phonetic and other". Society also plays a role of a "push" or "activator" to "launch" of innate linguistic mechanism.

It seems that the idea of an innate capacity for various kinds of symbolization (landmark designation) in this theory is productive. Probably, also productive is a thought of innate universals of language, especially since some of them (at least some semantic and syntactic "rules") associated with mental universal (thinking, emotions, etc.).

At the same time, features of different languages and different cultures, "social environment" where child acquires language, show us the uniqueness of language acquisition as a whole system of assimilation and identity of its individual components (syntactic, lexical, phonetic, etc.), by children of different nationalities. Consequently, not only congenital factors determine the ontogenesis of language and speech activities in general. Considerable role in child's speech development belongs to social factors, in particular, the specifics of the language which child adopts.

The Nativist Approach

Nativist approaches to the study of child language asked some of those deeper questions. The term nativist is derived from the fundamental asser­tion that language acquisition is innately determined, that we are born with a genetic capacity that predisposes us to a systematic perception of language around us, resulting in the construction of an internalized system of language.

Innateness hypotheses gained support from several sides. Eric Lenneberg (1967) proposed that language is a "species-specific" behavior and that certain modes of perception, categorizing abilities, and other language-related mechanisms are biologically determined. Chomsky (1965) similarly claimed the existence of innate properties of language to explain the child's mastery of a native language in such a short time despite the highly abstract nature of the rules of language.This innate knowledge, according to Chomsky, is embodied in a "little black box" of sorts, a language acquisition device (LAD). McNeill (1966) described LAD as consisting of four innate linguistic properties:

1) the ability to distinguish speech sounds from other sounds in the environment,

2) the ability to organize linguistic data into various classes that can later be refined,

3) knowledge that only a certain kind of linguistic system is possible and that other kinds are not, and

4) the ability to engage in constant evaluation of the developing lin­guistic system so as to construct the simplest possible system out of the available linguistic input.

McNeill and other Chomskyan disciples composed eloquent argu­ments for the appropriateness of the LAD proposition, especially in con­trast to behavioristic, stimulus-response (S-R) theory, which was so limited in accounting for the generativity of child language. Aspects of meaning, abstractness, and creativity were accounted for more adequately. Even though it was readily recognized that the LAD was not literally a cluster of brain cells that could be isolated and neurologically located, such inquiry on the rationalistic side of the linguistic-psychological continuum stimu­lated a great deal of fruitful research.

More recently, researchers in the nativist tradition have continued this line of inquiry through a genre of child language acquisition research that focuses on what has come to be known as Universal Grammar. Positing that all human beings are genetically equipped with abilities that enable them to acquire language, researchers expanded the LAD notion into a system of universal linguistic rules that went well beyond what was origi­nally proposed for the LAD. Universal Grammar (UG) research is attempting to discover what it is that all children, regardless of their environmental stimuli (the language [s] they hear around them) bring to the language acquisition process. Such studies have looked at question formation, nega­tion, word order, discontinuity of embedded clauses, subject deletion, and other grammatical phenomena.

One of the more practical contributions of nativist theories is evident if you look at the kinds of discoveries that have been made about how the system of child language works. Research has shown that the child's language, at any given point, is a legitimate system in its own right. The child's linguistic development is not a process of developing fewer and fewer "incorrect" structures, not a language in which earlier stages have more "mistakes" than later stages. Rather, the child's language at any stage is systematic in that the child is constantly forming hypotheses on the basis of the input received and then testing those hypotheses in speech (and comprehension). As the child's language develops, those hypotheses are continually revised, reshaped, or sometimes abandoned.

Before generative linguistics came into vogue, Jean Berko (1958) demonstrated that children learn language not as a series of separate dis­crete items, but as an integrated system. Using a simple nonsense-word test, Berko discovered that English-speaking children as young as four years of age applied rules for the formation of plural, present progressive, past tense, third singular, and possessives. She found, for example, that if a child saw one "wug" he could easily talk about two "wugs," or if he were pre­sented with a person who knows how to "gling," the child could talk about a person who "glinged" yesterday, or sometimes who "glang."

Nativist studies of child language acquisition were free to construct hypothetical grammars (that is, descriptions of linguistic systems) of child language, although such grammars were still solidly based on empirical data. These grammars were largely formal representations of the deep structure—the abstract rules underlying surface output, the structure not overtly manifest in speech. Linguists began to examine child language from early one- and two-word forms of "telegraphese" to the complex language of five- to ten-year-olds. Borrowing one tenet of structural and behavioristic paradigms, they approached the data with few preconceived notions about what the child's language ought to be, and probed the data for internally consistent systems, in much the same way that a linguist describes a language in the "field." The use of a generative framework was, of course, a departure from structural methodology.

The generative model has enabled researchers to take some giant steps toward understanding the process of first language acquisition. The early grammars of child language were referred to as pivot grammars. It was commonly observed that the child's first two-word utterances seemed to manifest two separate word classes, and not simply two words thrown together at random. Consider the following utterances:

My cap All gone milk

That horsie Mommy sock

Linguists noted that the words on the left-hand side seemed to belong to a class that words on the right-hand side generally did not belong to.That is, my could co-occur with cap, horsie, milk, or sock, but not with that or all gone. Mommy is, in this case, a word that belongs in both classes. The first class of words was called "pivot," since they could pivot around a number of words in the second, "open" class. Thus the first rule of the generative grammar of the child was described as follows:

Sentence -> Pivot word + Open word

Research data gathered in the generative framework yielded a multitude of such rules. Some of these rules appear to be grounded in the UG of the child. As the child's language matures and finally becomes adult-like, the number and complexity of generative rules accounting for language com­petence of course boggles the mind.

In subsequent years the generative "rule-governed" model in the Chomskyan tradition has been challenged. The assumption underlying this tradition is that those generative rules, or "items" in a linguistic sense, are connected serially, with one connection between each pair of neurons in the brain. A new "messier but more fruitful picture" (Spolsky 1989: 149) was provided by what has come to be known as the parallel distributed processing (PDP) model (also called connectionism) in which neurons in the brain are said to form multiple connections: each of the 100 billion nerve cells in the brain may be linked to as many as 10,000 of its counter­parts. Thus, a child's (or adult's) linguistic performance may be the conse­quence of many levels of simultaneous neural interconnections rather than a serial process of one rule being applied, then another, then another, and so forth.

A simple analogy to music illustrates this complex notion. Think of an orchestra playing a symphony. The score for the symphony may have, let's say, twelve separate parts that are performed simultaneously. The "sym­phony" of the human brain enables us to process many segments and levels of language, cognition, affect, and perception all at once—in a parallel con­figuration. And so, according to the PDP model, a sentence—which has phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical, semantic, discourse, soci-olinguistic, and strategic properties—is not "generated" by a series of rules (Ney & Pearson 1990; Sokolik 1990). Rather, sentences are the result of the simultaneous interconnection of a multitude of brain cells.

All of these approaches within the nativist framework have made at least three important contributions to our understanding of the first language acquisition process:

1) freedom from the restrictions of the so-called "scientific method" to explore the unseen, unobservable, underlying, abstract lin­guistic structures being developed in the child;

2) systematic description of the child's linguistic repertoire as either rule-governed or operating out of parallel distributed processing capacities; and

3) the construction of a number of potential properties of Universal Grammar.

Functional Approaches

More recently, with an increase in constructivist approaches to the study of language, we have seen a shift in patterns of research. The shift has not been so much away from the generative/cognitive side of the continuum, but perhaps better described as a move even more deeply into the essence of language. Two emphases have emerged:

(a) Researchers began to see that language was one manifestation of the cognitive and affective ability to deal with the world, with others, and with the self;

(b) Moreover, the generative rules that were proposed under the nativistic framework were abstract, formal, explicit, and quite logical, yet they dealt specifically with the forms of language and not with the the deeper functional levels of meaning constructed from social interaction. Examples of forms of language are morphemes, words, sentences, and the rules that govern them. Functions are the meaningful, interactive purposes, within a social (prag­matic) context, that we accomplish with the forms.

Cognition and Language Development

Lois Bloom (1971) cogently illustrated the first issue in her criticism of pivot grammar when she pointed out that the relationships in which words occur in telegraphic utterances are only superficially similar. For example, in the utterance "Mommy sock," which nativists would describe as a sen­tence consisting of a pivot word and an open word, Bloom found at least three possible underlying relations: agent-action (Mommy is putting the sock on), agent-object (Mommy sees the sock), and possessor-possessed (Mommy's sock). By examining data in reference to contexts, Bloom con­cluded that children learn underlying structures, and not superficial word order. Thus, depending on the social context, "Mommy sock" could mean a number of different things to a child. Those varied meanings were inade­quately captured in a pivot grammar approach.

Lewis Carroll aptly captured this characteristic of language in Through the Looking Glass (1872), where Alice argues with Humpty Dumpty about the meanings of words:

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master— that's all."

Bloom's research, along with that of Jean Piaget, Dan Slobin, and others, paved the way for a new wave of child language study, this time cen­tering on the relationship of cognitive development to first language acqui­sition. Piaget (Piaget & Inhelder 1969) described overall development as the result of children's interaction with their environment, with a comple­mentary interaction between their developing perceptual cognitive capac­ities and their linguistic experience. What children learn about language is determined by what they already know about the world. As Gleitman and Wanner (1982) noted in their review of the state of the art in child language research, "children appear to approach language learning equipped with conceptual interpretive abilities for categorizing the world. . . . Learners are biased to map each semantic idea on the linguistic unit word."

Dan Slobin (1971, 1986), among others, demonstrated that in all lan­guages, semantic learning depends on cognitive development and that sequences of development are determined more by semantic complexity than by structural complexity. "There are two major pacesetters to language development, involved with the poles of function and of form: (1) on the functional level, development is paced by the growth of conceptual and communicative capacities, operating in conjunction with innate schemas of cognition; and (2) on the formal level, development is paced by the growth of perceptual and information-processing capacities, operating in conjunction with innate schemas of grammar" (Slobin 1986). Bloom (1976) noted that "an explanation of language development depends upon an explanation of the cognitive underpinnings of language: what chil­dren know will determine what they learn about the code for both speaking and understanding messages." So child language researchers began to tackle the formulation of the rules of the functions of language, and the relationships of the forms of language to those functions.

Social Interaction and Language Development

In recent years it has become quite clear that language functioning extends well beyond cognitive thought and memory structure. Here we see the second, social constructivist emphasis of the functional perspective. Holzman (1984), in her "reciprocal model" of language develop­ment, proposed that "a reciprocal behavioral system operates between the language-developing infant-child and the competent [adult] language user in a socializing-teaching-nurturing role." Some research (Berko-Gleason 1988, Lock 1991) looked at the interaction between the child's language acquisition and the learning of how social systems operate in human behavior. Other investigations (for example, Budwig 1995, Kuczaj 1984) of child language centered on one of the thorniest areas of linguistic research: the function of language in discourse. Since language is used for interactive communication, it is only fitting that one study the commu­nicative functions of language: What do children know and learn about talking with others? about connected pieces of discourse (relations between sentences)? the interaction between hearer and speaker? conver­sational cues? Within such a perspective, the very heart of language—its communicative and pragmatic function—is being tackled in all its vari­ability.

Of interest in this genre of research is the renewed interest in the per­formance level of language. All those overt responses that were so carefully observed by structuralists and hastily weeded out as "performance vari­ables" by generative linguists in their zeal to get at competence have now returned to the forefront. Hesitations, pauses, backtracking, and the like are indeed significant conversational cues. Even some of the contextual cate­gories described by—of all people—Skinner, in Verbal Behavior, turn out to be relevant! The linguist can no longer deal with abstract, formal rules without dealing with all those minutiae of day-to-day performance that were previously set aside in a search for systematicity.

The Social-biological theory

The basic content of social-biological theory is that a child, possessing an innate ability to symbolize (including language), and receiving from adult material of a language, "recycles" it, and with the development actively and independently acquire successive systems "childish" language, gradually bringing them closer to the adults' linguistic system.

The main Conditions necessary for the acquisition of language

Child must have a certain level of formation (maturation) of the nervous system (central and peripheral), sufficient for language acquisition at concrete stage of development. Herewith the following regularity of ontogenesis must be taken into consideration: development as a social phenomenon (in particular, the process of socialization) leads biological maturation. It is known that many brain structures in humans are finally formed only at the time of "early adulthood" (approximately till the age of 21). However, a person takes possession of the language (all of its forms), much earlier than this age, namely: the "nucleus" of oral and the kinetic language at three years, "nucleus" of writing language at the age from eight to ten years. We should not forget that language acquisition requires maturation of well-defined structures of the nervous system and the establishment of certain relationships between them. This situation is confirmed, in particular, different forms of pathology of the nervous system. For example, many children with cerebral paralysis master language as a sign system, although usually have articular disorders, sometimes heavy.

In addition, child's peripheral articular and hearing apparatus should be formed, which allows him to speak and understand directed speech. However, even with significant deformation of the peripheral articular apparatus, the child learns language as a sign system (in this case child expressed disturbances usually occur sound pronunciation and prosody). It is otherwise happens in violation of auditory function. Moderate and severe hearing loss naturally leads to abnormal development of all components of language: not only the phonetic and phonemic, but also semantic and syntactic, lexical, morphological and morph-syntax.

Of course, language learning is largely due to the mastery of the culture (spiritual and material), and above all - of the people whose language child learns. As mentioned above, especially ethnic cultures, countries define certain features of the language.

Necessary condition for language acquisition – is the ability and need to communicate. It is known that children with autism who have extremely limited ability mentioned above develop abnormally, because of this they do not master language at all, or acquire language usually with significant disabilities.

It has been said that child must possess an innate ability to symbolize, also in the language area.

In order to acquire language, the child must receive correct patterns of surrounding speech. Also verbal behavior of surrounding people should be correct: paying attention to child's speech, providing them with an unobtrusive aid in the production of statements, the approval of desire to verbal communication, tactical error correction in speech, etc. Especially we must mention the desire of adults to supplement children's vocabulary. Usually adults surrounding child supplement his vocabulary by so-called nominative vocabulary, by "subjective" words ("Say: home, rooster, machine, male, shoes"), leaving the "aside" predicative words (verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc.). In the center of separate statement, as we know, is a predicate, in the expanded utterance (text) - the system of predicates. Therefore, these words should take the main place in the child's vocabulary.

Finally, one of the most important conditions for language acquisition - is a favorable social environment in which child lives: benevolent attitude toward child, desire to communicate with child, proper education and training. In communication the most important role is given to mother.

After analyzing psycholinguistic research works we distinguished three main stages of native language acquisition:

The first phase (from 0 to 9-10 months). - Assimilation of codified impressive speech (verbal and kinetic), of expressive kinetic and uncodified oral expressive speech.

The second phase (from 9-10 months. Up to 11 years) - the assimilation of all forms of codified oral and sign language. This stage, in turn, consists of 4 stages.

(a) the first stage (from 10.9 to 18 months.) – the start in acquisition of language system;

(b) the second stage (from 18 months. Up to 3 years) - the acquisition of "nucleus" of language system;

(c) third stage (from 3 to 5 years) – acquiring the "periphery" of the linguistic system;

(d) the fourth stage (from 5 to 11 years and later) - Improving the existing language system.

The third stage (usually - from 6 to 11 years) - acquisition of written language (reading and writing).

(a) the first stage - acquisition of initial reading skills (from 6 to 8 years old) and letters (from 6-7 to 9 years);

(b) the second stage (from 8-9 to 11 years later) - improving reading and writing skills.

Several theoretical positions have been sketched out here. A complete, consistent, unified theory of first language acquisition cannot yet be claimed; however, child language research has manifested some enormous strides toward that ultimate goal. And even if all the answers are far from evident, maybe we are asking more of the right questions.

Glossary & New Concepts

Speech activity

Psychological mechanisms of speech activity

Comprehension mechanisms

Memmorical mechanisms

Communication

Non-verbal communication

Verbal communication

Written communication

The peripheral nervous system

Speech unit

Listening

Monologue

Dialogue

Pronunciation

Sound

Phoneme

Developmental psycholinguistics

Ontogenesis

Babble

Active vocabulary

Passive vocabulary

interrelated speech acts aimed at achieving the same goal. Speech activity is divided into reading, writing, speaking, translation, etc.

the main PMs of speech activity are: the comprehension mechanism of mnemonic arrangement of SA (first of all it's the mechanism of speech memory), also the mechanism of the predictive analysis and speech synthesis(the mechanism of the speech prediction or, what's the same, the prediction of speech).

This mechanism provides intellectual analysis as from the content side of speech (first of all) so the structural arrangement and language processing.

i.e. mechanism of speech memory

is a process whereby meaning is defined and shared between living organisms. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality.

describes the process of conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages through e.g. gesture, body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles, architecture, symbols and infographics, as well as through an aggregate of the above.

is one way for people to communicate face-to-face. Some of the key components of verbal communication are sound, words, speaking, and language.

is a clear expression of ideas in writing; includes grammar, organization, and structure.

is a channel for the relay for sensory and motor impulses between on the one hand and body surface and internal organs on the other.

is a language unit, which is able to serve speech functions listening and understanding oral speech

is the absorption of the meanings of words and sentences by the brain

is when the character may be speaking his or her thoughts aloud, directly addressing another character, or speaking to the audience, especially the former.

is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people.

refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect.

is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.

(from the Greek: φώνημα, phōnēma, "a sound uttered") is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances

studies children's ability to learn language.

(ὄντος, ontos present participle of 'to be', genesis 'creation') describes the origin and the development of an organism from the fertilized egg to its mature form.

structurally organized sound production of a child

is made up of words that come to our mind immediately when we have to use them in a sentence, as we speak.

a rough grouping of words person understands when hears them

Topics & Questions for Study and Discussion

Note: Items listed below are coded for either individual (I) work, group/pair (G) work, or whole-class (C) discussion, as suggestions to the instructor on how to incorporate the topics and questions into a class session.

1. (G) First language acquisition is a natural process common to all human beings. In small groups of three to five, share your own opinion about natural and social sides of first language acquisition.

2. (I/C) Make your own classification of first language acquisition and list major characteristic of every period. Share your points of view with class

3. (C) Discuss in class the relation of first language acquisition with development of mental process in concrete period.

4. (I/C) As you understood language acquisition and communication are leading activities of toddlers and pre-school children. Work out game tasks for children of different age directed to develop speech activity.

5. (I/C) Now, think of exercises and game tasks directed to development of child's active vocabulary. Share with class.

6. (I/C) Think of possible ways of monitoring deviation in the child's speech development. In class by analyzing all proposals find out the most reliable and the most early in monitoring.

References & Suggested Readings

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5 Блумфилд Л. Ряд постулатов для науки о языке //История языкознания XIX–XX вв. в очерках и извлечениях. Изд. 3-е. – М., 1965. № 4/11. - c. 86-91

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11 Глухое В.П. Особенности формирования связной монологической речи детей старшего дошкольного возраста с общим речевым недоразвитием. Дис. канд. пед. наук. – Л., 1987.

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13 Гумбольдт В. Избранные труды по общему языкознанию. – М., 1984.

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19 Журавлев А.П. Звук и смысл. – М., 1991

20 Каменская О.Л. Текст и коммуникация. – М., 1990.

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22 Леонтьев А.А. Внутренняя речь и процессы грамматического порождения высказывания // Вопросы порождения речи и обучения языку. – М., 1967.

23 Леонтьев А.А. Психолингвистические единицы и порождение речевого высказывания. – М., 1969.

24 Лурия А.Р. Очерки психофизиологии письма. – М., 1950.

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26 Маркова А.К. Психология усвоения языка как средства общения. – М., 1974.

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29 Рубинштейн С.Л. Проблемы общей психологии. Изд. 2-е. – М., 1976.

30 Рубинштейн С.Л. Основы общей психологии. – М.: СПб., 2002.

31 Розенгард-Пупко Г.Л. Речь и развитие восприятия в раннем возрасте. – М., 1948.

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34 Ушакова Т.Н. Проблема внутренней речи в психологии и психофизиологии // Психологические и психофизиологические исследования речи. – М., 1985.

35 Ушакова Т.Н. Речь как когнитивный процесс и как средство общения // Когнитивная психология. – М., 1986.

36 Шахнарович A.M., Лендел Ж. «Естественное» и «социальное» в языковой способности человека // ИАН Общество любителей языкознания. Т. 37. – М., 1978. № 3. c. 123-129

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38 Элъконин Д.Б. Экспериментальный анализ начального этапа обучения чтению // Вопросы психологии учебной деятельности младших школьников. – М., 1962.

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3.2 Psychological features of differentiation in first and second language acquisition; linguistic ability's formation, diagnosing and development.

The increased temp of research on first language acquisition in the last half of the twentieth century attracted the attention not only of lin­guists of all kinds but also of educators in various language-related fields. Today the applications of research findings in first language acquisition are widespread. In language arts education, for example, teacher trainees are required to study first language acquisition, particularly acquisition after age five, in order to improve their understanding of the task of teaching lan­guage skills to native speakers. In foreign language education, most stan­dard texts and curricula now include some introductory material in first language acquisition. The reasons for this are clear. We have all observed children acquiring their first language easily and well, yet individuals learning a second language, particularly in an educational setting, can meet with great difficulty and sometimes failure. We should therefore be able to