MAKALAH LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

PREFACE
Bismillahirrahmaanirrahim,
Praise be given to Almighty Allah SWT for all the favors granted to the author.
Greetings and do not forget Shalawat devoted to the Messenger of Allah SWT, the prophets
and the men chosen by God Almighty Muhammad S.A.W. for all the struggle and sacrifice
given for us.
Thank God finally the author able to finalize this a paper which took the title
"Children language acquisition" with all these shortcomings in a timely manner. The
purpose of writing this paper in addition to completing the task of Mrs. Retno
Budiasningrum subjects : "Language Acquisition" and also to provide the information and
knowledge about how language is acquired and how the process and stages of language
development experienced by each of the children so that in the future time these knowledge
will be beneficial for all of us someday if we become parents later.
And gratefull thank I dedicated profusely to the parents, brothers and friends for all
their help, support and motivation that flowed to the author in completing this paper.
The last word, hopefully what is presented in this paper can be useful for all of us, Readers
and Writers generally in particular, because deep inside the heart, author realizes there are
very many deficiencies in the preparation of this paper, because it's just perfection belongs
to God Almighty alone and with sincerely I would welcome any input, criticism and also
helpful suggestions for improving this paper, Best Regards.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background.
What's Language?
Have been confirmed by linguists that the language as a communication tool is
genetically only in humans; not found on other living creatures. Language is the main
characteristic that distinguishes humans with other creatures and can not be separated from
humans. History proves how language affects various aspects of a person's life.
Humans interact with each other through communication in the form of language.
Communication occurs either verbally or non verbally that is by writing, readings and sign
or symbol. Language itself is a complex process that does not just happen.

Humans communicate through language requires a process that develops in stages

of his age. Language has an important role in human life. Aside from being a medium for
action, language also functions as a cultural reflection of speakers. Language is the source
of life and strength. Language can control behavior, realize their actions and change the
situation. Language is a symbol of arbitrary sounds used in communication and allows
people from different cultural backgrounds can interact. (Octavian, 2006:2). Linguistics
that make the language as a symbol of the arbitrators and conventional. Having certain
model of cognitive linguistic theory of language which is a phenomenon involving
mentalistik which here are not aware of language acquisition in children (Tarigan, 1986: 6)
Every aspect of language acquisition in the language is very complex, sometimes
very young children already know the system is considered grammar. In general, people do
not realize that language is a skill that is very complex. Use ordinary language because it
seemed natural and not taught by anyone, a baby will grow up together with the growth of
the language. Infancy or toddler (under five years) is the most significant period in human
life. In infancy, humans first learned or introduced to the atmosphere of a totally "new",
compared with previous periods in the womb. During the first 3 days, normal infants are
still more sleep. Approximately 80% of the time used for sleep, After two weeks the baby
started to be able to perform various activities without the help of others, ranging from
turning, sitting, crawling and so forth, before the age of 7-8 months, feeling or emotion
baby began to emerge, although the ratio or his thoughts were not functioning at all, at the
age of 12-14 months, babies begin to recognize its environment, whether physical or social
environment, Gradually, babies begin to understand the relationship between "words" with
anything or anyone around him. And for that, babies begin to need a tool of expression
called "language". Starting this time that babies begin to learn about language from the
surroundings. Language acquisition in infants is very gradually to gather in some parts of
which will be discussed in this paper. Therefore, the author deliberately raised themes
relating to language acquisition in humans especially in children which is "Children First
language acquisition."
1.2. Problems.
Based on the background above, this problem can be formulated as follows:
1.2.1. What is a language acquisition and how it goes?
1.2.2. Glimpse the history of language acquisition.
1.2.3. Language acquisition process and stages.
1.2.4. Factors that influence child language development?
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
2.1. What is language acquisition?

Process the child begins to recognize verbal communication with its environment is
called language acquisition of children. The term used for the acquisition of British
counterpart of the term acquisition, namely the process of language acquisition by children
naturally when he learns his native language (native language) (Dardjowidjojo, 2008:225).
According to Sofa (2008), there were two notions about language acquisition. First,
the beginning of language acquisition has a squally, suddenly. Second, language acquisition
to have a gradual beginning that emerged from the achievements of motoric, social, and
cognitive pralinguistik.
Child language acquisition occurs when a child who from the beginning without the
language has acquired language. During the language acquisition of children, more children
leads to the communication function rather than form of the language. Child language
acquisition can be said to have the characteristics of continuity, have a continuum, moving
from simple one-word utterance into a more complicated combination of words. Language
acquisition is closely related to cognitive development, namely, first, if the child is able to
produce utterances which, based on the grammar which are neat, does not automatically
imply that the child has mastered the relevant languages well. Second, the speaker must
obtain the cognitive categories that underlie the various meanings expressive natural
languages.
During the first language acquisition, Chomsky mentions that there are two
processes which occur when a child acquire his first language. The process is a process of
competence and performance process. Both processes are two different processes.
Competence is the process of mastery of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax, and
semantics) unconsciously. Competence is taken by every child from birth. Although innate,
competence development requires that children have performances in the language.
Performance is the ability of children to use language to communicate. The performance
consists of two processes, namely the process of understanding and the process of issuance
of the sentences. The process of understanding involves the ability to observe or perceive
sentences heard, while the publishing process involves the ability to produce their own
sentences (Chaer 2003:167). Furthermore, Chomsky also assumes that language users
understand the structure of language that makes him able created new sentences countless
and make him understand the sentences. Thus, competence is the intuitive knowledge that
an individual possesses about his mother language (native Languange). This linguistic
intuition does not just exist, but was developed in line with growth in children, while the
performance is something that is produced by the competency.
2.2. Glimpse of the history of language acquisition
Because language acquisition involves various aspects of development, then the
view of many experts in various relevant fields such as general linguistics, psychology,
neurology, biology, and language acquisition will be utilized. The development language

acquisition by Ingram (in Kushartanti. 2005: 23) were divided into three periods, namely:
(a) the diary period
(b) a large sample period,
(c) longitudinal study period.
H. Taine in 1876 in his study using a diary method of parenting. In this method the
parents make a diary as a record of child language development which often called the
"biography of a baby" (baby biography). Later followed by other works such as works of
Preyer in 1889. Clara, and Wilhelm Stern in 1907. In the 30's emerged the pioneer of
behaviorism John B. Watson's which publishes books that have characteristics (in
Kushartanti: 2005: 11).
The nativistik views based on fact said a child can acquire any language as long as
he had given the opportunity. Children have a natural provision that allows him to acquire
any language that were served to him. Chomsky's argument supports the natural stock.
2.3. Stages and Development of language acquisition
2.3.1. Stages of language acquisition can be divided into the following stages:
I. Pralinguistik Phase :
1.Babbling First Stage (pralinguistik).
In the first stage of babble, during the early months of life, babies cry, coo, screamed, and
laughed, as if to produce each type which may be made. Many observers mark this as baby
steps to produce any speech sound that can be found in all languages worldwide. However,
voices or sounds are not the speech sounds, but then the acoustic signals derived by the
babies if they move the speech tools in any arrangement or form which may be made. They
play with their sound equipment, but it should not be classified as linguistic performance.
2. Babbling Second Stage (pralinguistik).
This stage is also called nonsense word stage, the stage of a word without meaning. Early
stages of this second bubble usually at the beginning of the second half of the first year of
life. Children do not produce something that words can be unknown, but they act as if their
words set in accordance with the pattern of syllables. At one time the last part of this period
(around the end of the first year of life) comes the "first word" that will be considered as the
first word that.
II. Linguistics Phase.

1.Holophrastic Stage (first linguistic stage).

a. Vocalizations Sound.
At the age of about six weeks, the baby started to give out the sounds in the form of
screaming, whining, snoring. Sound emitted by the infant is similar to the sound of
consonants or vowels. After the vocalization stage, babies begin to babble (babling).
Dardjowidjojo (2005: 244) mentions that babbling stage occurs around the age of six
months, there are also some experts say that chatter occurs at the age of eight to 10 months.
Basically, the ability of children chattering depends on the development of a child
neurology. At this stage, they began to mix with a vocal consonant. Babbling begins with a
consonant and followed by a vowel. The first exit is consonant consonant bilabial nasal
bilabial and inhibition. Vowel is / a /.
V1 K1 K1 K1 V1 V1 ... papapa mamama bababa ...
Once the child through this period of babbling, they started learning how to say the
sequence of segments, namely silabe-silabe and words. In the early stages of language
acquisition, children usually produces words of adults who simplified as follows:
1) eliminate the final consonant : blumen bu boot bu
2) reduce consonant groups into a single segment: batre bate bring bin
3) omit syllables that are not given key pressure : kunci ti semut emut
4) simple syllable reduplication : pergi gigi nakal kakal
In this stage children begin to imitate the intonation patterns of sentences spoken by adults.
b. One-word or Holofrastis Stage
This stage takes place when children aged between 12 and 18 months. Speech-speech that
contain a single word uttered children to refer to objects that were found daily. At this stage
also a child start using a series of repetitive sound to meaning the same. Also at this age, the
child has understood that the noise associated with the meaning and said start saying the
words first. In form, the spoken words consist of consonants are pronounced like easily m,
p, s, k and vowels like a, i, u, e.
c. Two Words, One Phrase Phase.
This stage takes place when children aged 18-20 months. Speech-speech which consists of
two words began to appear like mommy and daddy go mam. This two-word stage, the
child's utterances should be interpreted in accordance with the context.

g.Utterances Telegrafis.
At the age of two and three years, children begin to generate double-word utterances
(multiple-word utterances) or also called telegrafis speech. Children also are able to form
sentences and sort the shapes correctly. Child's vocabulary is growing rapidly to reach the
hundreds of word and pronunciation of words more similar to adult language.
2.3.2. Universal Language.
Because children can be any language which is presented to him, there must be something
that are universal in language. Pioneer universal language such as Greenberg (1963)
researched and studied many languages of the language he core which features contained in
all languages.Thus, the concept of a universal language is not something absolute but
relatively.
Based on this grading Comrie (1989/81: 15-23) divides the universal language into two
major groups, each of which have sub-groups as in the following chart:

Non Implications
Absolute
UNIVERSAL Implikasional
Non Implikasional

Tendensius
Implikasional
In the group of absolute non implikasional universal no exception. For example, all
languages have the vowel sounds a, i, u. while in the group of absolute implikasional said
that if the language has X then it has Y.for example the language, if language has the glottal
velar K then the language must have a glottal stop bilabial, B.
In the group of non-universal tendentious implikasional contain big trend toward language
to have a certain something. For example, almost all languages have a consonant nasal,
tendentious implications of universal groups say that a language has X then it is likely that

the amount is that language also has a AlbumArtSmall Y.for example : language (subjectPos-Position).
differ from Above the universal concept that does not use a lot chomsky to the concept of
universal language. Darsar views when he was an intensity contain certain elements
essential so these elements must exist at the entity where else.
In the relation between universal concepts with language acquisition, particularly
acquisition of phonological, Jakobson, and Clark and Clark (in Soenjono Dardjowidjojo:
21), suggests the existence of universality in the sounds of the language itself, and the order
acquisition.
2.3.3. Universal In Language Acquisition.
From a variety of universal and language acquisition process as described above it appears
that a child's language acquisition is closely related to the concept of Universal.
Phonological component more related to human neurology, seems the most universal.
Meanwhile, the component syntax and semantics have a universal level is lower.
a. Universal In Phonology Components
The relation between the concept of a universal problem with the acquisition of Phonology,
his views of experts, has not been in the temple is a Romance Jakobson. According to him,
acquisition of walking in harmony with the natural sound of the sound itself. The first
sound that comes out when the first child to speak is the contrast between consonants and
vocals. In terms of vocals just sounds a, i, u are going out first among the three sounds are
(a). This is because this is the third sound system anywhere in the world of vocal
minimal.bahasa this must have a minimum of three vocal this (Jacobson 1971: 80-20),
while the formal universally associated with universal subtansif how it is regulated. Setting
these elements differ from one language into another language.
According to Chomsky (1999: 34) human beings have Fakulties Of The Mind. That kind of
lot of lot-intellectual in the minds / brains. Lots by Chamsky called Language Acquisition
Device (LAD), which has translated into a language acquisition device (ESD).
(Dardjowidjojo, 2000:19),
b. Universal In Component Sintatik and Semantics
Unlike the phonological component, components and semantic sintatik have more degrees
to universalan rendah.pada phonological component, the sequence of appearance of sound
is directly related with the growth of biology and neurology child. On syntactic and
semantic components of indirect connection.
However, the synthetic component are the patterns obtained by universal sentences.
Semantics is more labile components because what kind of mastered and in what amounts
depend on the circumstances of each child. In children in rural farm families, said a hoe or
sickle-d may have mastered the beginning while the computer or crayons lately, or even
none at all. The number of words that will probably not be controlled much like a young
educated city in the family and be able to buy the book and other books for children.
2.3.4. Nature and Nurture Controversy

In discussions about the process of language acquisition there is a fierce debate among
scholars about the nature of the language acquisition language that is about the nature
nurture language acquisition and second language acquisition that is nature. According to
language experts, nurture language acquisition means that a person is determined by the
environment around where he belongs, whereas the character of language acquisition
language acquisition nature means that it is basically a stock that has been owned by a
person when he is born into the world. Proponents of the nature nurture language
acquisition in general is a language expert from the flow of behaviorism while proponents
language acquisition that is the nature generally are those that come from the flow of
nativism. Hence, the discussion of nurture and nature can not be separated from both the
flow.
a. Nurture
At its core is the process of language acquisition that is nurture is that the process of
language acquisition that person is a habit which can be obtained through a conditioning
process (Brown, 2000:34). The children responded by giving linguistic stimuli are
enhanced and they learn to understand speech in a way that responds to speech and by a
strengthening of the response he gives. This is in line with the view of behaviorism which
experts believe strongly that children are present in the world along with a tabula rasa, a
clean slate without any previous understanding of the world nor in the language, and that
children are then shaped by their environment and slowly through a diverse schedule of
conditioned reinforcement (Mr Brown, 2000:22).
b. Nature
Basically is a process of language acquisition that is nature is that the process of
language acquisition is determined by innate knowledge and that the innate properties are
universal because of experienced or possessed by all humans (Brown, 2000:34).
It seems that both nature and nurture are the two things are equally important because one
supports the existence of another. Innate ability to learn the language or nature simply does
not much benefit if there is no influence of nurture or environment. Conversely, without the
influence of nurture or environment alone would not matter if humans are not equipped
with personal ability to memeroleh language. But of course the fact that both nature and
nurture are two things which are equally important role in human language acquisition
should require more proof either through research or experimentation on humans,
especially to how humans learn language, which is one characteristic that distinguishes
humans with other living creatures.
2.3.5. The mean length of utterance
To measure the children sintaksis progress, many using Brown's findings (1973), which was
known by the name of the Mean Length of Utterance, MLU, (Dardjowidjojo 2000: 40) .
How to calculate the mean length of utterances children are:

a. Take as many as 100 utterances sempel

b. Count the number morfemnya
c. Divide the number of morphemes with speech.
If there is a morpheme RPU 253 253 then: 100 = 2:53.
Brown use RPU to determine the qualifying stages: Stage I = RPU between 1.0 - 2.0,
around the age of 12-26 months, Stage II = RPU between 2.0 - 2.5 around age 27-30
months.
2.3.6. Mother Tongue versus Mother Language
To avoid misunderstanding, it is necessary to differentiate the term mother tongue of the
mother language. Mother tongue is the first language mastering and gaining by the
children. Mother tongue is English equivalent for the term native language.
Language is the language that the mother is in use by an adult at the time to talk with
children who are in the process acquire mother language.
Language of the mother has a special characteristic:
(a) sentences are generally short,
(b) his voice is usually high,
(c) somewhat exaggerated intonation,
(d) somewhat slower rate of speech,
(e) a lot of redundancy (repetition), and
(f) many use the word greeting
(Moskowits 1981; Pine 1994: 15; Barton and Tomasello 1994: 109).
2.3.7. Comprehension and Production
Humans, both children and adults, has two different levels of ability in speaking. As Adults,
we realize the amount of vocabulary that we use actively is lower than the words we can
understand. Wherever the child ability to understand what is in people say is much faster
and much better than its production. Some researchers say that the ability of children in
comprehension is five-fold in comparison with its production (Benedict 1979 in Fletcher
and Garman 1981: 6). Fenson et al (in Barrett 1995: 363) says that at the time the child can
produce 10 words, his comprehension is 110 word, so 11 times more than their production.
2.3.8. Development and language acquisition process
1. acquisition in the field Phonology
Child uses sounds that have been studied with the sounds that have not been studied, for

example, replace sound / l / that have been studied with the sound / r / that has not been
studied.
2. Acquisition in the field of morphology
At the age of 3 years children have already formed several morphemes which show
grammatical function of nouns and verbs used. Grammatical errors often occur at this stage
because children are still trying to say what he wants to convey. Children continue to
improve his language until the age of ten years.
3. Acquisition in the field of syntax
Alamsyah (2007:21) mentions that children develop a level of grammatical sentences that
are generated through several stages, namely through imitation, through the classification
of morphemes, and through the preparation by way of putting words together to form
sentences.
4. Acquisition in the field of Semantic
Children use certain words based on similarity of motion, size, and shape. For example,
children already know the meaning of the word clock. Originally referring to a child just
watches her parents, but then he used the word to all kinds of hours.
2.4. Factors Affecting the Development of Language.
Specifically identified a number of factors that influence language development, namely:
1.Cognition.
High or low cognitive abilities of individuals will affect the language development faster
than the individual. This is relevant to the earlier discussion that there is a significant
correlation between a person's mind with the language.
2.Communication Pattern within the family
In a lot of family communication patterns are relatively democratic direction, or direct
interactions will accelerate the development of language families than those who apply the
communication and interaction otherwise.
3.Amount of child or family.
A number of families with many children or many family members, the language
development of the child is faster, because the communication takes place varying
compared with having only a single child and no other members besides the core family.
4. Position of birth order
The child born in the middle position, his language development will be faster than
firstborn or youngest children. This is due to the middle child has a communication
downward direction only and youngest children have only the direction of communication
upwards.

5.Billingualism
Children raised in families that use more than one language or better, The development of
language is more faster than using only one language because the kids accostumed to use
CHAPTER III
CLOSING
1.Summary.
Humans have a biological legacy that has been taken since the birth in form of
ability to communicate with a particular human language. Proficiency is closely related to
the human anatomy and physiology. Level of language development of all children are
equal, meaning that all children can be said to follow the same pattern of development.
Parents (adults) generally do not feel that using language is an incredibly complex skill.
Use language that feels natural because it is taught by anyone, a baby will grow along with
the growth of the language. From the age of one year to two years a baby starts out
language word forms that have been identified as words. This one-word utterances grow
into two-word utterances, and eventually became a complex sentence before the age of four
or five years. After five years of age, a child's vocabulary and phrases to get better and
perfect. So the development of child language acquisition is gradual and so complex.
Language acquisition is a process that required by children to adjust a series of
increasingly complex hypotheses or theories that are still latent, or hidden that will most
likely happen with the sayings of his parents until he chooses based on a measure or
measures assessment, good grammar and the simplest of language (in Prastyaningsih
Tarigan, 2001:9). More precisely interpreted language acquisition as a process that was first
done by someone to get a language in accordance with cognitive potential possessed by the
received speech is based on naturally.
First language acquisition is the process of first language acquisition by the child.
During this first language acquisition, there are two processes involved, namely the process
of competence and performance process. Both processes are of course obtained by the child
unconsciously.
There are several stages which going through by the child during the first acquire
language. Stage which is referred are bubble/pralinguistik (first and second) stage, and
linguistic: holofrastik stage (first linguistic stage) suh as : vocalization sounds, stage oneword or holofrastis, two-word stage, two-word stage, speech telegrafis. The discussion in
each stage of child's first language acquisition have in common, namely the process of
phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics.
In the relationship between the universal concept of language acquisition,
particularly acquisition fonologis, Jakobson, and Clark and Clark (in Soenjono

Dardjowidjojo: 21), submit to the universality of the sounds in the language itself and its
order of acquisition as the acquisition of phonological, syntactic and semantic.
There is a difference opinion about the factors that influence child language
development that is still a debate among others, the flow of nativism which states that the
development of language is determined by innate factors (nature) while the flow of
empiricism or behaviorism precisely the opposite view, namely that the ability of language
development a person is not determined by inborn but rather is determined by the process
of learning from the environment. (nurture)
Language acquisition can not be separated from the process of language
acquisitionsuch as the mean length of utterance and production, maternal language and
comprehension and production.
Child's language development can be seen also from language acquisition according
to its components namely in the field of language acquisition phonological, morphological,
syntactic, and semantic
Specifically can be identified a number of factors that influence language
development, namely: cognition, communication patterns within the family, number of
children or the number of families, birth order position, and bilingualism.

REFERENCES
- Dardjowidjojo Soenjono, pengantar pemahaman bahasa manusia, books online.
- Http : // Wikipedia.com.
- Http : // language acquisition artikel//htm.
- Http: // Blog. Psikologi anak.
- Http : // Gili Meno Education Blog.
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