Week#3 - First Language Acquisition

Videos

Baby imitation


How Children Acquire and Produce Language

Theories of language development: Nativist, learning, interactionist

Behaviorism vs Constructivism

How Babies Learn Language

Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies

EBS Video: The Geography of Thought Part#1 Nouns & Verbs, Part#2 See & Be

Resources
Storybooks for Young Learners

Colors in English


Discussion Questions

• What do you remember (if anything) about your early L1 learning experiences as a child?
  
• What experiences have you had observing other young children learn L1 or L2? What observations have you made?
  
• Can you think of situations when your comprehension exceeded your production ability (in L1 or L2)?

• In your language learning environments how were comprehension and production balanced?

• How do you think they should be balanced? What factors affect this?  (e.g. age, level, type of content)

• Children tend to learn language through extensive imitation and playful repetition of language forms.  Can you think of any situations in which you did (or still do) this?

• Do you 'think' differently when speaking in L1 vs. L2?  

• Based on your experiences, how do you think Asians and Westerners think and communicate differently?
• Were you reminded of any personal experiences when viewing the video and presentation?
• Do you think these differences are increasing or decreasing over time?
• How much do you see the world in a typically Asian way as described in the video?

Assignment:
On your blog, post a short reflection about Week#3 discussions.
Also, please answer this question (on your blog):
What materials, tools, and/or sites have been most useful to you as a language learner?
Provide links if possible.


Coming Up
Flipped Classroom
Salman Khan's Ted Talk about The Flipped Classroom and/or the KBS Flipped Classroom Documentary.

SOLE
The child-driven education