LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND ACQUISITION IN CHILDHOOD STAGE: PSYCHOLINGUISTIC REVIEW

Abstract. This paper is psycholinguitic review on language development and acquisition describing how the children acquire languages. The focus of discussion throughout the paper is how a child becomes competent to produce and understand language. There are a range of theories of language acquisition that have been created but most of these theories cannot agree on the role that both nature and nurture play in language acquisition. The theories do have one thing in common though, and that is the fact that they all believe that language acquisition is the key aspect that distinguishes humans from other organisms and by understanding how different aspects of language are acquired we can better understand the main vehicle by which we communicate . In addition, this paper also describes the development of childen’s language acquisition including: pre linguistic stage, babbling, one-word utterances, two-word utterances,  telegraph speech, language learning during pre-school, and critical period.  K eywords : language development, acquisition, childhood stage .