• Simultaneos Bilingualism. When two languages are learned at the same time, with the same proficiency, before ages 5/6.

• Early Sequential Bilingualism. L1 was learned first, but L2 was learned relatively early in childhood (SLA). 

• Late Sequential Bilingualism. L2 was learned later, in adolescence or after.  

• Compound Bilingualism. The development of two language systems simultaneously within a single context. 

• Coordinate Bilingualism. The learning of two languages in distinctively separate contexts.  

• Sub-coordinate Bilingualism. The second language is learned through the native language; sometimes it has a negative connotation.  

• Rationalism. Reason is the source of knowledge and there’s innate knowledge or concepts from individuals.

• Piaget. He suggests that children learn by interacting with the world around them.

• Vygotsky. He suggests that social interaction is essential to language acquisition.  

• Author: Skinner.

• Children develop language through stimulus, response and reinforcement. 

• The child is rewarded for correct imitation and receives corrective feedback when errors are made. 

• This perspective is outdated because children use language creatively and actively. 

• Attempts to correct children don’t work because these mistakes represent their current grammar.  

• Author: Chomsky.

• We have a language acquisition device (LAD) and everyone shares a universal grammar (UG) hard-wired into our brains.  

• Poverty of stimulus doesn’t stop children from learning.

• Authors: Gardner and Vygotsky. 

• Caregivers play a critical role in adjusting language to facilitate the use of innate capacities for language acquisition.

• Fronting. Putting a verb or question word at the front of a sentence. 

• Overgeneralization: Children assume that some common syntax rules apply in all situations “my foots hurt”, Wug test, ate – eated. 

• Critical period hypothesis: There's a specific and limited time period when the child can acquire language (or certain aspects of it) - the genie case is usually used as an example of this hypothesis. 

• Crying, cooing, whimpering.  

• These sounds are not considered language because they are involuntary responses to stimuli.  

• Ability of auditory discrimination.

  
  

2. BABBLING (6 – 8 MONTHS) 

• The child hears speech syllables from its environment and parents and attempts to imitate them by repeating the sounds and sound combinations from the target language. 

• Babbles (consonant + vowels) begin to resemble words, but they don't have any specific meaning attached to them. 

• Child identifies words and combination of syllables, attempting to communicate full ideas using single words (or holophrases). 

• They can indicate the disappearance of objects, refuse suggestions and reject assertions.

4. TWO-WORD (18 - 24 MONTHS) 

• Children begin pairing groups of words together and denote utterances of two words only. 

• They start forming slightly more complex sentences, such as subject-verb, verb-object, adjective-noun combinations. 

• Children acquire around 50 words, primarily nouns and verbs that come from their environment or their parents. 

• Children gradually learn to construct short sentences and speak utterances that convey just enough information. 

• They often leave out prefixes, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, and question words in their sentences. 

• They start to place negatives before the main verb, using phrases like 'don't like you', along with "no", "not", "can't", etc.

6. MULTI-WORD (AFTER 3 YEARS) 

• ⁠There is a variety of function words and a great increase in the number of words children ⁠can use. 

• Structured sentences become more complex and varied. 

• Understanding in concrete sense of time, quantity, ability to engage in simple reasoning.

• The ability to use all basic grammatical structures (ask questions, give commands, report real events and create stories about imaginary events). 

• They use language in a widening social environment to adapt it to different interlocutors and situations (when, where, and with whom it is appropriate). 

• Metalinguistic awareness begins, they start to identify what is wrong in badly structured sentences.

8. SCHOOL YEARS (AFTER 6 YEARS)  

• Different words are learned from different types of text (fiction and non-fiction). 

• Different language registers are encountered and learned (spoken/written; informal/formal). 

• Children have access to word jokes, trick questions and riddles. 

I also find it quite amusing how we acquire different languages and how our brains can handle it, even though sometimes difficulties occur. I have a cousin who has lived in Virginia since 2017. She still speaks Spanish, but she’s beginning to forget many words. Because of her environment, it’s easier for her to recall certain concepts in English, so I believe she is a subtractive bilingual. This means that her use of English has caused her to lose some aspects of her Spanish.