ABSTRACT
Tanjung, Siti Huzaifah. Language Development of The Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) By A 4-Year-Old Indonesian Child. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan. 2014
This study deals with realization of meant length of utterance (MLU). The objective of the study is to find out language development of a four -year-old child through measuring her MLU, and to describe the characteristic of child’s shortest and longest utterances, whether it is question, responses, topic expansion or topic initiation. The data were the utterance of the subject. There were 100 utterances. Based on the analysis, the meant length of utterance by a 4-year-old child is 4.29. There are only 4 utterances of the shortest utterances. The dominant characteristic is response. There are 3 responses and the percentage is 75%. Then, there is only 1 question and the percentage is 25%. There is no topic expansion and topic initiation in shortest utterances. Based on the longest utterances, there are 14 utterances. The dominant is response.There are 7 responses and the percentage is 50%. The question is only 1 and the percentage is 7.1%, there are 5 topic expansion and the percentage 35.8% and there is 1 topic initiation. The lowest are question and topic initiation. The dominant characteristic from all utterances, 100 utterances, is response. There are 57 responses and the percentage is 55.9%. Then there are 29 and the percentage are 28.4. Question are 9 and the percentage is 8.8%. And there are only 7 topic initiations and the percentage is 6.9%.
LIST OF TABLE
Table 2.1 The Stages of The Meant Length of Utterance ……….. 21
Table 4.1 The Utterances and Characteristic of MLU ………. 25
Table 4.2 Research Findings on MLU ………..……….. 35
Table 4.3 Research Findings on MLU’s Characteristics ………. 36
Table 4.4 Research Findings on Characteristic of Shortest Utterances ……. 37
LIST OF APPENDIX
APPENDIX 1 Dialogues ...44
APPENDIX 2 List of Utterances ...61
APPENDIX 3 The Data of Child ...65
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Human development process begins with prenatal development, baby phase, phase of early childhood,final phase of childhood, adolescent phase, mature phase, and the development of the elderly. The process of language
acquisition in children is one thing that needs to be investigated more deeply. According to Nurliah (2013:1) quoted from Eva in The Acquisition of Free
Morpheme by A Two Year Old Indonesian Child(2013:1) the study of children’s language acquisition is interesting to be done.
Children acquire language so readily because it is in their genes. That is,
we will argue that children are born with innate knowledge which guides them in the language acquisition task. This innate knowledge, known as the Language
Acquisition Device (LAD), includes principle common to all human languages, called Universal Grammar (UG). What is innate does not have to be learned-hence language acquisition consist of learning what is peculiar to the language
environment (e.g., the particular words of one language or another), and applying the universal principles.
First language acquisition occurs when a child is in the first place without the language has now gained one language. At the time of child language acquisition, children lead to the communication function than the form of the
more complicated. Chomsky argued that language acquisition is not only based on nurture, but nature. Children are not born as blank plates but the child has been provided with a tool called a
language acquisition device. Each child is shown to have similarities in language acquisition and through the same process in a mastering each language (Dardjowidjojo , 2003:236 ) .
Language acquisition is associated with mastery of the language without realizing
something or learned directly, which is without going through formal education to learn. Everyone at some time has witnessed the remarkable ability of children to communicate. As
small babies, children babble, coo, cry, and vocally or nonvocally send an extraordinary number of message and receive even more messages (Laura, 2004).The study of language acquisition is very important especially in language learning. Sufficient knowledge about the process and the
nature of language acquisition will help determine success in the field of language learning. First language acquisition is the first language mastered by children which called mother
tongue. Every normal child under the age of five years can communicate in the language used in the environment, even without formal learning. In this age generally children have mastered the
system of phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.According to David and Jesse (2008:605), children begin analyzing and producing expressions using a generative syntactic system. Creative language use depends on understanding compositionality—how the meanings
of complex expressions are a function of their syntax and the meanings of their constituent parts. Mastery of the language development of the child or acquired gradually. Early childhood,
it once or twice in the dialog. At this early age children begin to combine syllables into words, and words into sentences.
Children learn, on average, ten to fifteen new word meanings each day, but only one of these words can be accounted for by direct instruction. The other nine to fourteen word meanings need to be picked up in some other way. It has been proposed that children acquire these
meanings with the use of processes modeled by latent semantic analysis; that is, when they meet an unfamiliar word, children can use information in its context to correctly guess its rough area
of meaning. A child may expand the meaning and use of certain words that are already part of its mental lexicon in order to denominate anything that is somehow related but for which it does not know the specific words yet. For instance, a child may broaden the use of mummy and dada in
order to indicate anything that belongs to its mother or father, or perhaps every person who resembles its own parents, or say rain while meaning I don't want to go out.
There is also reason to believe that children use various heuristics to properly infer the meaning of words. Markman and others have proposed that children assume words to refer to objects with
similar properties (e.g., "cow" and "pig" might both be "animals") rather than to objects that are thematically related (e.g., "cow" and "milk" are probably not both "animals"). Children also seem to adhere to the "whole object assumption" — thinking that a novel label refers to an entire
entity rather than one of its parts.
One typical language development experienced by children is developmental syntax. In
the early period the child uses one word sentences, sentence two words, three word sentences, and so on until the full sentence structure stage (agent - action - object - location). Containing the number of elements in a spoken sentence meaning children can be measured by Mean Length of
one child. According to Brown quoted from Diane (2001:27-31), at about 1to 2 years of age the child is in the Stage I and the MLU is 1,75 which is their vocabulary is about 400 words, a child
at 2,5 to 3 years is in the Stage II and the MLU is 2,25 which is their vocabulary is about 900 words, a child at 3 to 3,5 years is in the Stage III and the MLU is 2,75 which is their vocabulary is about 1200 a child at 3,5 to 4 years is in the Stage IV and the MLU is 3,50 which has the
vocabulary about 1500 words and a child at 4 to 5 years is in the Stage V and the MLU is 4,0 which has the vocabulary about 1900 words .In general , the calculation is done by dividing the
number MLU morphemes with a number of speech . That is, the number of utterances required number is 100 main speech of children(Dardjowidjojo, 2010:241). The higher MLU children the higher the child's mastery of the language.
There are some phenomena that we can see in our surrounding area. Many children in their ages, three to five years old can communicate well like teenagers. They can say many
words and their length of utterances is good. When we talked to them, they can get what we mean; even they can give suggestion to us. But some children in three to five years old, they can’t communicate well. They are not in their position. It means that they can’t communicate
like their ages. They are unable to say many words and they can’t response well when we talk to
them. They just say a few words even just keep silent. In relation to that statement, I would like
to measure the length of utterances a child four years old and from her utterances, what is the dominant characteristic whether it is question, responses, topic expansion or topic initiation. I
B. The Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the study, the problems of the study are formulated as the
following:
1. What are the stages of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) in a four-year-old child ? 2. What are the characteristics of child’s shortest and longest utterances?
C. The Objective of the Study
Based on the problem of the study, the objectives are
1. to find out language development of a four-year-old childthrough measuring her MLU. 2. to describe the characteristic of child’s shortest and longest utterances, whether it is
question, responses, topic expansion or topic initiation.
D. The Scope of the Study
The scope of the study conducts of first language acquisition, particularly the Mean
Length of Utterance (MLU) by a four-year-old child.
E. The Significance of the Study
Findings of this study are expected theoretically and practically give much contribution to the world of children language acquisition research. Theoretically, this study becomes the basic
of the further research which also interested in investigating the same field with different focus and object. Practically, it becomes some of guidelines for the teacher, adult and also parents who directly touch this area in order to guide their children to be better of developing language
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
A. Conclusion
After analyzing the data, the conclusions are stated as follows:
1. The Mean Length of Utterances of four-year-old child is 4,29. It is different from Brown’s theory. According to Brown quoted from Diane (2001:31), a child in four to five years old, they are in the fifth stage which the MLU is 4,0. But the MLU of the subject is higher than Brown’s theory. So that, the subject is not in the Stage V because her MLU is
higher.
2. The dominant characteristic of shortest utterances is response. And the
second is question. Topic expansion and topic initiation is not used in shortest utterances because here is not need to describe things and there is only one word.
3. The dominant characteristic of longest utterances is response. The second is topic expansion. The third is topic initiation and question.
4. In subject’s utterances, she more uses response and topic expansion’s character rather than uses question and topic initiation. The dominant characteristic from all utterances, 100 utterances, is response. The second
B. Suggestion
Based on the conclusions, this study has some suggestion to the reader as follows:
1. To the other researcher, it is suggested to use different ages if he wants to research about Meant Length of Utterances (MLU). So that there is
comparison between one age and other ages. It is also suggested to use other topics about language acquisition with more subjects with different ages.
2. To parents, it is suggested to teach their children speaking well by speaking to them, telling the story and also giving the facilities to their
children which can make them have many vocabularies and good pronunciations, so that they able to speak and communicate well with other people.
3. To the environment, interaction with other people around can help the children well to increase their competence in community; can add the
REFERENCES
Barner, David &Snedeker, Jesse. 2008. Compositionality and Statistics in Adjective Acquisition: 4-Year-Olds Interpret Tall and Short Based on the Size Distributions of Novel Noun Referents. Journal of Child Development, 79, 594 – 608. Accessed on October 25, 2013.
Bogdan, R. C., &Bigden, S. K. 1992.Qualitative Research for Education.An Introduction to Theory and Methods.Syracuse University: Allyn and Bacon.
Chaer, Abdul. 2009. Psikolinguistik: Kajian Teoretik. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta. Crain, Stephen, Diane Lillo-Martin. 2001. An introduction to Linguistics Theory
and Language Acquisition. Massachusettss Blackwell Publishers Inc.
Darjowodjojo, Soenjono. 2003. Psikolinguistik: Pengantar Pemahaman Bahasa Manusia.Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
Dyer, Laura. 2004. MeningkatkanKemampuanBicaraAnak. Jakarta: PT BhuanaIlmuPopulerKelompokGramedia.
Gustina, Eva N. S. 2013. The Acquisition of Free Morpheme by A Two Year Old Indonesian Child. Unpublished.Thesis of Sarjana Degree. Medan: State University of Medan.
Harahap, Meisah A. 2010. Sentence acquisition by Three Years Old Boys and
Girls.. Unpublished.Thesis Degree of Magister Humaniora. Medan:
University of Medan
Jolly, R., Helen, Kim Plunkett. 2008. Inflectional Bootstrappingin 2-year-olds. Journal of Language and Speech, 51 (1&2), 45-59. Accessed on October 25, 2013.
Khalid, M. 2004. Language Acquisition of Two to Three years Old Male Children. Thesis of Sarjana Degree. Medan: University Of Negeri Medan.
Nurliah, 2013.The Acquisitionof Conversational Implicatures by a Five Years Old Indonesian Child.Unpublished.Thesis Degree of Magister Humaniora. Medan: University of Medan
Ranalli, Alise R., "Characteristics of Young Children's Longest Utterances" (2012). Honors College.Paper 92.
Children Shows Concurrent Validity and Stable and Parallel Growth Trajectories. Journal of Speech Lang Hear Res. 49(5): preceding 923 Tarigan, Henry Guntur. 2009. Pengajaran Kompetensi Bahasa. Bandung:
Angkasa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition. Accessed on December 18, 2013.
