THE EFFECT OF THE APPLICATION OF LEARMABILITY THEORY ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY CHILDREN TWO YEARS OLD.

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TBI DnCT OJTBIAPPUCATION OfLJWlNABILITY

TBIORY ON LANGUAGIACQ1JISITION

BY CIIILDRIN TWO YEARS OLD

A THESIS·

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-By:

LIBDAYAIU OCTAVIA BAR.US

Reg.No.045010126

Submitted to the Graduate Program of English Applied Linguistics

In Partial Fulftllment for the

Degree

of Magister Humaniora

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ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS

GRADUATE

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STATE UNIVERSITY OFMEDAN

MEDAN.

2006

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A THESIS

THE EFFECT OF THE APPLICATION OF LEARNABILITY

THEORY ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY CHILDREN 1WO YEARS OLD

Arranged by :

LindayaDi Octavia Baros

Reg.No.045010126

English Applied Linguistics Graduate Program State University of Medan

Has been defunded before thesis Examination

Head (llfEnglish Applied Linguistics

Prof. Dr.

Jawasi Naibaho

Approved by

Consultant Commission

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Name : Liodayani Octavia Baros Approved f)o : August. 26 th 2006

L Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.pd.

2. Prof. D.P. Tampubolon, Ph.D.

4. Prof. Amrin Saragib, Ph.D, M.A.

5. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.pd.

Ap roved~

Director of Grad ate Prdgram UNIMED 1

....

Prof. Dr. Belferik Manullang

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of this thesis is impossible without the support oi many

people around and close to the writer. First and foremost, praise and thank be to

'God' The Almighty, who has given her the best of health and luck. until she is

able to succeed in presenting this academic work as one of the requirements to

obtain the degree of Master Humaniora.

The writer has to confess that she owes a great deal of gratitude to her first

guiding, advising, and correcting the draft of her thesis until its present fonn.

She would like to express her deepest gratitude to Prof. Dr. D.P.

Tampubolon. her second consultant, for his valuable suggestions and commenls

given for the improvement of this thesis.

She would like also to extend her sincere thankfulness· to Dra. Meisuri,

M.A, as the secretary of the Program, for her assistance regarding the

administrative procedures and full support; tc all lecturers ·w·ho ha..-c taught ~he

valuable knowledge to her. May God protect them in all activities they do.

Her very special thankfulness goes to her reviewers, Prof. Amrin Saragih,

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ln the process of undertaking this graduate study, the writer wishes to

express her profound and sincere gratitude to her beloved father, B. Barus and

mother, S. Rustiana Ginting.

She would like to take this opportunity to thank to all friends, Citra,

Ummi, Ana. Noy, Edi, Dila, Nando and Neni for their positive support and

contributions for the improvement of her knowledge in English.

Finally, the writer realizes that this thesis could possibly be far from being

perfect. Therefore, for its improvement, all constructive critics are warmly

appreciated.

:,

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Mluly

2006

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L.d m ayam

-~s

vdav1a arus May God Bless Us!

Reg.No.045010126

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ABSTRACT

Lindayani Octavia Barus. The Effe~l of the Application of Learnability Theory on Language Acquisition hy Children Two Years Old. Thesis, English

Applied Linguistics Uraduate Program. UNIMF.D. 2006.

The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the application of \earnability theory on the language acquisition in children. A qualitative research was applied. The data were taken through observing the daily activities of the

children and interviewing conducted to their parents and teachers. There were 20

children got involved in this study. Ten of them were taken from children who

when to school while the others ten were ones who didn't go to school. The

findings shows that both school and non school children get language development. One that make them different is the way in using the language in

terms of polite and impolite. It is caused by the influence of their environment.

Thus s cial care and attention must be given by the parents to their children, especially executing their speech in front of them. T us, 1s ue to e ac

their language developments are very influenced by the people around them. This research implies that in the process of language acquisitio~ parents sho uld give

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CHAPTER

III

METHOD OF RESEARCH . ... ... . ... ... 29

3.1 The Participants ... .. ... ... ... ... ... .. 29

3.2 The Research Design ... 29

3.3 The Instruments of Research ... .. ... .. .... 30

3.4 The Procedure of Data Collection . .. .. .. .. . . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . .. .. . .. .. .. .. . .. 3 2 CHAPTER IV T HE DATA AND DATA ANALISYS ... ... ... 33

4. 1 The Data ~~···· ··· ·~ ··· ··· · ·· · ,··· · ··· · 33

4.2 Data Collection ... . .... ... .. ... . ... ... 33

4.3 The Subject's Background ... ... .. ... . . ... ... 34

4.3.1 Scllolar'Children ... 34

4 .3.2 Unscholar Children ... .... ... ... ... ... ... 39

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4.4 Data Analysis ... 43

4.4.1 Scholar Children ... 43

4.5 Findings ... 4 7 CHAPTERV CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 50

5.1 Conclusions ... ... .... .... ... 50

5.2 Suggestions ... ... 50

APPENDIXES ... 52

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Tbe Background oftbe Study

Language is a human need, the function of language should fulfill the

human need. Considering that fact, it is important to relate linguistics as the study

of language with another knowledge. Then, the development of language come to

language and culture. The interrelationship of those disciplines invited the linguist

interest in forming new tcnninologies for each relationship, such as

sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics and ethno linguistics. The concentration of this

thesis is discussing the relationship between psychology and language or what is

called as psycholinguistics.

Psycholinguistics is the study of language as a human activity. It is the

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study of what people acquire when they acquire a language, of how they acquire it, and of how they use it when producing and understanding message

(Foss: 1996:4). Psycho linguistics comprises to three domain of language, namely

language comprehension, language production and language acquisition. The

three domains above stand for the questions; how language is comprehended, how

language is produced and how language is acquired? And the researcher will be

interested In discussing language acquisition domain.

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The study of child's language acquisition has engaged the interest and

fancy of those who have wanted either to better understand the development of the

children or to better understand the nature of language, and this study has been

going on for centuries. The latest research in book version is conducted by

Sunjono in his book ECHA: Kisah Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak Indonesia (2000).

In his book, he presents the linguistic aspects in language acquisition. Reading

that book is the inspiration to the researcher in discussing and continue the

research with different participant in limited linguistic aspect Language

cognition has tried to explain it; probably no other topic has aroused such

controversy. Possessing a language is the quintessentially human trait: all nonnal

humans speak, no nonhuman does. Language is the main vehicle by which we

know about other people's thoughts, and the two must be intimately related. Every

time we speak we are revealing something about language, so the facts of

language structure are easy to come by; these data hint at a system of

extraordinary complexity. Nonetheless, learning a first language is something

every child does successfully, in a matter of a few years and without the need for

formal lessons. With language so close 10 the core ofwhat it means to be human,

it is not surprising that children's acquisition of language has received so much

attention. Anyone with strong views about the human mind would like to show

that children's first few steps are steps in the right direction.

Nat1vist Hnguistic theories hold that children learn through their natural

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the presence of other humans. This does not mean, however, that the child

requires formal teaching of any sort, Chomsky claims that children are born with a

hard-wired language acquisition device (LAD) in their brains. They are born with

the major principles of language in place, but with many parameters to set (such

as whether sentences in the languagc(s) they are to acquire must have explicit

subjects). According to nativist theory, when the young child is exposed lo a

Language, their LAD makes it possible for them to set the parameters and deduce

the grammatical principles, because the principles are innate.

interactionism. Social-interactionists like Snow, theorize that adults play an

important part in children's language acquisition. However, some researchers

claim that the empirical data. On which theories of social interaction ism are based

have often been over-representative of middle class American and European

parent-child interactions. Various anthropological studies of other human cultures,

as well as anecdotal evidence from western families, suggests rather that many, if

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not the majority, of the world's children are not spoken to in a manner akin to

traditional language lessons, but nevertheless grow up to be fully fluent language

users. Many researchers now take this into account in their analyses- Furthermore,

as any parent knows, children often pay scarce attention to what they are told to

say,

instead sticking to their own ungrammatical preferences.

Outside of both theories, Learnability theory offers that language is

learned. In this case, learning is not defined as the activity of searching and

exchanging knowledge in institution such as school or univers~ty. Based on the

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Oxford Dictionary, the notion of learning is to gain knowledge or skill by study,

experience or being taught. The researcher takes the term experience as the

indication of learning. It means that Learning in this tenn is taking out the

knowledge From the environment. Thus, the process of acquiring language is

derived from learning. Even has its own name, the researcher regards that it is the

follower or development of empiricism. This is to say that, in this case, the

researcher is eager to see the language acquisition of children who were sent to

school and who were not sent to school.

leamability theory on language acquisition. The me.aning of application is that

language acquisition is divided into two categories; artificial (school) and natural

(non school). This topic is chosen because this research have never been

conducted in Indonesia. This idea come from the tendency of parent who tends to

send their children to school with the expectation the children are able to acquire

the language well. The interesting question is, is there any effect of sending their

children to school with the ability in acquiring the language. Then, leamability

theory gives the different views of language acquisition. For instance, one of the

application of learn ability theory is stimuli and respond activity. It means that the

process of acquiring language can be faster. In other word. children who live in

communicative society (the society which always full of communication) sucl1 u·s

market, retail market will acquire the vocabularies from adult. And children who

are often tieing asked to communicate, wi II get more vocabulary than the s/ t

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give correction with makan und as the result the child finally will say matan

which close to the word makan.

Therefore, the researcher is eager to investage it by taking 'The Etlcct of

the Application of Leamability Theory on language Acquisition by Children two

Years Old ' as the title of this thesis. The title means finding out that whether the

learnability theory can aff..e_ct the child in acquiring the language or not In this

ca<>c, treatment will be given to the children. The treatment means giving stimulies

and ask the children to rcsrond that stimulics as explained in the previous

0 rronounce

been acquired. It is based on the researcher's observation Ln attending child

language development in daily life. All children is taught how to remcm !lcr

words, how to pronounce that words and even how to construct the words. And

this research will be conducted by giving some treatments to su~ject or the research.

1.2 The Problems of the Study

Based on the above background. the problems of this study arc

I. Is there any effect of application of learnability theory on language

acquisition by children two years old?

2. What is the dominant input inllucncing the language acquisition by

children two years old?

1.3 The Objectives of the Study

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relation to the problems. the researcher aims;

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1. to investigate the ctkct

or

application lcamability theory on language

acquisition by children two years old , and

2. to investigate the dominant input influencing language acquisition by

children two years old.

1.4 The Scope of the Study

This study deals with the ~t(quisitinn of language by children. The age of the children is limited on two years old children. Considering that language

acquisition is a wide area. the discussion is limited on

acquisition treated hy applying h.:arnahility theory. The

function is based the consideration that language can be seen by the expression tlf

its languagt: function. Speech function comprises to statement, question, offer. and

command.

1.5 The Significance of the Study

The findings ofthis r~scarch art.: cxpcctcd to be useful for:

I. The university students. as their input in learning the aspects

or

the Language, and to invite them in discussing the interrelated study of

language and other aspects.

2. Lecturers of psycho!inguist:cs, as an input tn giving examples and

illustrations in teaching psycholinguistics especially in discussing

Indonesian children acquisition cases, and

3. The members of the society who are interested in linguistics to be the

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS ANI> SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions

The last part of this thesis presents some points as the conclusions of this

research related to data analysis and findings of this research. They are as !{)!low:

In the process of acquiring the language. the environment hold th<.:

development. Even though. they were able to pronounce the expression

wd. they knew the meaning and function of the expression.

2. Statement. question, and command were the dominant speech

acquired by them. The researcher claim this by attending the context and

intonation. This to say that there is no grammatical exam to test their

speech function, it fully based on context and intonation identification.

5.2 Suggestions

I. In developing the children's language, parents should guide their children

111 learning to talk as much as possible especially in making them

understand other people expression.

2. The stimuli was very beneficial form them in developing their language,

thus il is suggested to the parents to introduce the name of things

especially the things around them.

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3. In many ways, children should he encouraged to speak and at the same

time they are questioned to ensure whether they understand or not. It is

better to give them approrriating to speech, if necessary parents should

give corrections for them. But it must be done carefully on the

environment, because the children will say what they hear. Emotional

approach psychologically will help them in accelerating the language

THE EFFECT OF THE APPLICATION OF LEARMABILITY THEORY ON LANGUAGE ACQUISITION BY CHILDREN TWO YEARS OLD.

TBI DnCT OJTBIAPPUCATION OfLJWlNABILITY

ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS

A THESIS

Reg.No.045010126

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Mluly

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

5.2 Suggestions ... ... 50

APPENDIXES ... 52

CHAPTER V

PERPUST