THE AQUISITION OF WORDS BY 22 MONTH OLD CHILDREN.

.

'

THE ACQUISITION OF

WORDS

BY 22 -MONTH- OLD CHILDREN

A Thesis

bv

..,

Hartini

Br Hutabarat

NIM: 035010112

(SePd.

Universitas Negeri Medan)

Submitted to the EngHsh Applied Study f#rogr~m in partial fulfillment of the l'equirements for the degree of Magister Humaniora.

English Applied Linguistics Study Program

Postgraduate School

State

University

of Medan

•

Advisers' Statements

I certify that I have read this thesis and that, in

my

opinion it is fully adequate in scope

J

and quality as a thesis for the Degree of Magister Humaniora.

f

~ ·

f

t

t

I

'

l

----.

Prof. D.P. Tampubolon, Ph.D

First Adviser

I

certifY

that I have read this thesis and that, · my opinion it is fully adequate in scope

I

and

quality

as a thesis

for the Degree of Ma ter

Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A, Ph.D

NIP:08126016234

-.

--.·

... ... ...

...-

..

" " "

...

·-·

APP ROVAL

_.-Jis thesis

W8!l

examined on 19"' September 2007 the Board of Examiners.

Board of Examiners

Prof. D.P. Tampubolon. Ph.D.

Prof. Tina

Mariany

Arilin. M.A., Ph.D.

Prof. Amrin S:u'agih. M.A .. Ph.D.

Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd.

Or. Busmin Guming. M. Pd.

Approved by

The

Director of

the Postgraduate School

Prof. Dr.

Belfnlc

Manullang

NIP. l30 518 718

-. -. y ·

•

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Praise be 10

God,

the ''Almighty". the Mert:itul, and the ''Most Beneficial" for

!lis

Mercy

and

Ocncficial, without which lhc writer would ha,·c never been able In

complete htr task in obtaining the dcgm: of Magister Humaniora of the English

Applied Linguistics Study l'wgrom Stale

I

Jnivcrsily

of

Mcdan.

This

srudy, in

its present from is not without the support and assistance of

many people. To mention a few, the writer would like to express her deepest gratitude

to:

First, Prof. D.P. Tampubolon, Ph.D. her first Adviser, lor his ideas, criticism

and corrections.

Second, her special appredation goes to Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin. M.A .

Ph.D. her second Adviser and llcud of lhe Engli$h Applied l. int;uistics S tudy

Prosrnm. fur the m o~t vuluuhlc time spent in giving the direct guidance, criticisms,

corrections und endless support until this thesi' app~ars in its pt'l!scnt li•tnl.

The writer would like to extend her •inccrc th;mkfulncs.' h1 Drs. Wil liam

Sarugib, Dipl,. Appl, M.Pd as the Secretary of the English Applied Linguistics Study

Program, for his assislllne, and ull the h:ctur¢n;

"~lO

have taught a lot of knowledge during the three semesters' s tudy.

Furthermore. the writer's sincerest thanks goes to her beloved husband.

Selamet Rianto and her son, Calvin Chaidar. for the care, support, prayers. and many

other things that have been given to her.

•

Her special thanks is directed to her beloved father, Husin Hutabardt and

mother,

Almh.

Hj. Syahniar, and sisters, Herawati, ljah, Herlina and brothers,

Arif

Dermawan,

Edi Muslim and Zakaria who have ~upported

bee during her study and in

tbe process of writing her thesis.

last but not least, her fmal thanks goes to all her best friends

who

have

eootributed very much to the improvement of her English. At this opportunity, she

would like to note: Nita, Nana, lbu Sabariah, Rini, Lena. KBk Melda and also

classmates at LTBl. her friends from MAN, MTsN Kabanjabe and SO Bertingkat I

Kabanjahe.

Finally, the writer realizes that this thesis is stiU far from being perfect

Therefore,

any suggestions or criticisms for the

improvement of this thesis

are

wannly

appreciated.

May ALLAU Riess U!!

iii

Medao ,

19'" September 2007

The writer,

ABSTRACT

Br llutabamt, Hanini. 2007. The Acqui•ition of Words by 22 - Month - Old C hildren. A Thesis, English Applied Linguistics Study Program State University of Medan.

The objcctivcof this study

was to discover the words acquired by ch ildren at

the age of 22 months. Data were collected

by

observing a male and a female. In addition, an interview was conducted to obtain more information from the children's

paren18.

The observations

were

conducted twice

a

week for a three-month period

!:5

•

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT ...•...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ... ...

ii

TABLE Of CONl"EN"fS ...

iv

LIST OFTABLES ...•...

vi

LIST OF APPENDICES ...

vii

CHAI"fER

I.

INTRODUCTION

1.1. The Background of the Study ... .. 1.2 The Problem of the Study ...

5

1.3 The Objectives of the

Study ...

6

1.4 The Significance of the

Study ...

7

l.S

The Scope of the Stlldy ... 8

1.6

The Arrangement of Chapters ... 8

CHAPTER U. REVI£W OF RELATED LITERATURE

~ . I

The Theories of Language Acquisition... ...

9

2.1 .I Behavioral Approach... 12

2. I

.2 Linguistic Approach ... 13

2. I

.3

Cognitive Approach... 15

2.2 The Stages o f Language Development ... 17

2.2.1 One-Word Uttemnces ... l7 2.2.2 Two - Word Utterances... 18

2.2.3 Multi - Word Utterances ... 20

2.3 The Words... 21

2.4 The Children Determine the Meaning of Words... 23

•

2.5 The Phonological Ac:quisition ... ... 25

...

2.6 The Sex

Differences ... ... ,... ...

27

CHAPTER Ill. RESEARCH METHOD

3.1

The

Research

Design ...

29

3.2 The Subjects ... 30

3.3

The

lru~trument for Collecting the Data ... 31

3.4

The

Techniques of Collecting the

Data ... 31

3.4.

t Interview ...

3

t 3.4.2 Observation ... ... 32

3.5 The Technique of Analyzing the Data ... 32

CHAPTER

fV. THE DA TA

AND DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 The Data ... ... ... 33

.,

4.2

The Data Collection ... ... 33

•

4.3 The Subjects l3ackground ... ... . 34

4.4 The Data Analysis ... 35

4.5 The Findings.. ... ... ... 62

CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGEST!ONS

5. t The Conclusions ... ... 63

5.2 The Suggestions ...

65

References ... . ... ... .... .. . .... ... .. . ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... 66

Appendices .. .... ... ... .. .... .. ... .. ... ... ... .. .. . .. .... ... ... ... ... .... ... 68

•

LIST

OF T

ABLES

Table

Page

3.1 The Subjects ... ... 30

4. 1 One-WordUterancesby MAinOctober ... 37

4.2 One-Word Uterances by AS in October ... 42

4.3

Two and Multi - Word Utterances Obtained from MA in October ... .. ... ... . .. ... ... .... . .. . .. ... . ... ... ... . ... 4 7 4.4 Two and M ulti- Word Uu erances O btained from SA in October ... ... ... 48

4.5 One Word Uterances by MA in November... 49

4.6

One Word

Uterances

by AS in November...

53

4.7

One Word Uterances by M A in December... ...

57

4.8

One Word Uternnces by

AS

in December ... .... ... ...

58

4.9 Two and Multi - Word Utterances Obtained from MA in Occcmbcr ... ... .. ... ... ... ... .... ...

60

4.10

Two

and

Multi - Word

Utteranc.es

Obtained from S A

in December... ... .. ... ... ... 6 1

LIST OF APPENDICES

A ppendix

A. The Bio Data of me Subjects . . . •. . . .. . . ... . . 68

B.

Interview . .. . . .. . . ... 73

C. The Resul ts of Data By Subjects on OhsetVations ... ... . 74

D. The Results of Data By Observations ... ... 75

•

•

•

CHAPTER I

INTROD UCTION

1. I Tbt Backgrou nd of the Slutly

Human beings have b«n blessed wilh the gifi of y,-ords which differentiate

them from other creatures on eJrth. The

re:~lization

of the gifi that has been bestowed

to only the human beings made some experts in language process curious to explore

the phenomenon. The language acquisition in human infants have always been a

fascinating subject through the ages. During the infants or very early childhood

period, chi ldren team to express things by using speech sounds. Whenever they feel

hungry, thirsty, or hurt, they produce speech sounds such as

cryin~;.

which is also a

part of the process of communication. where the infants start to use their articulutory

to communicate with other people. because t hey arc sti ll not able t.o say perfectly

what they want like the adults do.

Lnngungc

is

a

uniquely

human gift of

evolution.

h is

subtle, abstract, and

cultural phenomenon that no doubt come in the human biological system at a

relatively later tiatc.

Students interested in these child developmentS trdditionally have btcn

interested in langungc development for two reasons. tirst the study of the acquisition

of language potentially can tell a great deal about the ph>>iological and intellectual

"

•

•

considered to have a tremendous effect on the children·~ relationship with

themselves and their environments. Despite this interest, and many years of research,

not a great deal was known about what the children learned when they teamed a

language.

A linguistic description of the structure of language has caused a new upnrgc

of interest in the study of language acquisition because it promises to shed much

further light of the understWlding of the children's acquisition and use of language

and its relation to other aspects of their developmenL This linguistic description has

been termed transfonnational or generative gr:lmmar, and its goal is to account for all

the generalizations about · language of which the native adult speaker has the

knowledge, such as (I) what is a sentence and what are the functional relationships

expressed in sentences, (2) what is a word and how is it used in certain contexts, and

(3) what is a speech sound and bow is it used in certain contexts. This knowledge is

presumably what the native speaker uses to derive the meaning of an utterance and to

express intended meaning. It is a fact that language acquisition is a crucial process in

the aU.:mpt of understanding language development more deeply. K rashen ( 1985 : I)

asserts that acquisition refers to the subconscious process identical in all impor:ant

ways to the process children util.ize in acquiring their first ltmguage.

Human beings are born to speak. They have an innate gift lbr liguring out the

rules of the language used in their environment. The environment itself is also a

significant factor. Environment influences tlte children in the conversation very

much. This is an achievement children get without the realizations of adults are

..

•

surprised to encounter this kind of psychological and linguistic phenomenon. A study

condu~1ed by de Boysson (1999: 5) states that about two years aficr conception or a

year after birth, children will say their first words. The skill and the swiftness with

which children lenm to speak have always fascinHted adults. Infants need other

people especially their caretakers to motivate them to communicate namely through

crying, cooing, uttering sound or meaningful words. "'hich wiU help them to be able

to carry conversation and to communicate their needs and wants with other people in

the community. Dardjowidjojo (2000 : 49) explains that the ndjustment in the

caretakers' speech register s.:rved two fmJctions namely to facilitate lmderstanding

and to get the child to

be

involved in the conversation. Talking about the caretakers'

speech register, it is

bencr

to know that there

are

eight parts of

speech

in English in

the traditional grammar. They are noun, pronoun. verb, adjective. adverb, preposition,

conjunction and interjection. So, it is very interesting to di cov ~ r which parts of

speech that children

acquire.

C lark (2003 : 12) mentions thm lirst language acquisition requires

a

comprehensive look o.t where and when children acquire a first la.'lguagc. ll integrates

social and cognitive approaches on how children analyze. understllnd . and produce

sounds, words, and sentences, as they learn 10 use language to ~rdle and uchieve

goals.

Ttl<! f\Ulction of language can be observed from different points of view~.

namely, from a biological viewpoinL language can be interpreted as having evolved

survival of human as a species and psychologically, language can be viewed, at least

•

in part, as a behavior that indirectly serves the biological, social, or aesthetic needs of

the

individual.

Acquiring a language is a skill that children begin to develop with

the

first

sounds they make as babies. For most children, their first word• are made up of

simple

sounds such as

mama, Dada

or

hye-b)-e.

As early as the first and second years.

children's speech exhibits a variety of complex ideas (Clark, 2003 : 65 - 67 ), for example, children say such things as big Erucic semanrically, tbe object truck is assigoed

the

attribute big,

Daddy's

chair, and the object Daddy possesses another object chair, and

mommy give,

the object Mommy is the cause of an action giving.

This development of oml language is one: of children's most natural and impressive

..

-'

accomplishments and as with other aspects of development, language acquisition is

not predictable. One child may say the words at I 0 months, another at 20 months.

In the proccs.~ of studying u child's language acquisition. one of the

requirements is to understand the child's family background. If tlm.t is to

he

undersiOOd, perhaps some,

if

not all, the problems can be solved. It is an important

fact to be studied so that the development can be well understood and will contribute

a 81¢81 deal in the process of a child's mental developmenL In the study of a child's

I~~DgW~gc development, there are of course many problems to be solved and a study

should

be

conducted. There are many questions to be answered. lbe answers

will

•

•

,

increase the scientific and acnd~mic vulucs in the proc.:ss of being able to under.nand

the child's language development which can be said to be complicated .

Actually, then: have been some studies conducted by the postgraduate

students from the State Universiry of

Medan

relatoo tO the linguistic knowledge

about what the children acquire over the developmental period

at

various stugcs. but

the

researcher wants tO condtx:t a the study oo how and what

w.:~rds

are acquired by

children of 22 months old

n.•

their early words. Some of the previous

finding.~

arc used as a lead and u comparative lor her samples to a better understanding of doing

her research.

Due to the above facts as have been discussed, the researcher is very curious

to study o n how and what words are acquired by the 22-month-o ld children as their

word urtcrunces.

It is a.n

attempt

to anafy,.e the process of development of the language

acquisi tion of the 22-month-old children. The researche r tries to focus her research on

the acquisition of early words by a mnle and a l"cmnle of 22 months old.

1.2 T be

Probltms

ot

tbe Study

In relation to the background mentiorK.'<I previously. the problems arc

formulated as follows:

-

--·-- -·

..

·--- ---···

·--.... .

I. How many words can the childr<·n ucquire a t the age of 22 months old'!

2. What kinds of words do they acquire?

3.

Can they

pronounce

such v.-ords correctly'?

4. What phonological segments are produced during the three months of the

observutions'l

5.

Arc there any differences between the "ocabularies acquired by the female

and

the male children?

These questions will be answered through the analysis of the data, which will

be obiained in the research .

"

I. 3 The Objectives of the Study

ls• view of the above problems, the mai:n objectives of tl1is study are:

I. To J1nd out how many words acquired by the 22-montiJ·old childl'cn.

2. To tind out whut kind• of word> ocquin:d hy the 22-month-uiJ children.

3. To find out whether the 22-month-o ld children can pronounce such words

correctly.

4. To find out the phonological segments which are produced during the three

months of the observations.

5. To lind out the differences between the vocabul.aries acquired by the female

..

..

-

·- -

--·-··--

''"'

-- ~ · ¥

I. How many words can the children acquire at the age of22 months old'?

2.

What kinds ofwurtls do they ucquirc'!

3. Can

they pronounce such words correctly'?

4. What phonological segments are

produc~

during the three months of the

observations'?

S.

Aie there any differences between the vocabularies acquired by the female

and the male children?

These questions wiU be answered through the analysis of the data. which will

be

obtained in the research .

1. 3 T he Objective! of the Study

In view of the above problems, the mai n objectives ol'lhis s1udy arc:

I. To find out how many words acquired by the 22-month-old children.

2. To fond out what kinds of words acquired by the 22-month-o\d children.

3.

To

f111d

out whether the 22-month-old children

can

pronounce such words

correctly.

4. To

find

out

the phonological segments \\1lich are produced during the three

months of the observations.

5.

To find out the differences between the vocabularies acquired by the female

and the male children .

·---1-+-

-+- - - -- - - - · ··· ·-- ~

.. ... _ .

..

•

•

t.

4 The Slplftcllllte

of

I be

Study

1bc results of this study ore expected to give answers to s.>mc of the problems

faced

in the

process of language acquisition of the 22-mc:inth-old children. in the

aspects of

early words

acquired by 22-month.-old children.

It

is hoped that the

findings

of

this

srudy will

be

significantly relevant to

the

theoretical and practical

aspects.

Theoretically. the research fmdings can provide a basis for a funher research

on the different stages on children's language acquisition.

The

findings of this

study

are expected to

be

useful as a valuable a much in-depth for

the

modification of an

analysis on children's utterances, and especially

in

their early words acquisition.

Practically, on the other band, this research can provide useful guidelines for

teachers and adults

in

the process of introducing English to young children as related

to the theory of

_{l angua~:~c}

acquisition .

In particular, this thesis is presented to the State University of Mcdnn and the

student.

~

where

the writer teaches. The results of the findings can enrich their

resources on Lan&uage Acquisition of Indonesian children

and

parents may benefit

this srudy as a reference

in

assisting/facilitating

their

children language acquisition.

While for the future researchers, this research will

be

useful for them as guidance for

other in-<lcpth studies .

•

•

1.5 Tbe

Scope

of tbe Study

In conducting this study, the researcher limits her observation only on

the

children's language development

and

the interactions between the

caretaker;.

namely

the

parents,

brothers, sisters and

environment with the children. The researcher is

concerned only on uncranccs produced hy the 22·month.(lld childn:n. particularly

sounds, words

and

meaning. Therefore. the study is limited to the uncranco.-s that lhe

infants

make

as the acquisition of

their

early words. The infants being observed

were

a male and a female who spoke: Indonesian. "These observalions were conducted for

three months, starting in October I" 2006 until December 31" 2006. They were at the

stage of

22

month.s old at the beginning of the observations, and by the end of the

research, they

were

2

years

old.

1.6 Tbe Arrangement of Chapter s

The contents of this study consist of tiJVe chapters. Chapter I is Introduction.

Chap«:r n

deals with Review of Related literature which con:>ists of the Theories of

Language Acquisition, the Stages of Language Development, the Words, the

Children Dctemlinc the

Meaning

of Words, the Phonological Acquisition and the Sex

Differences. Chapter Ill deals

\\~th

the Research Design, the Subjects, the Instrument for Collecting

the Data,

the

Technique of CQllecting the Data and the Technique of

Analyzing

the

Data

Chapter IV is devoted to the discussion of language acquisition

of words by the 22 month old children. The Ia;"! chapter, Chapter V deals

~th

the

Conclusions

and

the

Suggestions.

..

•

•

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5. 1 The Concluions

As

the last pan of this thesis. the resean:her presented some conclusions

related to the research. From the observations, the researcher concluded that, it

was

true the female had

more

words

utterances than the

male at the

same

age.

But,

the

male produced clearer than the female. From the observations, the researcher believed

that

it

was

happened

because

of the influence of the environment, where the male

have an older brother and a sister, but the female was the only child.

From all the word utterances, which were produced by the subjects, the results

of the parts of speech showed that

Nmm

and

Verb

dominated the word utlerances. All

the percemagc:s can be seen in Appendix D (Observation 4) .

In the process of the acquisition of early words. children were able to know

the functions of the words. ond they could act as what the words meant, cventhough

some words were still unclear yet. The analysis also showed the male and female

children understudy could produce 29% and 20% words perfectly respectively. It can

be seen in Appendix 0 (Obsc•·vution 4).

The results of the phonologieul segmenL< showed that the male dominated the

CVCVC linguistics sequences and the female CVCV. From !his re:.-ults, the researcher

concluded that it was happened, because the female often omined at the beginning

•

..

•

letter of a word, for example, she producl!d / ulc,Y for ~bunmg." That was why the

male could produce each word more perfectly than the female. The results can be

seen in Appendix

D.

The children's linguistics sequences were much more develop

compared to

&ha.

At the same age, the

CV

(25%),

CVC

(25%),

VCVC

(12%),

CYCV

(10%) and

YCV

(10".4) linguistics sequences dominated Ech's words. Beside

CVCVC.

VYC, CVV. VCCVC, VCCV,

and

VY

were very few percentage.

From the data obtained above, the children started 10 communiCIUe with adult

in the environmet. "The children showed a significant development on word·

utterances/speech produced during three months. The children could be able to

produce the multi-word utterances at the begirming of the observation. Although, they

still used very simple words. At lost month of the observation, it was found that the

the children 's ability in producing the multi-word utterances developed fastly. TI1e

children used varieties of words in a sentence .

Prom the interview with the parents. it was found that the children were trying

to kinetics development. Bosically, children acquired the language by their natural

schemes. It means that p~~rents and the family should adapt their language to their

children's language development without paying attention to the language structur~.

so the language could be Wldcrstood by the children, as the par~nts and the fumily in

making commWlication with their children.

•

•

•

..

•

5.l The Sugtttloas

lo developing the acquisition of early words, parents have to guide their

children in teaming to talk as much as possible so that the children can be more active

in having communication with their environment.

Generally children do not want to spealc even a word to everybody they do oot

know before, so to make communication running well, it is suggested to everybody to

make an approach by knowing the children behavior.

This study is just a simple complicated research, and the results might be

different if conducted to other subjects in other area. The knowledge about children

language acquisition on early words should be informed to parents in general who are

worried about their children, because they have to know when and what tactors can

influence the chil,\ren 's ability in acquiring the early word ·utterances .

•

..

•

REFERENCES

Anglin,

J.

M. 1983.

Vocabulary Development.

New York: Norton.

Barten,

M.D.

1995.

Early uxical Development.

Oxford: Blackwell.

Carey, S.

&

Barlett, B •. 1978.

Acquiring A single New Word.

Cambridge MA: MIT

Press.

Clark,

E.

V. 1973.

Aspects of language.

Cambridge: University Press.

- - - - ·

2003.

First lAnguage Acquisition.

Cambridge: University Press.

·-·-·-··- and Wong. A. 2002.

lAnguage and society.

Cambridge:

U niver.~ity

Press.

Oardjowidjojo,

S. .2000.

ECHA : Kisah Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak Jndonesla.

Jalcat1a:

PT Orasindo Jaya.

de

Boysson, D. B. 1999.

How Language Comes to Children.

Massachuse\ts: MIT

Press.

··----··- ···and Vihman, M. M. 1999.

&daptalion to Language: Evidence from

Bobbling and First Words In Four Languages.

Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Erwin, T. S. 1966.

Language Development.

New York: Russell Sage foWidation .

Jacobson, R. 1962.

Selected Writings I .

The Hague: Mounton and Co Publisher.

Krashen, S. D. 1985.

Principles all(/ Practice in Second Language Acquisition.

Oxford. Englnnd: Pergamon l'ress.

Lewis,

M ..

and Freedle, R. 1972.

Mother-Infant Dyad :

Tire

Crucllc

of

Metmin)!.

Crunbridge.

MA: MIT

Press

Lincoln, Y. S.

&

Guba, E.G. 19&5.

Naturalistic Inquiry.

Beverly Hills: CA Sag.:

Publications.

Maccoby, E. E., and Jacklin, C. N .. 1974.

The Psyt:lwlog}' of Sex Differences.

Stanford. Califf: Stand ford University Press.

Men

yule.

P. 197

I. The Acquisition and Development of Languagt!.

Massachussets:

Massachusscts Institute ofTeehoology .

•

•

Morgw1,

D.L. 1988.

/•'ow., (jmup L<' {}ualilative Research California:

Sage

Publication.

Nelson, K. 1973.

Strudure and StruiCRJI in leamillg tu Tu/lt llillsdalc,

N.

J. :

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, l'ublisber.

Nunan. D.

1983

Research MotthodY in /...anguage L«aming. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Paivio, A. & Begg. I.

19111.

P.~1..:hulugy

of l.angultge. New krscy: t>rcnticc· Hall,lnc .