Early childhood language acquisition : an investigation into the interplay of factors and underlying mechanisms

Abstract

Early childhood language acquisition has been a topic of interest in research for decades. There has been many different views on the subject and a consensus has never been reached. Substantial numbers of studies have investigated parental influence on the quantity and quality of input to the child. A lesser studied aspect of early childhood language acquisition is the child’s influence on his or her own language acquisition. Though limited, this report seeks to clarify the understanding of the factors affecting the early childhood language acquisition process as well as its underlying mechanisms. This report performed an in-depth review of some related factors in both schools of thought - parent to child influences and child’s own influences. The following factors on parental influence on child’s language acquisition including vocabulary size and repetition frequency, vocabulary complexity, socioeconomic status and also, the child’s influence on his or her own language acquisition in the child-parent feedback loop including personality of the child, genetic and hereditary and environmental factors were reviewed. Acknowledging the importance of both schools of thought, the findings were synthesised and a model was formulated to encapsulate the above. Recommendations were made to try and improve the landscape of early childhood language acquisition in Singapore after consolidation of the findings gained from the literature review conducted.