• Offered by School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics
  • ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
  • Course subject Linguistics
  • Areas of interest Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

One of the most remarkable properties of humans is that we acquire a very complex linguistic interactional system early in life. Along the way, children make adjustments to how they produce utterances and interpret what they hear. Understanding out how we do this takes us on a fascinating journey, visiting research highlights that speak to the core of human cognition and social interaction. What psycholinguistic processes explain an utterance such as "Nail polish me!" or "We holded the baby  rabbits"? What conclusions can we draw about what is universal in language development versus what is language or culture specific? Do children always imitate their care-givers or do they bring innovations into a language? We will explore the development of language abilities from several perspectives, including unilingual and multilingual contexts, and across languages of different types, drawing on differing theoretical approaches.

Learning Outcomes


  1. assess the level of language ability for a young child by listening to naturally occurring examples of young children talking;
  2. explain, and argue for, how children learn their first language in terms of phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, interaction and caretaker's input;
  3. critically evaluate various language acquisition theories; and

Indicative Assessment

Phonological analysis of a child’s language production, including transcription of real data, 500 words (25%). [Learning Outcomes 1, 2]
Morphosyntactic analysis of a child’s language production, 500 words (25%). [Learning Outcomes 1, 2, 4]  
Major research essay, 3000 words (40%). [Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4]
Class participation and discussion (10%). [Learning Outcomes 2, 3, 4]



130 hours of total student learning time made up from:
a) 36 hours of contact: 24 hours of lectures, 12 hours of tutorial; and

Requisite and Incompatibility

To enrol in this course you must have successfully completed LING1001 or LING2001, or with permission of the convener. You are not able to enrol in this course if you have previously completed LING6521.

Preliminary Reading

Students will be given a full reading list at the beginning of the semester. Journals that publish child language acquisition research include First Language, Journal of Child Language, Language Acquisition, Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour.




Student Contribution Band:
Unit value:
6 units


6.00 0.12500

Offerings and Dates

The list of offerings for future years is indicative only

First Semester

