Pedagogical grammar as the framework of tefl research. part 3. native language acquisition: strategies, procedures and processes. the word-combination stage

Abstract

The paper deals with the problems of the native language acquisition, focusing on the notions of ‘build-ups, ‘breakdowns’, ‘completions’, ‘pivot grammar’ and ‘telegraphic speech’, as well as their role in language acquisition. The analysis allowed concluding that the purpose of the first three procedures seems to be the verification of the cognitive organizer’s hypotheses concerning the underlying grammar rules.Using the materials of three experiments (Braine, McNeill and Maratsos), the author analyses thepivot grammar, the child’s first systemic grammar, which is a characteristic feature of the language development at the word-combination stage. Arguments concerning the pivot grammar analysis on the case grammar platform are reviewed, including the three criteria, required to formulate the conclusion regarding the subjects’ rule-governed behaviour (the positional consistency of the element under observation; its productivity and semantic consistency). The paper also reviews the four possible patterns of children’s utterances suggested as the result of the said criteria application: positional productive patterns, positional associative patterns, ‘groping’ patterns and free order patterns. The author corroborates the assumption that the ‘telegraphic speech’ is a logical outcome of the child’s pivot grammar application, taking into account the distinctive feature of the latter – skipping function words and grammar morphemes. The paper arguesin favour of the further research directed at the establishment of the degree of similarity between the native language acquisition, on the one hand, and the foreign language acquisition – on the other. The data obtained in such research could be taken into account in the process of Pedagogical Grammar development.