16.7 2nd and 3rd years To be advised. Normally at least 12.5 points of Linguistics at first-year level, or 25 points of Psychology at first-year level. First semester Two lectures and a tutorial a week.

• Objectives: By the end of the subject, students should:
• demonstrate familiarity with the stages of child language development;
• demonstrate familiarity with current theories of language acquisition;
• have an understanding of data collection techniques appropriate to child language acquisition research.

The subject will begin with an introduction to the varying theoretical approaches to child language acquisition. Within this framework, children's language development will be discussed beginning with pre-speech. Phonological, grammatical and semantic development will be discussed with a focus on the acquisition of English. While the focus of the subject will be on English, cross-cultural material will be included for the purposes of comparison. Throughout the subject, methodological issues related to the collection of child language data will be raised and discussed and students will be encouraged to collect and analyse their own data. Essays and assignments totalling not more than 5,000 words.