A2 English Language-20th September

Explain some of the difficulties a child might encounter in it acquisition of vocabulary from the time it speaks to the age of seven. You can also refer to some phonological features, as well as considering ideas such as the use of concrete and abstract nouns, overextension, acquisition of grammar words etc.

Children will encounter many difficulties when acquiring vocabulary. The first thing is the phonology. Children will tend to use the smallest unit of sound (Phoneme) to describe something, they may also substitute difficult sounds for easier sounds. They may also use "Consonant Cluster Reductions" to reduce the amount of sounds they have to use. The next problem that could arise is the use of "Concrete" & "Abstract" nouns. Most children have no knowledge of what they mean, so they will use them at any given time when speaking. 

Another difficulty that children have is the use of Overextension. There are two types of overextension that children use while acquiring vocabulary. The first is "Catergorical Overextension", where a child presumes that all fruits are called apple, that all men are called daddy, basically where a child uses a term in a too broad manner, and often overgeneralising while speaking.  The next form of overextension is "Analogical". In this stage, a child believs that all round objects are called apple, its quite similar to Catergorical Overextension because the child is still using a term in a broad manner.