An Acquisitionist’s Perspective to Teaching Introductory Linguistics

Abstract

This paper offers the perspective of an acquisitionist for teaching in an introductory linguistics course, the topics corresponding to the more structural component systems or levels of language, namely, phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax. Many introductory linguistics textbooks are far too advanced and contain too much information for undergraduate students to grasp within the short period of time customarily allotted in a three-credit course. In fact, it is quite common for instructors to have to pick and choose the information they are going to cover, many times resorting to skipping entire chapters and major concepts that are basic to the linguistic enterprise. Even when comprehensive coverage is attempted, students are often left with little or no time to absorb the necessary concepts within each unit for later application when discussing more specific areas that students find most interesting and relevant such as historical or dialectal differences in the language(s) they are studying. It is argued that approaching these basic components as different steps in the process of acquiring one’s L1(s) impresses upon students and provides them with an appreciation for (1) the individuality of each system; (2) the integration among systems (e.g., the difference between phonetics and phonology is easier to remember if one thinks as the former as the earlier infant-stage of perception and articulation and the latter as the eventual organization of rules in a system); (3) how children learn their first language(s); and (4) more generally, the nature and power of the human capacity for language.