The Role of Input in First Language Acquisition

Abstract

The current study investigates the accessibility of a systematic pattern to Iranian infants learning their first language, and also it is a try to show the effect of the quantity of input on first language acquisition. To these aims, two case studies were carried out on six Iranian infants learning Persian as their first language. The participants of the first study were three infants acquiring their first language in Iran being followed for 12 months (24-36 months) to see if they all passed the same pattern in language development. The participants of the second study were three infants (who were exposed to less input) acquiring their first language in Iran being followed for 12 months (24-36 months) to see if the language development was affected considering the amount of input they were exposed to. In-depth interviews, observations, audio and video recordings, notes and reports were used to collect the data for this study. The data collected for each infant was analyzed separately, and the stages of development were reported for each infant accordingly. The findings support the claim that the process of language acquisition depends on an innate language ability which holds that at least some linguistic knowledge exists in humans at birth, and also the input that learners receive plays a very important role in the language acquisition since the input activates this innate structure.