Dynamic Adjustments Of Motherese Based On The Comprehensible Input

As the prerequisite for language acquisition,language input has been an emphasis in the research topic of linguists home and abroad for many years.In 1985,Krashen,the famous American linguist,put forward the Monitor Theory which centered on the Input Hypothesis and composed of five hypotheses,and it had a great impact on the field of language acquisition especially the second language acquisition.Its input hypothesis points out the second language input which the learner are exposed to and which is also slightly higher than the current level,is referred to as"comprehensible input".After reviewing the researches of scholars home and abroad on comprehensible input,it is found that present studies have affirmed its positive influence in language acquisition,and explored the researches of this theory on second language acquisition and foreign language acquisition.Some scholars have tried to make a further study of comprehensible input from the perspective of language adjustment,but researches of this theory on first language acquisition aimed at first-hand linguistic data are still relatively rare.However,as the primary language input form for early childhood language acquisition,motherese has an irreplaceable role in children's language development.Domestic researches on motherese mainly center on describing its features and functions,which lacks the systematic tracking studies on motherese.This study adopts microgenetic analysis,and tracks the conversations twice which space one year between a mother and her three years old son in the real environment,in order to reveal the dynamic adjustments of the motherese and the variability which may exist in the language of the son.Through the record and observation of the conversations between the mother and the son,this study mainly discusses and analyzes the following questions:1)How does the motherese realize the comprehensibility for her son?From what aspects?2)Which aspect in adjustments of motherese shows distinct variation?And what adjustments the two data present?3)Is there any variability in the language of the child under the influence of motherese?If there is,what is it?4)What are adjustments of motherese at the age three to four of the child compared with child's other stages of language development?After the transcription and phoneticization of the data collected at two different times,this study adopts the quantitative and qualitative method of the microgenetic analysis to respectively discuss and contrastively analyze the results of the processed data.The major conclusions are as follows:1)With the aid of context,simplified language,communication content and the responses of the son,the motherese could achieve the comprehensibility,which can be reflected in aspects such as pronunciation,intonation and speed,syntax,semantic,and feedbacks.2)The adjustments of the motherese are the most prominent in syntax and verifications.Through the contrastive analysis,the results show that the motherese in the second data collected are of longer length and changes apparently in sentences patterns.At the same time,the promptness in response and verification is reinforced than before,and the mother becomes more frequently to guide the child to talk and think independently.Motherese is adjusted in respectively in two data collected periods,but these kinds of adjustments have no apparent changes due to the short observation.3)There is variability in the language of the child in this study,which is showed in the first data that the child uses the words or expressions which fall short of the required cognition and lexeme at his age.But this variability is not reflected in the second collected data.4)This study shows that adjustments of the motherese in syntax and verifications are more obvious at the age three to four.Adjustments of motherese at this stage are basically the same compared with other stages of the children's language development owing to the fact that the mothers can make rough and similar language adjustments on the basis of the responses of the child.This paper studies and contrasts the adjustments of the motherese based on the comprehensible input.Finally,in accordance with the results of the study,suggestions for mothers on communication with the children in children's language development,and implications for language instructors to teach language learners to acquire language are given.