Chinese Language Acquisition

This course will introduce you to the current research questions, theories, and development in language acquisition in general and Chinese language acquisition in particular. The content of teaching, in-class discussion and assignments for you to complete after class are all designed with a focus on helping you to gain a broad understanding of the nature of language acquisition, to guide you to identify age-related developmental features, to distinguish the characteristics of L1 and L2 acquisition. You will also be able to learn how to apply current theories and research methodologies to the study of language acquisition, particularly in the Singapore context. This will prepare you to be a researcher or a language teacher who can address language acquisition issues from a multi-dimensional perspective and write academic papers based on empirical research data of language acquisition.