The focus of this course will be on recent research on first language acquisition (L1), on universals of the acquisition process and on language specific phenomena in different languages. We will specifically discuss different theories on language acquisition and match them against child data. From L1 acquisition we will then move to bilingualism and second language acquisition, areas which are in the focus of interest of international and local researck projects at the moment. For our data evaluation we will use sources of child data such as spontaneous speech data and experimental data collected in the GIF and BiLaD projects. We will also get acquainted with the CHILDES data base and read original research articles.
During the course students will prepare and conduct a small research project which can then be presented in the poster session. For this reason, it is mandatory that you also attend Übung 3.02.161, which will introduce different experimental paradigms and help you formulate a research proposal.
Active oral participation and preparation of the course material for each session is expected of the participants.
Preparation:
Please revise BM 3 Part 1 and 2, specifically phonology, morphology and syntax.

Compulsory reading:
Guasti, T.-M. 2002: Language Acquisition: The Growth of Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Chapters 1-3.
Further readings/materials for presentations will be published in the form of a reference list on StudIP about 10 days before the course begins.