Grammatical Competence Development of Nursery School Children Acquiring Persian

Subject Areas : Journal of Studies in Learning and Teaching English

Farhad Tayebipour ¹ , Mohammad Javad Riasati ²

1 - Shiraz Azad University
2 - Shiraz Azad University

Received: 2014-08-13 Accepted : 2014-10-13 Published : 2013-12-01

Keywords: L1 (First Language), CDS (Child Directed Speech), MLU (Mean Length of Utterance),

Abstract :

This study is an attempt to answer three questions: First, whether there is a difference between the grammatical competence de- velopment of a group of children aged 2;6 vs. a group of children aged 3;6. Second, whether there is a relationship between the children’s age and their MLU on the one hand and their speech and the caretakers’ speech on the other. Third, whether or not the normal limit proposed by Brown (1973) is also observed in the acquisition of Persian. To this end, six children were studied during a six-week period. The results indicate that in terms of age difference, there is neither an unequivocal yes nor a definitive no answer to the question, i.e. in some cases there is a difference whereas in other cases there is no difference at all. Re- garding the relationship, no significant relationship was found between the speech of the children and the speech of the caretakers’ in terms of Mean Length of Utterance (MLU). Finally, it is indicated that the limit proposed by Brown (1973) is also observed in Farsi.