The Acquisition of WH questions by Persian and English speaking children
Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language Studies
Elham
Pirbeig Darvishvanda
1
(Department of English Language and Literature, College of Humanities, Takestan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Takestan, Iran)
Ramin
Rahmany
2
(, Department of English Language and Literature, College of Humanities, Takestan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Takestan, Iran)
Keywords: acquisition, question, WH-question,
Abstract :
This research is case study which was designed to investigate the acquisition of WH-question byPersian and English speaking children between 2 to 4 years old. Four girls and their input wereprecisely analyzed in order to figure how WH-questions are effective in their speaking in theirdaily lives. In the current study the subjects were randomly selected and the matter of gender wasnot considered. This study designed to find out how children acquire used to WH-question duringtheir special age. The study was conducted in 44 hours in eighty-four sessions. Each session lastedfor 45, 60, 90 or less than 40 minutes. This study uses real language, real people, Real places toconnect learners of English to the world. All their partners were their parents, peers, and caregiver.Their voice was recorded by a phone in different time and the Persian speech was recordedin Iran and the English speech in the United Kingdom. At last, all their dialogues were analyzedto find out how they learn to use WH-questions. In conclusion, it was found that children who are2-aged presented a large number of WH-questions and 4 aged children use less than WH-questionsin compared with the younger children. The result showed that English girls used more WHquestionthan Persian girls and children who are four aged used more WH-question than childrenwho are two aged in English and Persian. Finding in this research showed that, there are nosignificant relationship between children input and the children feedback. It means that input hasno effect on children acquisition and children acquired WH-question without mirror the input. Atthe end, this research presented some limitations and suggestions for further study.
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