Sarah Schmidt 
The acquisition of phonology 
Schriftliche Hausarbeit im Rahmen der Ersten Staatsprüfung für das Lehramt an Gymnasien/Gesamtschulen

Examination Thesis from the year 2008 in the subject Didactics – English – Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1, 0, University of Duisburg-Essen (Department of Anglophone Studies), language: English, abstract: This critical essay investigates the acquisition of phonology. It is amazing how rapidly children develop in the first years of their lives. The acquisition of their mother tongue is especially fascinating because it is such a complex process. Not only the linguistic code has to be fully acquired but also all its rules and norms. That is, apart from the language’s phonology, morphology, syntax, lexis and semantics, – constituting the code of every language –pragmatic rules are also important for the daily use and the full dominance of a language. This essay focuses on the most basic field, phonology, and explains how a child acquires the target language’s phonology. Although the stages of the acquisition process are described generally since they are universal and hold true for all children independently of their mother tongue, the attention is on the English phonology in particular. First language acquisition in general is an important topic, not only for linguists. To have knowledge about it also helps the parents to raise children, especially in bilingual situations. I, myself, consider it very useful to write about such a topic as one can learn to understand what and how many stages and steps are actually involved. If we know how it works, perhaps we may also understand why children initially make errors or quite unusual utterances or even extraordinary sounds (in the pre-language stages) while acquiring the native language. The essay will provide information about the whole acquisition process. However, the main focus will be on the first four to six years.