Child-Directed Speech in First Language Acquisition: A Case Study

ABSTRACT Wibawati, Devi Oktabrianti Anugerah. 2015. Child-Directed Speech in First Language Acquisition: A Case Study.Thesis, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, UniversitasNegeri Malang. Advisors: (I) EvynurulLaily Zen, S.S, M.A., and (II) AuliaApriana, S.S.,M.Pd. Keyword: child-directed speech, typical caregivers’ language structure This study concerns speech register commonly used by caregivers toward children, which is known as the term “child-directed speech”. This study is to find out the typical caregivers’ language structure especially the type of phonological, morphological and syntactic processes that occur in the caregivers’ lexical and sentence production. This study is a case study in that the writer focuses on the particular cases of child-directed speech best exemplified by the speech production of caregivers while communicating with children they are taking care of. The subjects of the study are Namira and her caregivers. Namira is a three-year-old Javanese-Indonesian child. When the observation was commenced she was at the age of 3.5 (three years and five months) old and by the time it finished, she was already 3.9 (three years and nine months) old. The data collection took place from August to November and are in forms of note and voice recordings. To analyze the data, firstly, the writer took down as well as listed any words produced or spoken by Namira and her caregivers. Having been listed, those select words were transcribed. Then she proceeded to classifying them into three categories, such asphonological process, morphological process, and syntactical process, and thus, the writer could interpret and analyze. The findings indicate that Indonesian caregivers tend to use special speech register ‘child-directed speech’ to the observed child that they cared for. The writer found that most of the words used by caregivers when they communicate with children are the signal the use of both substitution process and substitution process fronting. The writer also found that caregivers used repetition when they were engaged in communication with the childother than simplifying and somehow deleting some words in order to make their children understand what they were talking about. It is, therefore, it is advisable for either parents or caregivers to pay attention to their children language acquisition. , but not to mispronounce any words learnt by their children because they will easily imitate the wrong pronunciation