The Acquisition of 2.5 Year Indonesian Child Language Vocabulary
Andestend
Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Jl. Rawamangun Muka, RT.11 / RW.14, Rawamangun, Jakarta 13220
Keywords: Psycholinguistics, Acquisition Vocabulary Of Child, Indonesia
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to describe the acquisition of vocabulary for a child 2,5 year ages.The problem
of this research is first, how the acquisition of vocabulary child aged 2.5 year?Second, what is the
classification of the types of vocabulary that is often spoken by children aged 2.5 years?This study applied a
qualitative approach. That was conducted at Muara Beres, Cibinong, the research period is December 2018
to June 2019.The research subject is a 2.5 year old child. Sources of research data for children aged 2.5
years and their parents are.Collectedby observation and interviews. All data were analyzed (1) transcribe the
findings data (2) then classify the findings data, (3) then the data in the analysis is adjusted to the
formulation of the problem, (4) conclusions. The results of the study found 25 vocabulary words consisting
of 16 nouns, 8 verbs, and 1 adjective.
1 INTRODUCTION
In human life we cannot be separated from language,
this language activity is done wherever we are,
because only humans who have privileges can
speak. We do not realize that there are languages
that we get naturally or unintentionally and some are
obtained by deliberate or learning activities. The
study of a language is always interesting, because it
is one of the traits and parts of a language definition
that states that language is dynamic. One area of
language studies is psycholinguistics which is an in-
depth study of psychology and linguistics. One study
in psycholinguistics is the study of how language is
acquired in children aged 2.5 years.
(Arsanti, 2014) the term acquisition means the
process of mastering the language that is done
naturally by the child when he learns his native
language. (Arsanti, 2014) this term is different from
learning, namely the process carried out at a formal
level (studying in class and taught by a teacher).
Thus, the process of children who learn to master
their native language is acquisition, while the
process of people (generally adults) who learn in
class is learning.
Language acquisition is included in linguistic
studies covering the fields of phonology,
morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
(Mushaitir, 2016) the language acquisition stage will
not be separated from the participation of parents,
including the role of the environment where a child
lives. The environment has a major influence on the
acquisition of a child's language, where a child
mingles and interacts with his peers. A child's
interaction will lead to the acquisition or transfer of
language between one child and another child. This
phenonema often occurs in children's environments,
especially in playing masses,(Mushaitir, 2016).
Speech and language skills involve the
development of cognitive, sensorimotor,
psychological, emotional and the environment
around the child. Language skills in general can be
distinguished by receptive abilities (listening and
understanding) and expressive abilities (speaking).
Speech ability can be judged more than other
abilities so that discussion of language skills is more
often associated with speaking ability. Proficiency in
language and speech is influenced by intrinsic
factors (from children) and extrinsic factors (from
the environment).
(Prima Gusti Yanti, 2016) researches on
language acquisition, phonological aspects, vocals,
consonants conducted.(Kimppa et al.,
2019)conducted a second language acquisition study
in the field of morphology. (Andini,
2017)Indonesian language acquisition, while
(Mushaitir, 2016)examines the syntactic section.
(Hidayah, 2017) the acquisition of vocabulary
for children 3-6, this study states that the average
vocabulary obtained by 3-year-olds is in the form of
26
Andestend, .
The Acquisition of 2.5 Year Indonesian Child Language Vocabulary.
DOI: 10.5220/0008993300260031
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Education, Language and Society (ICELS 2019), pages 26-31
ISBN: 978-989-758-405-3
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
nouns, work, traits, and little adverbs, the results of
this study also confirm that language acquisition in
children varied and and different. Hidayah also said
there were differences between boys and girls in the
process of language acquisition, boys tend to have
less vocabulary mastery than girls.
Research (Özdaş, Şahlı, Özdemir, & Belgin,
2019) discusses the Comparison of anxiety and
child-care education characteristics of mothers who
have children with or without speech delays.
(Platonova, Markus, Vulāne, & Ilynska, 2016)
discusses Aligning terms in the field of child
language acquisition in English and Latvian. (Van
Druten-Frietman, Denessen, Gijsel, & Verhoeven,
2015)discuss Child, home and institutional
predictors of preschool vocabulary growth. (Gobet,
2015) discuss Vocabulary Acquisition. (María Luisa
Carrió-Pastor * & Departamento, 2015) discussed
Motivation in Second Language Acquisition.
From research (Prima Gusti Yanti, 2016),
(Kimppa et al., 2019), (Andini, 2017), (Mushaitir,
2016), (Hidayah, 2017), (Özdaş et al., 2019),
(Platonova et al., 2016), (Van Druten-Frietman et
al., 2015), (Gobet, 2015), (María Luisa Carrió-Pastor
* & Departamento, 2015). (Apriani, 2019). (Yusuf,
2019). (Suparman, 2018). (Parwati, 2015). The
novelty that researchers show in this study is the
acquisition of vocabulary in children aged 2.5 years
with female gender. The main problems formulated
in the study are two things: first, how is the
vocabulary acquisition of children aged 2.5 years?
Second, how is the vocabulary classification spoken
by children aged 2.5 years?
2 THEORY
Nice in 1925 (Ingram, 1989) also has an opinion
about acquisitions like the followings:
1. Single word stage; The child uses the words one
word.
2. Initial sentence stage (1; 5.5 at the start). The
first multi-word utterance appears, although the
utterance of one word is still the most frequent
utterance. Most sentences are incomplete, and
consist of most nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs.
3. Short sentence stages (generally around the age
of 3; 0). The acquisition of inflections and the
words of grammar began. ALS ranges from 3.5
to 4.5. Incomplete sentences become less
frequent, but complex and complex sentences are
rare. The ALS is the mean number of words used
by the child in its spontaneous language
4. Transitional stage of the period of change in
which the child moves from incomplete to
complete sentence. ALS around 5.0. Little is
known about this stage.
5. Complete sentence phase (around age 4; O).
Most sentences are well formed, and complex
and compound sentences are more common.
(Brown, 1973)extends that the pronunciation of
one and two words clarifies the development of
children's language in terms of pronunciation,
showing mean length of utterance, MLU, a language
development index based on the number of words
per sentence produced by a child in a sample
consisting of about 50 to 100 sentences, as a good
language maturity index. Brown identified five
stages based on mean length of utterance, MLU) as
follows:
Table 1: (Brown, 1973) Language Development Steps
Stage
Average
age of
the
month
Long
average
pronunciati
on
(average
number
sentence)
Characteristics
Sentences
commonly
spoken
1
12-26
1,00
2,00
The main
vocabulary
consists of
many nouns
and verbs
with little
adjectives and
adverbs;
word order is
considered.
Baby
shower
2
27-30
2,00
2,50
Use of plural
words;
use past
tense,
use be,
preposition,
some
prepositions.
Fast
forward
car
3
31-34
2,50
3,00
Use questions
that aren't,
use (who,
what, where);
use
sentence
refutation and
sentence
news.
Place the
baby
That
4
35-40
3,00
3,75
Attach one
sentence
in another
sentence.
That's the
car you
bought
for me
5
41-46
3,75
4,50
Coordination
between
sentences
simple and
relationships
proportional
Jenny
and
Cindy are
brothers
The Acquisition of 2.5 Year Indonesian Child Language Vocabulary
27
(Gobet, 2015)With respect to vocabulary, there is
both a quantitative and a qualitative change.
Quantitatively, as seen earlier, indi- viduals learn a
considerable number of words during late primary
and high school years. Many different sources make
it possible to acquire so many words either
incidentally or through instruction: school activities,
reading books, the Internet, cinema, television,
radio, and interaction with peers. Qualitatively, the
vocabulary becomes more marked (Berman dalam
(Gobet, 2015)): it uses longer, more formal, and less
frequent words, which often have a highly
specialized meaning
3 METHODOLOGY
This study uses a qualitative approach. (Gay, Mills,
2012), Qualitative research is a step in collecting
data, then continued with analysis, as well as
interpretation of comprehensive narrative and visual
data (that is, not numbers) to gain insight into certain
interesting phenomena. What is emphasized in
qualitative research is not numbers or not counts.
The subjects in this study were a child from the
husband and wife of Ekwandi and Mega Ayu named
Zaskia with the age of 2.5 years on June 20, 2019.
The place of this study was at the home of Pak
Ekwan and Mrs. Mega Ayu at Muara Beres
Cibinong, Bogor Regency, West Java.
The time of this study starts from November
2018 to June 2019. Data and sources of data in this
study are documentation or results of notes from
observations of Zaskia and the results of interviews
from Zaskia's parents. The technique of collecting
data is by observation and interview. The data
analysis technique is done in the following ways: (1)
making a list of findings, (2) then classifying the
findings data, namely vocabulary (3) then the data in
analysis is adjusted to the formulation of the
problem, (4) the final step concludes the results of
the analysis.
4 RESULT
The following is the biodata of the research subject:
Name : Zaskia
Place of birth : Air Nipis District, South
Bengkulu, Bengkulu, Indonesia
Date of birth : December 20, 2016
Age : 2.5 year
Gender : Female
Address : Muara Beres, Cibinong, Bogor,
West Java Indonesia
Relegion : Islam
Father's name : Ekwandi
Mother's name : Mega Ayu
Zaskia is the first child of Ekwan and Mega Ayu,
a residence in Muara Beres, Cibinong, Bogor
Regency, West Java. After conducting observations
and interviews with both parents of Zaskia
researchers got a specific picture of the speaking
ability of Zaskia. Based on the theory (Brown, 1973)
speaking skills in children aged 2.5 years already
have some vocabulary of nouns and verbs or even
hundreds of vocabulary mastered. But the reality on
the ground is different from what researchers found
in a child named Zaskia. The following are data
from the researchers' findings obtained from
observations and interviews with Zaskia's parents.
Table 1 : List of vocabulary words
No
Vocabulary
Phonetic
transcription
1
Yaya
Ya-yah
2
Keke
kәkә
3
Ingin
iŋiŋ
4
Pit
pit
5
Bok-bok
Bok-bok
6
Buk
buk
7
Yokiti
yO kiti
8
Yayuk
yayuk
9
sekoha
sәkoha
10
Dodo
dodo
11
Kiki
kiki
12
Nyenyi
ñeñi
13
Get
gәt
14
Kiki
kiki
15
Gigi
gigi
16
Pipi
pipi
17
Abi
abi
18
Endong
әndoŋ
19
Ini
ini
20
Jojo
jo jo
21
Aman
aman
22
Nda
nda
23
Ja
ja
24
vi
vi
25
Da
da
number of words = 25 words
ICELS 2019 - International Conference on Education, Language, and Society
28
Based on the linguistic data obtained above,
there are five Indonesian vowels produced by
Zaskia. The vowel consists of [a], [i], [u], [e], and
[o], so it can be concluded that Zaskia has mastered
all the vowels. As for the sound of consistency
consists of [b], [d], [g], [h], [j], [k], [m], [n], [p], [s],
[t], [v], and [y], Zaskia has only composed thirteen
consonant vowels, which have not been found yet
eight vowels, namely, [c], [f], [l], [q], [r], [w], [ x]
and [z].
Table 2 : Classification of vocabulary acquisition
Child
Age
2.5
years
Vocab
ulary
spoken
Noun
Verb
Ad
jec
tiv
e
Ad
v
erb
plu
ral
wo
rd
Pre
pos
itio
n
Zaskia
25
word
16
word
8
word
1
-
-
-
The data above are a few words that the author
heard from observations and a few words explained
by Zaskia parents. For example he expresses the
word /yaya/ while the meaning is /ayah/.
Furthermore, his parents asked him to mention his
nickname /Kia/ he said /keke/. For longer sentences
for example /ayah pergi kerja/ Zakia says / yaya ja /
next /Yayuk koha/ meaning /ayuk sekolah/. Of the
25 words pronounced by Zaskia the clearest sound is
pronounced /a/ and /i/. From this example can give
the view that the word spoken is the beginning or the
end. In addition, Zaskia is active in speaking but the
meaning of the word is not known or called
babling/babble.
The researcher also observed from the
articulator, the tongue, mouth and palate the results
of the researcher's observations found no symptoms
such as cleft, tongue that is too short or long, normal
neck shape, normal nose shape, only the child often
plays the tongue like a child. children who are
eating, and the sound issued is not nasal. This means
that there is no shortage of tools said Zaskia. To get
more in-depth results about speech tools and
retardation in speaking, the study was continued
with pediatricians and language (speech) therapies
and neorologists.
5 DISCUSSION
Based on the findings of the researchers tried to
discuss and relate to theory and answer the problem
formulation in this study. Obtaining vocabulary in
children aged 2.5 years, the first theory that we refer
to is the theory (Brown, 1973) he said that children
aged 12-30 months have an average of 200-250
words. The vocabulary consists mainly of many
nouns and verbs with few adjectives and adverbs.
Nice in (Ingram, 1989) also gave his views on
language acquisition in early childhood which he
called the initial sentence stage (1; 5.5). The first
multi-word utterance appears, although the one-
word utterance is still the most frequent greeting at
the beginning. Most sentences are incomplete, and
consist mostly of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs.
Based on the findings of the researchers tried to
discuss and connect with the theory and answer the
formulation of the problem in this study. Vocabulary
acquisition for children aged 2.5 years, the first
theory we refer to is Brown theory, he said that
children aged 12-30 months have an average of 200-
250 words. The main vocabulary consists of many
nouns and verbs with little adjectives and adverbs.
Nice also gave his views on language acquisition in
early childhood which he called the initial sentence
stage (1; 5.5). The first multi-word utterance
appears, although the utterance of one word is still
the most frequent utterance. Most sentences are
incomplete, and consist of most nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs.
The theory (Brown, 1973) and Nice in (Ingram,
1989) above is indeed proven in children with the
age of 2.5 years that researchers observe. That the
words issued are more nouns and verbs, while
adjectives, adverbs, plural words and prepositions
have not been found.
The acquisition of the word Zaskia age 2.5 is still
so limited, Zaskia should have been able to produce
words of approximately 200-250 words, according
to his theory (Brown, 1973). The words that are
spoken still need to be re-interpreted by those who
listen to Zaskia's conversation. Zaskia was only able
to say the beginning or end of the word he meant.
Examples of the word / yaya / while the meaning is /
ayah /. Furthermore, his parents asked him to
mention his nickname / zaskia / he said / keke /. In
sentence form / ayah pergi kerja / Zaskia says / yaya
ja /, then / ayuk sekolah / Zaskia says / yayuk koha /.
Based on the results of this study 2.5-year-old
children tend to use more simple forms of
vocabulary, such as using more basic words than
words that have influence. Children aged 2.5 years
also tend to create their own vocabulary that
sometimes can not be understood by adults, or it can
also want to say something but it is difficult to find
the right words, eventually forming vocabulary that
can not be understood by adults. As an example of
the results of research conducted by (Hidayah, 2017)
also conducted research on language acquisition for
The Acquisition of 2.5 Year Indonesian Child Language Vocabulary
29
children aged 3-6 years, he gave the view that
children aged 3 years tend to use vocabularies that
are simpler in form, such as using more basic words
rather than affixed words . The age of 3 years also
tends to create its own vocabulary which sometimes
cannot be understood by adults, or it can also want
to say something but it is difficult to find the right
words, eventually forming vocabulary that cannot be
understood by adults.
For example, research conducted by (Van
Druten-Frietman et al., 2015) examined vocabulary
growth and stability over time in 385 small children
(aged two to four years) who attended preschool.
Revealed that the initial vocabulary level was mainly
predicted by child and family factors, such as age,
and family background, and subsequent vocabulary
growth was influenced by preschool factors.
Research written by (Hidayah, 2017) with the result
that more than three years old children use words
that have noun elements. The use of verbs ranks
second most. Research (Gobet, 2015) with coverage
of This article covers (1) the skills (speech
perception, speech segmentation, and speech
production) that children must acquire before
producing their first words; (2) the main theories
attempt to explain how the meaning of word is
acquired; (3) the role of working memory in learning
words; and (4) the acquisition of vocabulary beyond
the early years. The tension between nativist and
constructivist theories is discussed, as well as the
challenges faced by future research. Research
(Mushaitir, 2016)The results of the analysis of the
data obtained are the use of a single sentence,
including (1) clause based on the completeness of its
core elements, in which there are complete clauses
and incomplete clauses; (2) clauses based on their
internal structure, in which there are coherent
structured clauses and inversion structured clauses;
and (3) clauses based on the negation element in the
predicate; In addition, there are also the use of
coordinative compound sentences and subordinative
compound sentences. (Rahmawati, 2011)the
quantity of variety of Indonesian vocabulary in each
child differs from one to another, nouns are the word
classes most dominated by children, and the scope of
children's vocabulary is still largely at the level of
objects, activities, conditions, and things other things
that are concrete.
If we connect with the MLU mean length of
utterance proposed by (Brown, 1973)there is a
mismatch between the theory and the results of this
study, because children aged 24-30 months already
have a vocabulary of 200-250 words, while the
subject of this research is only able to produce 25
vocabulary words. This means that the subjects of
this study have difficulty in obtaining vocabulary,
because below the average acquisition of the mean
length of utterance MLU stated by Brown.
This finding is very far from the MLU theory
proposed by Brown, with the existence of a very
large difference in the acquisition of vocabulary,
researchers observed the condition of children,
families and the environment in which the subjects
of this study live.
Zaskia grows like other children, normal weight,
white skin has curly hair, black and white eyeballs,
hears and walks like children her age, physically she
is categorized as a normal child.
Second education his parents graduated from
high school, economically this family was enough
and not a family below the poverty line. Both
parents from Zaskia were married in 2015, with an
age that is categorized as an adult because they both
have 25 years of age. After marriage, Mega's mother
miscarried twice and became pregnant the third child
named Zaskia.
During pregnancy Zaskia Ibu Mega never ate
rice, eating at most one spoonful a day. Nutritional
intake such as drinking milk does not exist as long
as it contains Zaskia just to take vitamins, because it
is afraid of miscarriage for the third time it always
consumes a booster, even though it is not prescribed
by a doctor.
Furthermore, the environment where Zaskia lives
is far from children the same age as her, so she is
less active in talking. Too often playing alone
because the only thing faced by toys is not someone
else, so the acquisition of the language is disrupted
because he hears less new vocabulary and finally
acquires less vocabulary than children his age.
Some of the explanations above are in line with
what was stated by (Özdaş et al., 2019)in his study
the most frequently reported risk factors for
technical delay are family history, male gender,
premature history, and low birth weight. Other risk
factors that are considered to be poorly associated
are low levels of parental education, children's
education levels, illness, late birth, older parents,
low socioeconomic status, and a large number of
family members. Anxiety disorders and depression
are the most common psychological disorders in the
general population. The prevalence of anxiety
disorders in the urban population is 9.1% in men and
18.1% in women.
ICELS 2019 - International Conference on Education, Language, and Society
30
6 CONCLUSION
The acquisition of language for each child is
different, there are more and a few, even though the
age of the child is relatively the same, this indicates
that the nature of language is dynamic. Phonetic
transcription of children aged 2.5 years has mastered
the vowel sound and has not mastered the overall
sound of consonants. Obtaining vocabulary in
children aged 2.5 years more nouns, verbs, and
adjectives.
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