This course explores how children acquire their first language. We start with the basic mystery about language acquisition: that it is possible at all; which leads us to the discussion of innateness and sourrounding debates. Once the general frame is in place, we move on to empirical studies of what children actually do and say, overviewing the results of recent research.

The results reviewed span from experiments with newborn infants up to studies with 4-5 year old children; and cover both healthy and impaired acquisition. The course is hands-on: throughout, the students will be in direct contact with the material, and will be asked to do their own reseach.