Identification of Speech Acts Performed by a 25-26 Months Old Kholosi-Persian Bilingual Child

• Main Author: Salah Addin Rahimi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lasting Impressions Press 2020-04-01
• Series: International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies
• Subjects: speech acts; language acquisition; bilingual; kholosi; bastaki
• Online Access: http://www.eltsjournal.org/archive/value8%20issue1/2-8-1-20.pdf

Language acquisition is the process whereby child being exposed to hearing how language is employed within its environment. (Vygotsky, 1986). Nino and Snow (1988) stated that the prominent aspect for communicative speech is when the individual has particular purposes of conducting various social communicative act which speaker performs through verbal means. This study aims to give description on the types of the speech acts. To this end, the corpus data is taken from kholosi child. The family was living in village, Kholos is located in kookherd district of Bastak region in the western part of Hormozgan province, southern Iran. This research was single cases study, when he was between 25 and 26 months. The researcher selected case study method due to achieve in – depth understanding of single aspect of the subject under investigation, because the aims of an investigation are understanding, extension of experience and rise the knowledge regarding the research (Stake, 1978). Data was collected with method of observation and note taking. The researcher tried to gather the data through the stimulating technique. Data gathering was done for 1 month from June-July 2017. Data collecting processes carried out regularly that is every day. The analysis of data indicates that the child had verbalized 34 speech acts when he was between the ages of 25-26 months. Moreover, the child verbalized two languages of Kholosi and Bastaki either singly or as mixed utterances. The classification of the 9 speech acts represents that of child’s 34 speech acts recorded when he was between 25-26 months, the child mainly employed the speech acts for the purpose of request, imitation, naming referent, complaints, rejection, identification of place or position, question, claim and drawing attention.