What is 'Motherese' and how important is it for language acquisition? (PDF)

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: B, University of Brighton (School of languages), course: First Language Acquisition, language: English, abstract: The way how children acquire language is still not clearly and satisfactory answered. Various theses have emerged since researchers have been started getting interested in how children acquire language. In the following context the language development which children run through is closer illuminated while a particular emphasis is put on the possible interdependence between language acquisition -thelanguage output-and the linguistic environment children are exposed to -thelanguage input.Probably everyone has once noticed that very commonly adults change their way of speaking when conversing to young children. Among linguists this phenomenon is known asmothereseand reason for several different hypothesis about how children acquire language. On the surface one might wonder what could be the sense of that speech adaptation. One could assume that it is just a process that naturally belongs to upbringing and teaching of children.
But this seems not to sufficiently answer the question how children acquire language. As there are more aspects which are involved in language acquisition this essay is restricted tomothereseand its possible connection with language acquisition.