Language Acquisition
MIT OpenCourseWare's Language Acquisition examines how children build linguistic structure, tracking the emergence of sentence structure and morphology from infancy through early childhood. The course surveys universal patterns found across languages alongside cross-linguistic differences, using data from English and other language families to test theories of learning. Major frameworks get direct treatment, including parameter-setting models and maturational accounts of grammar development. Materials include lecture notes, readings drawn from primary research literature in linguistics and cognitive science, and problem sets analyzing child language data. The course is free to audit through MIT OpenCourseWare, with no certificate offered. It suits students in linguistics, cognitive science, or psychology who want a structured look at what children's errors and developmental stages reveal about the mental representation of grammar, rather than a general introduction to language teaching or bilingualism.