Acquisition of Albanian as a first language from the perspective of natural order hypothesis

Abstract

This study deals with the natural order hypothesis in language acquisition, which posits that there is an order in which grammatical morphemes are acquired in the first, but also second language acquisition. There have been numerous studies addressing the order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes for major international languages, but there have been no such studies for Albanian language. A study of the natural order could serve to improve acquisition of Albanian as mother tongue, to enhance language curricula in schools, and to facilitate learning of Albanian as a second language. This research involved over 100 junior researchers in a crosssectional research observing more than 200 children in the age of 0 to 11 years, organised in four age-groups, over a period of two weeks. The observation collected naturalist nonexperimental data to find out whether there is a natural order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes and structures in Albanian as a first language. The existence of an order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes by difficulty level was clearly established. An unplanned finding of the study was the significant role of dialect and vernacular in the process of acquisition of Albanian as a first language. At the same time, it was difficult to clearly ascertain the role of school and environment in acquiring standard Albanian.