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... main focus of first language acquisition studies (Kerswill, 1996:181). The conventional view of first language acquisition is that during the first year of life a child will gain control over their speech organs and begin to acquire speech patterns. About the time a child reaches his first birthday he begins to understand and produce words in isolation. Typically these words are to do with the child's immediate environment: objects including food, clothing, people and toy items; there are also words denoting actions or motions such as "peek-a-boo" and "open"; lastly there are word used in social interaction including "yes", "no", "hi" etc. At around 18 months a child's vocabulary expands dramatically and they begin to form two word strings. These are generally very basic explanations of the world around them. They explain objects or people appearing or disappearing or moving about; owners and properties of things; they comment on people ...