3.1 - The Linguistic Environment

Question 0

Piaget on Cultural Attitudes:

“…very rarely have I been able, in America, to expound any aspect of my stage theory without being asked ‘How can I speed up development?”

Answer 0

No questions - just review

Question 1

What is the Linguistic Environment?

Answer 1

The context of language

Question 2

What did Pye notice about K’iche’ parents? Why?

Answer 2

That they don’t really talk to their kids

Children are at risk - fragile

Question 3

Why do K’iche’ parents believe that children are fragile?

Answer 3

High infant mortality rate

Protection of the “soul”

Talking loudly to a child might scare the scare out of it

Question 4

Are most adults more animated when speaking to children vs. adults? How about K’iche’ adults?

Answer 4

Yes

With K’iche’ this is opposite

Question 5

Do K’iche’ parents speak for their children?

Answer 5

Yes

Question 6

Do K’iche’ parents play language games and/or songs with their kids?

Answer 6

No

Question 7

What is a sample conversation between a K’iche’ parent and their child?

Answer 7

Adult to Child: “Do you know what you are holding?”
Mother to Adult: “He says ‘girl’”
Mother to Child: “You say little horsie” (2x)
Mother to Adult: “Play. He says little horsie play”

Question 8

When do kids begin to have two word utterances?

Answer 8

Around 2 years olds

Question 9

Do K’iche’ children develop language at the same rate as other kids?

Answer 9

No.

They were about 6 months behind in all aspects of language development

Question 10

How did the Mohave traditionally view the fetus?

Answer 10

The fetus is born capable of understanding the adult language

Question 11

How did the Samoan traditionally view the rules of etiquette for parents?

Answer 11

Rules of etiquette restrict parents from speaking to young infants

Question 12

How did the Javanese traditionally view infants?

Answer 12

Infants are not yet human

Question 13

What is Baby Talk?

Answer 13

The language used by anyone in the linguistic community when addressing a child

Question 14

What is the Prosody of Baby Talk?

Answer 14

Higher pitch

More varied intonation

Question 15

What are Lexical Baby Talk Features?

Answer 15

Special words like “nana”, “tummy”

Question 16

What is the Complexity of Baby Talk?

Answer 16

Shorter sentences

Fewer auxiliaries

Question 17

What kind of Redundancy of Baby Talk?

Answer 17

More immediate repetition

Repetition of words & phrases

Question 18

What sort of Content is in Baby Talk?

Answer 18

Topics in child’s world

Question 19

Who was Snow?

Answer 19

Psychologist at Harvard

Question 20

What did Snow study?

Answer 20

Studied why we talk to kids

Question 21

What did Snow find?

Answer 21

Found parents don’t just talk to kids; they also wait for them to respond - almost like a conversation

Question 22

What was Snow’s Hypothesis?

Answer 22

Infants are conversational partners

Question 23

What was Kaye’s Hypothesis?

Answer 23

Parents may vary in their conversational expectations

Mother 1: Come on. Talk. Talk to me.
Mother 2: Is that a burp? Huh? Or are you going to get the hiccups? Huh?

One parent is a very directive parent where the other is much more open ending.

Question 24

Do cultural attitudes influence child directed speech?

Answer 24

Yes

Question 25

Do Western parents see children as conversational partners?

Answer 25

Yes

Question 26

Who did Lewis study for his 3 Stages of Conversation?

Answer 26

Studied "K"

Question 27

What is the first stage of Lewis’s 3 Stages of Conversation? When does it usually occur?

Answer 27

Earliest months Child responds to adult acts with acts, some vocalization

Question 28

What is the second stage of Lewis’s 3 Stages of Conversation? When does it usually occur?

Answer 28

1;0 Child responds to adult speech with acts; and to his/her own acts with speech

Question 29

What is the third stage of Lewis’s 3 Stages of Conversation? When does it usually occur?

Answer 29

1;6 Child responds to speech with speech

Question 30

Who coined the term "protoword"?

Answer 30

Halliday

Question 31

Who did Halliday study?

Answer 31

His son Nigel

Question 32

What did Halliday find in his study of his son Nigel?

Answer 32

Children's response to Speech is restricted to certain patterns, mostly responses

Question 33

What are Halliday's “proto-dialogues"?

Answer 33

Early, restricted ways for the child to engage in conversation

Question 34

Are responses to questions typical proto-dialogues?

Answer 34

Yes F what‟s this one? C dodo.

Question 35

Are responses to commands typical proto-dialogues?

Answer 35

Yes F Look. C horsie.

Question 36

Are responses to statements typical proto-dialogues? Yes F bye bye Dan. C byebye dad.

Answer 36

Are imitations typical proto-dialogues? Yes F this is egg. C egg.

Question 37

Is child initiated speech a typical proto-dialogue?

Answer 37

Yes C kitty cat. F Yes, it‟s a kittycat.

Question 38

Are proto-questions typical proto-dialogues?

Answer 38

Yes "what's that? "huh?"

Question 39

What sort of proto-word did "K" use to keep people speaking to her?

Answer 39

“Huh?"

Question 40

What are three approaches to studying the effects of environment on language development?

Answer 40

Experimental studies Time 2 studies Time 1 vs. Time 2 studies

Question 41

What are Experimental Studies?

Answer 41

Ones where you control the environment

Question 42

Do American Psychologists tend to do experimental experiments?

Answer 42

Yes

Question 43

What is the Problem for experimental language development studies? How is this solved?

Answer 43

How do you control for input? Using Artificial languages or Nonsense words/Nonwords Using rare grammatical constructions

Question 44

Why is it helpful to use Artificial languages or Nonsense words/Nonwords when doing experimental studies on language development?

Answer 44

Real languages are too vast and complex to control for anything You create a "langauge" and see how long it take people to learn it

Question 45

When were artificial language/nonword studies all the rage?

Answer 45

Was big in the 1920s-30s, 1950s-60s, and 1990s-2000

Question 46

What was Dr. Ingram's artificial language study on?

Answer 46

Mini K'iche' (K'iche simplified) Allowed for a real language in natural contex

Question 47

What sorts of syntax might be looked in a rare construction language development study?

Answer 47

Passives

Question 48

What was Dr. Ingram's rare construction language development study?

Answer 48

Past Participle study 0. 02% of four year olds' utterances are passive sentences 0. 5% of sentences that four year olds' hear are passive sentences

Question 49

When you design a language development study, what should you take into account?

Answer 49

Frequency of presentation Rate of presentation Generalization (When does the subject begin to create new productions based on the input they had been given)

Question 50

When were Time 2 Studies particularly common?

Answer 50

1970s

Question 51

Why is it called a Time 2 study?

Answer 51

Because we want to know the effect over time To do this you need at least two points in time

Question 52

What are we looking at in a Time 2 study?

Answer 52

What in the mother's is influencing the child's speech Correlate adult usage with child usage at a single point in time (Do parents who use more pronouns have children who use more pronouns?) Correlation may be positive, negative, or none

Question 53

What do Time 2 Studies assume?

Answer 53

Assumes that all children are at the same stage at stage one

Question 54

What is the problem with Time 2 Studies?

Answer 54

Problem: cannot conclude causality from correlations (Does the child use more pronouns because the parent does?) (Does the parent use more pronouns because the child does?)

Question 55

What are Time 1 vs. Time 2 Studies?

Answer 55

They correlate adult language at Time 1 with child's language at Time 2

Question 56

Who did Schwartz & Terrell study in their "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 56

12 kids Ages: 1;0 to 1;3

Question 57

What did Schwartz & Terrell study in their "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 57

16 nonsense words 2 exemplars (meanings) for each word 10 sessions Over a period of 16 weeks

Question 58

What types of exemplars did Schwartz & Terrell use in their "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 58

IP (infrequent presentation) exemplars presented once each session FP (frequent presentation) exemplars presented twice each session

Question 59

Which exemplar group named the most nonwords in Schwartz & Terrell's "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 59

FP named almost half the words at least one IP only named about a quarter

Question 60

Which exemplar group needed more presentations of nonwords in Schwartz & Terrell's "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 60

FP needed almost twice as many presentations before the word was spoken

Question 61

What was similar between the two exemplar groups in Schwartz & Terrell's "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 61

Both group needed about 5 sessions before they understood what was going on

Question 62

What was the conclusion of Schwartz & Terrell's "massed" vs "distributed" presentations experiment?

Answer 62

Amount of time (to digest the word) ended up being more important than frequency for when the first word was named Rate is initially more important, and then frequency

Question 63

Who did the Mothers of Referential vs Expressive Children experiment?

Answer 63

Della Corta et al.

Question 64

Who did Della Corta study in her Mothers of Referential vs Expressive Children experiment?

Answer 64

5 mothers of Referential Children 5 mothers of Expressive Children

Question 65

What did Della Corta do in her Mothers of Referential vs Expressive Children experiment?

Answer 65

Time 2 study of selected measures in language samples during different care taking events (bathing, dressing, etc.)

Question 66

What were the two types of language samples that Della Corta focused on in her Mothers of Referential vs Expressive Children experiment?

Answer 66

Prescriptives: Commands made in an attempt to direct the child's behavior Descriptives: Statements that describe

Question 67

What can be concluded from Della Corta's Mothers of Referential vs Expressive Children experiment?

Answer 67

Mothers of referential children talk more and use more descriptive language.

Question 68

Who sought to answer the question "Which aspects of language are most effected by differences in input?"

Answer 68

Furrow et al.

Question 69

Who did Furrow study in his language acquisition experiment?

Answer 69

7 kids Ages: 1;6 & 2;3

Question 70

What did Furrow do in his language acquisition experiment?

Answer 70

Time 1 vs. Time 2 study Wide range of language measures

Question 71

What are Facilitative Effects? What Facilitative effects did Furrow find in his language acquisition experiment?

Answer 71

Positive Correlations Being around adults who use more es/no questions & nouns will lead to more auxiliaries, verbs, and longer MLUs

Question 72

What are Prohibitive Effects? What Prohibitive effects did Furrow find in his language acquisition experiment?

Answer 72

Negative Correlation Being around adults who use more pronouns, verbs and & different words will lead to fewer verbs & shorter MLUs

Question 73

How should we interpret the results from Furrow's language acquisition experiment?

Answer 73

Adult speech needs to be at some intermediate level of complexity If it's too simple, children won‟t acquire all aspects of the grammar If it's too complex, child may not be able to extract grammar