Ch. 10 - Early School-Age Language Development Flashcards
Decentration
Process of moving from 1 dimensional description of entities / events to coordinated, multi- dimensional
e.g. not just talking about size of something, but size, shape, color etc.
Eventcast
A type of narrative that explains some current or anticipated event
Often accompany the play of young children
Metalinguistics
Refers to the use of language to talk about language
Metaphoric Transparency
The amount of literal - figurative relationships in a narrative
High or Strong relationships often result ins easy interpretation
e.g. I’m so hungry I could eat a horse
Morphophonemic
Term that is used to refer to changes in sound production related to meaning changes
e.g. jumped has a “t” sound at end
shared has “d”
both used ed at end
meaning signals past tense, but also sound signals past tense too
Story Grammar
Narrative Framework that specifies the underlying relationship of the story components
Language Development 5-12 years
- Growth occurs in all areas, but most noticeably Semantics + Pragmatics (vocab + social use of language)
- LD slows during this period + individual variation is very great
- Focus is on mastering new and existing forms of language
- Increase in size/complexity of language
- Linguistic Creativity: rhymes, songs, jokes
Cognitive Changes in Early School Years: 4 Major changes between 7-11
It Doesn’t Transform Right
Will change dramatically during the first 6 years of school
From concrete problem solving to abstract thought
- INFERRED REALITY: defined as an inference about a physical problem based on not only perceived appearances but on internal information
- DECENTRATION: ability to consider several aspects of a physical problem at once
- TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHT: refers to the ability to view a physical problem as existing in time and to anticipate future consequences
- REVERSIBLE MENTAL OPERATIONS: Enable a child to recognize that change can be undone or reversed
Inferred Reality Example
A preschooler often bases his judgment of a container’s volume on height alone
In contrast, a school-aged child will draw conclusions based on all physical characteristics and on personal knowledge of the volume of liquid that was poured into the container
Cognition moves from _____ to ______ during adolescence, with elementary skills gradually shifting to help a child process greater amounts of information.
CONCRETE TO ABSTRACT
Early School Age: Cognitive Maturation is most noted in what area?
Vocabulary Development
Chunking
Semantically arranging information, most often into categories (Names of animals, items found in a supermarket)
the better the chunking, the better the organization, storage, and retrieval of information
When learning new vocabulary, child will associate it with what he/she already knows
When we look at Pragmatics, we consider _____ and ________.
Genetics + Environment
Research has shown that:
Environment is important, but GENETICS is thought to have GREATER contribution in the development of this area.
Nonegocentrism
Ability to take another’s perspective
Essential for doing well in school
Why is the classroom a great influence on the development of pragmatics?
Because the school environment demands a very different set of pragmatic skills
- diff rules for talking in class
- text-related language becomes important
- required to use precise word meanings in classroom interactions
Decentration
The process of moving from very rigid, one-dimensional descriptions of objects and events to coordinated descriptions
As a speaker and a listener, the child realizes that there are many dimensions and perspectives to any given topic
Narratives
Organized in predictable, rule-governed ways that may differ due to culture
Reflect a storyteller’s experience
5/6 year old children mostly tell anecdotal narratives of a personal nature (fantasy stories are rare at this age)
Narrative development is largely learned at home
4 Narrative Types (ON TEST WRITTEN OUT)
RECOUNT: Tells about past experiences in which a child participated or observed or about which a child read and is usually requested by ADULT
EVENTCAST: An explanation of some current or anticipated event and may be used to direct others in imaginative play sequences
ACCOUNTS: Highly individualized spontaneous narratives in which children share their experiences (You know what?) and thus, are not reporting information that has been requested by adult
STORIES: Fictionalized. Endless content variation. they have known and anticipated pattern or structure in which the main character must overcome some problem or challenge
Narrative Development through Ages
2-3 years:
Can sequence forward, but can’t go backwards
Mostly involves actions
Can’t tell a coherent, casual narrative
4 -5 years:
contain many elements - such as plans and scripts
still, unable to weave a coherent narrative
5-7 years:
plot emerges, woven into a series of problems and solutions
Age 8:
Sense of plot becomes more clear
Manipulate audience + text to maintain attention - if losing interest, they may embellish
Story Grammar: 6 Narrative Features
Includes components and rules that form a narrative framework or internal structure of story
Intro
Character
Setting
Challenge
Attempts to meet challenge
Response to Outcome
Narrative Development Features
Fewer unresolved problems and unprepared resolutions
Less extraneous detail
More overt marking of changes in time and place
More introduction, including setting and character info
More complex episode structure
Closer adherence to the story grammar model
African American Narrative Characteristics
FOCUS: lengthy, personal experiences
RESOLUTION: may or may not be resolved
ORGANIZATION: experiences usually related by a theme
Spanish Speaking/Mexican American Narratives
FOCUS: frequent mention of family members
EVENTS: resolution may be present, not as important as in European, American narratives
ORGANIZATION: emphasis on relationships
European/American
FOCUS: single experience
EVENTS: chronological sequence
ORGANIZATION: topic centered, related to present conversation
Semantic Development
Vocab continues to grow into adulthood
adding new words continues, but greater development in semantic sophistication or depth of understanding
Interrelated semantic concepts: semantic classes, synonyms, homonyms, and antonyms
Interrelated Semantic Concepts Animals Example
Human Use
Ones that live in Africa
ones that live on a farm
in a zoo
Synonyms example
Target word: walk
synonyms: words that mean walk
Semantic Development is strongly influenced by
Educational Level
SES - socioeconomic status
Gender
Age
Cultural Background
2 types of increases in word meanings that occur during the school years and adulthood
- A child will add features to the definition that are common to the adult definition.
- child will bring together all the definition that can fit a single word
Basically expansion on the initial concrete meaning of words they learned in the beginning
Ages and Semantic/pragmatic development
Age 5 - direct requests, repeats for repair
6 - repeats using elaboration for repair
7 - uses and understands deictic terms (this, that these those). Narratives have beg, end, problem, resolution
also uses left/right, back/front, shifts from single word def to multi word (semantics)
8 - sustains concrete topics, starts to consider others intentions (Theory of Mind)
9 - sustains topics through several terms. produces all elements of the story grammar
begins to interpret psychological states described using physical terms (cold, blue) but may misinterpret (semantics)
11 - sustains abstract topics
creates abstract definitions. understand psychological states described with physical terms (semantic)
12 - uses the terms otherwise, therefore however anyway
Figurative Language - aspect of semantic development
Defined as the use of non-literal forms of languages - metaphors, idioms, sarcasms, metaphors
These skills begin to develop at about age 9
Classroom teaching and reading tend to rely heavily on the use of figurative expressions
Metaphoric Transparency
Amount of literal-figurative relationship that is present, the higher the amount, the easier the interpret ion
e.g. hold your tongue - has high literal/metaphoric transparency
kick the bucket does not
Metalinguistics Abilities
defined as one’s ability to think about language independently of comprehension and production abilities
A child focuses on and reflects on language as a decontextualized object
Metalinguistic skill is closely related to what?
Pragmatic skills
Example: knowing how to adjust your language when speaking to a child versus an adult
Metalinguistics for Age 2
Are able to adjust their speaking for different listeners:
loud versus soft, demanding versus requesting, simple versus complex
Metalinguistics School-Age
Able to predict the consequences of using particular forms (inflections, word choices) with listeners
Able to judge utterances as appropriate for specific listener setting
Can provide word definitions, construct puns/riddles/ other forms of humor
Can judge overall correctness of an utterance
