Ch. 11 - Development of Language and Communication Skills Flashcards
What is language?
A small number of individually meaningless symbols (sounds, letters, gestures) that can be combined according to agreed-on rules to produce an infinite number of messages
What is communication?
The process by which one organism transmits information to and influences another
What are vocables?
Unique patterns of sound that a prelinguistic infant uses to represent objects, actions, or events
What are psycholinguists?
Those who study the structure and development of children’s language
What is phonology?
The sound system of a language and the rules for combining these sounds to produce meaningful units of speech
What are phonemes?
The basic units of sound that are used in a spoken language
What is morphology?
The rules governing the formation of meaningful words from sounds
What are semantics?
The expressed meaning of words and sentences
What are morphemes?
Smallest meaningful language units
What are free morphemes?
Morphemes that can stand alone as a word (e.g. cat, go, yellow)
What are bound morphemes?
Morphemes that cannot stand alone but that modify the meaning of free morphemes (e.g. the -ed attached to English verbs to indicate past tense)
What is syntax?
The structure of a language; the rules specifying how words and grammatical markers are to be combined to produce meaningful sentences
What are pragmatics?
Principles that underlie the effective and appropriate use of language in social contexts
What is sociolinguistic knowledge?
Culturally specific rules specifying how language should be structured and used in particular social contexts
What is linguistic universal?
An aspect of language development that all children share
What is the language acquisition device (LAD)?
Chomsky’s term for the innate knowledge of grammar that humans were said to possess, which might enable young children to infer the rules governing others’ speech and to use these rules to produce language
What is universal grammar?
In nativist theories of language acquisition, the basic rules of grammar that characterize all language
What is language-making capacity (LMC)?
Hypothesized set of specialized linguistic processing skills that enable children to analyze speech and to detect phonological, semantic, and syntactical relationships
What is Broca’s area?
Structure located in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex that controls language production
What is Wernicke’s area?
Structure located in the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere of the cerebral cortex that is responsible for interpreting speech
What is the sensitive-period hypothesis (of language acquisition)?
The notion that human beings are most proficient at language learning before they reach puberty
What are pidgins?
Structurally simple communication systems that arise when people who share no common language come into constant contact
What are creoles?
Languages that develop when pidgins are transformed into grammatically complex ‘true’ languages
What is the interactionist theory?
The notion that biological factors and environmental influences interact to determine the course of language development
What is child-directed language, or motherese?
The short, simple, high-pitched (and often repetitive) sentences that adults use when talking with young children (also called child-directed speech)
What are expansions?
Responding to a child’s ungrammatical utterance with a grammatically improved form of that statement
What are recasts?
Responding to a child’s ungrammatical utterance with a non-repetitive statement that is grammatically correct
What is the prelinguistic phase?
The period before children utter their first meaningful words
A learning theorist would most likely claim all of the following events as central to language acquisition EXCEPT which one?
a. Children imitate what they hear.
b. Children are reinforced when they use proper language.
c. Children are corrected when they use incorrect language.
d. Children sift language they hear through a biological device in their brains.
d. Children sift language they hear through a biological device in their brains
Damage to part of the brain may result in aphasia, or a loss of one or more language functions. If an aphasic patient can understand what is said to him but cannot produce meaningful language, he most likely has had damage to which brain area?
a. his Broca’s area
b. his Wernicke’s area
c. the brain area representing his language acquisition device
d. the brain area representing his language-making capacity
a. his Broca’s area
Interactionist theorists argue that environmental supports help children acquire language. Which of the following is NOT one of these supports?
a. joint social interaction involving language
b. examples and support of the development of universal grammar
c. recasts
d. extensions
b. examples and support of the development of universal grammar
Brian has always been fascinated by the human brain. He is an undergraduate psychology major and plans to go to graduate school in a cognitive neuroscience program. His lifelong dream is to use brain-imaging techniques with infants and toddlers and be the first person to finally be able to specify where in the brain the language acquisition device is located. If we were to ask Brian what is theoretical views on language acquisition were, what would he most likely state?
a. I’m an empiricist!
b. I’m an entomologist!
c. I’m an interactionist!
d. I’m a nativist!
d. I’m a nativist!
What are coos?
Vowel-like sounds that young infants repeat over and over during periods of contentment
What are babbles?
Vowel-consonant combinations that infants begin to produce at about 4 to 6 months of age
What is receptive language?
That which the individual comprehends when listening to others’ speech
What is productive language?
That which the individual is capable of expressing (producing) in his or her own speech
What is the holophrastic period?
The period when the child’s speech consists of one-word utterances, some of which are thought to be holophrases
What is a holophrase?
A single-word utterance that represents an entire sentence’s worth of meaning
What is naming explosion?
The term used to describe the dramatic increase in the pace at which infants acquire new words in the latter half of the second year; so named because many of the new words acquired are the names of objects
What is multimodal motherese?
An older companion’s use of information that is exaggerated and synchronized across two or more senses to call an infant’s attention to the referent of a spoken word
What is referential style?
An early linguistic style in which toddlers use language mainly to label objects
What is expressive style?
An early linguistic style in which toddlers use language mainly to call attention to their own and others’ feelings and to regulate social interactions
What is fast-mapping?
Process of linking a word with its referent after hearing the word once or twice
What is overextension?
The young child’s tendency to use relatively specific words to refer to a broader set of objects, actions, or events that adults do (e.g. using car to refer to all motor vehicles)
What is underextension?
The young child’s tendency to use general words to refer to a smaller set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (e.g. using candy to refer only to mints)
What are processing constraints?
Cognitive biases or tendencies that lead infants and toddlers to favour certain interpretations of the meaning of new words over other interpretations
What is the object scope constraint?
The notion that young children assume that a new word applied to an object refers to the whole object rather than to parts of the object or to object attributes (e.g. its colour)
What is the mutual exclusivity constraint?
The notion that young children assume that each object has only one label and that different words refer to separate and not overlapping categories
What is the lexical contrast constraint?
The notion that young children make inferences about word meanings by contrasting new words with words they already know
What is syntactical bootstrapping?
The notion that young children make inferences about the meaning of words by analyzing the way words are used in sentences and inferring whether they refer to objects (nouns), actions (verbs), or attributes (adjectives)
What is telegraphic speech?
Early sentences that consist of content words and omit the less meaningful parts of speech, such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs
A young child’s tendency to use relatively specific words to refer to a broad set of objects, actions, or events is called a(n) ______________.
Overextension
The notion that young children make inferences about the meaning of words by analyzing the way words are used in sentences and inferring whether they refer to objects, actions, or attributes is called __________.
Syntactical bootstrapping
The ______________ is the single-word utterance that represents an entire sentence’s worth of meaning.
Holophrase
Tamina, a toddler, is preoccupied with pointing at things and asking what they are. What is Tamina experiencing?
a. the naming explosion
b. prelinguistic vocables
c. an overactive language acquisition device
d. metalinguistic awareness
a. the naming explosion
Coos sound the same whether or not the young infant can hear. What does this suggest about coos?
a. They convey self-generated meanings for adult listeners
b. They develop with maturation of the brain and vocal organs.
c. They are a reflection of the parents’ recasts and extensions.
d. They arise from the infant’s mutual exclusivity constraint.
b. They develop with maturation of the brain and vocal organs
What does the infant use imperative gestures to get others to do?
a. notice the infant’s ideas
b. expand pidgins into vocables
c. fulfill the infant’s requests
d. initiate communication via telegraphic speech
c. fulfill the infant’s requests
Recordo was a father of four children. He liked to keep diaries of their accomplishments in a baby scrapbook. Although this record keeping did tend to decrease with the birth of each new child, he managed to record the first words that each child spoke. Recordo was surprised when he compared the baby diaries, because his oldest son’s first words were very different than the first words of his next three daughters. What does Recordo’s observation illustrate?
a. the sensitive-period hypothesis
b. the birth-order hypothesis
c. the sex-difference hypothesis
d. the sensitive-birth period hypothesis
b. the birth-order hypothesis
What are grammatical morphemes?
Prefixes, suffixes, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs that modify the meaning of words and sentences
What is overregularization?
The overgeneralization of grammatical rules to irregular cases where the rules do not apply (e.g. saying mouses rather than mice)
What is transformational grammar?
Rules of syntax that allow us to transform declarative statements into questions, negatives, imperatives, and other kinds of sentences
What are referential communication skills?
Abilities to generate clear verbal messages, recognize when others’ messages are unclear, and clarify any unclear messages one transmits or receives
What is morphological knowledge?
Knowledge of the meaning of morphemes that make up words
What is metalinguistic awareness?
A knowledge of language and its properties; an understanding that language can be used for purposes other than communication
During the last phase of question asking, the child is able to ask an adult-like question. Which of the following is the best example of this type of question?
a. ‘What is mommy reading?’
b. ‘Where mommy?’
c. ‘Mommy here?’
d. ‘Where mommy go?’
a. ‘What is mommy reading?’
What do cross-cultural studies on passives show about children whose language has many passive constructions?
a. The children got bored with passives, so actives are preferred
b. The children use many passives in their own uttered sentences
c. The children show no differences in comparison to those children exposed to few passive constructions
d. The children become ‘cognitively choked’ on sentences’ meanings
b. The children use many passives in their own uttered sentences
Which of the following is a strong predictor of the child’s reading skill in elementary school?
a. holophrase pidginization
b. overextended underextension
c. underextension of holophrases
d. phonological awareness
d. phonological awareness
Why does talking with siblings promote effective communication in younger children?
a. Telegraphic speech is highly accurate in its content
b. Creole languages develop more from children than from adults
c. Children in large groups shout at one another
d. Noticing siblings’ comprehension errors makes the speaker aware of the need to express ideas clearly
d. Noticing siblings’ comprehension errors makes the speaker aware of the need to express ideas clearly
T or F: Overregularization refers to the young child’s tendency to use relatively specific words to refer to a broader set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (e.g. using the word car to refer to all motor vehicles)
False (overextension)
T or F: Transformational grammar refers to rules of syntax that allow one to transform declarative statements into questions, negatives, imperatives, and other kinds of sentences.
True
What does bilingual mean?
Fluent in two languages
What is core language?
Involves explicit instruction in a second language, usually through a specific language course (such as French class); occasionally the explicit instruction is embedded within a particular curriculum area
What is immersion?
Involves instruction in a second language where all or most of the curriculum is provided in the second language
