Ch 8 Language Acquistion Module 8 Flashcards
innate
determined by factors present from birth
innateness hypothesis
a hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language
Imitation theory
child language acquisitions theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them
Reinforcement Theory
theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded or otherwise reinforced.
Active Constructions of a Grammar Theory
theory of child language which says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.
Connectionist Theory
theory of language acquisitions which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain.
linguistic universals
property believed to be held in common by all natural languages
universal grammar
the theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages.
critical period
age span, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence
neglected children
a child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language
feral children
child who grew up in the wild without care by a human adult, often with animals.
Homesign
a rudimentary, visual gestural communication system that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when signed language is not made available.
rules
a formal statement of an observed generalization about patterns in language
Social Interaction Theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction
High Amplitude Sucking
experiment technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months
Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure
experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing
voice onset time
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating
articulatory gestures
a movement of a speech organ in the production of speech.
babble
a phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels
canonical babbling
the continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama by infants
variegated babbling
production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants
holophrastic stage
stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time.
telegraphic stage
a phase during child language acquisition on which children use utterances composed primarily of content words
overgeneralization
in the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain contexts
complexive concept
a term used in the study of child language acquisition, a group of times that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property
overextension
a relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning. a childs application of a word as a larger meaning than the adult .
underextension
application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech
relational term
type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference
deictic expressions
word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place and speaker of the utterance
infant directed speech
speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants
attention getters
word or phrase used to initiate an address to children
attention holders
a tactic used to maintain childrens attention for extended amounts of time
conversational turns
the contribution to a conversation by one speaker from that time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor on the another speaker
bilingual
state of commanding two language
multilingual
the state of commanding three or more languages
simultaneious bilingualism
in which both languages are acquired form infancy
sequential bilingualism
in which the second language is acquired as a young child
second language acquisition
acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult
language mixing
using words or structural elements form more than on language with the same conversation.
foreign accent
an accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages.
fossilization
process through which forms from a speakers non native language usage become fixed and do not change
