Chapter 10 Flashcards
What is the primary vehicle through which adults teach culturally valued modes of thinking and problem solving to children?
Spoken language
Phonemes
The basic units of sound which changes the meaning of words
Morphemes
The basic units of meaning that exist in a word. Not the same as syllable
Syntax
The systematic rules for forming sentences
Semantics
Understanding the meanings of sentences; words combined in a sentence that means something
Pragmatics
Rules for specifying how language is used appropriately in different social contexts; learning to say what to whom
Prosody
The melody of speech; how sounds are produced; includes pitch and intonation
What disorder results from damage to the fibers connecting Wernicke’s and Broca’s brain areas?
Aphasia
What is universal grammar?
A system of common rules and properties for learning any of the world’s languages. It provides a framework for acquiring a language but is not language specific. Example: subject-verb-object
What are the main features of the nativist theory of language acquisition?
- Minimize the role of the language environment
- Focus is on the child’s biologically programmed capacities to acquire language.
- Humans equipped with knowledge of universal grammar
- POTS children could not possibly acquire such a complex communication system with the limited linguistic input they receive
- Children all progress through the same sequences at roughly similar ages which suggests that lang development is guided by a species-wide plan
- Universal aspects of early language development occur despite cultural differences in the styles of speech adults use in talking to children.
What are the main features of the learning theory of language acquisition?
- Passive exposure to language
- Mother’s approval or disapproval depend on the truth of what was said not the grammatical correctness.
- Imitation and reinforcement
- Nature and nurture work together
Describe the stages through which early language acquisition progresses?
- In womb - fetus shows preference for speech over non-speech sounds.
- Infants - can distinguish between phenomes. Become aware of pauses in speech.
Define each of the following and give ages when infants demonstrate them:
- word segmentation
- cooing
- babbling
- holophrases
- vocabulary spurt
- telegraphic speech
- word segmentation (7 1/2 months) - can detect a target word in a stream of speech
- cooing - 6-8 weeks - repeating vowel like sounds like ooh and aah
- babbling - 4-6 months - repeating consonant vowel combinations such as Dada
- holophrases - 1 year - first words that convey an entire sentence’s worth of meaning
- vocabulary spurt - 18 months - mastered about 30-50 words; pace of learning speeds up
- telegraphic speech - 18-24 months - combining 2, 3 or more words - containing critical content words but no frills
Describe how joint attention and syntactic bootstrapping help language comprehension development.
Around 12 months the child begins to rely on social and linguistic cues to learn words. Two ways of doing this:
Joint Attention - (social eye gaze) - 2 people looking at the same thing. Infants pay attention to the parents labeling and providing the connection between words and objects.
Syntactic bootstrapping - using where a word is placed in the sentence to help determine the meaning of the word.
What is mastery motivation? What can parents do to foster the development of mastery motivation in infants and children? What parenting practice stifles its development?
Mastery motivation - inborn and universal trait that all infants have without prompting from parents.
Parents/caregivers can provide sensory stimulation to encourage mastery motivation. Give plenty of opportunities for the infant to see for themselves that they can control their environment and experience successes.
A parenting practice that stifles this is when a parent is non-responsive or is responsive but only in stifling the initiative.
Discuss how a focus on performance goals in educational settings and in homes may be harmful to children’s achievement. What can be done to switch the focus to mastery goals?
By focusing on performance goals, the child is motivated by the grade, not the learning process. Aim is to prove ability - not improve it. Parents need to reinforce the process of learning and not be holding unrealistic expectations or be over controlling. Parents should encourage children to set higher goals. Parents should reward for steps that contribute to the final product not the final product.
List and briefly describe the steps to understanding the alphabetic principle.
Pre-alphabetic phase - children memorize selected visual clues to remember words. Can “read” text they memorized from previous readings.
Partial alphabetic phase - Children learn the shapes and sounds of letters. Begin to connect at least one letter in a word (usually the first) to the corresponding sound.
Full alphabetic phase - children know all the letters and make complete connections between written letters and their corresponding sounds. Rely on phonological awareness.
Consolidated alphabetic phase - children are able to group letters that regularly occur together into a unit.
Language
A communication system in which a limited number of signals, sounds, letters or gestures can be combined according to agreed upon rules to produce an infinite number of messages.
Syntactic bootstrapping
When a child uses the syntax of a sentence (where a word is placed in the sentence) to help determine the meaning of the word.
Alphabetic principle
The idea that the letters in printed words represent the sounds in spoken words in a systematic way.
Overextensions
Using a word to refer to too wide a range of objects or events. Ex. calling everything with 4 legs doggies
Underextensions
Opposite of over extensions by referring to one thing as a single word. Ex. call family dog a doggie buy other dogs something else
Mastery goals
Aiming to learn new things so that they can improve their abilities.
Performance goals
Aim to prove their ability rather than improve it.
Noam Chomsky
Universal grammar and language acquisition device
Wernicke’s area
Associated with comprehension of language
Broca’s area
Associated with speech production
Word segmentation
Detecting a target word in a stream of speech
Syntax
Systematic rules for forming sentences
