Chapter 4 book Flashcards
Theory
refers to descriptive statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena.
- is a claim or hypothesis that may be tested repeatedly with an array of scientific methods; when the accumulated evi-dence consistently supports a given theory throughout time, it becomes an accepted part of the knowledge base in a particular discipline, and we can then use the theory to make predictions about natural phenomena.
evidence-based practice (EBP)
EBP involves integrating theoretical knowledge with scientific inquiry (which may include reviewing existing scientific literature) to inform decision-making.
(Developmental) psychology
Human mind and behavior and the changes that occur in humans as they age
Linguistics
Aspects of human language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics
Psycholinguistics
Psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language
(Linguistic) anthropology
Relationship between language and culture; social use of language; language variation across time and space
Speech–language pathology
Prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of speech and language disorders
Education
Aspects of teaching and learning
Sociology
Aspects of society such as cultural norms, expectations, and contexts
theoretical research, or basic research
It focuses primarily on gen-erating and refining the existing knowledge base
applied research
People typically conduct ap-plied research to test different approaches and practices that pertain to real-world settings.
- societal needs by testing the viability of certain practices and approaches
- It typically involves using experimental research designs to examine the causal relationship between a specific approach, program, or practice and a specific language outcome.
use-inspired basic research
addresses useful applications of research findings
Charity, Scarborough, and Griffin (2004) studied
- language skills of African American children ages 5–8 and considered how children’s familiarity with the English dia-lect used in their school (School English) contributed to their success in reading.
- found that children who were more familiar with School English per-formed better on measures of reading achievement than children who were less familiar with School English.
basic research is a study by Saylor and Sabbagh (2004),
-studied how children coordinate different types of information present in the environment to facilitate learning new words.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s theory of language develop-ment emphasized
the role of the environment, especially the language input parents provide to children.
Sci-entists who study language development for applied purposes respond to such societal needs by determining why some individuals progress relatively slowly in language development. They do so in two ways:
by learning how to identify per-sons at risk for or exhibiting disordered language development, and by developing ways to remediate delays and disorders in language when they do occur
Applied researchers usually test language-development practices relevant to three main con-texts:
homes, clinical settings, and schools.
In studies of the home environment,
researchers examine the effectiveness of specific practices or approaches parents can use to help their children develop language during home activities.
In studies of the clinical environment,
applied re-searchers examine the effectiveness of different approaches that clinical profession-als, such as speech–language pathologists and clinical psychologists, may use with specific populations of patients.
In studies of the school environment,
applied researchers examine the effectiveness of different approaches that educators may use in the classroom to build children’s language skills.
approaches scientists use to study three aspects of language develop-ment:
speech perception, language production, and language comprehension.
Goal of Speech Perception Studies
help researchers learn about how children use their speech perception to draw information from and ultimately learn language.
Methods for Studying Speech Perception
- typically present auditory stimuli to participants and measure their response to the stimuli
- technology: Saffran, Aslin, and Newport (1996) developed digitized sequences of made-up three-syllable words to reveal 8-month-old infants are able to detect statistical patterns in running speech and thereby, segment words from the speech stream.
- While infants are still in the womb, scientists can measure their heart rates and kicking rates as a response
- behavioral testing, in which children or adults respond by speaking, pointing, or pressing buttons in response to different speech stimuli.
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), electroencephalography (EEG),magnetoencephalography (MEG), the event-related potential (ERP) technique, and optical topography (OT).
speech perception
- These technologies allow researchers to conduct direct, real-time investigations of speech perception by presenting individuals with specific speech sounds and identifying the exact areas of the brain where speech percep-tion occurs.
Goal of Language Production Studies
- studies help inform practitioners of children’s ability to use language expressively
- researchers examine children’s emergent form, content, and use capabilities.
- normative research
normative research
in which experts compile data from multiple individuals on a certain aspect of lan-guage development and from these data determine and chart the ages (or grades) by which children typically meet certain milestones.
the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; formerly the MacArthur Commu-nicative Development Inventories).
- Dale and Fenson (1996) gathered language production information from more than 1,800 infants and toddlers, and from it developed the CDI.
- to determine how many words typically developing children understand and pro-duce at various ages.
Methods for Studying Language Production
are generally either observational or experimental.
In observational studies,
researchers examine children’s language use in naturalis-tic or semistructured contexts, usually by using a tape recorder or another audio recording device to capture children’s language for a certain period.
- researchers typically record children’s language for a certain period, after which they transcribe the language and analyze it for spe-cific properties or qualities.
In naturalistic settings
the researcher does not manipulate the context
- Hart and Risley (1995), who collected monthly audio samples of parents’ and children’s language in the home environment for more than 2 years. the results of this study provided useful references for the number and types of words children use as they develop their vocabulary skills.
in semistructured settings,
researchers manipulate the environ-ment in which they are observing children’s language form, content, and use.
Experimental studies differ from observational studies
in that the researcher actively manipulates variables of interest.
- involves manipulating the context in which, or the conditions under which children experience new words and examining how children’s production of these words varies by context.
- vary widely and may examine many aspects of production, including vocabulary, morphology, syntax, phonology, and pragmatics.
pseudowords
(nonsense words) to assess children’s morphological skills or vocabulary skills. Pseudowords allow control over children’s previous experience with words; because these words are invented, researchers can assume children have no experi-ence with them.
Goal of Language Comprehension Studies
studies specifically tap into what children understand about language, and with the assistance of some creative research paradigms, experts can measure children’s language comprehension even before children speak their first word.
- researchers try to estimate what children or adults understand rather than produce.
