Chapter 6: Language Learning & Teaching Processes - Young Children Flashcards
Understanding the Role of Context
- Language comprehension refers to an individual’s ability to understand the linguistic information contained in a message that is almost augmented by the message’s specific nonlinguistic context
- what is going on?
- who is speaking?
- what visual information is available
Fast Mapping
- Children rely heavily on context to infer a new word’s meaning to then use it spontaneously
- Children who are successful “fast mappers” have an advantage in vocabulary learning
What happens when a toddler is exposed to a new word for the first time?
- The child hears the word
(Auditory Cue) - The child’s phonological memory about the sounds and syllables of the word is activated
(Phonological Representation) - Activation from the phonological level is spread to the word meaning level
(Semantic Level)
Comprehension & Production: Single Words
- Up through age 2, comprehension is highly context-dependent
- The mother monitors the child’s input to check the accuracy of fit and provide feedback
- The child’s comprehension and production are fine-tuned at the same time
- Within the first 50 words, comprehension seems to precede production
- Toddlers rely on basic semantic relations, use of objects, and routines for comprehension
Strategies for Comprehension: Verbs
Strategy 1: Do what you usually do
* Regardless of what the caregiver says the young child will think of the item’s possible function and does an action at random
Strategies for Comprehension: Verbs
Strategy 2: Act on the object in the way mentioned
* Child notes the action word and does the action
Strategies for Comprehension: Verbs
- Move from general verbs to more specific verbs
- Things I do —> Play, eat, drink etc
Why do parents use child directed speech?
- Shorter sentences and emphasis on important words
- Simplified language facilitates fast mapping
- Limited working memory and attention may be an advantage for learning language at the beginning
Toddler Language Learning Strategies
- A child must sort out relevant and irrelevant information in adult and sibling conversations
- A child must decide which utterances are good examples of the language for accomplishing communication goals and must hypothesize about underlying meanings and structures
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Reference
- Reference: words stand for entities to which they refer
(e.g., cat and dog are two different entities)
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Extendibility
- Extendibility: one symbol can stand for more than one referent
(e.g., my pet cat Luna and all other cats are “cat”)
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Whole Object
- Whole-object: assumes that a label refers to a whole entity
(e.g., rather than a part or an attribute, it is the whole object, table and not leg)
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Categorical Assumption
- A label can be extended to related entities
(e.g., cup can be used to label all things you can pour liquid in)
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Novel Name - Nameless Assumption
- Children assume that novel symbols are linked to previously unnamed referents
Toddler Strategies for Comprehension: Conventionality Assumption
- Children expect meanings to be expressed in a consistent and conventional way
(e.g., a car is always going to called a car)
Toddler Strategies for Expressive Language
- Use of evocative utterances
- children name objects that provoke positive emotions and interest to them
Toddler Strategies for Expressive Language
- Hypothesis testing and interrogative utterances
- more direct methods of acquiring linguistic knowledge
- Labeling something and seeking feedback (doggy?)
- asking questions (what’s that?)
Toddler Strategies for Expressive Language
- Selective Imitation
- imitation is a whole or partial repetition of an utterance of another speaker
- imitation does not occur with every word or expression
Role of Selective Imitation
- Selective implies that the child decides what to imitate
- At the single-word level, selective imitation is important for vocabulary growth
- Imitation is less useful for language learning as a language becomes more complex
Bootstrapping (Preschooler)
- Children use what they know about language to help them decipher what they don’t know
Semantic Bootstrapping
- When children use semantics to decode syntax
- Given what we know about semantic we can infer two syntactic structures
Syntactic Bootstrapping
- When children use syntax and context to figure out word meanings
Preschooler Strategies for Comprehension: Intention Reading
- A social cognitive skill for understanding language behavior of others
- The child attempts to comprehend the intention of an utterance
Preschooler Strategies for Comprehension: Pattern Finding
- Enables us to find common threads in disparate information
Self Talk
- Copying what the child is doing and describing what you are doing
Parallel Talk
- Narrating what they child is doing
Imitation
- Copying what the child is saying
- If the child imitates your imitation, say something else
Expansion
- Adding to what the child is saying by making the phrase more grammatically complex
- Take what the child says and add grammatical markers and semantic detail that would make it an acceptable adult utterance
Example:
Child: Red
Clinician: Yes, the block is red
Extension
- Adding to what the child is saying by making a comment
- Adding a comment that adds semantic information to a remark made by the child
- A child who produces some language but needs help saying longer sentences can benefit from extension
Example:
Child: Red
Clinician: Yes, we have many different colors
Build Up and Breakdown
2 Steps
Step 1: Expand on what the child is saying (child’s utterance)
Step 2: Break down the sentence into smaller parts (breakdown the utterance into a series of sequential utterances)
Example:
Child: Red
Clinician: Here you have the red block.
The block is red.
Red block.
Adult Conversations with Preschoolers
- Mothers provide opportunities for their children to make verbal contributions, show their children when to speak and develop cohesiveness between the speaker and listener
- Mothers ask children to comment on objects and events within their experience
Turnabout
- A response to the previous utterance with a response required
Importance of Play
Play is ideal for language acquisition because:
* Play is fun
* Topics are shared
* Games have structure
* Play has variations in the order of elements like grammar does
* Games contain turn-taking
* Play and language develop interdependently and demonstrate underlying cognitive developments
Development of Play and Language
- Unoccupied Play
- Parallel Play
- Associative Play
- Cooperative Play
Unoccupied Play
- Newborns (0-3 months) move their arms and legs to explore
- They look at objects placed at close proximity
- Prefer black and white images
Solitary Play
(0-2 years)
* Development of sensorimotor and visual cortex areas of the brain is reflected in play
* Through sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, babies learn about the world
- Hence, putting everything in their mouths
Parallel Play (2+ years)
- Refers to interactions in which toddlers may enjoy playing near other children but may not interact
Onlooker Play (2 years)
- The infant looks at other children playing but does not engage yet
Associative Play (3-4 years)
- Play/interaction with others and imagination increases
- At first, a child’s play role represents himself or herself; later roles are projects on other persons and dolls
- Unstructured toys such as play phones, kitchen sets, tools, medical kits, and dress-up clothes are favorites and encourage imaginative dramatic play
Cooperative Play (4+ years)
- Increased role play
- Initially, preschoolers prefer functionally explicit props, such as a phone, car or cup
- As children mature and participate in more frequent imaginative play, they use more ambiguous props, such as blocks or stones, that can represent other entities
