Chapter 6: Language-Learning & Teaching Processes & Young Children

Question 1

TRUE or FALSE

• There is a significant difference in the cognitive levels of play exists between children who use no words and those who use single words.

Answer 1

TRUE

• Cognitive skills and language abilities are associated, especially during the first 2 yrs of life
• Ch. that do not produce words are more likely to play with toys like blocks, while ch. who produce single words are more likely to play with animate objects (dolls, action figures)
• Cognitive growth may have an especially important influence on early word combos

Question 2

TRUE or FALSE

• Event-based knowledge and Taxonomic structures ARE NOT assumed to guide word acquisition

Answer 2

FALSE

• Event-based and Taxonomic knowledge ARE assumed to guide word acquisition
  
  • Event-based (world) knowledge: consists of sequences of events/routines (b-day party), that are temporal/causal in nature and organized toward a goal (early word learning)
  • Taxonomic knowledge: consists of categories and classes of words; new words are compared categorically and organized for retrieval

Question 3

TRUE or FALSE

• Within the first 50 words, comprehension seems to precede production

Answer 3

TRUE

• As a group, children understand approx 50 words before they are able to produce 10
  
  • although the range of comprehended words varies greatly across children
• The ability to comprehend words develops gradually, and initially is highly context-dependent
• Symbolic comprehension continues to develop through the second year of life

Question 4

Which of the following ARE methods that toddlers rely on to aid comprehension? (object/routine based)

1. Do-what-you-usually-do
2. Pick-your-nose-with-your-toes
3. Act-on-the-object-in-the-way-mentioned
4. Act-first-think-later

Answer 4

1. and 3. are used by toddlers to aid comprehension

• Do-what-you-ususally-do: balls would be rolled, thrown, dropped, or passed back and forth, not matter what the child heard
• Act-on-the-object-in-the-way-mentioned: noting the action, the child would throw the ball whether the caregiver said, “Now you throw the ball.”

Question 5

Which of the following IS NOT a fundamental method needed by a toddler to form hypothetical definitions.

1. People use words to refer to entities
2. Words are extendable
3. A given word refers to the whole entity, not its parts
4. Catergorical assumption
5. Novel name-nameless assumption
6. Conventionality assumption

Answer 5

All are TRUE

1. Reference principle: words do not just “go with” but actually “stand for” entities to which they refer
2. Extendability principle: an infant assumes that there is some similarity, like shared perceptual attributes, that enables use of one symbol for more than one referent
3. Whole-object principle: assumes that a label refers to a whole entity rather than to a part or attribute (rare in a toddler’s lexicon)
4. Categorical assumption: (starts @18mths) extends a label to related entities; classification is based on perceptual attributes, function, world knowledge, and frequency
5. Novel name-nameless assumption: enables a child to link a symbol and referent after only a few exposures
6. Conventionality assumption: leads a child to expect meanings to be expressed by others in consistent conventional forms

Question 6

TRUE or FALSE

• Young children use at least 4 expressive strategies to gain linguistic knowledge

Answer 6

TRUE; They are

1. Evocative utterances: statements a child makes naming entities usually evaluated/reinforced/negated by an adult
2. Hypothesis-testing utterances: more direct methods of acquiring linguistic knowledge
3. Interrogative utterances: same as H-T utterances; @ 24mths there is a + correlation btw the number of interrogative utterances used by ch and their vocab size
4. Selective Imitation: used in the acquisition of words, morphology, and syntactic-semantic structures; approx 20% of what toddlers say is an imitation of other speakers
   
   • the amount of imitation depends on the amount of mother’s imitation of the toddler

Question 7

Which of the following is the correct definition of formula?

1. A verbal routine or unanalyzed chunk of language often used in everyday conversation
2. Statements a child makes naming entities
3. Categories and classes of words
4. Sequences of events or routines

Answer 7

1. is TRUE

• Formula: a verbal routine or unanalyzed chunk of language often used in everyday conversation
  
  • as memorized units, formulas often function as an entire utterance
  • Ch’s use of formulas seems to occur in all languages
  • segmentation, or the analysis of formulas into their parts, coincides with the vocab spurt noted in ch at approx 20mths

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of CDS (Child-directed speech)?

1. Greater pitch range
2. Lexical simplification
3. Longer, more complex utterances
4. More contextual support

Answer 8

3. is NOT a characteristic of CDS

• 3. Shorter, less complex utterances
• Here are more characteristics of CDS
  
  • Less dysfluency
  • More paraphrasing and repetition
  • Limited, concrete vocab; a restricted set of semantic relations
  • More directives and questions

Question 9

TRUE or FALSE

The length and complexity of a mother’s utterances change most between 20 and 27 mths

Answer 9

TRUE

• 20-27mths is when the child’s language changes most rapidly
• In contrast, there seems to be little or no change in the structural complexity of CDS btw 8-18mths
• There is also little corresponding change in the complexity of child speech, the changes consisting primarily of the addition of single words

Question 10

TRUE or FALSE

Mothers DO NOT fine-tune their language input to their children based primarily on the child’s comprehension level

Answer 10

FALSE

• Mothers DO fine-tune their language input to their ch based primarily on the the ch’s comprehension level
• Other factors that influence the lvl of a mother’s language are the conversational situation, the content, and her intent
• Adults simplify their input if a child does not seem to comprehend

Question 11

TRUE or FALSE

Fathers often provide less examples of simplified adult speech than Mothers

Answer 11

FALSE

• Fathers tend to provide MORE examples of simplified adult speech than mothers
• Fathers use fewer common words, making them more demanding than mothers
  
  • use more requests for clarification than mothers, these requests are often non-specific

Question 12

Which of the following IS one of the 3 common types of Prompting

1. CDS
2. Elicited Imitations
3. Declaratives

Answer 12

2. is correct
3. Fill-ins: the parent says “This is a….”
   
   • no response or an incorrect response from the ch will usually result in additional prompts and recueing
4. Elicited Imitations: the parent cues with, “Say X”
   
   • young lang learning ch respond to slightly over half of the EI’s addressed to them
5. Questions: may be Yes/No or Wh- variety
   
   • unanswered or incorrectly answered questions are usually reformulated by the adult
   • approx 20%-50% of mothers’ utterances to young lang-learning ch are questions

Question 13

A 30 mth old says to you, “Gran’ma car, go zoo, ‘morrow with Nuncle Juan.”

You respond, “Yes, tomorow Uncle Juan and you are going to the zoo in Grandma’s car.”

This is an example of a:

1. Eventcast
2. Question
3. Story
4. Reformulation

Answer 13

4 is correct

• A reformulation/recast utterance is meant to understand the child, not to teach them
• This is a great tool because of its immediacy

Question 14

TRUE or FALSE

An expansion is a comment or reply to a child’s utterance

Answer 14

FALSE

• An expansion is a more mature version of a child’s utterances in which the word order is preserved

Question 15

TRUE or FALSE

An extension is a comment or reply to a child’s utterance

Answer 15

TRUE

• An example: ch says, “Doggie eat” the partner replies, “Doggie is hungry”
• The extension provides more semantic info and provides a pragmatic format

Question 16

An utterance that both responds to the previous utterance and, in turn requires a response.

The following definition is a..

1. Extenstion
2. Contingent query
3. Turnabout
4. Fill-in

Answer 16

3 is correct

• A turnabout fills a mother’s turn and then requires a turn by her child
• A mother creates a series of successful turns that resemble conversational dialog
• A turnabout consists of some type of response to, or statement about, a ch’s utterance and a request for info, clarification, or confirmation that serves as a cue for the ch.

Question 17

TRUE or FALSE

A contingent query is a type of turnabout

Answer 17

TRUE

• a contingent query is used by both adults and children to gain info that initially was not clearly transmitted or received
• its use requires that both the listener and the speaker attend to prior discourse
• ch receive little negative feedback via contingent queries

Question 18

Determine which of the following is FALSE about the importance of play on language development

1. Play is not goal-oriented
2. Attention and focus is not shared by partners, removing pressure and frustration
3. Games have structure and variations in the order of elements (like grammar)
4. Games, like conversations contain turn-taking

Answer 18

2 is FALSE

• Attention and focus are shared by the interactive partners, so topics are shared
• both language and play are concrete and depend on the here and now

Question 19

Which of the following is TRUE about cultural differences and how they affect language development?

1. The role or status of children
2. The social organization of caregiving
3. Folk beliefs about how children learn language

Answer 19

ALL are TRUE

• middle-SES American families hold the child in relatively high regard
• in Western Samoa, the child holds relatively low standing; also, the older children are expected to care for their younger siblings
• Low standing does not result in less affection, just social/conversational expectations
• The Kipsigis of Kenya believe that a ch will learn by him or herself

Question 20

TRUE or FALSE

American mothers talk more with their children and encourage them to respond, opposed to Japanese mothers who engage more in rocking and carrying their children

Answer 20

TRUE

• As a result, American toddlers have larger noun vocabs, while Japanese toddlers have more social expressions