Chapter 7 - Child Language Acquisition Flashcards
early experiments on isolating children
Psamtik I (Egyptian Pharaoh, 7th c. BC) - told the children spoke Phrygian (Herodotus, Histories)
King James V of Scotland told the kids spoke “verie guid Hebrew.”
Akbar (Mogul Emperor, India, 16th c.AD) - the kids didn’t speak at all; concluded that language was learned by example
Feral (Mawgli) children
+1725
Peter the Wild boy, discovered in Germany, lived in UK. Developed understanding of E, but could only say a few words
+1797
Victor, Aveyron, France; found at 11 alone in the wild. Never learnt to speak, learnt to understand simple speech
and read a few words (plus write one).
+1970
Genie, California; found at 13. Locked in a closet at 20 months old by father. She could understand some words (~20, including the colours, ‘Mother’ and some names, the verbs ‘walk’ and ‘go’, a few nouns like as ‘door’ or ‘bunny’. Could say only ‘Stopit’ and ‘Nomore’. Was taught how to speak. Stopped at the level of about 3-year old.
+1990
Oxana Malaya, Ukraine, with dogs until she was 8; developed fairly fluent speech
AGE: CRITICAL PERIOD
When does it start? At/before birth
When does it end?
A child has to be adequately exposed to language by 4 years to learn ANY language.
(Critical period 1)
A child has to be adequately exposed to a language by puberty age to acquire it as a native language.
(Critical period 2)
Cognitive theory
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Language acquisition follows cognitive development. True, yet HOW does it happen?
Behaviorist approach
approach (popular until the late 1950’s)
Children learn through imitation and positive reinforcement
Doesn’t account for creative use of language
Generative approach
Noam Chomsky (since 1957) Children are born with LAD (Language Acquisition Device), a set of instructions for what a human language can look like, LAD separate from cognition or general intelligence
preliminary conclusions about CLA
1) natural consequence of human society.
2) success of first language acquisition does not depend on intelligence
3) the ability to acquire language is innate, but the specific form-meaning connections are learned by exposure
Naturalistic: diaries and observations
Parental diaries
Werner Leopold: German/Engl bilingual
Wrote 4 volumes of German/English acquisition by daughter
His wife: English +some German
Both parents were of German ancestry
Problems: 1 observer, 1 child, subjectivity, recording of ‘outstanding’ rather than everyday
Four universal stages in CLA
1.) Pre-speech. Begins before birth; child becomes accustomed to “soundscape” of language
2.) Babbling stage. random practice using organs of speech,
no specific lexical meaning expressed
3.) One-word (or holophrastic) stage. sounds with specific meanings appear (the first words)
4.) Combining stage – syntax appears
By 5 or 6 children have basic knowledge of their native language(s)
Gestures in language acquisition
Pointing Open-hand reaching Object extending (pointing while holding an object)
Use of gestures facilitates language acquisition.
Telegraphic stage
Telegraphic stage
Can be found in German, French, Italian…
English: 2-2.5 years, lasts a few months
Use of lexical catgory words only; no or few function words
ex: “Mommy ride bike” “Daddy read book”
Isolating languages have no TS
ex: Chinese
Phonological development: newborn
Is startled by a loud noise Turns head to the direction of sound Is calmed by the sound of voice Prefers mother’s voice to a stranger’s Discriminates some speech sounds
Phonological development: 1-2 months
Smile when spoken to
Phonological development: 3-7 months
Responds differently to different intonation (e.g., friendly, angry)
Phonological development: 8-12 months
Responds to name
Responds to “no”
Recognize some words
Productive ability : Newborn
Cries
Productive ability: 1-3 months
Makes cooing sounds
Laughs
Cries differently when hungry/angry/hurt
Productive ability: 4-6 months
Plays with some sounds, usually single syllables
Productive ability: 6-8 months
Babbles with duplicated sounds
Attempts to imitate some sounds
Productive ability: 8-12 months
Babbles with consonant/vowel changes
Frequent babbling consonants
p b m t d n k g s h w j
General tendencies of phonological acquisition
vowels are acquired earlier than consonants (by 3 yrs)
stops (including nasals) are acquired before other consonants
Rule-governed early phonological processes
syllable deletion, syllable simplification, substituations (stopping, fronting, gliding, denasalization), assimilations
>slide 21
Vocabulary development at 1 year
One-word (holophrastic) stage
vocab development 1.5 years
about 50 words.
Words include:
Nouns – people, food/drink, animals, clothes, toys, vehicles, other
Adjectives/adverbs (‘properties’) – hot, more, dirty, cold
Verbs (actions) – sit, eat, sleep, see, go, walk
Socializers – yes, no, please, bye-bye
STRATEGIES FOR ACQUIRING WORD MEANING
The Whole Object assumption
(the word is likely to relate to the whole object)
Mutual exclusivity assumption
(an object can only have 1 name)
Social-pragmatic theory
Babies use non-verbal clues (adults’ eye-gazes, gestures directed towards the object)
Associative-learning theory
A word is likely to relate to a new item in the center of attention
Syntactic bootstrapping theory
Babies know the sentence structure and the positions in sentences when new and important things appear:
This is a ….
Look at the …
Do you want a …
Errors in mapping (meaning errors)
overextensions (kitty»_space;fluffy animal, mommy>photograph)
underextensions (doggy> ‘the name of a family pet’, but not other dogs)
errors in verb meanings
Russ nadet’/odet’/odevat’sa
errors in dimensional terms
tall, long, wide
First inflectional morpheme acquisition
-ing (present progressive)
-s (3rd person singular)
‘s (possessive)
-ed (past simple)
Forms of “be”
Development of MODAL and AUXILIARY VERBS
(1.5-2.5 years)
Can run
Where shall we shall go?
Did you went work?
Development of inversion
(around 3 years)
Play Bobby?
Bobby play train?
development of WhH (dspecial questions)
(soon after 3 years)
what, where > who, how why > when > which > whose
development of PRONOUNS
after 3.5
devleopment of passives
PASSIVES (production, from 3) (adequate processing from 3.5-4 up to 8-9 yrs)
Nativist
Babies are born with syntax
Principles and Parameters
Babies are born with syntax but some
parameters need “adjusting” (e.g., subject)
Constructivist
Babies are not born with syntax, but as they learn the behavior of objects, they learn their
behaviours in sentences too
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: stage 1
10-26 months Present tense or present progressive (-ing) only, 1st person subject pronoun, questions signalled by intonation and later in the form “what+X+doing/going” and no/not added to sentence structure, here/there/this/that used only with gesture.
One-word stage
(10-16/18months)
Two-word stage
(16/18 – 26/30)
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: Stage 2
27-30 months Quasi-model verbs used “wanna, hafta”, past tense copula (was, were) and some regular past tense verbs, 1st person object and possessive pronouns and later 2nd person pronouns, some question inversion and questions form “what/verb + V + O?”, auxiliaries such as can’t, don’t used in negative sentences.
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: Stage 3
31-35 months Future tense used, articles “a”, “the”, 3rd person pronouns, auxiliary form used in questions “I can’t play?”, later inversion occurs “Can’t I play?”,copula verb acquired and regular past tense “-ed” used, coordinating ans subordinating conjunctions such as “and”, “or”, “but” used correctly.
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: Stage 4
36-40 months Plurals emerge and possessive “‘s” acquired, plural pronouns, modal verbs, questions words “who, which, when how” emerge.
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: stage 5
41-46 months Irregular and regular past tense, reflexive pronouns, question tags and negative copulas used
MORPHOLOGY + SYNTAX: stage 5+
47+ months behind/in front, negative questions, negative pronouns “nothing, “nowhere”
How to grow smart children?
Get educated, learn some big words;
Have children later than in your teens;
Increase frequency of participation in learning activities (shared bookreading, storytelling)
Increase stylistic variability and amount of information in parent/child communication,
Respond to your child’s questions, provide support for meanings
How to be a smart child
Be a girl
Be a first-born
Select your parents carefully by education, income, race, ethnicity
IMITATION UTTERANCES
(age 2-3)
Reasons for speech impairments
1) oral impairments
problems with the tongue or palate (e.g. too tight frenulum - the fold beneath the tongue)
2) oral-motor problems: inefficient communication in the areas of the brain responsible for speech production.
3) hearing problems (inner ear infections)
