Chapter 8/9: Language, Culture and English Language Learners

Question 1

Linguistic and cultural influences on Language development

Answer 1

• language development follows the same path regardless of the language being learned or the culture in which it Is learned
• the time course of babbling, emergence of first words and first combinations, and the development of increasingly complex sentences are very similar across all languages

Question 2

Cultural influences on language development

Answer 2

• the specific features and structures of child-rearing influence the rate of children’s language development
• some cultures, adults often speak directly to young children but in other cultures they do not
• not all cultures modify speech when talking to children (register)
• some cultures emphasize language training with children while others do not

Question 3

What is language socialization

Answer 3

• the way that children become socially competent in their culture
• children learn native languages but also their cultures social customs for using language (ex. american children must learn the value of expressiveness while Japanese children must learn the value of staying quiet

Question 4

The relationship between language and thought

Answer 4

• different languages use different expressions to talk about similar things
• some argue that people are profoundly influenced by the way their language expresses concepts, but others argue that our thought processes are fundamentally independant of language

Question 5

How Is language related to thought

Answer 5

1. Language and thought are not related, language expresses the thoughts that are already there
2. Language shapes thought, speakers of different languages think differently
3. language and thought develop together, children learn words for concepts as they acquire the concepts
4. Language influences how we think for the purpose of speaking, (gender-specific personal pronouns, he/she, causes their language to encode gender differently than gender neutral languages
5. language is a tool of thought, we think in the languages we gave acquired
6. language is a source of cognitive-advancing information, much of what we know acquired through language

Question 6

What is Theory of Mind

Answer 6

• the term for the general ability to understand that other people have mental lives which guide their actions
• the sophistication of a child’s theory of mind understandings is related to their levels of language development

Question 7

Two ways bilingual acquisition can take place

Answer 7

• Simultaneous Bilingualism

- Sequential Bilingualism

Question 8

What is Simultaneous Bilingualism

Answer 8

• occurs when a child learns multiple languages from birth or when the second language is introduced before the age of three
• these children seem to acquire two separate language simultaneously
• this children go through the same developmental stages as monolingual children
• sometimes the home language and community language differs

Question 9

What is Sequential Bilingualism

Answer 9

• occurs when a child begins to acquire another language after his/her acquisition of their first language is well under way
• the often happens in the case of immigration, it can also happen when children learn a community language at school
• this occurs after the age of 3

Question 10

Language Differentiation in Simultaneous Bilingual Development

Answer 10

• the major issue children face is differentiation of knowing they are acquiring different languages

Question 11

What are the three hypotheses about how Bilingual children differentiate languages

Answer 11

1. Fusion: initially children do not differentiate the languages and fuse them into a single one. Differentiation happens later
2. Autonomous Differentiation: children separate the languages and acquire each separately
3. Interdependent Differentiation: children separate the language but they influence each other during acquisition

Question 12

Phonological Differentiation

Answer 12

• bilingual infants can discriminate between their input languages although they have no preference for one over the other
• research shows that infants do not require their two languages to be separated by the speaker. They do not require there to be one- language/ one-speaker in order to keep the two languages straight

Question 13

When does phonological development happen

Answer 13

• first 12 months for monolingual children learning their native language
• bilingual children may be slightly different in timing

Question 14

Lexical Differentiation

Answer 14

• bilingual children create two different lexicons at the same time
• 30-50% of bilingual children’s vocabularies consist of translation equivalents (knows them in both languages)
• mutual exclusivity

Question 15

What is mutual exclusivity in lexical differentiation

Answer 15

• strategy that bilingual children use for word learning
• it means that each item in the world has one, exclusive label. However, bilingual children do accept multiple names for the same item if the name are in different languages

Question 16

Morpho-Syntactic Development

Answer 16

• bilingual children create separate morpho-syncratic systems
• bilingual children do mix word and morphemes from both languages into the same sentences
• this mixing is systematic and respects the separate rules of each language
• children tailer their language use for the person that they are talking too

Question 17

Is the overall course of bilingual development similar or not to monolingual children

Answer 17

• overall course of development is very similar
• the content of early vocabularies are very similar
• composition of vocabulary can change
• measures of grammatical development correlates within each language but not across the two languages
• bilingual children often have different profiles in the two languages, they may be socially adept in one or have richer vocabulary in one

Question 18

What speed do bilingual children learn language at

Answer 18

• bilingual children acquire each of their language somewhat more slowly than monolingual children
• slower with early vocab development and later grammatical development
• though both languages are usually learned within the typical broad range of standards

Question 19

What are the variable properties of bilingual environments

Answer 19

1. Societal factors: if one of the child’s input languages is low in prestige, the child may be resistant to getting the needed exposure to learn it
2. Heritage Language Culture: traditions of literacy and child-rearing can influence the exposure of each language
3. Household Composition: if only one parent speaks a heritage language and the other one speaks a dominant community language, the community language will be favoured

Question 20

The contexts of language exposure matter

Answer 20

• hearing language in the context of book reading is more supporting than just hearing it on TV

Question 21

The people who speak the languages matter

Answer 21

• it is more helpful to be exposed to multiple speakers of a language
• it is more helpful to be exposed to native or proficient speakers

Question 22

Characteristics of children that influence second language aqcuisition

Answer 22

1. specific linguistic ability
   - there may be individual differences in ability that influence both languages such as phonological memory
   - academic language skills such as the use of de-contextualized language, are highly correlated between children first and second language
2. Personality traits
   - highly sociable children and children with lower anxiety tend to acquire second languages better
3. Age of Acquisition
   - particularly for the acquisition of accent, earlier acquisition is better

Question 23

What are Language Transfer errors

Answer 23

• language transfer errors are when elements from the first language intrudes on the second one

Question 24

How long does it take to learn the style of language used in school settings “academic language”

Answer 24

• 4-8 years

- developmental errors are the same for both bilingual and monolingual children

Question 25

What is code switching

Answer 25

• the deliberate use of multiple languages in a single conversation.
• it is commonly in bilinguals in which people switch from one language to another all within the same sentence
• ex : spanglish

Question 26

What are the 4 stages of second language acquistion

Answer 26

1. use home language
2. go through a silent/nonverbal period
3. use of telegraphic speech, short, imitative sentences
4. use his/her own sentences

Question 27

history on Benefits of Bilingualism

Answer 27

• early studies suggested that bilingual children are cognitively disadvantaged but they didnt take into account SES or experience
• recent studies suggest that bilingual children are actually more advanced than monolingual children on two important skills

Question 28

What are the two important skills that benefits bilingual children

Answer 28

• metalinguistic awareness : the knowledge about how language works
• executive function: the ability to control attention and to flexibly shift attention