Chapter 8 Language Acquisition Flashcards
innate
determined by factors present from birth
Innateness Hypothesis
hypothesis that humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language
Imitation Theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
Reinforcement Theory
theory of language acquisition that says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones
Active Construction of a Grammar Theory
theory of language acquisition that says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them
Connectionist Theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language
Social Interaction Theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction–in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need
Linguistic Universals
property believed to be held in common by all natural linguistics
Universal Grammar
the theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics
Critical Period
age span, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language
Neglected Child
child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child
Feral Child
child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals
Homesign
a rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language- that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication
Child-Directed Speech
speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary
High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)
experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system.
Conditioned Head Turn Procedure
experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing
Voice Onset Time
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating
Articulatory Gestures
a movement of a speech organ and the production of speech
Babble
a phase in a child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels
Canonical Babbling
the continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like by infants
Variegated Babbling
production of meaningless consonant vowel sequences by infants
Holophrastic Stage
stage during which children can produce only one word at a time
Telegraphic
phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of context words
Overgeneralization
in the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adults application of rules relative to certain context
Interrogative
produce questions only by using a rising intonation, rather than by using a particular syntactic
Complexivie Concepts
when a child associates different characteristics with the meaning of a word on successive uses
Overextensions
when a child extends the range of a word’s meaning beyond that typically used by aadults
Underextension
application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech
Relation Term
like large or small constitutes are relatively complex concept
Deictic Expressions
words referring to personal, temporal, or spacial aspects of an utterance and who’s meaning depends on the context in which the word is used
Directed Speech
speech directed at children
Attention Getters
word or phrase used to initiate and address to children
Attention Holder
a tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time
The “Here and Now”
running commentaries on what children do, either anticipating their actions
Conversational Term
take their turns as speaker and listener in conversation
Bilingual
speakers of two languages
Multilingual
speakers of more than two languages
Simultaneous Bilingualism
learn more than one language from birth
Sequential Bilingualism
learning their second language as young children
Second Language Acquisition
learn a second language not as a young child, but rather later in life
