Chapter 8 Vocab Terms Flashcards
innate
determined by factors present from birth
Innateness Hypothesis
A hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language
Imitation Theory
Child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
Reinforcement Theory
Theory of child language acquisition which 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 Grammar Theory
Theory of child language which says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them
Connectionist Theory
Theory of language acquisition which 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 Universal
property believed to be held in common by all natural languages
Universal Grammar
The theory that posits a sets of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics
neglected child
a 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
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 language
Homesign System
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 of 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 H AS
Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to six months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each such on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants’ sucking behavioris used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities.
Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure HT
Experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning phase, the infants learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers, first presented at the same time and then in succession, such that the infant begins to anticipate the appearance of the visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. During the testing phase, when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.
voice onset time VOT
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating
articulatory gesture
a movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant
babble
a phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of six months
canonical babbling or repeated babbling
the continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama by infants; also called repeated babbling
variegated babbling
production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants
holophrase
a one word sentence
One-Word Stage or Holophrastic Stage
stage in first-language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time
Two-Word Stage
stage in first-language acquisition at which children produce two-word utterances in addition to one-word utterances
Complexive Concept
A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items (abstract or concrete) that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any on unifying property
telegraphic utterance
utterances containing primarily content words (in the style of a telegram with many function words and function morphemes left out)
Telegraphic Stage
a phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words
overextensions
in the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning: the child’s application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language
underextensions
application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word
deictic expression
word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance
attention getter
word or phrase used to initiate an address to children
attention holder
a tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time
conversational turns
the contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor on to another speaker
multilingual
the state of commanding three of more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages.
bilingual
the state of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages
simultaneous bilingualism
bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy
sequential bilingualism
bilingualism in which the second language is acquired as a young child
code-switching
using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation (or even within a single sentence or phrase)
fossilization
process through which forms from a speaker’s language usage become fixed ( generally in a way that would be considered ungrammatical by a native speaker) and do not change, even after years of instruction
transfer
the influence of one’s native language on the learning of subsequent languages (which can facilitate or inhibit the learning of the second language)
