Chapter 8 Vocabulary

Question 1

Language acquisition

Answer 1

Is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and sentences to communicate.

Question 2

First Language Acquisition

Answer 2

Refers to children’s natural acquisitions of the language or languages they hear form birth.

Question 3

Second Language Acquisition

Answer 3

The process in which people learn a second language.

Question 4

Innate

Answer 4

Determined by factors present from birth.

Question 5

Innateness Hypothesis

Answer 5

A hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language.

Question 6

Imitation Theory

Answer 6

Child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and production what they hear.

Question 7

Reinforcement Theory

Answer 7

Theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they used the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones.

Question 8

Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

Answer 8

Theory of child language which says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

Question 9

Connectionist Theory

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Social Interaction Theory

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

Linguistic Universals

Answer 11

Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.

Question 12

Universal Grammar

Answer 12

The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics.

Question 13

Critical Period

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

Neglected Children

Answer 14

A child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language a a child.

Question 15

Feral Children

Answer 15

Child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals.

Question 16

Homesign

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Rules

Answer 17

A former statement of an observed generalization about patterns in languages.

Question 18

Child-Direct Speech

Answer 18

Speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many Western societies, child-direct speech is slow and high-pitched and had many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 19

Identifying Sounds

Answer 19

The ability to understand different sounds.

Question 20

High Amplitude Sucking

Answer 20

Experimental techniques 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 suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discriminating abilities.

Question 21

Condition Head-Turn Procedure

Answer 21

Experimental techniques usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing.During the conditioning phase the infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers. During the testing phase, when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, it suggests that the infant has perceived the ability to discriminate between the two sounds.

Question 22

Producing Sounds

Answer 22

A child’s first vocalizations are present at the very beginning of life. within a few weeks after birth a child begins to coo, producing sequence of vowel like sounds.

Question 23

Articulatory Gestures

Answer 23

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example,t he movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.

Question 24

babbling

Answer 24

A phase a child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally generally begins around the age of six months.

Question 25

Repeated

Answer 25

Repeated babbling- same as canonical babbling.

Question 26

Canonical Babbling

Answer 26

The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama, by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 27

Voice Onset Time

Answer 27

The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.

Question 28

Variegated Babbling

Answer 28

when an infant strings together different syllables as in bugabimo.

Question 29

Holophrastic Stage

Answer 29

A one word sentence.

Question 30

Telegraphic

Answer 30

Children omit certain words when they speak, using only a few words.

Question 31

Conversational turns

Answer 31

Taking turns when speaking.

Question 32

Bilingual

Answer 32

Speakers of two languages.

Question 33

Interrogatives

Answer 33

A kind of sentence that expresses a question. In English, interrogative sentences have an auxiliary verb that precedes the subject.

Question 34

Complexive concept

Answer 34

A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.

Question 35

Overextensions

Answer 35

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 tan the application of the same word in adult language.

Question 36

Underextension

Answer 36

application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word.

Question 37

Relational Term

Answer 37

Type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference.

Question 38

Deicitic Expressions

Answer 38

Word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance.

Question 39

Attention Getters

Answer 39

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 40

Attention Holders

Answer 40

A tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time.