Chapter 9: Cognitive and Language Development

Question 1

What is phonology?

Answer 1

The rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds.

Question 2

What is semantics?

Answer 2

The way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations

Question 3

What is grammar?

Answer 3

Consists of 1. Syntax, the rules by which words are arranged into sentences and 2. Morphology, the use of grammatical markers indicating number, tense, case etc

Question 4

What are pragmatics?

Answer 4

The rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication.

Question 5

What are the 4 components of language?

Answer 5

1. Phonology
2. Semantics
3. Grammar
4. Pragmatics

Question 6

What is a language acquisition device?

Answer 6

An innate system that permits children, once they have acquired sufficient vocabulary, to combine words into grammatically consistent, novel utterances and to understand the meaning of sentences they hear.

Question 7

Where is the Broca’s area and what does it support?

Answer 7

In the left frontal lobe. Supports grammatical processing and language production.

Question 8

Where is the Wernicke’s area and what does it support?

Answer 8

In the left temporal lobe. Plays a role in comprehending word meaning.

Question 9

What are phonemes?

Answer 9

The smallest sound units that signal a change in meaning, such as the difference between consonant sounds in “pa” and “ba”

Question 10

What is categorical speech perception?

Answer 10

The tendency to perceive as identical a range of sounds that belong to the same phonemic class/

Question 11

What is cooing?

Answer 11

Making of vowel like noises (ie. oo)

Question 12

What is babbling?

Answer 12

Repeating consonant-vowel combinations, often in long strings such as “bababababa”

Question 13

What is joint attention?

Answer 13

When the child attends to the same object or event as the caretaker

Question 14

What is a protodeclarative gesture?

Answer 14

When a baby points to, touches or holds up an object while looking at others to make sure they notice.

Question 15

What is a protoimperative gesture?

Answer 15

When a baby gets another person to do something by reaching, pointing and often making sounds at the same time.

Question 16

What is a referential style of language learning?

Answer 16

Young children’s who’s vocabulary consist mainly of words that refer to objects.

Question 17

What is a an expressive style of language learning?

Answer 17

Young children who’s vocanulary consist mainly of words that are social formulas and pronouns. ie. thank you

Question 18

What is underextension?

Answer 18

When children apply words too narrowly ie. using “dog” only for the family dog and not for other dogs

Question 19

What is overextension?

Answer 19

Applying a word to a wider collection of objects and events than is appropriate. ie. calling buses, trains etc “car”

Question 20

What is syntactic bootstrapping?

Answer 20

The hypothesis that preschoolers discover many word meanings by observing how words are used in syntax, or the structure of sentences.

Question 21

What is the emergentist coalition model?

Answer 21

Proposes that word-learning strategies emerge out of children’s efforts to decipher language. Children draw on a coalition of cues - perceptual, social and liguistic

Question 22

What is telegraphic speech?

Answer 22

Two-word utterances that focus on high-content words and omit smaller, less important ones ie. “more cookie”

Question 23

What are grammatical morphemes?

Answer 23

Small markers that change the meaning of sentences

Question 24

What is overregularisation?

Answer 24

Once children apply a regular morphological rule, they extend it to words that are exceptions.

Question 25

What is semantic bootstrapping?

Answer 25

Children use word meanings to figure out sentence structure.

Question 26

What is recast? (technique to inform children about grammar)

Answer 26

Restructuring inaccurate speech into correct form.

Question 27

What is expansion? (technique to inform children about grammar)

Answer 27

Elaborating on children’s speech, increasing its complexity

Question 28

What is turnabout? (conversational strategy)

Answer 28

The speaker not only comments on what has just been said but also adds a request to get the partner to respond again

Question 29

What is shading? (conversational strategy)

Answer 29

A speaker initiates a change of topic gradually by modifying the focus of discussion

Question 30

What is illocutionary intent?

Answer 30

What a speaker means to say, even if the form of the utterance is not perfectly consistent with it.

Question 31

What is referential communication skill?

Answer 31

To communicate effectively. we must product clear verbal messages and recognise when messages we receive are unclear so we can ask for more information.

Question 32

What are speech registers?

Answer 32

Different styles used depending on the context, audience and purpose of communication

Question 33

What is metalinguistic awareness?

Answer 33

The ability to reflect on and think about the structure and function of language itself.

Question 34

What is code switching?

Answer 34

Producing an utterance in one language that contains one or more “guest” word from the other