Chapter 9: Cognitive and Language Development Flashcards
What is phonology?
The rules governing the structure and sequence of speech sounds.
What is semantics?
The way underlying concepts are expressed in words and word combinations
What is grammar?
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
What are pragmatics?
The rules for engaging in appropriate and effective communication.
What are the 4 components of language?
- Phonology
- Semantics
- Grammar
- Pragmatics
What is a language acquisition device?
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.
Where is the Broca’s area and what does it support?
In the left frontal lobe. Supports grammatical processing and language production.
Where is the Wernicke’s area and what does it support?
In the left temporal lobe. Plays a role in comprehending word meaning.
What are phonemes?
The smallest sound units that signal a change in meaning, such as the difference between consonant sounds in “pa” and “ba”
What is categorical speech perception?
The tendency to perceive as identical a range of sounds that belong to the same phonemic class/
What is cooing?
Making of vowel like noises (ie. oo)
What is babbling?
Repeating consonant-vowel combinations, often in long strings such as “bababababa”
What is joint attention?
When the child attends to the same object or event as the caretaker
What is a protodeclarative gesture?
When a baby points to, touches or holds up an object while looking at others to make sure they notice.
What is a protoimperative gesture?
When a baby gets another person to do something by reaching, pointing and often making sounds at the same time.
What is a referential style of language learning?
Young children’s who’s vocabulary consist mainly of words that refer to objects.
What is a an expressive style of language learning?
Young children who’s vocanulary consist mainly of words that are social formulas and pronouns. ie. thank you
What is underextension?
When children apply words too narrowly ie. using “dog” only for the family dog and not for other dogs
What is overextension?
Applying a word to a wider collection of objects and events than is appropriate. ie. calling buses, trains etc “car”
What is syntactic bootstrapping?
The hypothesis that preschoolers discover many word meanings by observing how words are used in syntax, or the structure of sentences.
What is the emergentist coalition model?
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
What is telegraphic speech?
Two-word utterances that focus on high-content words and omit smaller, less important ones ie. “more cookie”
What are grammatical morphemes?
Small markers that change the meaning of sentences
What is overregularisation?
Once children apply a regular morphological rule, they extend it to words that are exceptions.
What is semantic bootstrapping?
Children use word meanings to figure out sentence structure.
What is recast? (technique to inform children about grammar)
Restructuring inaccurate speech into correct form.
What is expansion? (technique to inform children about grammar)
Elaborating on children’s speech, increasing its complexity
What is turnabout? (conversational strategy)
The speaker not only comments on what has just been said but also adds a request to get the partner to respond again
What is shading? (conversational strategy)
A speaker initiates a change of topic gradually by modifying the focus of discussion
What is illocutionary intent?
What a speaker means to say, even if the form of the utterance is not perfectly consistent with it.
What is referential communication skill?
To communicate effectively. we must product clear verbal messages and recognise when messages we receive are unclear so we can ask for more information.
What are speech registers?
Different styles used depending on the context, audience and purpose of communication
What is metalinguistic awareness?
The ability to reflect on and think about the structure and function of language itself.
What is code switching?
Producing an utterance in one language that contains one or more “guest” word from the other
