Child Language Acquisition

Question 1

Which language level is developed by children first?

Answer 1

Phonology (sounds)

Question 2

How early do children start to hear and recognise words?

Answer 2

26 weeks in the womb

Question 3

What and when is the first stage of phonology development?

Answer 3

Vegetative state

0-2 months

Question 4

What are the key features of the first stage of phonological development?

Answer 4

Crying
Coughing
Burping
Sucking
Sensitivity to reduplication

Question 5

How is the first stage of phonological development beneficial to the baby?

Answer 5

Physically beneficial as adjusting to breathing in air rather than fluid

Question 6

When is the second stage of phonological development? What is its key feature?

Answer 6

4-7 months

Cooing= sounds around 6-8 weeks as babies discover their vocal chords

Question 7

What are two other features of the second stage of phonological development?

Answer 7

First laughter

Changes in pitch and loudness

Question 8

When is the third stage of phonological development? What is its key feature?

Answer 8

6-9 months

Babbling= experimenting with articulate sounds but no recognisable words, meaningless

Question 9

Define phonemic contraction. How does it fit into phonological development?

Answer 9

Up to nine months, all sounds international

Sounds of language around them then start to dominate, some emphasised, others discarded

Question 10

What are two other features of the third stage of phonological development?

Answer 10

Extending sounds so like syllables

Repeated patterns- reduplicated monosyllables

Question 11

Define phonemic expansion. How does it fit into phonological development?

Answer 11

Baby’s capacity to produce sound becomes more wide-ranging and complex
In the third stage

Question 12

When is the fourth stage of phonological development? What is its key feature?

Answer 12

9-12 months

Protowords= clusters of sounds that represent baby’s attempt to articulate specific words

Question 13

What does learning in the fourth stage of phonological development rely on?

Answer 13

Babies gain more control over sounds and respond to feedback mechanisms- children feel satisfaction when they speak so continue to speak

Question 14

How does the development of vowels and consonants compare to each other?

Answer 14

By 30-40 months, 2/3s of consonants but a whole range of vowels
Vowels are easier than consonants
Combinations of the two

Question 15

Why are consonant clusters more challenging for children to learn than consonant sounds?

Answer 15

Requires more muscular control

Question 16

Give three ways children make words easier to say using deletion

Answer 16

Final consonants may be dropped
Unstressed syllables
Consonant clusters reduced

Question 17

Give one way and two examples of how children make words easier to say using substitution

Answer 17

Reduplication of sounds= sounds in a word are pronounced in the same way
‘r’ becomes ‘w’
‘t’ becomes ‘d’

Question 18

Describe Berko and Brown’s (1960s) theory

Answer 18

Children don’t have ability to pronounce certain phenomes but can perceive them accurately
Can hear and distinguish more than they can say

Question 19

Describe the Cruttendens (1974) experiment and its conclusions

Answer 19

Adults and children listened to recording of football results
From intonation used, adults able to predict accurately whether result was home win, away win or draw
Children aged 7-11, had little success
Suggests although children are able to reproduce main patterns of intonation from an early age, understanding their meaning still developing up to early teens

Question 20

What follows the development of phonology?

Answer 20

The development of grammar

Question 21

Define holophrase

Answer 21

Single word representing a more complex thought

Question 22

When is the holophrastic stage?

Answer 22

9-18 months

Question 23

What word class makes up most of an infants first 50 words?

Answer 23

Nouns

Question 24

Describe Nelson’s (1973) theory. What is some endorsement for this theory?

Answer 24

Babies vocab in first utterances falls into 4 categories:
Naming occurred most frequently
Action
Modifying
Social
Most concrete nouns fit into four categories (cohesion, continuity, solidity, contact_- children like clearly defined shaped objects, don’t disappear and solid

Question 25

What is the second stage of grammatical development? When is this?

Answer 25

Two-word stage

18-24 months

Question 26

What are three key features of the two-word stage?

Answer 26

Introduction of expressions means whole new range of expressions
Mostly subject + verb but others possible as begin to shape meaning
Ambiguity because inflectional affixes absent

Question 27

What are the three combinations of words at the two word stage that occur?

Answer 27

Subject + verb
Subject + complement
Verb + object

Question 28

What stage of grammatical development follows the two-word stage? When is it?

Answer 28

Telegraphic stage

2 years old

Question 29

What are the two main features of the telegraphic stage?

Answer 29

Focus on lexical essentials

Omission of auxiliary verbs, determiners and prepositions

Question 30

Give three grammatically complete sentences formed in the telegraphic stage

Answer 30

Subject + verb + object
Subject + verb + complement
Subject + verb + adverbial

Question 31

What follows the telegraphic stage? When is it?

Answer 31

Post-telegraphic stage

3 years old

Question 32

How has the post-telegraphic stage developed from the telegraphic stage?

Answer 32

Early reliance on lexical words gradually expands to include auxiliaries, prepositions and articles

Question 33

What are two features of the language used in the post-telegraphic stage?

Answer 33

Sentences with more than one clause, coordinating conjunctions
Inflexional affixes

Question 34

By what age are most language rules learnt? Give an example of one that hasn’t been

Answer 34

5 years old

Passive voice

Question 35

What are the three challenges for children to learn?

Answer 35

Pronoun challenge
Asking questions challenge
Negatives challenge

Question 36

How do children get confused with the pronoun challenge?

Answer 36

Pronouns ‘you’ and ‘i’- use ‘you’ for themselves and ‘i’ for others- imitation
Possessive determiners ‘my’ and ‘yours’

Question 37

How does children’s language develop to overcome the questions challenge?

Answer 37

18 months, two word stage- intonation with rising inflection
Two years- question word but telegraphic auxillary verb omitted
Three years- auxillary verbs and varied syntax

Question 38

How does children’s language develop to overcome the negatives challenge?

Answer 38

15-18 months- reliance on words ‘not’ and ‘no’
Age 3- modal verbs ‘don’t’ and ‘can’t’ and no in mid-sentence
Age 4- understand and use more subtle forms of negative construction including implied negatives

Question 39

Define plosive sounds. Give six examples and what age they develop.

Answer 39

Airflow blocked for a brief time
24 months b, d, p, t,
30 months k, g

Question 40

Define fricative sounds. Give nine examples and what age they develop.

Answer 40

Airflow only partially blocked and air moved through mouth in stead stream
30 months h
36 months f, s
42 months v, z
48+ months Θ (think), ʒ (leisure), ð (the)

Question 41

Define affricative sounds. Give two examples and what age they develop.

Answer 41

Outing plosives and fricatives together

42 months tʃ (church), dʒ (judge)

Question 42

Define approximants. sounds. Give three examples and what age they develop.

Answer 42

similar sounds to vowels 24 months w
36 months j
42 months r

Question 43

Define nasal sounds. sounds. Give three examples and what age they develop.

Answer 43

Air moving through the nose
24 months m, n
30 months ŋ (sing)

Question 44

Define lateral sounds. sounds. Give an example and what age it develops.

Answer 44

Placing tongue on the ridge of the teeth and then air moves down the side of the mouth
36 months l

Question 45

Define whole object assumption

Answer 45

Word refers to whole object

Question 46

Define type assumption

Answer 46

Word refers to type of thing, not one of them in particular

Question 47

Define basic level assumption

Answer 47

Word refers to objects alike in basic ways

Question 48

Describe the research of Brown 1973

Answer 48

Conducted research on children aged 20-36 months
Identified a sequence of learning morphemes that is typical
Over generalisation
Unconsciously recognise existence of inflections but correct usage of irregular verbs takes time

Question 49

What is the order of morphemes that Brown suggests children learn in?

Answer 49

-ing
-s (plural)
-‘s (possession)
‘a’ ‘the’
-ed
-s (third person singular verb ending)
‘be’ primary auxillary

Question 50

Describe the research of Berko 1958

Answer 50

Children between 2.5 and 5 years old able to create plurals showing awareness of grammatical rules in the errors they make
Children learn by listening

Question 51

Define productive vocab

Answer 51

Words a person is able to use in speech or writing

Question 52

Define receptive vocab. How does it compare to productive vocab?

Answer 52

Words a person recognises/understands, likely to be larger than productive

Question 53

Describe the types of overextension as described by Rescorla 1980

Answer 53

Categorical= confusing hypernym with hyponym 
Analogical= associating objects unrelated but have one or more features in common
Predicate= relates to absence

Question 54

What are the three stages of semantic development according to Aitchison 1987?

Answer 54

Labelling= process of attaching words to objects as they learn more
Packaging= to ascertain boundaries of a label, confuses hypernyms and hyponyms giving rise to over and under extensions
Network building= having labelled objects children start to identify connections between, recognising similarities and differences