Child Language Acquisition Flashcards
Stage 1: Babbling
- 5-7 months
- Non-restricted sounds
- Intonation via imitation
- +ve feedback encourages language creation
Stage 2: Holophrastic stage
-one-word utterances
-12-18 months
-consonant/monophthong/diphthong
-difficulty with consonant clusters and using assimilation/insertion
- ~50 words
-overgeneralisation
-simplify phonology
Voiced stops
Children will used voiced stops at the start of words, even if incorrect.
Consonant clusters
difficulty pronouncing.
leave out or change sounds
Fis phenomenon
Children can know the correct pronunciation/meaning for objects that they pronounce the same.
Overgeneralisation
Use one word to describe multiple seemingly unrelated objects.
These objects may be similar in a way that causes this to happen.
e.g. Dad = any man
Undergeneralisation
Use some words to decribe a specific thing.
e.g. Man = father and no other man
Stage 3: Two word utterance stage
-18-24 months
-only contain content verbs and no function words and no function morphemes
-interpretation depends on context
-when speaking organically (not copying), there is usually a structure
- Location Utterances = Person + Location
(e.g. ‘Dog home’)
- Action Utterances = Agent + Action;
Action + patient (e.g. ‘Mamma
go’)
- there is understanding behind the phrases and the grammar/syntax that is required.
Wug test
Tests if children can apply morphological patterns that they have internalised.
Stage 4: Telegraphic stage
- 24-30 months (multi-word stage)
- likely to be missing some
function words/function morphemes as still learning - begin to follow grammatical patterns
- Grammatical elements emerge for the first
time at this stage, - Children will continue to add to their vocabulary at an expediential rate
Typical sequence for the first 10 grammatical features.
- Present progressive
- Preposition
- Plural inflection
- Irregular past tense verb forms
- Possesive inflection
- Verb be
- Aritcles
- Past tense inflection
- Regular present tense inflection
- Irregular present tense forms
The theories
The behavioural Theory (B.F Skinner, 1959)
The innate theory (chomsky, 1957)
The interaction theory (Piaget+Bruno, 1956)
The innate theory
- Chomsky (1957)
- LAD
- Expanded by Steven Pinker
Behavioural Theory
- B.F Skinner 1959
- positive and negative reinforcement.
- to learn through interaction
Evidence of behaviourism in text
- Adults modelling or teaching language, and children responding.
- Children imitate/repeat adults’ speech.
- Children learn/repair mistakes after correction from adults.
Support for Innate theory
- All children go through similar stage of LA
- Medical research detects specific parts of brain for lang.
How to identify innatism in text
- children doing more than just imitating
- Over and underextension (evidence of them constructing a model of language)
- Children resisting correction.
Behaviourism theory criticism
- There is difference between child’s language being true/grammatically correct
- Overcorrecting can have a bad effect, as children need to go through some stages and learn naturally
Interaction theory
- 1956
- language comes
with understanding - interactions between child and carer are crucial
- Focus on importance of conversations, routines of interaction , role of child directed speech
- children learn to get what they want, to play games, to stay connected to carers
- LASS
Interaction theory support (Piaget)
- talking to themselves while playing, trying to help themselves understand
- failing to use or understand language because they haven’t yet grasped the concept
Interaction theory criticism (Piaget)
- There is evidence of children who manage to use language beyond their understanding
- Therfore the link is not as strong as previously thought
Behaviourism support
- Critical theory hypothesis
interaction theory evidence in text
- enjoying/benefitting from interaction
- reinforcing children’s attempts to speak in positive way
- caregivers using child directed speech
- Conversation skills and pragmatic awareness learnt
through interaction
Difference between behaviourism (skinner) and interactionism (bruner)
Skinner:
- assumption that parents/carers correct each mistake
- how the child learns correct grammatical constructions
Bruner:
- parents/carers use child-directed speech (CDS) to model the next level of grammatical construction
- do not correct all mistakes
Innatism criticism
Chomsky did not conduct any practical experiments
Didn’t say much about linguistic features present.
Others have added to Chomsky’s work
ALA methods
Traditional grammar translation
Communicative approach
Audio-lingual method
Direct/immersion method
Traditional grammar translation
Translation
Comprehension
Sets of grammatical rules
Communicative approach
Function over gramar.
Focusses on everyday lang.
Audio-lingual method
Everyday speech
Oral drills
Direct immersion method
Natural lang. setting
Only use target lang.
Benefits of ALA
Flexible thinking
Bilingualism and read readiness
Linguistic awareness
Globalization
Flexible thinking
Better understanding of how language works.
Able to diff. form of content and meaning
Bilingualism and read readiness
Better understanding of the nature of lang.
Better literacy
Linguistic awareness
Better understanding of grammatical rules.
Word boundaries
Globalization
Marketable commodity.
Can work in bilingual settings
