Child Language Acquisition

Question 1

Behaviourism

Answer 1

Behaviour can be changed or influenced by punishment or reward. Language can be taught to a child through praise or correction over time.

Question 2

Positive reinforcement

Answer 2

Rewards behaviours that you want to see repeated

Question 3

Negative reinforcement

Answer 3

Punishment for behaviours you don’t want to see

Question 4

What did B.F Skinner state?

Answer 4

That all behaviour is conditioned through positive and negative reinforcement

Question 5

Pavlov’s dog experiment~ classical conditioning

Answer 5

An experiment about the salivation of dogs

Question 6

Un conditioned stimulus response
(Pavlov)

Answer 6

Drooling dogs when they got their food

Question 7

Conditioned stimulus response
(Pavlov)

Answer 7

The metronome and the response to this on it’s own

Question 8

Neutral stimulus
(Pavlov)

Answer 8

When the metronome is paired with the food it is neutral- it just happens to be there

Question 9

Imitation

Answer 9

Skinner says that a child learns through copying a parent/ more knowledgeable other

Question 10

Classical conditioning

Answer 10

We train a response to a new or additional stimulus. This response isn’t permanent and if the conditions aren’t met the response will fade.

Question 11

Nativism

Answer 11

~We are born with universal grammar
~ He gives a critical period in which language must develop
~Children don’t simply copy language, they deduce rules from it and produce sentences they’ve never heard before
~Universal grammar allows children to get the correct word order of a sentence

Question 12

Chomsky’s Nativist Theory- Pros

Answer 12

~Easily applicable
~Explains how children make unique utterances
~Accounts for the errors children make when they misapply grammar rules

Question 13

Chomsky’s Nativist Theory- Cons

Answer 13

~Doesn’t account for adult errors and poor grammar
~Doesn’t discuss nurture- focuses on nature

Question 14

Syntax

Answer 14

The set of rules that determines the arrangement of words in a sentence

Question 15

Morpheme

Answer 15

The smallest grammatical unit in a language

Question 16

Pragmatics

Answer 16

An area of language study linked to the things people mean rather than what they actually say

Question 17

Morphological

Answer 17

~Add inflections to create tense, showing possession, making plurals or creating adjectives
~Experiment with language by adding pre/suffixes or convert from one class to another

Question 18

Mandarin Chinese

Answer 18

Mandarin Chinese can have as many as four different meanings for one sound depending on the interaction that is being used

Question 19

Cruttenden (1974)

Answer 19

Demonstrated that understandings of patterns of intonation is still developing in the teens

Question 20

Cognitive
(Lev Vygotsky)

Answer 20

~Language comes with understanding: a child cannot linguistically articulate concepts he/she does not understand
~A child needs to understand the idea of the past tense in order to use past tense
~ZPD- the difference of what a child can do alone and with some support

Question 21

Vygotsky’s key ideas

Answer 21

~Collaborative play is essential to children’s learning
~ The MKO is the more knowledgeable person that others have to rely on as they’re more experienced

Question 22

Scaffolding

Answer 22

When a child is supported in their learning of language by carers and once they’ve learnt it, the support is taken away

Question 23

Jean Piaget

Answer 23

~Language comes with understanding
~Children talk to themselves while playing or working at a task

Question 24

Criticisms of Piaget’s ideas

Answer 24

~There is evidence of children with severe learning difficulties and cognitive problems, who still manage to use language far beyond their actual understanding
~Children can mask misunderstanding by using social cues
~Language is unique in many ways which makes it distinct from other areas of development

Question 25

Social Interaction- Bruner

Answer 25

~Interactions between child and carer are crucial to language development and develop abilities such as turn taking
~Focus on importance the of conversations , routines of interaction and the role of CDS
~Argues its more important than limitation it’s about social interaction

Question 26

Features of CDS (Child directed speech)

Answer 26

~Phonology- separate phrases more distinctly, uses exaggerated ‘singsong’ intonations, phonetic addition
~Grammar and syntax- simpler constructions, high degree of repetition, fewer verbs and adjectives
~Lexis- lots of concrete nouns , use of personal names instead
~Pragmatics- Lots of gesture and warm body language

Question 27

1.One word/holophrastic
(Stages of children’s grammatical development)

Answer 27

~One word utterance
~12-18 months

Question 28

2.Two-word
(Stages of children’s grammatical development)

Answer 28

~Two words combined for simple syntax
~Subject & verb
~Verb & object
~18-24 months

Question 29

3. Telegraphic
   (Stages of children’s grammatical development)

Answer 29

~Three or more words joined more complex and accurate
~Subject & verb & object
~Subject & verb & complement
~ Subject & verb & adverbial
~24-36 months

Question 30

4. Post-telegraphic
   (Stages of children’s grammatical development)

Answer 30

~Increasing awareness of gramatical rules and irregularities
~Instead of using ‘ran’ using ‘runned’

Question 31

Mean length utterance (MLU)

Answer 31

~linguists will calculate a child’s MLU
~they look at the number of morphemes they use, not the number of words