child language acquisition Flashcards
unit 1 aos 2
stages of cla
-preverbal
-babbling
-holophrastic
-two-word
-telegraphic
-multiword
what are preverbal and babbling stages believed to be?
-hardwired in human instinct
-unlearned
-universal and uniform in expression
ages and traits of preverbal stages
crying
-birth-6 months
-sole mechanism for communication
cooing
-2-3 months
-baby starts to utter vowel sounds and recognise tone of voice
ages and traits of babbling stage
-6-12 months
-baby starts to utter consonant sounds along with vowels
-can blend consonant/vowel sounds
-can pick up prosodics (eg volume, rhythm) and use physical gestures
ages and traits of holophrastic stage
-12-18 months
-uses one word as a whole sentence (holophrase)
-overgeneralises lexemes and applies one word to cover a range of nouns
-signed + spoken
-uses lexemes (1 per utterance)
-no syntax
ages and traits of two-word stage
-18-24 months
-babies begin to develop a greater understand of syntactic and semantic relations
-begins to combine words, especially verb and noun combos
-signed + spoken
-uses lexemes (2 per utterance)
-yes syntax
ages and traits of telegraphic stage
-24-30 months
-child can communicate using content words (eg nouns, verbs) and can speak in almost full sentences, but misses important articles, conjunctions etc
-signed + spoken
-uses lexemes (3+ per utterance)
-yes syntax
ages and traits of multiword stage
-30 months
-begins to use overregularization (children include rules that don’t apply to rules of grammar)
-sentences becomes more complex as they apply syntactic rules
phonological development - early sounds
-vowels tend to be acquired before consonants
-initial consonants in a word tend to be easier to master than final ones
-many consonant sounds children make are universal
-most common consonant sounds are b d m n h
-by 4, only few consonant cause problems
-by 6/7, child is confident with both vowels and consonants
what is the universal grammar theory?
-humans are born with an innate ability to learn language
key points of universal grammar theory?
-humans are born with an innate language device/faculty
-there are underlying linguistic structures that are common to all languages
-language acquisition relies on a specific set of rules that are hardwired in the brain
what is the usage-based language acquisition theory?
- language acquisition is based on the way language is used in everyday communication
key points of usage-based theory
-language learning is driven by exposure and patterns
-language learning involves constructing knowledge based on real language use
-grammar and language structure emerge from the patterns and use of language in context
language problem core issues
-overgeneralisation
-the segmentation problem
-grammar acquisition
-pragmatic development
overgeneralisation
how children apply learned grammatical rules to new words and sentences, and how they deal with exceptions to rules
the segmentation problem
the challenge of how children can identify individual words within a continuous stream of spoken language
grammar acquisition
how children grasp rules for combining words into sentences
pragmatic development
how children learn to use language appropriately in different social contexts and nuances (sarcasm etc)
whole object assumption
for children, a new word usually refers to a whole object, not a part of it or a quality the object possesses
mutual exclusivity assumption
the belief that an object cannot be two things at once
phonological errors
simplification strategies including:
-deletion of sounds (drip—dip)
-substitution (frog—fwog)
lexical/morphological overgeneralisation
occurs with:
-irregular inflections (plurals such as sheeps, meese, tooths)
-tenses (goed, eated)
positives of universal grammar theory
-children experience same stages of development at the same time
-children resist correction
-children create a form of language that adults don’t use
-children produce ‘virtuous errors’ - which are understandable, but not grammatically correct
negatives of universal grammar theory
-children stop overgeneralising and learn to use language correctly
-children who have been deprived of social contact can’t achieve complete communicative competence - genie
-children need input to give them more skills than grammar - eg pragmatics
