Child Language Acquisition

Question 1

What is the holophrastic stage?

Answer 1

One word utterances

12-18 months

Question 2

What is the two-word stage?

Answer 2

two-word utterances

18-24 months

Question 3

What is the telegraphic stage?

Answer 3

Three or more words combined

34-36 months

Question 4

What is the post-telegraphic stage?

Answer 4

More complex grammatical constructions

36+

Question 5

What is stage 1?

Answer 5

Vegative

-sounds of discomfort/reflexive actions (0-4 mths)

Question 6

What is stage 2?

Answer 6

Cooing
-comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed vowel sounds
(4-7mths)

Question 7

What is stage 3?

Answer 7

Babbling

-repeated sounds or consonant and vowel sounds (6-12 mths)

Question 8

What is stage 4?

Answer 8

Proto-words
-word-like vocalisations, not matching actual words but consistently used for same meaning using actions eg pointing
(9-12mths)

Question 9

What is Chomsky’s theory? (universal language)

Answer 9

•LAD = learning takes place through innate brain mechanism which is pre-programmer with ability to acquire grammatical structures

•Language is universal; anyone can learn it
(Did no experiments, just theorised)

Question 10

What is Skinner’s theory? (behaviourist theory)

Answer 10

• Believed children imitate adults and will get positive and negative reinforcement for their verbal behaviour
• Positive reinforcement = behaviour is rewarded to encourage repeated behaviour
• Negative reinforcement = undesirable behaviour is unrewarded with the intention it won’t be repeated

Question 11

Arguments for/against Skinner’s Behaviourist theory?

Answer 11

For:
•Children imitate accent and dialect
•Learn politeness and pragmatic aspects of language
•Repeat spoken language and incorporate it into theirs

Against:
•They form sentences they’ve never heard before- don’t just imitate
•Hear ungrammatical spoken language around them but learn it correctly
•Don’t always listen to correction
•WASN’T TESTED!

Question 12

Key points from the Genie Wiley case study on feral children?

Answer 12

• Kept in a cage, isolated with no light available - lack of stimulation
• Had no toys - hinders development and lacks motor skills
• Had no relationships or care giver - lack of interaction

Question 13

What was the outcome of Genie Wiley’s childhood regarding her language acquisition?

Answer 13

• Able to pick up words and associations (large vocabulary) but couldn’t learn grammar (gone beyond critical period)
• Her brain had not developed capacity for language - was smaller and malformed due to lack of interaction and development

Question 14

What does ‘overextending meaning’ mean?

Answer 14

•Children often overextend meaning of words such as calling all 4 legged house hold pets ‘dogs’

Question 15

What does ‘under-extending meaning’ mean?

Answer 15

•They may under-extend a word by giving it a narrower meaning eg calling cartoon ducks ‘ducks’ but not real ducks ‘ducks’

Question 16

What is Eve Clark’s theory? (meanings)

Answer 16

•Studied babies first words and they way they over extend meanings
•She found that the over extension is based on the physical features of objects
(tested her theory)

Question 17

What is Jean Piaget’s theory? (cognitivism)

Answer 17

•Emphasised children were active learners & their cognitive development has been very influential in language
e.g ‘wassat’ shows a child wanted more labels to describe the objects around them (active learner) > heuristic
•Children can’t be taught til they are ready

Question 18

What is stage one in Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?

Answer 18

Sensorimotor stage - up to 2 years

• child experiences physical world through their senses and classify things in it
• concrete lexical choices

Question 19

What is stage 2 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?

Answer 19

Pre-operational- 2-7 years

• language and motor skills are more competent
• Language is egocentric - focused on the child

Question 20

What is stage 3 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?

Answer 20

Concrete operational- 7-11 years

-children begin to think logically about concrete events

Question 21

What is stage 4 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?

Answer 21

Formal operational - 11+

-abstract reasoning skills begin to develop

Question 22

What are some of the features of CDS? (child directed speech)

Answer 22

• higher pitch of voice
• simplified vocabulary helps establish keywords
• concrete nouns
• yes no questioning
• simplified grammar
• exaggerated pauses to encourage turn taking

Question 23

What are some actions that accompany speech in CDS?

Answer 23

• pointing, smiling and shrugging
• more obvious lip and mouth movement
• exaggerated facial expressions

Question 24

What does exaggerating prosodic cues mean?

Answer 24

-using more exaggerated intonation patterns and higher frequencies eg ‘uh oh’

Question 25

What is recasting?

Answer 25

Phrasing sentences in different ways such as making it a question

Question 26

What is echoing?

Answer 26

Repeating what the child said

Question 27

What is expansion?

Answer 27

Restating what the child said in a more linguistically sophisticated form

Question 28

What is positive about baby talk?

Answer 28

• contributes to mental development as if helps teach the child the basic function and structure of language
• responding to a baby’s babble with meaningless Abbie aids their development

Question 29

Why may it be difficult for children to learn grammar?

Answer 29

• irregular grammatical structures
• limited vocabulary
• overgeneralisation of rules
• poor grammar of caregivers

Question 30

What does a child’s mean length utterance (MLU) depend on in a transcript?

Answer 30

• depends on their relationship with the speaker

- depends on the context and the child as an individual (every child is different)

Question 31

What is deletion?

Answer 31

Omitting the final consonant in words eg ‘do (g) or cu(p)

Question 32

What is substitution?

Answer 32

Substituting one sound for another eg ‘pip’ for ‘ship’

Question 33

What is addition?

Answer 33

Adding an extra vowel sound to ends of words eg doggie

Question 34

What is assimilation?

Answer 34

Changing one consonant or vowel for another eg gog for dog

Question 35

What is reduplication?

Answer 35

Repeating a whole syllable eg dada, mama

Question 36

What are consonant cluster reductions? (PHONOLOGY)

Answer 36

Reducing consonant clusters to be smaller eg pider for spider

Question 37

What is deletion of unstressed syllables?

Answer 37

Omitting the opening syllable In polysyllabic words eg nana for banana

Question 38

What are plosives? (Sounds)

Answer 38

Airflow is blocked for a short period of time eg ‘p, t, k’

Question 39

What are fricatives?

Answer 39

Airflow is only partially blocked and air moves through mouth in a steady stream eg ‘f, t’

Question 40

What are affricatives?

Answer 40

Putting plosives and fricatives together eg (church) and (judge)

Question 41

What are approximants?

Answer 41

Similar to vowels eg w, r, j

Question 42

What are nasals?

Answer 42

Air moves through the nose eg m, n

Question 43

What are laterals?

Answer 43

The tongue is on the ridge of the teeth and air moves down the sides of the mouth eg ‘i’

Question 44

What is Berko and Brown’s theory? - The Fis Phenomenon

Answer 44

•Described how a child referred to his plastic fish as a ‘fis’
-The child continued to reject the adult’s mimicry or his speech until he was told “is this your fish”, he then replied “yes my fis”
•Shows that they understand but unable to pronounce fricatives sound ‘sh’

Question 45

What does it mean ‘children are born universal’ ?

Answer 45

They are capable of producing any sound in the human language