Child Language Acquistion Theories

Question 1

Lenneberg

Answer 1

Language critical period is 0-7 years

Question 2

Piaget

Answer 2

Cognitive theory, children can’t linguistically articulate concepts that they don’t understand

Question 3

Thomas and Chapman

Answer 3

Children know and understand more words than they produce

Question 4

Chomsky

Answer 4

Language is innate and hard wired, born with and LAD (Language acquistion device)

Question 5

Skinner

Answer 5

Behaviourist theory states we are born as blank slates and learn language through imitation, positive, and negative reinforcement.

Question 6

Katherine Nelson

Answer 6

Negative reinforcement discourages language attempts

Question 7

Stephen Krashen

Answer 7

Correcting language does not improve it

Question 8

Vygotsky

Answer 8

Scaffolding theory, children learn language through caregivers and child directed speech.

1) private speech
2) ZPD - zone of proximinal development

Question 9

What is the behaviourist theory supported by?

Answer 9

Feral children ie- Genie who received little to none language input and were largely unable to produce language.

Question 10

What supports the innateness theory?

Answer 10

Some cultures, such as Papa New Guinea and Saomoa do not culturally use CDS, but their children still manage to communicate (Suggests nature)

Question 11

What contrasts the cognitive/piaget’s theory?

Answer 11

Children with cognitive disorders still manage to produce language beyond their understanding, so cognitive and language is not linked.

Berko and Brown fis phenomena, as children understand more phonemes than they produce

Question 12

Name Halliday’s functions (1978)

Beahiourists?

Answer 12

Regulatory function -language that is used to influence the behaviour of others including persuading, commanding or requesting.

Interactional function -languagethat is used to develop relationships and ease interaction. This could include phrases like “I love you mummy” or “Thank you”.

Instrumental function -language that isused tofulfil a need, such as to obtain food, drink or comfort

Personal function -language thatexpresses personal opinions, attitudes and feelings.

Informativefunction-language that is used torelayorrequest information.

Heuristic function -language that is used toexplore,learnanddiscover. This could include questions or a running commentary of a child’s actions.

Imaginative function -the use of language totell storiesandcreate imaginary constructs.

Question 13

Is cognitive theory nature or nurture and why?

Answer 13

Nurture, as children need to learn and understand language before they can articulate it.

Question 14

Proto word

Answer 14

9-12 months

Babbling sounds that match actually words

Question 15

One word/holophrastic

Answer 15

9-18 months

Single recognisable words ie nouns

Question 16

Two words

Answer 16

18-24 months

Two word combinations ie-“that my” “daddy go”

Question 17

Telegraphic

Answer 17

24-40 months

3 to 6 word combinations gradually expanding

Question 18

Post telegraphic

Answer 18

36+ months

As telegraphic but grammatically complete utterances (SVO order)

Question 19

Babbling

Answer 19

6-12 months

Repeated consonant vowel sounds ie dada, baba

Question 20

Berko and Brown

Answer 20

Fis phenomenon- can recognise and understand more phonemes than they use

Question 21

Bloom (2004)

Answer 21

The noun bias in children is reflected in the frequency of nouns in our language
Noun:verb
5:1

Question 22

Saxton

Answer 22

Found common patterns in child language development include nouns

Suggests language is innate as similar for all children

Question 23

Elizabeth Spelker

Answer 23

Children prefer well defined still objects.

Could explain the noun bias