child language aqcuisition

Question 1

Outline the theory that suggests language development may start in pregnancy

Answer 1

-Researchers from the university of Kansas published in the journal Neuroreport in 2017
-They reported finding that babies were able to recognise and distinguish between different languages 1 month before birth.
-They played recordings of rhythmically distinctive languages (English and Japanese) and found the babies’ heartrates increased when they heard the language the were not familiar with - Japanese.

One criticism of this theory is that we cannot communicate with the babies and therefore we do not know if they can actually distinguish between languages, or if their heart rate increased due to the fast rhythm and different sound of the languages, causing them to feel confused, rather than the actual languages themselves. Therefore, this theory may lack some validity

Question 2

What are the stages of the sounds made in the Pre-Verbal Stage (0-12 months) of child language development

Answer 2

-Vegetative (0-4m) -reflex crying noises

-Cooing (3-6m) - open-mouthed vowel sounds

-Babbling (6-12m) -repeated consonant vowel sounds

-Proto-word (9-12) - Babbling sounds that seem to match actual word sounds - a grey area between preverbal and grammatical stages

Question 3

What is comprehension of language?

Answer 3

ability to understand language - which might differ from how much an infant can produce
Children are generally much more advanced in comprehension than production (they understand more than what they can say)

Question 4

What is production of language?

Answer 4

the language that people can produce
a child’s first recognisable word usually appears at about 12 months but varies depending on the child

Question 5

What is the productive vocabulary?

Answer 5

Vocabulary that can be put to use. Once children reach 18 months, they will often have a productive vocabulary of about 50 words, however they will understand many more than 50. Children learn about 10 words a day.

Nelson (1973) found that 60% of a child’s first words being nouns.

Question 6

What is categorical overextension?

Answer 6

inappropriately extending the meaning of a label to other members in the same category, e.g. a child saying ‘sea’ to label any body of water

Question 7

What is analogical overextension?

Answer 7

extending a label from one item to another by connecting their functions or how they are perceived , e.g. a child touching a blanket and labelling it as a ‘cat’ as the blanket feels like the cat’s fur.

Question 8

What is underextension?

Answer 8

applying a label to fewer referents than it should have. For example, a child saying ‘milk’ to refer to milk in their own cup, but not a picture of some milk in a book

Question 9

What is a mismatch statement?

Answer 9

a child makes a connection based on what is normally the case, but isn’t the case on this particular occasion e.g. calling a cot ‘doll’ as there is normally a doll in the cot

Question 10

What are the place and manner of articulation?

Answer 10

place of articulation - place in the mouth where the sound originates
manner of articulation- way in which the sound is produced.

Question 11

What is addition and reduplication ?

Answer 11

Addition - when children add an extra vowel sound to create a CVCV structure e.g. doggie
Reduplication - repeating the whole syllable e.g. mama

Question 12

What is deletion?

Answer 12

often occurs on the last consonant, children remove it from the words e.g. ‘ca’ instead of ‘cat’

Question 13

What is reduction of consonant clusters?

Answer 13

Children find it difficult to produce consonant clusters (sounds that join consonants together) and so will reduce them to smaller amounts, e.g. ‘skiral’ instead of ‘squirrel’

Question 14

What is substitution?

Answer 14

one sound is swapped for another, easier sound e.g. ‘debra’ instead of ‘zebra’

Question 15

What is assimilation?

Answer 15

a process that shows how some sounds change because of other sounds around them e.g. ‘goggie’ instead of ‘doggie’, ‘babbit’ instead of ‘rabbit’

Question 16

What is reduction of unstressed syllables?

Answer 16

children typically ignore unstressed syllables in words. e’g’ ‘nana’ instead of ‘banana’

Question 17

Explain and evaluate B.F. Skinner’s theory of behaviourism

Answer 17

Children learn language through imitation and reinforcement - operant conditioning
A child can be trained to repeat certain utterances as long as they get a positive response
A lack of any positive response will discourage repetition of the utterance (negative reinforcement)
Every child is born as a blank slate and learns through imitation

Evaluation
Children rarely simply repeat what adults say- often make virtuous errors (logical but non-standard utterances) which suggests they are creatively working out grammatical rules - not just copying

Few children receive explicit grammatical correction

Question 18

Explain and evaluate Chomsky’s theory of nativism

Answer 18

Children have a biological drive to learn language from birth and an ability to work out language systems in terms of grammar and syntax
Children make virtuous errors - showing they are attempting to apply grammatical rules they recognise

Evaluation
Stabin - argued a child is born not with a set of linguistic categories but with some sort of process mechanism - a set of procedures and rules
Chomsky’s work was theoretical - not based on linguistic data
Theory seems to downplay the part played by interaction between infants and caregivers

Question 19

Explain and evaluate Piaget’s cognitive theory

Answer 19

Suggested language would not develop until child reached particular stages in cognitive development
Focuses on the need for conceptual understanding to be present before language can reflect it
E.g. a child would not be able to use comparative adjectives (small, smaller, smallest) until they had conceptual understanding of sizing and scale

Evaluation
It’s possible to link a child’s language to their conceptual understanding in the early stages( e.g. the child’s realisation of ‘object permanence’ which enables the child to articulate abstract ideas

Question 20

Explain and evaluate Bruner’s theory of social interactionism

Answer 20

Child language is developed through interaction with caregivers
Criticises Chomsky
Suggests that the way carers question, encourage and support the child through scaffolding enables children to gradually develop their skills
Concentrates more on the need for quality input from caregivers to facilitate learning rather than imitation and positive/negative reinforcement

Evaluation
Children of all backgrounds and languages tend to process through similar stages predictably - challenges the idea that children exposed to child-directed speech will tend to develop more quickly