child language development (speech) Flashcards
What is Skinner’s claim?
theory
that children learn language through copying and imitating others
SKINNER’S IMITATION THEORY
what is the evidence for Skinner’s imitation theory?
theory
- Brown’s fis phenomenon
- Katherine Nelson’s children’s 50 first words
- Phonemic contraction
- Melodic utterance
What is the evidence against Skinner’s imitation theory?
theory
- Rewards given to children when applying the correct grammar or lexis
- When children produce language that they have never heard before e.g. combining words to make new sentences and making grammatical errors that adults wouldn’t.
- Virtuous error: applied their own knowledge
What is Chomsky’s claim?
theory
that the ability to learn is Innate and children possess it from birth
* suggests that children acquire language by using their innate ‘language acqusition device (LAD)’ which allows a child to recognie basic structure and rules surrounding language
* innate, deep structures form part of a childs instinctive knowlege of universal language structure
* language differs because variable surface structures of their mothers tongue which they must learn
* defines this as UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR
What is the evicence for Chompsky’s innateness theory?
theory
- Overextensions
- Burko’s WUG experiment
- Preverbal stages (biological noises, cooing, vocal play & babbling)
- Children tend to make the same grammatical errors at the same age
- Nicaraguan sign language
Brown’s u-shaped regression model - Kaluli tribe
what is the evidence against Chomsky’s innateness theory?
- The case of Genie (ONLY FOR AGAINST CHOMPSKY)
- Jim
- There is no mention of input and interaction; children need input in order to TRIGGER the LAD device.
- Children need interaction to acquire language, not just passive absorption.
- Child directed speech: Parents adjusting the nature of their speech for their child (children need interaction to learn conversational skills such as turn-taking which is important in language)
- Protoconversation
what does Piaget’s cognitive theory claim?
believed that children’s thinking progresses along an observable and describable rate.
* Child moves from: sensory-motor stage, to pre-conceptual stage, to concrete operations, to formal operations
* a child cannot operate in a later mode before mastering all the earlier stages
* applies to EARLY DEVELOPMENT
what is evidence for Piaget’s cognative theory?
-
object permanence
this caused a sharp increase in vocab after the object-permanance stage is reached. - Under-extensions: The child makes this until the child understands the concept of language, they cannot use the language accurately. E.g. child naming their own shoe as the concrete noun “shoe” but not anyone else’s.
what is the evidence against Piagets cognitive theory?
- the fact that some children whose mental development is delayed- can still use language more fluently than the cognitive theory suggests (e.g. Autism)
- clear correlation between stages of interlectual development & language acqusition
what is Bruner’s claim?
- stresses thye importance of the role of interaction in language acqusition
- interaction with parents is very important, it is not enough to simply hear their mother’s tongue: must be a 2 way feedback
- parents become highly skilled at adjusting the nature of their speech to their children and their needs
- he called this system LANGUAGE ACQUSITION SUPPORT SYSTEM
what is the evidence for Bruner’s input/interaction theory?
- Proto-conversations
- Kaye’s CDS features (child directed speech): language used by carers to children shows features such as redundancy features and lexical features. These features include repetitions, interactions, higher pitch and greater range of frequency.
- Case of Jim: Jim’s parents were both deaf which meant that he did not have enough interaction. However, when a speech therapist talked to Jim they realized the significant delay in his language development compared to his peers.
what is some evidence against Bruner’s input/interaction theory?
Kaluli tribe- Papua New Guinea
children in these environments do not seem to be impended by the lack of verbal interaction.
what is some research to support/ link with Bruner’s theory?
- proto-conversations
- child directed speech
- functions of childrens langauge
- acquisition of interactional/ communication skills.
what is Tomasello’s claim?
tomasello’s usage based approach
- children learn language through using it
- learn language through social interaction and gain practice by using established sentence constructions & patturns- no need for universal grammar
- childrens brain systems use general learning mechanisms and classify words into catagories.
what is some evidence for Tomasello’s usage based approach?
- questions: children produce correct questions with WH- words that are used most often.
- while making errors with questions that contain less frequently used WH- words.
- suggests that interaction, understanding and ue work together in the development of language and not innateness.
what is some evidence against Tomasello’s usage based approach?
tomasello admits himself that his apporach is limited
what is the critical period hyphothesis
Lennebur’s hypothesis claims that there is an ideal time window to acquire language in a liguistically rich environment, after which further language acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful.
the ability to learn lanuage is biologically linked to age.
name the 5 pre-verbal stages of phonological development
- biological noises
- cooing and laughing
- vocal play
- babbling (early and later)
- melodic utterance
what is the purpose of the perverbal stages?
provide an outline of vocal development during a child’s first year.
what is stage 1 of ‘preverbal stages’
at what age and what happens
biological noises
- between 0-8 weeks
- vomiting, crying and burping ect…
- these noises are common to the whole human race (all babies at this point sound the same)
what is stage 2 of the ‘preverbal stages’
at what age and what happens?
cooing and laughing
* 8-20 weeks
* produced when the baby is in a settled stage
* short vowel-like sounds
* baby begins to develop control over vocal muscles
what is stage 3 of the ‘preverbal stages’
at what age and what happens?
vocal play
* 20-30 weeks
* a controlled single vowel-like or contant-like sound
* more varied than babbling but much less controlled
what is stage 4 of the ‘preverbal stages’
at what age and what happens?
babbing
* 25-50 weeks
* baby produces phonems, often in the form of cobinations of CV STRUCTURE
* early babbling- all babies sound the same (supports innateness theory)
* later babbling- phonemic contraction; start to prefer sounds from their native language (supports imitation theory)
what is stage 5 of the ‘preverbal stages’
at what age and what happens?
melodic utterance
* from 9 months
* melody, rhythem and intonation develop
* genional accents become evident
* parents assume sounds have different functions: questions, greeting or exclaiming
phonology definition
the study of different sounds and the way they come together to form speech and words.
biblical consonant
place of articulation
place of articulation: both lips
e.g. /b/ /m/
dental consonant
place of articulation
place of articulation: upper and lower teeth & tongue
e.g. mother, or think
velar consonant
place of articulation
place of articulation: back of the mouth, back of the tongue
e.g. /g/ /k/
plosive consonant
manner of articulation
manner of articulation (what happens to the air when sound is made):
COMPLETE blocking of the air
e.g. /p/ /k/ /g/ /t/
