Child Language Theory Flashcards
What does Katherine Nelson(1973) do?
She placed the early words of children into categories, naming, modifiers, social and actions. Found that 60% of children’s first 50 words were nouns.
What 3 stages of a child’s developing vocabulary did Jean Aitchinson propose(1987)?
Labelling= Linking words to thing’s.
Packaging= Starting to explore the label.
Network Building= Making connections between those things they have labelled and are able to recognise the similarities, opposites, relationships and contrasts.
What two stages did Ursula Bellugi do(1967)?
Negation Development Stages and Pronoun Usage Stages.
What is the Negation Development Stages?
Using “no” or “not” at the beginning of a sentence.
Put this inside the sentence.
Attach negatives to auxiliary verbs. “I won’t wear shoes”. The main verb is not always in the correct tense.
What is the Pronoun Usage Stages?
Uses their own name, “Katherine play”.
Recognises I/Me pronouns. “I play”, “me up”.
Use pronouns according to whether they are the subject or object position, “I play with the toy”, “Give it to me”.
What did Michael Halliday propose(1978)?
He proposed the functions of child language can be categorised.
Heuristic, Imaginative, Instrumental, Interactional, Personal, Regulatory and Representational.
What is Heuristic?
When a child questions their environment and seek information, “Why don’t stars fall out of the sky”.
What is Imaginative?
“I am Batman”. Using language to create imaginative worlds.
What is Instrumental?
A child expresses needs and wants. “David points to the refrigerator door and says “door”.
What is Interactional?
When a child will establish personal contact. “Hello said Catherine, holding out her doll”
What is personal?
When a child expresses their feelings and personal preferences. “I hate that”.
What is Regulatory?
When children request and ask for things. “Daddy push”.
What is Representational?
Language used by children to communicate information. “I’ve got something to show you”. “I got four Barbie dolls at my birthday party”.
What theory does John Dore propose?
Language focused on categorising utterances. Answering, Calling, Greeting, Labelling, Practising, Protesting, Repeating, Requesting Action.
What does Brown and Levinson propose?
That people have two faces, a “positive” and a “negative” face.
What is Operant Conditioning?
A positive or negative reinforcement.
What study did Skinner do(1957)?
His rat experiments, allowed him to conclude the success fullness of operant conditioning, where he theorised that this could help with Child Language.
What else did Skinner do?
He did the imitation theory, where children would imitate their parents.
Who is a supporter of Skinner?
Bandura(1989), as he performed the bobo doll experiment, when parents were violent towards a doll, the children would imitate this.
Who criticised Skinner?
Chomsky, as he questioned the validity of testing his theories on animals of operant conditioning.
What did Chomsky theorise?
He proposed the idea of children having an innate learning ability and universal grammar known as a LAD.
Who criticised Chomsky?
Tomasello stated that Chomsky was an armchair theorist as his ideas were only speculative.
What test did Gleason do(1958)?
The “WUG” test, which found that children are able to apply suitable suffixes with plurals and past tenses. Implying that they have implied systematic aspects of the linguistic system, “WUG’s”.
What idea does Steven Pinker propose(1994)?
He supported Chomsky, as he suggested that language is innate, rather than a human invention. This was due to deaf babies that would babble with their hands as other children would use their voice. Even in the absence of Adults correcting their grammar, accurate speech develops.
What idea does Eric Lenneberg communicate?
Constructed the critical period hypothesis, which suggested that if children had not learnt language before the on set of puberty, then the children would never fully learn.
What studies support this?
Genie(1961)- 13 year old girl locked away from society, never fully learnt how to speak.
Oxana(1991)- 8 years old and was raised by a pack of dogs. Learnt how to speak language but her speech lacked tone and rhythm, and she spoke flatly. She still retained the ability to communicate through barking.
What were Piaget’s 4 stages of cognitive development?
Sensorimotor(0-2) Object Permanence.
Pre-Operational(2-7) Egocentric.
Concrete Operational(7-11) Thinks logically about concrete events.
Formal Operational(11+) Abstract reasoning skills begin.
What is a criticism to Piaget’s stages?
Some people with learning difficulties are still linguistically fluent so cognitive development and language development are not always as closely connected as Piaget suggests.
What does Vygotsky suggest(1978)?
The idea of a MKO and a ZPD. CDS features are scaffolding and therefore help to push children through their ZPD.
What is a criticism of Vygotsky?
Schatz, who suggests that only 4% of children’s errors are corrected by caregivers.
What did Tomasello propose(2003)?
Proposed a focus on the interconnectedness of language development of intentional reading and pattern finding.
What does Ibbotson suggest(2012)?
That children don’t pick up single words, instead that pick up constructions which they will then adapt.
What study does Berko and Brown do(1960)?
They concluded the “Fis phenomenon”, where children’s perceptual abilities are often in advance of their productive abilities. Children are therefore able to recognise they are wrong but unable to physically pronounce this correctly when the caregiver corrects them.
What is Social Interactionism?
Paces importance on scaffolding, suggesting that interaction with children from adults, help promote the social pragmatic of language use.
What study did Bard and Sachs do?
Studied “Jim” who was the child of two deaf parents, he built his vocabulary primarily from the television and radio. His speech was severely retarded which concludes that children require interaction with adults to help develop language.
What did Clark Stewart find(1973)?
Found that children whose mothers talk more have a larger vocabulary.
What concept did Bruner create?
Proposed the idea that BBC listen have an innate learning ability, however, this was only activated through a LASS.
Gaining attention, drawing attention to a picture.
Query, asking baby to identify the picture.
Label, Telling the baby what the object is.
Feedback, Responding to the baby’s utterances.
Who proposed Sociodramatic Play and what is it?
Catherine Garvey, and it is when children will act out storylines and invent objects and settings whilst practicing social interactions with clear roles and reflecting real world behaviour.
Who initially proposed the idea of CDS?
Catherine Snow(1970’s).
What did Catherine Snow find?
That higher pitch, frequent us of child’s name, absence of past tenses, one word utterances, re casting, few verbs and use of simple sentences - Attracted and he’ll the baby’s attention and encouraged the child to respond. Also made the conversation more predictable by keeping it in the “here and now”. What the baby can physically see.
What is a criticism of Catherine Snow CDS?
Papa New Guinea Kalalui Tribe.
Samoa tribes.
What can this possibly link to?
Eric Lenneberg with the critical period hypothesis.
