Child Languge Acquistion Flashcards
What is the holophrastic stage?
One word utterances
12-18 months
What is the two-word stage?
Two word utterances
18-24 months
What is the telegraphic stage ?
Three or more words combined
34-36 months
What is the post-telegraphic stage?
More complex grammatical constructions
36+
What is stage 1?
Negative
-sounds of discomfort /reflexive actions (0-4 mths)
What is stage 2?
Cooing
- comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed vowel sounds
(4-7mths)
What is stage 3?
Babbling
-repeated sounds or constant and vowel sounds ( 6-12 mths)
Stage 4?
Proto-words
-word- like vocalisations, Not matching actual words but consistently used for the same meaning using actions eg. pointing
(9-12mths)
What is Skinner’s theory? ( behaviourist theory)
- Chomsky 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
Arguments for/against skinners behaviourist theory
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!
What is Chomsky’s theory? ( universal language)
LAD= learning takes place through innate brain mechanism which is a pre-programmed ability to acquire grammatical structures
•Language is universal; anyone can learn it
WASN’T TESTED!
Key points for the Genie Wiley case study on feral children?
- Kept in a isolated environment with no stimuli (light, toys)
- lack of stimuli hindered development and lacks motor skills
- had no relationship or caregiver - lack of interaction
What was the outcome of Genie Wiley’s childhood regarding her language acquisition?
- Able to pick up words and associations ( large vocabulary ) but couldn’t learn grammar as she had gone beyond her critical period
- her brain has not developed capacity for language - was smaller and malformed due to lack of interaction and development
What does “ overextending mean” mean?
• Children often overextend meaning of words such as calling all 4 legged house hold pets “ dogs”
What does “ under-extending” mean?
• They May under -extend anword by giving it a narrower meaning eg calling cartoon ducks “ ducks” but not real ducks “ ducks”
What is Eve Clark’s theory? ( meanings)
Studied babies first words and they say the over extend meanings
• she found that the over extension is based on physical features of objects
TESTED!!
What was Jean Piaget’s theory?
•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
What is stage one in Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Sensorimotor stage - up to 2 years
- child experiences physical world through their senses and classify things in it
- concrete lexical choices
What is stage 2 of Piaget’s Stages of Lexical Development?
Pre-operational- 2-7 years
- language and motor skills are more competent
- Language is egocentric - focused on the child
What is deletion?
Omitting the final consonant in words do(g) , cu(p)
Substitution
Substituting one sound for another
Pip for ship
Addition
Adding an extra vowel sound to the ends of words creating a CVCV pattern
DOGGIE
Assimilation
Changing one consonant or vowel for another
Gog for Dog
Reduplication
Respirating a whole syllable
DADA
