CLA Keywords Flashcards
Communicative Competence
The ability to creative meaningful speech or writing.
Proto Word
A made up word such as “ray-rays” for raisins becuase the child can not yet pronounce the word.
Pre- Verbal Stage
Consisting of crying, cooing and babbling
Reduplicated babbling
Repeatedly using the same sounds such as “bababababa”
Variegated babbling
Involves variation of the consonant and vowel sounds being produced.
Holophrastic Stage
Usually between 12 and 18 months. A whole sentence worth of meaning in a single word. Often concrete nouns.
Non-Verbal Communication
Gestures, Haptics (Touch), Paralanguage (stress, amplitude, speed), Eye Contact and Facial Expressions -these are the main ones for a child.
Reduplication
Repeated syllables within a word Such as moo-moo or wee wee
Diminutives
The reduction is scale of an object through addition of extra suffix e.g. Doggie, Dolly More accessible and phonologically easier or more appealing to say.
Substitution
The process of swapping one sound for another that is easier to produce.
Assimilation
One consonant or vowel is swapped for another
Deletion
Omitting a particular sound within a word
Consonant cluster reduction
Reducing phonologically complex units into simpler ones - from two or more consonants down to one.
Two word stage
Occurs around 18 months - puts two words together. The more a child progesses, the clearer and more refined the language becomes. Begins to understand grammar.
Vocabulary spurt
Cognitive change occurs and child moves into a period of rapid acquisition and faster lexical development.
Telegraphic stage
Occurs around age 2. Longer and more complete. Coveys main message with minimum number of words. Include key content words but likely to omit grammatical words.
Content words
Words within a sentence that are vital to meaning
Gramatical words
Words within a sentence that are necessary to demonstrate structural accuracy.
Post telegraphic stage
Occurs around age 3. Contracted forms, verb inflections and formation of pronouns. By age 4 largely grammatically accurate and complete sentences.
Operant conditioning
Skinner.
A positive or negative response given by caregiver can influence the way a child speaks in the future
Positive reinforcement
Skinner
The positive feedback given to a child which is thought to encourage similar performance again.
Language Acquisition Device
Proposed bt Chomsky. All humans are born with an innate language capacity.
Tabula Rasa
Skinner.
Latin for “blank slate” and the term used to describe the idea that children are born with unbdeveloped, fresh brains.
Universal Grammar
Term coined by Chomsky -the idea that all human languages possess similar grammatical properties which the brain is “hard -wired” to decode and use.
Virtuous errors
Grammatical errors that are understandable and logical through an incorrect assumption being made about grammar rules.
Cognitive development
Piaget A child’s development of thinking and understanding.
LASS Language Acquisition Support System
Proposed by Bruner. A system whereby caregivers and other individuals who play a key role in a child’s language development.
Scaffolding
The support provided by caregivers through modelling how speech ought to take place in order to help language development.
Egocentric
Thinking only of the self without undersatnding or regard for the feelings of others.
Object permanence
An understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be seen or touched.
CDS Child directed speech
The various ways in which a caregiver (unconsciously) adapts their speech in order to aid a child in language development.
Expansion
Where a caregiver might develop the child’s utterance to make it more grammatically complete.
Recast
The grammatically incorrect utterance of the child is spoken back to the child but in the correct form.
Mitigated imperatives
An instruction given in such a way that it does not appear to be a command but a more gentle suggestion
IRF Structure Initiation, Response, Feedback
Sinclair and Coulthard’s means of analysing educational discourse. Three part conversational exchange. One speaker starts the conversation, a second speaker responds and the first speaker then provides some feedback.
Instrumental function
Where a child’s utterance is trying to fulfil a need.
MKO More knowledgeable other
The older participant in an interaction who might offer support to a child so they can further their own developmental learning. Vygotsky
ZPD Zone of proximal development
Describes the area between what a child can already do and that which is beyond their reach. Caregiver might enable child to progress by offering support. Vygotsksy
Usage based linguistics
A model that emphasises that language structures emerge from use and language patterns are formed becoming what we know as grammatical constructions. Tomasello
Overextension
Whena child uses a word more broadly than intended to describe things other than the actual item to which the word applies.
Underextension
Where a child might use a word more narrowly to describe something without recognising the word has a wider use.
Hypernym
A more generic term that is connected to more specific word choices that are all within the same semantic field. e.g Fruit is a hypernym
Homonym
The more specific words that can be defined within the more generic hypernym. (Tree - hypernym) (Oak, Ash, Willow, Beech - homonym)
Bound morphemes
Units of meaning within a word that depend on other morphemes to make sense.
Unbound or free morpheme
Units of meaning within a word that do not depend on other morphemes to make sense.
Superlative
An adjective or adverb that expresses the highest degree of quality.
MLU Mean length of utterance
The average utterance length of speakers - calculated by adding up the total number of words spoken and dividing by the total number of utterances - a way of measuring each speakers input or dominance.
Copula verb
A verb that joins a subject to an adjective or noun complement. “I am happy” joins the subject “I” to the adjective “happy” - can include the verb “to be” - “to look” - “to seem” - “to feel”.
