English Language - Child Language Development

Question 1

Behaviourism

Answer 1

The best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of the action and its consequences.

Question 2

BF Skinners Impact

Answer 2

Behaviourism (1954)

Coined the term operant conditioning.

Question 3

Operant Conditioning (def)

Answer 3

Changing behaviour by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response.

Question 4

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 4

After a positive action, a positive feedback is given.

This strengthens the behaviour.

Question 5

Negative Reinforcement and Punishment

Answer 5

Following a negative action, negative feedback is proceeded.
This strengthens behaviour.

Punishment weakens behaviour - being the actual consequence like being shouted at.

Question 6

Skinners Theory Applied

Answer 6

-Children will imitate caregivers
-If correct they are rewarded through praise, or the reward of being understood
-If wrong they are punished by being corrected or not being understood.

Question 7

Arguments For Behaviourism

Answer 7

-Children can copy the words their parents say (lexical development) but its harder to tell if they understand the meaning of these words (semantic development)

-Children develop regional accents so they imitate the sounds around them

Question 8

Arguments Against Behaviourism

Answer 8

-All children will go through the same development stages regardless of parental reinforcement
-Grammar can’t be acquired through imitation
-Children can produce original words and sentences
-Parents rarely punish a child’s linguistic errors

Question 9

Clarke-Stewart

Answer 9

1973 - Found that children whose mothers talk more will have a larger vocabulary.

Question 10

Nativism

Answer 10

Argues that nature is the key to language development and that children are able to acquire language.

Question 11

Chomsky’s contribution

Answer 11

The language you are surrounded with isnt sufficient enough to teach language to a child.
He referred to this as poverty of the stimulus.

Children can produce utterances they have never heard from adults and make virtuous errors.

Question 12

LAD

Answer 12

The Language Acquisition Device explains how children can understand a sentence they have never heard before.

It suggests we have an innate ability to extract the underlying rules from words being spoken around us.

Question 13

Virtuous Errors

Answer 13

The over-application of grammatical rules to irregular forms.
e.g:

I goed there
Mummy swimmed

Question 14

Universal Grammar

Answer 14

All human languages share a similar deep grammatical structure.

Humans are born with innate knowledge of these deep structures.

Question 15

Pinker’s Contribution

Answer 15

Suggests language is an instinct in the same way spiders know how to weave webs.
An ability unique to human’s that cant be accounted for by invention but rather evolution.

Question 16

Lenneberg’s Contribution

Answer 16

A Nativist who wanted to address the role of Nurture in his findings aswell.

The LAD needs to be activated with sufficient input before a certain point in the child’s development or they wont learn language.

Question 17

Arguments for Nativism

Answer 17

-The existence of Universal Grammar (if true) suggests that language is linked to evolution
-Children of all cultures will pass through similar stages (doesn’t matter if they use different ways to teach language they still acquire it)
-Children understand sentences they have never heard.

Question 18

Arguments against Nativism

Answer 18

-Under-estimates the relevance of social interaction
-Some theorists argue Universal Grammar doesn’t exist.

Question 19

Feral Children - Genie

Answer 19

Was shut in a room for 12 years.
Very little sound in the house. (no input)
If Genie made any noise she would be beat.
1 month after the escape her language was similar to a 18-20 month child.
Was unable to acquire correct grammar and language past this.

Question 20

Input Theory

Answer 20

Children will acquire language by being exposed to comprehensible input that is slightly more advanced than their current level.

Question 21

Bruner’s contribution

Answer 21

LASS- Language Acquisition Support System
(pun on Chomsky’s LAD)

Question 22

Features of Child Directed Speech

Answer 22

-Clear Turn-taking
-Simplified Vocabulary
-Non-verbal Communication
-Questions and Commands
-Repetition
-Recasting and Expansions

Question 23

Arguments for Input Theory

Answer 23

-Feral children will not acquire language without any kind of interaction with it
-Without an interactive environment children will be less likely to learn language.

Question 24

Arguments against Input Theory

Answer 24

-Not possible to determine the link between the structures parents use and their appearances in child language.
-In some cultures parents will interact with their children less and they still develop a normal rate of language.

Question 25

What is an expansion? (CDS)

Answer 25

Building additional language onto an utterance produced by a child.

Question 26

What is recasting? (CDS)

Answer 26

Repeating what the child says with different information usually changing the context.

Question 27

Features of Child books to assist language development.

Answer 27

Repetition, Alliteration, Rhyme. Concrete nouns at the centre with simple grammatical structures.

Question 28

Katherine Nelson

Answer 28

1973- Found that children whose mothers corrected them on word choice and pronunciation advanced more slowly than those who were accepting of this

Question 29

Brown, Cazden and Bellugi

Answer 29

1969 Found that parents are more respondent to the truth of what their children say rather than its grammatical correctness.

Question 30

What is Child Directed Speech?

Answer 30

The way a person’s linguistic characteristics alter when speaking to an infant or a toddler.