File 8- Language Acquisition Flashcards
Innate
determined by factors present factors present from birth
Innate Hypothesis
a hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language
Imitation Theory
child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
Reinforcement Theory
theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, to otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones
Active Construction of Grammar Theory
theory of child language which says that children acquire language a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.
Connectionist Theories
theory of which language acquisition which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. . A child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language.
Social Interaction Theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction–in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need.
Linguistic Universals
property believed to be held in common by all natural languages
Universal Grammar
the theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shares by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics
Critical Period
age apan, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in language
Child-Directed Speech
speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many Western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high-pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary
High Amplitude Sucking
experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months. Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants’ sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities.
Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure
experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditioning phase, the infants learns to associate a change in sound wit the activation of visual reinforcers, first presented at the same time and then in succession, such that the infants begins to anticipate the appearance of the visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. During the testing phase, when the infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, it suggests that the infants has perceived the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved.
Voice Onset Time
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.
Articulatory Gestures
a movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.
Babble
a phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age six months.
