File 8 language acquisition

Question 1

active construction of a grammar theory

Answer 1

theory of language acquisition that says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

Question 2

attention getter

Answer 2

word or phrase used to initiate an address to children

Question 3

attention holder

Answer 3

a tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time

Question 4

babbling

Answer 4

a phrase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of six months

Question 5

bilingual

Answer 5

state of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between only one language pair

Question 6

canonical babbling

Answer 6

the continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like mamama by infants; also called repeated babbling

Question 7

child-directed speech

Answer 7

speech used by parents and 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

Question 8

code-switching

Answer 8

using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation or even within a single sentence or phrase

Question 9

complexive concept

Answer 9

a term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items abstract or concrete that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property

Question 10

conditioned head-turn procedure

Answer 10

experimental technique usually used with infants between 5 and 18 months with two phases: conditioning and testing. During the conditioning phase, the infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforces, first presented at the same time and then in succession, such that the infant 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 infant has perceived the change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate, between the two sounds involved.

Question 11

connectionist theory

Answer 11

theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develops connections by exposure to language and by using language.

Question 12

conversational turn

Answer 12

the contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor to another speaker

Question 13

critical period

Answer 13

age span, 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 a language.

Question 14

feral child

Answer 14

child who grew up in the wild without any care for adults, often with animals.

Question 15

first language acquisition

Answer 15

the process by which children acquire the lexicon and grammatical rules of their language. In the case of native bilinguals, both languages are acquired as first languages.

Question 16

foreign accent

Answer 16

an accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the speaker

Question 17

fossilization

Answer 17

process through which form from a speaker’s non-native language usage become fixed (generally in a way that would be considered ungrammatical by a native speaker) and do not change, even after years of instruction

Question 18

high amplitude sucking

Answer 18

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 generated system. Each suck on the pacifier generates a noise, and infants sucking behavior is used to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities

Question 19

holophrase

Answer 19

a one-word sentence

Question 20

homesign system

Answer 20

a rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language) that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication

Question 21

imitation theory

Answer 21

theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear

Question 22

innate

Answer 22

determined by factors present from birth

Question 23

innateness hypothesis

Answer 23

a hypothesis that humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language

Question 24

linguistic universal

Answer 24

property believed to be held in common by all natural languages

Question 25

multilingual

Answer 25

the state of commanding three or more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages. In machine translation, a system that can translate between two or more languages

Question 26

neglected child

Answer 26

a child who is neglected by caretakers; often resulting in significantly lowered exposure to language as a child

Question 27

one-word stage

Answer 27

stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time

Question 28

overextension

Answer 28

in the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning; the child’s application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language

Question 29

overgeneralization

Answer 29

in the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain contexts; a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult language

Question 30

reinforcement theory

Answer 30

theory of language acquisition that says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones

Question 31

relational term

Answer 31

type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference

Question 32

sequential bilingualism

Answer 32

bilingualism in which second language is acquired as a young child

Question 33

simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 33

bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy

Question 34

social interaction theory

Answer 34

theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language from social interaction–in particular with older children and adults and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need

Question 35

telegraphic stage

Answer 35

a phrase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words

Question 36

telegraphic utterances

Answer 36

utterances containing primarily content words in the style of a telegram with many function words and function morphemes left out

Question 37

two-word stage

Answer 37

stage in first language acquisition at which children produce two word utterances in addition to one word utterances

Question 38

underextension

Answer 38

application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word

Question 39

universal grammar

Answer 39

the theory that posits a series of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also the name if this set of shared characteristics

Question 40

variegated babbling

Answer 40

production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants