File 8.0 Language Acquisition

Question 1

Innate

Answer 1

Atleast part of human language is innate.

Question 2

Innateness Hypotheness

Answer 2

Theories of seeking answers to questions along with how children acquire the specific language that is spoken around them? Some theories include Imitation theory and reinforcement theory.

Question 3

Three More Current Theories of Language Acquisition

Answer 3

• Active Construction of a Grammar Theory
• Connectionist Theories
• Social Interaction Theory

Question 4

Linguistic Universals

Answer 4

The basic features shared by all languages such as nouns and verbs

Question 5

Universal Grammar

Answer 5

Inborn set of structural characteristics shared by all languages.

Question 6

Critical Period

Answer 6

Describes a period of time in an individual’s life during which a behavior -in this case language- must be acquired.

Question 7

Unfortunate Circumstances

Answer 7

In which children were either neglected by their caretakers or grew up in the wild, often with animals (feral children) during critical periods.

Question 8

Homesign Gestures

Answer 8

Communicative gestures (a form associated with meaning) that are invented b deaf children and the people with who they routinely interact in cases where a signed language is not made available.

Question 9

Imitation Theory

Answer 9

Claims that children learn language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.

Question 10

Reinforcement Theory

Answer 10

Asserts 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 are using the wrong forms.

Question 11

Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

Answer 11

The most influencial theory of language acquisition, holds that children actually invent the rules of grammar themselves.

Question 12

Connectionist Theories

Answer 12

Assume that children learn language by creating neutral connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language and the using language.

Question 13

Social Interaction Theory

Answer 13

Assumes that children acquire language through social interaction, with older children and adults in particular.

Question 14

Identifying Sounds

Answer 14

Children are able to perceive sounds many distinctions in language much earlier then they are able to produce them.

Question 15

High Amplitude Sucking

Answer 15

Infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system.

Question 16

Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure

Answer 16

Usually used with infants between five and eighteen months. Has two phases: conditioning and testing.

Question 17

Child-directed speech

Answer 17

Is slow and high-pitched and contains many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 18

Producing sounds

Answer 18

A child’s first vocalizations are present at the very beginning of life. Within a few weeks after birth, a child begins to coo, producing sequences of vowel like sounds.

Question 19

Articulatory Gestures

Answer 19

Involved in producing a paricular sound (ex bringing both lips together to produce a bilabial sound), as well as the timing relationships between these gestures.

Question 20

Babble

Answer 20

Producing sequences of vowels and consonants if they are acquiring signed language.

Question 21

Repeated or Canonical Babbling

Answer 21

Starts around the age of seven to ten months. The continual repetition of syllables helps the infant practice a sequence of consonant and vowel sounds.

Question 22

Variegated Babbling

Answer 22

Between ten and twelve months. Infants begin to produce a variety of speech sounds, even sounds that are not part of the language the child is acquiring natively.

Question 23

Developments: 1 Month

Answer 23

• Cry to express displeasure and other throaty sounds.

- Look at their parents when being talked to.

Question 24

Developments: 2-3 Months

Answer 24

• Turn their eyes and later heads towards sounds and voices.
• Cry differently depending on needs.
• Smile and make noises in response.
• Begin cooing.

Question 25

Developments: 4-5 Months

Answer 25

• Begin to make consonant sounds in addition to their vowel like cooing.
• Can laugh and begin to try to copy sounds.

Question 26

Developments: 6 Months

Answer 26

• Respond to sounds by making sounds.
• String vowels together in vocalizing and produce syllables.
• Practice turn taking and respond to their own name.

Question 27

Developments: 7-9 Months

Answer 27

• Respond to familiar words and try to copy sounds and gestures.
• Begin to use international patters in their babbling.
• Understand “no” when directed at them.

Question 28

Developments: 10-11 Months

Answer 28

• Begin variegated babbling, with sequences.
• Understand “bye bye” and can wave.
• Mama and dada begin to become real words with meaning.

Question 29

Developments: 12 Months

Answer 29

• May say a few words and exclamations in addition to mama and dada.
• Can use other simple gestures.
• Can understand the meaning of several words.

Question 30

Holophrastic Stage

Answer 30

The single words produced at this time stage are used as more than labels for objects or events; they may be used for naming, commenting, requesting,inquiring, and so on.

Question 31

Telegraphic

Answer 31

Referring to the language of children when they begin to produce more than two words at a time.

Question 32

Plurals

Answer 32

Recall that the plural morpheme- s- is acquired quite early by children.

Question 33

Negatives

Answer 33

Children also go through a series of stages in learning to produce negative sentences.

Question 34

Interrogatives

Answer 34

Very young children can produce questions only by using a rising intonation, rather than by using a particular syntactic structure.

Question 35

Complexative Concepts

Answer 35

Sometimes, not only will a child associate a wrong or incomplete set of unifying characteristics with a word, but she will also seem to try out different characteristics each time she uses the word.

Question 36

Overextensions

Answer 36

when a child extends the range of word’s meaning beyond that typically used by adults, we say that he has produced an overextension.

Question 37

Underextension

Answer 37

Is the application of a word to a smaller word toa a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech.

Question 38

Relational Term

Answer 38

Like large or small constitutes a relatively complex concept.

Question 39

Deictic Expressions

Answer 39

Which are words referring to personal, temporal, or spatial aspects of an utterance an whose meaning depends on the context in which the word is used.

Question 40

Attention Getters

Answer 40

To tell children which utterances are addressed to them rather tan to someone else, and hence which utterances they ought to be listening to.