I. Setting the Stage

Question 1

What is language as a cognitive ability?

Answer 1

Language as a cognitive ability is our ability to detect, interpret, and produce sound waves—speech sounds—to communicate meaning.
- Having the cognitive processes necessary for interpreting vibrations in the air as thoughts and ideas, and producing vibrations to convey thoughts & ideas
- Language development researchers generally see language as a cognitive ability

Question 2

What is language as a social construct?

Answer 2

Language as a social construct is a practice we engage in to form social connections with other humans. In other words, it is strictly a social practice that impacts the function of our world.

Question 3

How is language hierarchically organised?

Answer 3

Language is hierarchically organised in multiple ways, but one way is that there are hierarchical levels of representation:
- spectrogram: shows patterns of vibrations in the continuous speech signal
- sound categories (phonemes): abstract representations of distinct sounds
- morphemes: smallest units of meaning in a language
- words
- syntactic structures
- meanings (semantics)

Question 4

What kinds of perspectives are there on language development between researchers, clinicians, parents, etc.?

Answer 4

basic research: What are ways in which we can expand our knowledge?
applied research: What are ways in which we can use our knowledge in practical ways?
clinicians: How can we assess and treat communication disorders?
parents: How do we ensure that children grow?
Policy makers: What policies should we enact to ensure children are on the best trajectory?
children: What can I do to communicate and participate in my community?

Question 5

What is first language acquisition (in language development research) and who is involved in it?

Answer 5

first language acquisition (FLA) is the process of acquiring a language without any prior linguistic knowledge, and this involves human infants.
- FLA is unconscious and effortless

Question 6

How does first language acquisition differ from second language acquisition?

Answer 6

Second language acquisition (SLA) involves adults or individuals with developed L1. It typically requires conscious efforts (e.g. rehearsing vocab lists, taking classes, intentional practicing) that is not seen in FLA.
- difficult to achieve native-like skills
- adults can attempt to acquire a 2nd language even if they don’t live in an area where that lang. is dominant; infants acquire the language(s) in their environment

Question 7

Why do we conclude that our biological nature allows us to acquire a first language?

Answer 7

Biological aspects can contribute our ability to acquire language:
- unique, human articulators:
—vocal tract and hands
- specialised regions in the brain for language: Broca’s and Wernicke’s area
- genes: FOXP2
—individuals without FOXP2 may suffer from differences in linguistic development

Question 8

Why do we conclude that environmental aspects play a role in our ability to acquire a first language?

Answer 8

Environmental aspects can affect our ability to acquire language:
- Linguistic input: quantity and quality
- Family structure: # of caretakers and # siblings
- Parent responsiveness: parent-child relationship
- SES
- language(s) spoken at home

Question 9

logical problem of language acquisition

Answer 9

How are people able to produce language beyond the language that they receive as input?
finite number of experiences with language + finite number of rules = hypothetically infinite expressions of language
- not all linguistic properties are revealed through naturalistic productions (what we could say vs. what we do say)

Question 10

developmental problem of language acquisition

Answer 10

How do we go from no linguistic knowledge to being able to understand and produce language?
- What stages do we go through?
- What learning mechanisms do we employ?

Question 11

What are some common misconceptions about how children acquire language?

Answer 11

1. “kids soak up language like a sponge”: children go beyond the linguistic input that they receive
2. we teach children language: we don’t have to teach children language in the traditional sense of “teaching”; children don’t learn from us in the methods we use as adults to learn
3. what you hear is what you get
4. the “typical child”

Question 12

What are two kinds of production data scientists use to research language development?

Answer 12

1. naturalistic production
2. elicited production

Question 13

naturalistic production

Answer 13

what kids naturally say without interference from a researcher
- collected through recording exactly what they say
—diaries, LENA/GoPro recordings, tape recorded sessions
- advantages: speech unaffected by the influence of a researcher’s demands
- disadvantages: not everything a kid naturally says will reveal their linguistic knowledge or capabilities

Question 14

elicited production

Answer 14

what kids say with direct interference from a researcher
- collected through recording what kids say after they’ve been prompted by a researcher
- advantages: potentially getting the kind of data you’re targeting
- disadvantages: kids could produce speech that is unnatural for them; they could say things or not say things that they normally would/wouldn’t

Question 15

6 stages of early language production

Answer 15

1. preverbal
2. babbling
3. one-word utterances
4. two-word utterances
5. telegraphic utterances
6. beyond telegraphic

Question 16

preverbal stage of language production

Answer 16

in which infants’ main vocalisations are crying and cooing and there is no discernible speech
- 0~6 months
- involuntary responses to stimuli; no intention to communicate
- infant vocal tract is still developing: larynx drops and jaw control develops

Question 17

babbling stage of language production

Answer 17

in which infants begin to produce speech-like sounds
- 6~12 months
- begin producing vowels [V], then [CV] or [CVCV] pairs
- most consonants are stops
- occurs for both infants with speaking and infants with signing languages
- produce speech that sounds like words (e.g. mama, baba, dada), but is generally just babbling

Question 18

one-word utterances stage of language production

Answer 18

in which infants begin to produce utterances consisting of one word
- 12~20 months
- words refer to concrete aspects of their environment or common social routines:
—concrete nouns (milk, dog) or names of people (Mommy)
—hi, no, yes
- words are not always adult-like; it may be difficult to judge if words are babbling or actual words

Question 19

two-word utterances stage of language production

Answer 19

in which infants begin to produce utterances of two or less words, and acquire more vocabulary
- 20~30 months
- infants acquire more nouns, and acquire verbs and modifiers
- easier to decipher communicative intentions (e.g. instead of ‘ball’ they say ‘play ball’)

Question 20

telegraphic utterances stage of language production

Answer 20

in which infants begin to produce utterances greater than 2 words, but tend to omit functional words or make grammatical errors
- likened to speech used to send telegrams
- greater knowledge of syntax but not quite adult-like
- e.g. “big doggie eating”
- hypotheses: children don’t know function words OR function words are not necessary to convey meaning

Question 21

beyond telegraphic stage of language production

Answer 21

in which children produce longer, more complex utterances
- 40 months and beyond
- prevalent functional categories
- children can have conversations beyond the present moment (story-telling, past + future)
- lack of adult-like conversational abilities:
—e.g. underdeveloped theory of mind; children still bring up irrelevant information in conversations

Question 22

cross-sectional methods of data collection

Answer 22

collecting singular points of data from many different participants for each time period in a study
- each participant only has one data point
- different participants at different points in time
- e.g. Collecting data from populations of 12-mo. old kids, 24-mo. old kids, and 36-mo. old kids
- advantage: can generally collect more data

Question 23

longitudinal methods of data collection

Answer 23

collecting multiple data points from different participants for each time period in a study
- each participant has multiple data points
- observing participants over a given period of time + tracking participant developments
- e.g. Collecting data from kids when they are 12-mo. old, then again when those same kids are 24-mo. old, then lastly when those same kids are 36-mo. old
- advantage: can track specific participant progress and can measure relative development