Language acquisition

Question 1

How do parents communicate to their children in America?

Answer 1

Within America parents talk through a . . .
Baby talk register: when parents speak in a particular tone or a lower capacity of language; this influences babies’ linguistics.

Question 2

How do parents communicate to their children in Samoa?

Answer 2

Parents barely talk to their babies because they are at the bottom of the chain.
- babies often communicate with toddlers and develop a higher arbitrariness of language (have to fight to be heard)

Question 3

How we become competent speakers?

Answer 3

We become component speakers from Linguistic and communicative competence (we observe how people talk, influencing how we will learn)

Question 4

What is linguistic competence?

Answer 4

Refers to the speaker’s knowledge of their language.

Question 5

What is communicative competence?

Answer 5

The ability to communicate successfully with others by using language and social skills in an appropriate way.

Question 6

How do we learn to use language in a culturally and appropriate way?

Answer 6

Nature: argues that language is innate (linguistic competence)

                      VS. Nurture: we learn language from others (communicative competence)

Question 7

What are the first initial thoughts about language socialization?

Answer 7

Argues that children form initial thoughts through association (imitation: boas, reinforcement). Based on Nature and Nurture.

Question 8

What are the objections to the initial thoughts between nature and nurture?

Answer 8

1. Children make mistakes
2. Children can make new sentences they have never heard before

Question 9

What did Noam Chomsky propose?

Answer 9

1. Children are able to produce/understand new sentences that are not similar to those previously heard
2. We all have the capacity to learn language when we are first born

Question 10

Chosmky was a . . .

Answer 10

Structuralist, he believed that speech is messy and grammatical structure makes language produce sounds, allowing it to be understood.

Question 11

What did chomsky say about children?

Answer 11

1. Children learn their mother tongue easily
2. Are exposed to little correct language use
3. Children don’t “mimic”, rather they deduce rules.

Question 12

What else did Chomsky believe?

Answer 12

1. Language as an innate faculty
2. Language Acquisition device (LAD)
   - A set of tools provided at birth that focuses on specific (asset of language)
3. Universal Grammar (UG): the basis upon which all huma langauges build and which the Lad is pre-wired
4. Linnebergs critical period: proves innateness (2-7 years, but what if a child does not learn language within this period?)
   ex: genie

Question 13

How does social interaction impact language learning?

Answer 13

Babies examine and learn from their parent’s capacity and tone of language.

Question 14

What is an example of language acquisition and the bay talk register?

Answer 14

Deb Roys’s video, was taken over the course of 3 years and the purpose was to find out how a child learns to speak a language.
- Tried to understand social acquisition, they analsyed why certain words were learned before others (based on baby talk register)

Question 15

What are the analytical tools for language socialization?

Answer 15

Language ideologies: the attitudes opinions, beliefs or theories we have about language
- For example: the North American/Samoan children

                          And  Language ideology filters: the human mind's perception on how to identify a language/accent, and whether it is good or bad.  a. Positive  b. Neutral  c. Negative

Question 16

How can social acquisition be examined?

Answer 16

It can be examined by analyzing the differences between how North American, Kaluli, and Samoan parents interact with their children.

Question 17

How do American parents interact with their chidren?

Answer 17

1. Children are competent interloctours
2. Dyadic (one, on one face conversations)
3. Effort to interpret what children are saying (self lowering but children raising)

Question 18

How do Kaluli parents interact with their children?

Answer 18

1. Very little dyadic conversation
2. Turns the child away from the mother to face social environment.
3. Not spoke to but spoken for (confidently and in full senetnces)
4. Interactions not based on anything child has initiated

Question 19

How do Samoan parents interact with their children?

Answer 19

1. No simplified language use
2. No effort to interpret a childs incorrect sentences
3. Not spoken to except for some commands
4. Child expected to accommodate to social context

Question 20

In totality Caregiver register is . . .

Answer 20

A sociological phenomenon that is not universal.
- It is not necessary for babies to learn language, as they can adapt to their environment.
- Different societies have different methods of teaching their children based on language ideology.

Question 21

Who studied language acquisition within North America based on race?

Answer 21

Shirley Brice Heath: Post segregation in the United States (late 1960’s)
- Questioned how different communities socialize their children into language.
- identifying the effects of home life and community environment on the style of language used among the middle class. And concluded this cannot be explained on some basis of “race.” Mainstream education is often aligned with upper-middle-class practices.