Language Acquisition Flashcards
innate
determined by factors present from birth
innateness 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, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones
Active Construction of a Grammar Theory
theory of child language which says that children acquire language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them
Connectionist Theories
theory of language acquisition which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to the 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 shared by all natural languages
critical period
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
feral child
child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals
neglected child
child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child
homesign system
a rudimentary visual-gestural communication system that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication
rules
formal statement of an observed generalization about patterns in language
child-directed speech
speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In Western society characterized by slow and high-pitched speech with many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation and simple, concrete vocab
High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)
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 sued to draw conclusions about discrimination abilities
Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure
experimental technique used with infants between five and eighteen months with conditioning and testing phase. Conditioning phase= infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers, 1st presented at same time, then in succession so that the infant begins to anticipate the appearance of visual reinforcers and look at them before they are activated. Testing phase= when infant looks to the visual reinforcers immediately after a change in sound, it suggests that the infant has perceived a change in sound, thereby demonstrating the ability to discriminate between the two sounds involved
voice onset time (VOT)
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
movement of a speech organ in the production of speech. (i.e. velum moves to produce a nasal consonant)
babble
phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of six months
canonical babbling
continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like [mamamamama] by infants. (repeated babbling)
variegated babbling
production of meaningless consonant vowel sequences by infants
holophrastic stage
stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time
telegraphic
phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words
overgeneralization
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
complexive concept
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
overextension
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
underextension
application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of a word
relational term
type of relationship between adjective and noun reference where the reference of the adjective is determined relative to the noun reference
deictic expressions
word or expression that takes it meaning relative to the time, place and speaker of the utterance
attention getters
word or phrase used to initiate an address to children
attention holders
a tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time
conversational turns
the contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time she passes the floor to the other speaker
bilingual
state of commanding two languages
multilingual
state of commanding 3 or more languages
simultaneous bilingualism
bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy
sequential bilingualism
bilingualism in which the second language is acquired as a young child
second-language acquisition
acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult
code-switching
using words or structural elements from more than one langauge within the same conversation
fossilization
process through which forms from a speaker’s non-native langauge usage become fixed and do not change even after years of instruction
transfer
influence of one’s native langauge on the learning of subsequent languages
