language acquisition

Question 1

innateness hypothesis

Answer 1

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

Question 2

imitation theory

Answer 2

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

Question 3

active construction of a grammar theory

Answer 3

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

Question 4

connectionist theories

Answer 4

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

Question 5

social interaction theoriey

Answer 5

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

Question 6

reinforcement theory

Answer 6

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

Question 7

linguistic universals

Answer 7

humans have innate knowledge of some core characteristics common to all languages such as the concepts of ‘noun’ and ‘verb.

Question 8

universal grammar

Answer 8

theoretically inborn set of structural characteristics shared by all languages

Question 9

homesign

Answer 9

gestures are communicative gestures that are invented by deaf children and the people with whom they routinely interact in cases where a signed language is not made available

Question 10

child-directed speech

Answer 10

speech to infants slow and high pitched and contains many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation and as imple concrete vocabulary

Question 11

high amplitude sucking

Answer 11

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

Question 12

conditioned head-turn procedure

Answer 12

The infant learns to associate a change in sound with the activation of visual reinforcers

Question 13

voice onset time

Answer 13

The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating

Question 14

articulatory gestures

Answer 14

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant

Question 15

babble

Answer 15

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

Question 16

repeated or canonical babbling

Answer 16

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

Question 17

variegated babbling

Answer 17

Infant strings together different syllables instead of repeating the same syllables. This happens at around age ten and twelve months

Question 18

holophrastic stage

Answer 18

When children blend two words into one word. They are limited to one word at a time in their production, but they understand and probably intend the meaning of more than a single word. This is also known as holophrase

Question 19

telegraphic stage

Answer 19

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

Question 20

overgeneralization

Answer 20

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 21

complexive concept

Answer 21

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

Question 22

overextensions

Answer 22

the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception fo word meaning: the childs application of a given word has a wider range than the application of the same word in adult language

Question 23

underextension

Answer 23

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 24

relational term

Answer 24

large or small constitutes a relatively complex concept. correct use of words like these requires that two things be kept in mind: the absolute size of the object in question and its position on a scale of similar objects

Question 25

deictic expressions

Answer 25

Words referring to personal, temporal, or spatial aspects of an utterance and whose meaning depends on the context in which the word is used

Question 26

attention getters

Answer 26

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

Question 27

attention holders

Answer 27

whenever they have more than one thing to say, for example, when telling a story

Question 28

conversational terms

Answer 28

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 onto the other speaker

Question 29

bilingual

Answer 29

speakers of two languages

Question 30

simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 30

learn more than one languages from birth

Question 31

sequential bilingualism

Answer 31

learning their second language as young children

Question 32

multilingual

Answer 32

speakers of more than two languages

Question 33

second-language acquisition

Answer 33

learn a second language not as a young child but later in life.

Question 34

language mixing/ code switching

Answer 34

using more than one language in a conversation or even within a phrase

Question 35

foreign accent

Answer 35

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

Question 36

fossilization

Answer 36

When non-native forms, as morpho-syntax or pronunciation can become fixed and not changed even after years of instruction

Question 37

transfer

Answer 37

a speaker’s native language also plays a roll in second language acquisition because having learned one language influences the subsequent learning of another languages

Question 38

critical period

Answer 38

describes a period of time in an individual’s life during which a behavior- in this case language- must be acquired; that is, the acquisition will fail if its attempted either before or after the critical period

Question 39

innate

Answer 39

determined by factors present from birth