Language Acquisition Flashcards
innate
determined by factors present from birth
innateness hypothesis
a hypothesis that humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language
imitation theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
reinforcement theory
theory of language acquisition that says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and corrected when they use the wrongs ones
active construction of a grammar theory
theory of language acquisition that says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them
connectionist theories
theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neural connection in the brain
social interaction theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction in particular with older children and adult and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need
linguistics of 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 naive speaker competence in a language
neglected children
a child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child
feral children
child who grew up in a wild without care by human adults often with animals
homesign
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
child-directed speech
speech used by the parents or caregivers when communicating with young children and infants
high amplitude sucking
experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about six months
conditioned head turn procedure
experimental technique usually used with infants between five and eighteen months with tow phases: conditioning and testing
voice onset time
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
a movement of a speech organ in the production of sound, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonat
babble
a phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels
canonical babbling
the continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like (mamama) by infants
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
a phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily on 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 context beyond those in the adult language
complex concepts
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
overextension
the study of child language acquisition, 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 that 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 expression
word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance
infant directed speech
speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants
attention setters
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 turn
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 on to another speaker
bilingual
state of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages
second language acquisition
acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult
foreign accent
an accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the speaker
code switching
using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation
fossilization
process through which forms from a speaker’s non-native language usage become fixed and do not change, even after years of instruction
transfer
the influence of one’s native language on the learning of subsequent languages
sequential bilingualism
bilingualism in which the second language is acquired as a young child
