Language Acquisition

Question 1

innate

Answer 1

humans are genetically predisposed to acquire and use language

Question 2

linguistic universals

Answer 2

humans have innate knowledge of some core characteristics common to all languages

Question 3

universal grammar

Answer 3

the theoretically inborn set of structural characteristics shared by all languages

Question 4

critical period

Answer 4

A period of time in an individual’s life during which a behavior (in this case language) must be acquired.
*the acquisition will fail if attempted either before or after the “critical period”.

Question 5

homesign

Answer 5

communication gestures (a form associated with a meaning) that are invented by deaf children and people whom they routinely interact in cases where a signed language is not made available.

Question 6

Imitation Theory

Answer 6

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

Question 7

reinforcement theory

Answer 7

theory of acquisition that asserts that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded of otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong forms.

Question 8

active construction of a grammar theory

Answer 8

the most influential theory of language acquisition, holds that children actually invent the rules themselves.

Question 9

connectionist theories

Answer 9

language acquisition that assumes that children learn language by creating neutral connections in the brain

Question 10

social interaction theory

Answer 10

assumes that children acquire language through social interaction with older children and adults in particular

Question 11

voice onset time (VOT)

Answer 11

very slight differences between sounds

Question 12

articulatory gestures

Answer 12

when a young child practices the execution of motor programs that underlie speech production (bring both lips together to produce a bilabial sound).

Question 13

babble

Answer 13

producing sequences of vowels and consonants (if they are acquiring spoken language - or producing hand movements if they are acquiring signed language.

Question 14

high amplitude sucking (HAS)

Answer 14

one of the most successful techniques used for studying the abilities of infants up to the age of 6 months to identify sounds (perceived different sounds or not)

Question 15

conditioned head -turn (HT) procedure

Answer 15

an important technique needed to determine what distinctions, infants between 5-18 months can or cannot perceive.

Question 16

variegated babbling

Answer 16

when an infant strings together different syllables as in [bugabimo]

Question 17

holophrastic stage

Answer 17

stage in first language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time.
aka “one-word-stage”

Question 18

telegraphic

Answer 18

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

Question 19

complexive concept

Answer 19

When a child associates different characteristics with the meaning of a word on successive uses, thereby creating a set of objects that do not have any particular unifying characteristic

Question 20

relation term

Answer 20

constitutes a relatively complex concept. ie large and small

Question 21

deictic expressions

Answer 21

words referring to personal, temporal or spacial aspects of an utterance and whose meaning depends on the context in which the word id used
ex. this, that - there, here

Question 22

overgeneralization

Answer 22

once children discover the generalization about how the plurals of those nouns are formed they may go through a period during which “s” is added to all nouns

Question 23

overextension

Answer 23

when a child extends the range of s word’s meaning beyond that typically used by adults
ex. specks of dirt, dust, small insects and bread crumbs- all are called “fly”

Question 24

underextension

Answer 24

the application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech

Question 25

attention getters

Answer 25

when an adult uses “names” and “exclamations” to tell children which utterances are addressed to them rather than someone else

Question 26

attention holders

Answer 26

• when an adult uses names and/ or exclamations whenever they have more than one thing to say (ie telling a story)
• modulations- high pitched voice or whisper

Question 27

the “Here and Now”

Answer 27

running commentaries on what children do, either anticipating their action or describing what just happened

Question 28

taking turns

Answer 28

adults encourage children to take their turns as speaker and listener in conversation

Question 29

infant-directed speech or child-directed speech

Answer 29

speech directed at children

Question 30

making corrections

Answer 30

adults mostly correct what children say to make sure that the child’s contribution is true rather than grammatically correct.

Question 31

bilingual

Answer 31

speakers of two languages

Question 32

multilingual

Answer 32

speakers of more than two languages

Question 33

simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 33

people who have learned more than one language from birth

Question 34

sequential bilingualism

Answer 34

people who begin learning their second language as young children

Question 35

second-language acquisition

Answer 35

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

Question 36

language mixing or code switching

Answer 36

a typical feature of bilingual children’s speech- using more than one language in a conversation or even within a phrase

Question 37

foreign accent

Answer 37

speaking another language without full knowledge of the phonological system

Question 38

fossilization

Answer 38

non-native forms, as part of either the morpho-syntax or pronunciation, can become fixed and not change, even after years of instruction

Question 39

transfer

Answer 39

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

Question 40

neglected or feral chiildren

Answer 40

children who were exposed to little or no language in their early lives