Language Acquisiton Flashcards by Alex Lord

Evidence from language acquisition

Listening
Speaking
Reading
Spelling

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Behaviourist - Empiricist

Skinner

S-R
Imitation
Reinforcement
Shaping

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Linguistic - Nativist

Chomsky

Language Faculty
Universal Grammar
Innate
Switched on by experience

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Skinner was a

Behaviourist - Empiricist

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Chomsky was a

Linguistic - Nativist

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Interaction (Constructivist) Models

➢Cognitive Models (Piaget)
•Development, reasoning & environment
•Stages

➢Information-Processing Models (PDP, Connectionist)

➢Social Interaction Models

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Auditory-Visual Characteristics of Language
(Peelle & Davis, 2012
Davies & Johnsrude, 2007)

Listening to language

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Kisilevsky et al 2003

Prenatal learning
Average fetal heart rate for the 2 min prior to voice onset, 2 min of mother’s or stranger’s voice, and 2 min following voice offset

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Mamas et al 2009

1-8 days old cry contours

30 French & 30 German infants

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Universal listeners

discriminate all phonetic units of the world’s languages

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Language acquisition

Listening
Speaking
Reading
Spelling

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Early learning frames future

neural commitment

own language facilitated

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Kuhl 2004

Universal listeners

Early learning frames future

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Nazzi, Bertoncini, Mehler 1998

Pre natal Learning

0-5 days old French infants
High Amplitude Sucking Paradigm
   - learning phase (operant conditioning)
   - habituation phase
   - new stimulus (dishabituation)

English v Japanese
(stress timed) (mora timed)

English v Dutch
(stress timed) (stress timed)

(English & Dutch) v (Italian & Spanish)
(stress timed) (syllable timed)

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Kuhl, Kiritani, et al., 1997

By 1 year old no longer hear foreign language phonetic contrasts

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(Tsao Liu & Kuhl, 2004)

Neural Committment

Tuning to native language at 6m = improved language growth at 13, 16, 24m

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Challenges of learning speech sounds:

➢Segmentation

➢Grouping

➢45 different sounds (phonemes) in English

Pre speech learning

➢stress, intonation, rhythm,
➢vowels,
➢boundaries, phoneme contrasts
➢word order, grammar,

Statistical learning & probability

Sounds, prosody, word order

Prih-tee / prih-bee
is running / can running
Splash / Splaft

Segmenting based on properties of language

Saffran 1996

“bidakupadotigolabubidaki”

Bida = word (high probability)
Kupa = word boundary (low prob)
Test with words & non-words

8m learn to pair syllables as words i.e. patterns to segment speech

Listening route

Speech input - Acoustic Analysis- Phonological Lexicon - Semantic Lexicon

Lexicons are…

Broad but narrow

IDS is…

Infant-Directed Speech

Kuhl, Andruski et al., 1997

IDS

(Motherese/Parenteses/Baby talk register/Primary Linguistic Data/Child Directed Speech)

➢Higher pitch
➢Slow tempo, shorter phrases
➢Hyper-articulated
➢Clear category examplars e.g. vowels
➢Simple syntax &amp; semantics

Kuhl, Andruski et al., 1997

IDS

English
Russian
Swedish

Singh, Morgan & Best, 2002 | Language input: IDS

➢Infants prefer “happy-talk” | ➢Depressed mothers show less exaggerated prosody

Uther, Knoll, Burnham 2007

Compared to adult / foreigner directed speech ➢IDS is higher in pitch ➢IDS comprises more positive affect ➢FDS/IDS exaggerated vowels

(Thiessen, Hill & Saffran, 2005)

➢Non-word learning, 6-7m | ➢Listening times longer for words than part words in IDS

Thiessen, Hill & Saffran, 200

➢IDS helps word segmentation ➢Segmenting abilities at 6 months predict later vocabulary ➢IDS prosody helps with learning sound-meaning associations (17m)

Controversy | Soderstrom (2007), Newport et al (1977), Durkin (1987)

``` ➢Preference or foetal experience? ➢Complexity of IDS ➢Other input (ADS) ➢Non-maternal speakers ➢Preference ceases 7-9m ➢Other environmental cues ```

Tomasello 2003 | Controversy

Intention reading & pattern finding

(Shneidman & Woodward, 2016) | Controversy

Directedness vs intentionality or expertise

➢Apparent lack of IDS in some cultures Controversy Ochs (1985)

Samoans reject “child-centeredness”, emphasis on child to do the learning – no speech modifications

Apparent lack of IDS in some cultures Controversy Heath (1983)

Trackton mothers, S.Carolina – reported no CDS or talking to infants but immersed in language, and were addressed.

➢Apparent lack of IDS in some cultures Controversy Haggan (2002)

Kuwaiti mothers adamant they didn’t use CDS. Observations showed they did. Potential input from siblings

O’Doherty et al. 2011 | Care-giver’s speech

Interactive human element improves learning

Caregiver-Infant learning: Social Context

➢Conversation ➢Joint Attention (9-12m) ➢Communicative pointing (12m) ➢Intentions (18m)

Tomasello, 2000

Language acquisition

Anglin, Miller & Wakefield, 1993 | Lexical development

6,8,10 year olds vocabulary. Increasing complexity, syllables, compounds etc. e.g. lead-er-ship

Listening and speaking pathway

Speech input - acoustic analysis - phonological buffer - speech out put Acoustic analysis - phonological lexicon - semantic lexicon Phonological buffer - phonological lexicon back and forth

Kuhl (2004) Early Language Acquisition

18m - manipulate language to fit with sounds in repertoire 2y- begin playing with sounds (phonological awareness) 1-7y articulatory gesture development, grammar development 3y onset /k/ and rime /aet/ of cat, past tense 4y similar start sounds, exposure to alphabet feeds phonological awareness 6y decode into phonemes, 14,000 word vocabulary 8-9y Subtleties of grammar, 40,000+ words

Babbling to word transition

Hear and see speech - produce speech - sound, tactile feedback - social feedback

Prelinguistic vocal development

``` Reflexive Vocalisations 0-2 months Crying, burping, fussing, vowel-like sounds Cooing Laughing 2-4 months Coo, goo, back of mouth Vocal Play 4-6 months Variety, explore sounds Canonical babbling 6 months + C-V syllables with adult-like timing, bababa, bagidubu Jargon 10 months + Early speech, sounds, syllables, stress, intonation- conversation Protowords 12 months + Made up but resemble adult words, controlled, has meaning. ```