Language Acquisiton Flashcards
Evidence from language acquisition
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Spelling
Behaviourist - Empiricist
Skinner
- S-R
- Imitation
- Reinforcement
- Shaping
Linguistic - Nativist
Chomsky
- Language Faculty
- Universal Grammar
- Innate
- Switched on by experience
Skinner was a
Behaviourist - Empiricist
Chomsky was a
Linguistic - Nativist
Interaction (Constructivist) Models
➢Cognitive Models (Piaget)
•Development, reasoning & environment
•Stages
➢Information-Processing Models (PDP, Connectionist)
➢Social Interaction Models
Auditory-Visual Characteristics of Language
(Peelle & Davis, 2012
Davies & Johnsrude, 2007)
Listening to language
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
Mamas et al 2009
1-8 days old cry contours
30 French & 30 German infants
Universal listeners
discriminate all phonetic units of the world’s languages
Language acquisition
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Spelling
Early learning frames future
neural commitment
own language facilitated
Kuhl 2004
Universal listeners
Early learning frames future
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)
Kuhl, Kiritani, et al., 1997
By 1 year old no longer hear foreign language phonetic contrasts
(Tsao Liu & Kuhl, 2004)
Neural Committment
Tuning to native language at 6m = improved language growth at 13, 16, 24m
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 & 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.
