Language and Thought L3

Question 1

What is the nativist view of language?

Answer 1

-Children are biologically predisposed to learn
language
-They don’t start with nothing, they have universal knowledge which then only requires a bit of input to refine to their own language (comes with maturity)

Question 2

What is the language bioprogram hypothesis, who thought of it?

Answer 2

• Part of the nativist view of language
• Children are innately predisposed to acquire the syntax of language
• Derek Bickerton (1984)

Question 3

What did Noam Chomsky support in terms of the learning of language?

Answer 3

• A Nativist view (believed it was innate)
• Came up with the idea of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which claims infant is instinctively able to produce+ acquire language

Question 4

What supports a nativist view of language?

Answer 4

• Children acquire language rapidly (3 years)
• Children acquire language effortlessly
• Children acquire language without being taught

Question 5

How do children respond to feedback/being taught language?

Answer 5

Resistant to feedback, they are interested in communication (a tune to meaning) but not the explicit teaching of syntax by parents

Question 6

What is evidence for the bioprogram hypothesis (part of nativist theory)?

Answer 6

Creoles and Pidgins

Question 7

How do Creoles and Pidgins support a nativist view of language?

Answer 7

• A Pidgin language is an Invented language drawing on words and grammar from a group of languages (common where there are groups of immigrants working together)
• Creoles occur when the Pidgin language is acquired by children as a native language and is grammatically more complex i.e. the children add syntax to the language
• Therefore, this supports a nativist few as how is it possible for children to improve the language if they do not have some innate knowledge?

Question 8

Is there a critical period for language development?

Answer 8

• No, instead there is a sensitive period
• The sensitive period is = the ideal time for acquiring certain parts of language → harder afterwards (maturational constraints= difficult after puberty)

Question 9

Why is it harder to acquire language after puberty?

Answer 9

Lateralisation occurs, language becomes focused to the left hemisphere and therefore becomes harder to acquire more knowledge, specifically on syntax

Question 10

What are two pieces of evidence for language having a sensitive period?

Answer 10

• Isolated children

- Deaf signers

Question 11

How do isolated children support the idea of a sensitive period in language, what is a famous case?

Answer 11

• Famous case= Genie (severely isolated child)
• When found had no language
• Over years intensive training meant she learnt meaning/ made developments in acquiring words but it was a lot harder for her to learn syntax suggesting a sensitive period

Question 12

How do deaf signers support the idea of the sensitive period in language, who did this research?

Answer 12

• Research done by Newport in 1990
• Showed that the later in life deaf person was exposed to sign language the more grammatical errors they made
• In addition, young children who were exposed took a relatively rudimental sign language and developed it into something far more complex adding syntax

Question 13

What is an alternative view to nativist accounts of language?

Answer 13

-Children do not innately know language/ grammar instead they have increased capacity to learn it via highly developed pattern recognition
systems

Question 14

What is statistical learning and what is it useful for in terms of learning language?

Answer 14

• Statistical learning is demonstrated when coloured symbols or syllables organized in a specific pattern (a grammar) are presented to children
• In less than 2 minutes children will pick up the different probabilities in the combinations of syllables/symbols that appear (can even play while sleeping)
• They infer that those which follow each other 100% of the time are ‘words’, while those with lower probabilities are not
• If you then present either familiar words/pairings or novel words/pairings they will look longer at the novel one
• This mechanism of statistical learning is useful for figuring out what individual words are as we do not speak with gaps to indicate this

Question 15

Who did the study involving the syllables and statistical learning?

Answer 15

Saffran et al. (1996)

Question 16

What is important for children to learn language by pattern recognition?

Answer 16

Need a language rich environment so can extract information out

Question 17

What are frequent frames?

Answer 17

-Looked at transcripts of parent speech to kids found there was specific combinations of words that framed classes
You something it word class=verb
The something and word class=noun
The something is word class= Noun

There are about 42 frequent phrases, children can extract the word classes (get grammatical information) without needing preexisting knowledge

Question 18

What is the role of the parent in kids learning language

Answer 18

-Parents often Simplify speech and Exaggerate intonation, also let child’s behaviour guide their talk
-Its important that the parent socially responds to the infants’ language attempts
-Children’s vocabularies are strongly associated with
the amount of language parents use with their
children
-Parents help reinforce attention that language is referring to other things, gaze +objects are connected

Question 19

What will a child do a lot of in the first stages of learning language?

Answer 19

Imitate their parents

Question 20

What are early words influenced by?

Answer 20

The social routine, child needs opportunities to hear the same phrases in structured social environments (watching tv, eating dinner etc.)

Question 21

What culture are most language ideas constructed

on?

Answer 21

• Western culture
• Therefore, may not be representative have to keep the huge variety in mind when developing ideas about language learning

Question 22

What is an independent culture?

Answer 22

• Internal attributes most salient
• Self concept separate from group
• Personal goals will take priority over group goals

Question 23

What is an interdependent culture?

Answer 23

• Social role most salient (important for sense of who you are)
• Self concept is part of the group
• Group goals take priority
• Relationships crucial also less control over who you spend time with

Question 24

What type of talk to children is common in independent culture?

Answer 24

• Child centered talk

- Adapt to child’s level, that is where the focus is

Question 25

What type of talk to children is common in interdependent culture?

Answer 25

• Situation centered talk

- Child learns to adapt to situation, encouraged to listen, attend, observe, talk is less child orientated