language development

Question 1

how many words by the time they are 6..

Answer 1

8,000 to 14,000 words

Question 2

all kids learn..

Answer 2

without formal instruction

Question 3

retarded children learn language, suggesting it is..

Answer 3

an independent cognitive function

Question 4

This is crucial to to learning language

Answer 4

interaction with other people. Children won’t learn language by watching TV and if they are deaf, living in a hearing home, by lip reading

Question 5

tasks before learning language

Answer 5

mastering sound system, figuring out what words mean, know how to use speech to communicate with and influence others.

Question 6

0-8 weeks

Answer 6

Crying (and other noises - groans, burps, growls)

Question 7

8-20 weeks:

Answer 7

Cooing and Gurgling. babies initiate and respond, imitate. babies can laugh at this stage.

Question 8

16-30 weeks

Answer 8

Vocal play. babies utter single, distinctive syllables, vowel sounds first and then consonant-vowel combinations

Question 9

4-9 months

Answer 9

Babbling. Strings of vowel and consonant sounds

Question 10

9 months

Answer 10

Expressive jargon: babbling takes on inflections and patterns of speech. Intonation and stress of language they will eventually speak. Gibberish meant to convey meaning. Communication is oftentimes enhanced by pointing.

Question 11

Most children start to use first words around..

Answer 11

12 months (same time they start to walk)

Question 12

first words

Answer 12

Familiar objects (bottle, juice
Persons (mommy, daddy)
Linked to actions child can perform (hat, sock)
Objects that change or move (all gone)
Success or failure (uh-oh, yeah! NO)

Question 13

Holophrases

Answer 13

Single words convey whole thoughts! One word = a whole sentence. Each of a child’s first words expresses a whole idea. e.g., cookie (this is a cookie) “up” Pick me up.

Question 14

Overextension:

Answer 14

For example, a child might refer to all gray-haired men as “Grandpa”

Question 15

Underextension

Answer 15

For example, a child uses the word “blanket” to refer to the small, yellow blanket she takes to bed with her – however, she does not use the word blanket to refer to any other blanket.

Question 16

two-word stage/utterances

Answer 16

Word order is very important. Children distinguishing nouns and verbs. Action - agent understanding. children seem to know how to string words together to convey the intended meaning in the correct sequence for their language.

Question 17

Telegraphic Speech

Answer 17

Abbreviated speech containing only the most informative words – similar to the sentence structure used in sending a telegram. Most essential idea “mail come” “nancy walk”

Question 18

Pragmatics

Answer 18

refers to the rules for taking part in conversation. Give orders, ask for help, be sarcastic.
• e.g., Do you know what time it is? Yes. words can have multiple meanings.

TAKING INFORMATION FROM THE CONTEXT.

e.g., - Is the door shut?

Can mean: Will you shut the door, Yes or no.

Question 19

Language is a behavior…

Answer 19

Isn’t it???
Does it require anything unique? Does it require “intelligence?”

These guys felt speech accomplishes the same thing any other behavior does. It’s just very efficient.

• B.F. Skinner: Verbal Behavior
  John Watson
• Adults would simply teach children to associate words with objects and then that would teach them to put words together.
• This is a theory which emphasizes reinforcement and imitation as the basic process for acquiring language skills.
• A form of behavior learned bit by bit through imitation and reinforcement.
• Motherese: Indicates that parents do modify the child’s language “environment”

Question 20

Noam Chomsky: The Nativist/Biological Approach

Answer 20

• To Chomsky, language is fundamentally a set of rules for understanding and making up sentences. Because language is creative.
• Children must come into the world with some sort of predisposition to learn the rules of the language. Chomsky calls it a mental blueprint for acquiring language.
• He suggests that the ability to acquire language is innate; language is not learned in the same way as other kinds of behavior.
• Language is a unique form of knowledge, unrelated to other forms of intelligence.
• Chomsky was unsatisfied with the conditioning theory explanation.

Why do children produce sentences they have never heard before? e.g., Nobody doesn’t like me.

Chomsky said that a person who speaks a language has mastered a highly complex system of knowledge.

• So Chomsky believed that language development is a natural, biological consequence of physical maturation. Children have inherited biological structures to process common linguistic features.
• Children resist corrections. Persist in applying the same rules.

e.g., “Mommy hurted self.”
“Kitty goed home.” These are called OVER-REGULATION ERRORS.

• The capacity to acquire language in humans is like a very special human organ, with its own structure and function.

CERTAIN ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE ARE INNATE AND SPECIFIC TO OUR SPECIES. - Chomsky’s theory is supported by several observations:

• The acquisition of language unfolds in much the same way in all normal children. 

All children master their native language in spite of variations in intelligence, motivation & personality.

•  Species-specific

• Creative and governed by abstract and very complicated rules 
(e.g., tag questions).

• Generativity:  Infinitely large number of sentences that native speakers could 	produce and 	understand.

Perhaps we “know” the rules and apply them unconsciously!! The generative approach is based on the language-user and depends on whether a sentence could be derived from a set of rules known to the user.

• We know the “rules” without being taught them.

For example: bugs = bug-”z” and bucks = buck ”s”

• The LAD - Language Acquisition Device. A specialized neurological structure devoted to the production and perception of speech.
• Kind of a “magical theory” which assumes we know all about sentences before we start.