Language Development

Question 1

Define: Language

Answer 1

A system that combines meaningless elements to form structured utterances that convey meaning.

Question 2

The way people speak to babies with higher pitch, and exaggerated emphasis on vowels is a strategy to help infants acquire language. What is it called?

Answer 2

Parentese

Question 3

What language capabilities do babies acquire by 4-6 months?

Answer 3

• ability to recognize native language and the sound of their name
• ability to distinguish sounds from other languages

Question 4

What new language capabilities do babies acquire by 7 months?

Answer 4

• begin to remember words they have heard

- may have difficulties recognizing the same word spoken by different people

Question 5

What new language capabilities do babies acquire through the end of the 1st year?

Answer 5

(1) begin to name objects
(1-) develop symbolic gestures to ask for things
(1-) describe objects
(1-) reply to questions

Question 6

What is the impact on babies who watch “learning videos”?

Answer 6

Research has found they acquire words SLOWER than babies who do not watch videos.

Question 7

Define: Telegraphic Speech

Answer 7

A child’s first word combinations that omit unnecessary words. (ex. “my toy”)

Question 8

When does telegraphic speech emerge?

Answer 8

between 18mo-2yrs

Question 9

What linguist argued language was too complex to learn bit-by-bit?

Answer 9

Noam Chomsky

Question 10

Chomsky argued that besides distinguishing sounds, children must take the __________, apply ___________, and infer to an underlying _____________.

Answer 10

TAKE-surface structure (the spoken sentence)
APPLY-syntax (grammatical rules)
INFER TO UNDERLYING-deep structure (how the sentence is to be understood)

Question 11

Define: Universal Grammar

Answer 11

Chomsky believes children are all born with a universal grammar:
-our brains are sensitive to core features common in all language

Question 12

What evidence supports Chomsky’s idea of universal grammar?

Answer 12

• children in different cultures go through the same stages of language development
• children combine words in ways that adults never would
• children learn to speak correctly, even though their mistakes are not consistently corrected
• children never exposed to language can invent a language of their own
• infants can derive simple linguistic rules from a string of sounds

Question 13

Why are the first few years of life most critical in language development?

Answer 13

• dictates all further language developments

- early deficits in language acquisition can result in further, or impossible learning difficulties