Language Development Flashcards
What is Language?
• An arbitrary system of symbols that is rule governed and allows
communication about things that are distant in time and/or space.
• Language comprehension (receptive)
• Language production (expressive)
3 Characteristics of Human Language
- Language has Semanticity
• Symbolic representation of thoughts, objects, events; abstract symbols stand for
other things - Language is Productive
• Unlimited creation or generation of words
• New words are understandable if they follow rules - Language has Displacement
• Communication about distant time and space
Structure of Language: Five Rule Systems
* Phonology • Morphology • Syntax • Semantics • Pragmatics
Phonology
• Refers to the important speech sounds of a language and rules for
combining basic sounds into larger units
• Phoneme: unit of speech sound
• English: approx 45 phonemes (36 to 62?)
• Spanish: 29 (but more dipthongs and tripthongs)
• Children master most phonemes in their native language by 2 years of age
Morphology
• Rules for combining smallest units of meaning in a language into
words
• Morpheme: smallest unit of meaning of language
• Made up of phonemes
• Undo= un + do
Syntax
- The way a language combines words to form phrases and sentences
- Grammar rules
- Permit infinite number of possibilities
- “¿Qué es para?”
Semantics
• The meaning associated with the words, symbols, and sentence
structure in a language
• Face value or literal meaning
* he has not eaten
Pragmatics
• Use of language to express thoughts and feelings, accomplish things,
and communicate effectively with others
Influential Theories
• Behaviorism/Learning Theories
- Skinner, Bandura, etc.
• Cognitive Theories
- Piaget, Chomsky, etc.
- Interactionist theories
• Supported by neuroscientific theories
Learning Theory (Skinner and Bandura)
Language is learned through operant conditioning (shaping) and modeling
(imitation)
Cooing and Babbling
• Parents reinforce random sounds from infant that
sound like words
•Babies imitate sounds from adults, who later
elaborate sounds to model word formation
•Motherese
Nativist Theory
• Noam Chomsky: linguist
• Language is an innate human ability
• Language Acquisition Device (LAD)-specialized brain mechanism for detecting
and learning rules of language
• Scientific support for physiological LAD
• Almost all children will acquire some kind of language
• Unique to humans
• Brain structures dedicated to language
• Sensitive periods
Social Interactionist Theory
• Language development results from interaction of biological and
social factors, but social interaction is required.
• Language acquisition occurs during a critical period in which the
brain is sensitive to experience or deprivation (before puberty) and is
refractory to similar experience or deprivations in adulthood
Support for Interactionism: Language
Deprivation
• Research demonstrates that children who are deprived of language
exposure during critical period (@ 6 months) will fail to develop
language, or will show deficient language skills
• E.g., congenitally deaf children
• E.g., “feral children”: Genie
• Neuroscientific research suggests this may be due to declining neural
plasticity
The Iceberg Analogy (J. Cummings)
• Common Underlying Proficiency
• Language and thought are controlled by one central processing system
• Individuals are capable of learning more than one language, as
comprehension/production of each language is dependent upon the CUP
Code switching
mixing words and grammar from both languages
• Young children may not understand that there are two separate language
systems
• May possess form of expression in one language but not the other
• Occurs more often in parents who code switch
Sequential bilingualism
Child learns one language, then another
•If second language learning begins by age 3,
child will usually become just as fluent as in
first
• Later language learning can produce fluent
communication, but most will not acquire
native accent
Can being bilingual be harmful?
• Rate of language acquisition is usually slower
• In past, interpreted as a developmental delay
• Likely due to selection bias, poor testing practices, and SUP theory
• Minority children learning second language in Western culture are more vulnerable to
negative effects (subtractive bilingualism)
• Semilingualism: failure to achieve fluency in either native language or second language
advantages of bilingualism
- Cognitive flexibility
- Concept formation
- Metalinguistic awareness
- Ability to detect/correct poor grammar
- Verbal and nonverbal creativity
- Analogical thinking
