Language Development - Lecture 1

Question 1

Explain the stages of development (3)

Answer 1

1. Children don’t all develop at the same pace
2. Children all around the world do pass through the same set of stages
3. There is a universal pattern of development, regardless of the language being acquired

Question 2

What happens before birth? (2)

Answer 2

1. Baby can become acclimatised to native sounds

2. Mehler 1988 - French babies (as young as four days old) were able to distinguish French from other languages

Question 3

Describe cooing (4)

Answer 3

1. Also known as gurgling or mewing.
2. 6-8 weeks old.
3. ‘Coo’, ‘ga-ga’ and ‘goo’.
4. Child develops increased control over vocal chords.

Question 4

Describe crying (3)

Answer 4

1. First few weeks: child expresses itself vocally through crying.
2. Signals hunger, distress or pleasure.
3. Instinctive noise (so not language).

Question 5

Describe babbling (9)

Answer 5

1. Most important stage in the first year.
2. 6-9 months old.
3. Sounds begin to resemble adult sounds more closely.
4. Consonant and vowel combinations: ‘ba’, ‘ma’ and ‘da’.
5. Bilabial sounds most common, e.g. p,b,m, v,w.
6. When these sounds are repeated = reduplicated monosyllable.
7. These sounds have no meaning.
8. Baby makes far more noise than before.
9. Exercises and experiments with its articulators.

Question 6

Describe phonemic expansion (2)

Answer 6

1. Phoneme: smallest element of sound in a language that can display contrast e.g. initial sounds in ban and Dan.
2. During babbling, number of different phonemes produced increases (expands).

Question 7

Describe phonemic contraction (4)

Answer 7

1. 9-10 months.
2. Number of phonemes produced reduces (contracts).
3. Restricted to those of the native language.
4. Baby discards sounds not required.
5. Evidence: noises made by children of different nationalities starts to sound different.
6. Experiments: native adults have successfully identified babies from own country.

Question 8

Describe Intonation (3)

Answer 8

1. Intonation patterns begin to resemble speech.
2. Common: rising intonation at end of utterance.
3. Other variations in rhythm/emphasis may suggest greeting or calling.

Question 9

Describe gesture (3)

Answer 9

1. Although they do not yet have the power of speech, desire to communicate indicated through gesture.
2. Example: point to object and use facial expression ‘What’s that?’.
3. Beginnings of pragmatic development.

Question 10

Describe understanding (3)

Answer 10

1. Although child may not begin to speak, they may understand meanings of certain words.
2. Word recognition: usually evident by end of first year.
3. Common: names, ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’.

Question 11

Describe the first word (2)

Answer 11

1. Approx. 1 year old.

2. First recognisable word.

Question 12

Name 8 pieces of new vocabulary from lecture 1 (8)

Answer 12

1. Acclimatised
2. Instinctive
3. Cooing
4. Babbling
5. Bilabial
6. Reduplicated monosyllable
7. Phonemic expansion
8. Phonemic contraction