Language & Education

Question 1

A symbolic system in which a limited number of signals can be combined according to rules to produce an infinite number of messages.

Answer 1

language

Question 2

One of the basic units of sound used in a particular spoken language.

Answer 2

phoneme

Question 3

The basic units of meaning that exist in a word.

Answer 3

morphemes

Question 4

Rules specifying how words can be combined to form meaningful sentences in a language.

Answer 4

syntax

Question 5

The aspect of language centering on meanings.

Answer 5

semantics

Question 6

Rules specifying how language is to be used appropriately in different social contexts to achieve goals.

Answer 6

pragmatics

Question 7

The stress and intonation patterns of an utterance.

Answer 7

prosody

Question 8

In language development, the ability to break the stream of speech sounds into distinct words.

Answer 8

word segmentation

Question 9

An early form of vocalization that involves repeating vowel-like sounds.

Answer 9

cooing

Question 10

An early form of vocalization that appears between 4 and 6 months of age and involves repeating consonant–vowel combinations such as “baba” or “dadada.”

Answer 10

babbling

Question 11

The act of looking at the same object at the same time with someone else; a way in which infants share perceptual experiences with their caregivers.

Answer 11

joint attention

Question 12

Using the syntax of a sentence—that is, where a word is placed in a sentence—to determine the meaning of the word.

Answer 12

syntactic bootstrapping

Question 13

A phenomenon occurring around 18 months of age when the pace of word learning quickens dramatically.

Answer 13

vocabulary spurt

Question 14

A single-word utterance used by an infant that represents an entire sentence’s worth of meaning.

Answer 14

holophrase

Question 15

The young child’s tendency to use a word to refer to a wider set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (for example, using the word car to refer to all motor vehicles).

Answer 15

overextension

Question 16

The young child’s tendency to use general words to refer to a smaller set of objects, actions, or events than adults do (for example, using candy to refer only to mints).

Answer 16

underextension

Question 17

Early sentences that consist primarily of content words and omit the less meaningful parts of speech such as articles, prepositions, pronouns, and auxiliary verbs.

Answer 17

telegraphic speech

Question 18

An analysis of the semantic relations (meanings such as naming and locating) that children express in their earliest sentences.

Answer 18

functional grammar

Question 19

The overgeneralization of observed grammatical rules to irregular cases to which the rules do not apply (for example, saying mouses rather than mice).

Answer 19

overregularization

Question 20

Knowledge of language as a system.

Answer 20

metalinguistic awareness

Question 21

Rules of syntax that allow a person to transform declarative statements into questions, negatives, imperatives, and other kinds of sentences.

Answer 21

transformational grammar

Question 22

A system of common rules and properties of language that may allow infants to grow up learning any of the world’s languages.

Answer 22

universal grammar

Question 23

A disorder of the central nervous system characterized by partial or total loss of the ability to communicate, esp in speech or writing

Answer 23

aphasia

Question 24

Speech used by adults speaking with young children, it involves short, simple sentences spoken slowly and in a high-pitched voice, often with much repetition and with exaggerated emphasis on key words.

Answer 24

child-directed speech

Question 25

A set of linguistic processing skills that nativists believe to be innate; presumably the LAD enables a child to infer the rules governing others’ speech and then use these rules to produce language.

Answer 25

language acquisition device (LAD)

Question 26

A tendency to thrive on challenges and persist in the face of failure because of healthy attributions that lead to the belief that increased effort will pay off.

Answer 26

mastery orientation

Question 27

An intrinsic motive to master and control the environment evident early in infancy.

Answer 27

mastery motivation

Question 28

A conversational tactic used by adults in speaking to young children in which they respond to a child’s utterance with a more grammatically complete expression of the same thought.

Answer 28

expansion

Question 29

An attribution style in which someone tends to avoid challenges and to cease trying—to give up—when they experience failure, based on the belief that they can do little to improve.

Answer 29

helpless orientation

Question 30

In achievement situations, aiming to learn new things in order to learn or improve ability; contrast with performance goal.

Answer 30

mastery (learning) goal

Question 31

A goal adopted by learners in which they attempt to prove their ability rather than to improve it.

Answer 31

performance goal

Question 32

The understanding that spoken words can be decomposed into some number of basic sound units, or phonemes; an important skill in learning to read.

Answer 32

phonological awareness

Question 33

The idea that the letters in printed words represent the sounds in spoken words.

Answer 33

alphabetic principle

Question 34

The developmental precursors of reading skills in young children, including knowledge, skills, and attributes that will facilitate the acquisition of reading competence.

Answer 34

emergent literacy

Question 35

Serious difficulties learning to read in children who have normal intellectual ability and no sensory impairments or emotional difficulties that could account for their learning problems.

Answer 35

dyslexia

Question 36

The practice in education of grouping students according to ability and educating them in classes with students of comparable academic or intellectual standing

Answer 36

ability grouping; also called ability tracking or simply tracking.

Question 37

Teaching children of different racial/ethnic backgrounds in the same classroom.

Answer 37

integration

Question 38

The educational practice of integrating handicapped students into regular classrooms rather than placing them in segregated special education classes; also called mainstreaming.

Answer 38

inclusion

Question 39

Procedures that involve assigning students, usually of different races or ability levels, to work teams that are reinforced for performing well as teams and that encourage cooperation among teammates.

Answer 39

cooperative learning

Question 40

The ability to use printed information to function in society, achieve goals, and develop potential.

Answer 40

literacy