Lecture 15 - Language: Foundations Flashcards
What are some theories about how children learn language?
- Behaviouristic view - classical conditioning - proponent: Skinner
- Linguistic view - challenged behaviourist view - proponents: Chompsky, Pinker
- Statistical learning view - highlights the importance of experience and proposes that language is learned in much the same way we learn other cognitive tasks, moving away from this idea that there is some innate skill we have that allows language development.
- Social-Interactionist View
What is one of the main questions when it comes to studying and understanding language?
Language-specific vs General Learning - are we different from animals in that we are able to learn languages because we have language-specific skills or are we able to learn languages because we have higher intelligence?
Likely both I would say.
What areas in the brain are language-specific/specialised?
Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, motor area (for mouth and tongue movement), and primary auditory area.
What are the neuron’s in Broca’s area responsible for?
What are the neurons in Wernicke’s area responsible for?
What do we see in people with Broca’s aphasia?
What do we see in people with Wernicke’s aphasia?
Where has our understanding of the specialisation of Broca’s and Wernicke’s area come from?
Like many functions of the brain, our understanding for the role of specific areas of the brain often comes from observing the behaviour and cognitive abilities of individuals who have acquired brain damage or lesions or surgery that alters/ removes brain structure.
Are there other areas in the brain that process language and engage with our production and understanding of language or is it just Broca’s and Wernicke’s area?
Yes, there are areas of cortex all over the brain that engage in language production and understanding.
What is the universal grammar account (UG)?
What are some linguistic universals?
What insights have been observed in children that grew up in isolation from humans?
They have ok vocabulary, but poor grammar. However, any inferences about language development made from these case studies is highly confounded by many different influences and or starting position of the children before and during their isolation. These inferences and therefore not useful in making generalisations or inferences about language development in general.
When does our ability to learn another language drop off?
Around 20 years of age.
What evidence is there that suggests a limited role for CDS in children acquiring language?
Hint: !Kung Sun
There is larger variation within the same language in regards to how language is acquired than between languages.
True or false?
True.
What theory of Language Acquisition is in alignment of Vygotsky’s Theory of Social/Cognitive Development?
The idea that language learning and acquisition occurs due to the social exposure to it. The care giver plays a key role in teaching the child language - zone of proximal development, more knowledgable other
What does CDS stand for in regards to Language learning?
Child-Directed Speech.
What evidence is there against the importance of CDS?
!Kung Sun tribe do not speak to their children until they can speak. These children learn the language as the same time and rate as children in cultures that do speak to them before they can speak.
What evidence is there that CDS does play a role in the development of language comprehension and use?
Children pay more attention to adults that use CDS and a “sing-song” way of speaking.
Up until what age are infants receptive to/able to distinguish between all the different phonemes in different languages?
Up to 6 months of age.
Classical conditioning is one way of viewing language development.
Who was a proponent of this view.
B. F. Skinner
Chompsky thought that the input children get is not rich enough to explain how they can learn and express language the way they do and at the rate they do.
yeAH MAN
What is the statistical learning view of language development?
The statistical learning view of language development posits that we have a sensitivity to statistical regularities, focuses on experience. It is different to behehaviourist/classical conditioning view, because it our ability to learn/sensitivity to regularity of patterns is not dependent on the feedback we receive about the event.
What areas are involved in language comprehension and production?
Broca’s Area
Wernicke’s Area
Motor Cortex
Auditory Cortex
