Lecture 7 - Language Development

Question 1

Themes in this lecture

Answer 1

1. Nature and Nurture
2. Socio-cultural Context
3. Individual differences
4. Bi-directional effects

Question 2

Learning outcomes for this lecture

Answer 2

• Describe the basic components of receptive and expressive language and when they develop

*Evaluate the evidence for a critical period in language development

*Compare, contrast, and critically evaluate the nativist and
constructivist theories of language development

Question 3

What is the difference between language comprehension and language production?

Answer 3

Language comprehension (receptive): Understanding what is said

Language production (expressive): Speaking

Question 4

What are the basic components of language (components that make up speech)?

Answer 4

Phenomes: Phenological development - learning about the sound system of a language

Example: ‘ba’ ‘pa’

After this: Morphemes: semantic development: learning about expressing meaning

Example: ‘bat’ ‘s

Syntax: synatctic development: learning rules for combining words: Example: ‘colourless green ideas sleep furiously’

Pragmatics: Pragmatic development: learning how language is used. Often takes longest to learn for children as involves social rules.

Example: ‘will you crack the door open? I am hot’

Question 5

What do we see as the normal development of language development?

Answer 5

Recognise words, comprehend, produce, social comprehension

But debate on whether this occurs in stages or at the same time

Question 6

Early language comprehension: study about the womb

Answer 6

Infants can recognise stories from the womb

Study: Mothers read 3 stories to their babies in womb twice daily for 6 weeks

2 days after birth, babies showed a preference for previously exposed stories (increased sucking frequency)

Shows even before birth they are primed to perceive and be sensitive to speech. Innate disposition to be primed to perceive human-based speech.

Question 7

Study on when infants can distinguish between phenomes ‘ba’ and ‘pa’ etc

Answer 7

Tested in 4 month and 1 month infants

Both heard categorial perceptions like adults do - ie they can hear either ‘ba’ or ‘pa’, not on a continuum

Question 8

Timeline: phenomes and different languages

Answer 8

2 months: respond to phonemes of all languages

6 months: greater sensitivity to phonemes from own language

12 months: Significantly less able to distinguish phonemes from non-native language

Question 9

What is the next stage after being able to differentiate between phoenemes?

Answer 9

Distinguish between words so that you can make sentences

Question 10

What is one tool infants use to help them do this?

Answer 10

Prosody - characteristic rhythm, stress, tonal pattern and melody of speech

It is a marker for word segmentation, grammatical structure and meaning

Question 11

Study on when do children learn what words mean?

Answer 11

Comprehenision is often earlier than parents believe

Study - used 6 month infants where they put two images on screen and tracked infants eye gaze to see if they looked at the relevant word to the image

They found infants are generally very good at recognising body parts and food words. But interestignly the parents reported that the children did not know these words.

Question 12

What are stages for early vocalisations?

Answer 12

Birth - 1 month: cry, cough, sneeze

2-3 months: cooing

4-6 months: canonical babbling

8-12 months: varigated babbling

12-18 months: First words emerge

Question 13

Study on vocalisations and individual differences

Answer 13

Study followed two sets of babies (older and younger) over 6 months

Number of vocalisations increased with time, although there was much variance in the group

Earlier vocalisations predicts cognitive development

Question 14

Facts on the universality of babbling

Answer 14

*Infants from different cultures babble some of the same
consonant-vowel combinations

*However, can be identified as from a specific language by 8-10
months

*Some evidence that deaf infants can babble verbally
(Lenneberg et al., 1965) although later and less complex than
hearing infants

*Evidence that babies from deaf families “babble” with
nonsense sign language

Question 15

Syntax:
Info on when babies learn grammatical rules

Answer 15

Famous Wug test - interested in when children learned one of the key grammaticals rules of when plurals happen

If they say there are two wugs it shows they have learned the rule

• Initially the correct term is used wugs (‘exemplar learning’) - about age 3-4
• but then this is over applied to everything ie mans, feets, beaked (‘overregulariztion’)
• exceptions to the general rule are then ‘re-learned’ - this can be a few years later

Question 16

What is the suggested critical period for language development?

Answer 16

Between 5 years and puberty

Question 17

Talk about pragmatics development

Answer 17

Children need to learn language developed for their culture and society and social skills inform this part to - also intersubjectivity

Question 18

What are some theories of language development?

Answer 18

Nativism
Interactionist approach

Question 19

What are some points on the nativist view?

Answer 19

Chomsky (1959); Pinker

All languages have common structure– people learn how to use them

Not just learning from hearing

Universal grammar: Hard wired rules of grammar in all languages

Question 20

What is evidence to support the nativist view

Answer 20

Children in most cultures develop language at the same time
Development of grammar in newly developed languages (NSL)

Chomsky - children can create sentences that we have never heard before

Question 21

What are some limitations of this theory?

Answer 21

Concentrates on syntax development, not the social relevance of
language

Not enough emphasis on the role of environmental experiences
(similarities/variation and child’s role within it)

Question 22

What is some information on the interactionist view?

Answer 22

Tomasello; Bloom

Children have some natural predispositions to learn language

Language development dependent on identifying “clues”

As such child and their environment play an important role

Question 23

Some info on infant’s use of clues

Answer 23

Fast mapping – known and new object,
new object must relate to new word

Linguistic context – By using known
grammatical cues, influences what a
child understands by a certain word
Show me the “blicket”

Pragmatic clues – social contexts to
identify word use: adult attention or
emotional response
Where’s the “gazzer”
“sibbing”, “a sibber”

Question 24

The interactionist view emphasies the role of the caregiver and others around the infant in language development.

What are some studies for this?

Answer 24

Infant directed speech, early turn-taking
Maternal responsiveness to infant language use predicts
language development in the second year of life (Tamis-
Monda et al., 2001)

BUT – Mayans in South America, don’t speak directly to
children until they are older and don’t seem to have
obvious linguistics differences
(Brown et al., 2002)

Question 25

What are some limitations of the interactionist view?

Answer 25

Can these types of social factors influence less
obvious aspects of language like syntax
development?

There is a wide variety of social environments
across cultures, yet language development is
quite similar.

Languages do tend to share common elements

Question 26

Summary of the lecture

Answer 26

*Children are exposed to language from very early on
*Children start to recognise and distinguish between
parts of language early in life(or even before)
*Suggests that infants are primed to communicate from
an early age, but that there are many steps to get
there.
*The infant and their environment both play a role in
this development
*Theories differ in their emphasis on these different
elements, but clear that both are important.
*General development through different stages/levels of
language but individual differences are important