Module 8

Question 1

innate

Answer 1

Determined by factors present from birth.

Question 2

innateness hypothesis

Answer 2

A hypothesis that humans are generally predisposed to learn and use language.

Question 3

Imitation Theory

Answer 3

Child language acquisition theory that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.

Question 4

Reinforcement Theory

Answer 4

Theory of child language acquisition which says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or otherwise reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they use the wrong ones

Question 5

Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

Answer 5

Theory of child language which says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.

Question 6

Connectionist Theory

Answer 6

Theory of language acquisition which claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain. A child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language

Question 7

Social Interaction Theory

Answer 7

Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction–in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers to supply them with the appropriate language experience they need.

Question 8

linguistic universal

Answer 8

Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.

Question 9

universal grammar

Answer 9

The theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. Also, the name of this set of shared characteristics

Question 10

critical period

Answer 10

Age span, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language.

Question 11

neglected child

Answer 11

A child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child.

Question 12

feral child

Answer 12

Child who grew up in the wild without care by human adults, often with animals.

Question 13

homesign

Answer 13

A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system (not a language) that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication.

Question 14

child-directed speech

Answer 14

Speech used by parents or caregivers when communicating with young children or infants. In many Western societies, child-directed speech is slow and high-pitched and has many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.

Question 15

voice onset time

Answer 15

The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.

Question 16

articulatory gesture

Answer 16

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.

Question 17

babbling

Answer 17

A phase in child language acquisition during which the child produces meaningless sequences of consonants and vowels. Generally begins around the age of six months.

Question 18

canonical babbling

Answer 18

The continuous repetition of sequences of vowels and consonants like [mamama] by infants; also called repeated babbling.

Question 19

variegated babbling

Answer 19

Production of meaningless consonant-vowel sequences by infants that are not repetitive

Question 20

holophrastic stage

Answer 20

Stage in first-language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time. (Also called the one-word stage.)

Question 21

holophrase

Answer 21

A one-word sentence.

Question 22

telegraphic stage

Answer 22

A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.

Question 23

overgeneralization

Answer 23

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult application of rules relative to certain contexts: a process in which children extend the application of linguistic rules to contexts beyond those in the adult language.

Question 24

complexive concept

Answer 24

A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items (abstract or concrete) that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.

Question 25

overextension

Answer 25

In the study of child language acquisition, a relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning: the child’s application of a given word has wider range than the application of the same word in adult language

Question 26

underextension

Answer 26

Application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech or the usual definition of the word.

Question 27

deictic expression

Answer 27

Word or expression that takes its meaning relative to the time, place, and speaker of the utterance.

Question 28

attention getter

Answer 28

Word or phrase used to initiate an address to children.

Question 29

attention holder

Answer 29

A tactic used to maintain children’s attention for extended amounts of time.

Question 30

conversational turn

Answer 30

The contribution to a conversation made by one speaker from the time that she takes the floor from another speaker to the time that she passes the floor on to another speaker.

Question 31

bilingual

Answer 31

State of commanding two languages; having linguistic competence in two languages.

Question 32

multilingual

Answer 32

The state of commanding three or more languages; having linguistic competence in three or more languages.

Question 33

simultaneous bilingualism

Answer 33

Bilingualism in which both languages are acquired from infancy.

Question 34

sequential bilingualism

Answer 34

Bilingualism in which the second language is acquired as a young child.

Question 35

second-language acquisition

Answer 35

Acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult (after the critical period).

Question 36

code-switching

Answer 36

Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation (or even within a single sentence or phrase).

Question 37

foreign accent

Answer 37

An accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the speaker

Question 38

fossilization

Answer 38

Process through which forms from a speaker’s non-native language usage become fixed (generally in a way that would be considered ungrammatical by a native speaker) and do not change, even after years of instruction.

Question 39

transfer

Answer 39

The influence of one’s native language on the learning of subsequent languages (which can facilitate or inhibit the learning of the second language).

Question 40

articulatory gesture

Answer 40

A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.