Module 9 Flashcards
imitation theory
Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear.
Active construction of a grammar theory
Theory of language acquisition theory that says that children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them.
connectionist theories
Theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain .
a child develops such connections through exposure to language and by using language.
social interaction theory
Theory of language acquisition that claims 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.
linguistic universals
Property believed to be held in common with all natural languages.
universal grammar
the theory that posits a set of grammatical characteristics shared by all natural languages. also, the name of this set of shared characteristics.
critical period
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.
Neglected children
a child who is neglected by caretakers, often resulting in significantly lower exposure to language as a child.
Feral children
Child who grew up in the wild without the care of human adults, often with animals.
innate
humans are genetically predisposed to acquire and use language.
innateness hypothesis
the hypothesis that language ability is innate in humans.
Homesign
communicative gestures that are invented by deaf children and the people with whom they usually interact incases where a signed language is not made available.
Reinforcement theory
asserts 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 forms.
child-directed speech
slow, high-pitched, and contains many repetitions, simplified syntax, exaggerated intonation, and a simple and concrete vocabulary.
High Amplitude Sucking
technique used to study the abilities of infants that connects a pacifier to a sound. As the infant hears new sounds he/she will suck faster or slower according to recognition of that new sound.
Conditioned Head-turn procedure
A technique used to test infants between 5-18 months that watches if the infant turns their head to the new sound or if they do not hear the changes.
Articulatory gestures
produces particular sound, and timing relationships between the gestures.
babble
producing sequences of vowels and consonants if they are acquiring spoken language, or producing hand movements if they are acquiring signed language.
voice onset time
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start vibrating.
canonical babbling
continual repetition of syllables helps the infant practice a sequence of consonant and vowel sounds.
variegated babbling
when babbling becomes stringing together different syllables.
holophrase
a one word sentence
holophrastic stage
the production of single words in isolation, this phase allows children to name, comment, and request.
telegraphic
a type of language that young children use. includes only relevant words that help them convey their meaning.
overgeneralization
leaving nouns ending in sibilants in their singular forms.
complexive concept
when a child associates different characteristics with a meaning of a word on successive uses, thereby creating a set of objects that do not have any particular unifying characteristic.
overextension
When a child extends their range of a words meaning beyond that typically used by adults.
underextension
application of a word to a smaller set of objects then is appropriate for mature adult speech.
relational term
the correct use of words like these requires that two things be kept in mind; the absolute size of an object in question and its position on a scale of similar objects.
deictic expressions
words referring to personal, temporal, or spatial aspects of an utterance and whose meaning depends on the context in which the word is used.
attention getters
tells children which utterances are addressed t them rather than someone else, and hence which utterances they are supposed to be listening to.
attention holders
used when they have more than one thing to say, like a story.
conversational turns
the contribution of 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 to another speaker.
bilingual
speaker of two languages
multilingual
speaker of more than two languages.
simultaneous bilingualism
learning the two different languages from the time of birth
sequential bilingualism
learning a second language when they are young children
second-language acquisition
learning a second language later in life.
language mixing
using more than one language in a conversation.
fossilization
non-native forms can become fixed and not change, even after years of instruction.
Transfer
a speakers native language pays a role in second-language acquisition because having learned one language can be positive or negative, whether it inhibits or facilitates the learning of a second language.
