Speaking

Question 1

What are the pre-verbal stages?

Answer 1

• Before birth: Acclimatisation (babies recognise their families language from inside the womb)
• Crying/vegetative 0-2 month (signals of hunger, distress or pleasure, babies do this through instinct so it is not classed as a form of communication as they aren’t trying to say words)
• Cooing 2-6 month (shows they have control over their voice and vocal chords)
• Babbling 6-12 month (most important stage in a child’s first year, resembles adult sounds with no meaning, just experimenting with the vocal chords)

Question 2

Explain Melher’s theory (1988).

Answer 2

Found that French new born babies were able to distinguish French from other languages.

Question 3

What do the organs of articulation do?

Answer 3

They form the sounds we make.

Question 4

What are proto words?

Answer 4

Made up words that a child uses to represent a word they may not be able to pronounce.

Question 5

What are the stages of development?

Answer 5

• Holophrastic 12-18 month (uses individual words to communicate)
• Two word 18-24 month (puts two words together to convey meaning, beginning to understand grammar)
• Telegraphic 24-36 month (longer, more complete utterances, three or more words, words may not be correct)
• Post-telegraphic 36+ month (content and grammatical words which more closely resemble adult speech)

Question 6

What are the difference between content words and grammatical words?

Answer 6

Content words- words within a sentence that are vital to convey meaning
Grammatical words- words within a sentence that are necessary to demonstrate structural accuracy

Question 7

Explain Skinner and behaviorism.

Answer 7

Behaviorism is a learning theory that focuses on observable behaviorists and discounts any independent activities of the mind.
Positive reinforcement- encouraging them
Negative reinforcement- correcting them
Operant conditioning is the idea that either a positive or negative response given by a caregiver can influence the way in which a child talks on future occasions.

Question 8

Explain Chomsky and Nativism.

Answer 8

We have an innate programmed ability to learn language.
LAD: Language Acquisition Device
Universal grammar shows that all human languages possess similar grammatical properties which the brain is able to decode.
Nature rather than nurture.

Question 9

How did Genie disprove Chomsky’s theory.

Answer 9

She was locked up with no exposure to language between the ages of 20 month and 13 years. When she was discovered she had no speech. She wasn’t able to acquire language beyond a basic level. This is because she missed the critical period. This showed that language needs to be encouraged by a care giver and it is not fully built in to our brain.

Question 10

What is substitution?

Answer 10

The process of swapping one sound for another so that is is easier to pronounce. (debra-zebra)

Question 11

What is assimilation?

Answer 11

One consonant or vowel is swapped for another. (goggy-doggy)

Question 12

What is deletion?

Answer 12

Omitting a particular sound within a word. (choca-chocolate)

Question 13

What is consonant cluster reductions?

Answer 13

Reducing phonologically more complex units into simpler ones - from two or more consonants down to one. (Skirrel-squirrel)

Question 14

What is reduplication?

Answer 14

Repeated syllables within a word. (baa baa-blanket)

Question 15

What is addition?

Answer 15

Adding an additional suffix to the end of the word in order to change the way the word is pronounced and interpreted. (doggy-dog)

Question 16

Explain Berko and Brown’s theory.

Answer 16

1960. It showed a child rejecting an adults articulation of the word fish as fis in favour of the correct pronunciation. The child continued to articulate the word as fis. This shows that even though a child is unable to articulate ‘sh’ they can differentiate between this and ‘s’ in other speakers.

Question 17

What are Piaget’s stages of development?

Answer 17

Sensorimotor stage (0-2 years)- A child begins to interact with their environment using their senses and physical movement. A child remains egocentric and understanding of object permanence appears.

Pre-operational stage (2-6/7 years)- Learning to speak and developing imagination. Remains egocentric and struggles to understand things from others points of view. Begin to ask questions to try to develop an understanding.

Concrete operational stage (6/7-11/12 years)- Stops being egocentric and begins to understand others points of view. More capable of logical thought.

Formal operational stage (11-16+)- No longer a problem with logical thought and thinking becomes increasingly abstract.

Question 18

What is the critical period?

Answer 18

The age at which a child will be most receptive to learn language. Suggested by Lenneburg to be up to the age of 5.

Question 19

What are virtuous errors and which theory do they support?

Answer 19

Grammatical errors that are understandable and logical though an incorrect assumption being make about grammar rules. Used as a justification for the LAD (Chomsky).

Question 20

Explain Jerome Bruner and social interactionism.

Answer 20

Rejects Chomsky’s LAD. He suggests the importance of the Language acquisition support system (LASS). Caregivers and other important participants within a child’s life. Carers will question, encourage and support the child though scaffolding which enables child to develop speech. He encourages prompting and explanations rather than imitation like Skinner.

Question 21

What is scaffolding?

Answer 21

The support provided by caregivers though modelling how speech ought to take place, in order to help the child’s language development.

Question 22

What is cognitive development who which theory focus’ on it?

Answer 22

Piaget explains it is a child’s development of thinking and understanding.

Question 23

What does egocentric mean?

Answer 23

Thinking only for themselves without understanding or regard for the feelings of others.

Question 24

What is object permanence?

Answer 24

An understanding that objects continue to exist when they can’t be seen or touched.

Question 25

Explain Lev Vygotsky and scaffolding.

Answer 25

Became influential in 1970. He suggests the ‘importance of doing’ as well as the importance of the caregiver to act as the more knowledgeable other (MKO). The MKO can direct the child to move within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD).

Question 26

What is the Zone of Proximal Development?

Answer 26

Describes the area between what a child can already do and that which is beyond their reach. It is the area that a caregiver may enable the child to progress by offering the necessary support or scaffolding to facilitate learning.

Question 27

Explain Michael Tomasello’s theory.

Answer 27

2003. Outlines a usage based model of language acquisition and development. The ability to learn language is primarily social and relies on using the same kinds of cognitive processes as other forms of learning e.g. walking, drawing. By the age of 9-12 months, children make use of a pattern forming ability which enables them to learn about the different forms and functions of single words and to understand the intentional aspect of language.

Question 28

What is a usage based model?

Answer 28

Emphasises that language structure emerges from use in that linguistic patterns are formed and become what we know as grammatical constructions.

Question 29

What are the features of child directed speech? (CDS) x13

Answer 29

• Higher or melodic pitch
• More frequent and longer pauses
• Slower and clearer speech
• Repetition
• Grammatically simpler sentences
• More questions and providing answer
• Use of diminutives
• Use of nouns rather than pronouns
• More frequent use of plural pronouns rather than singular pronouns.
• Expansion, where the caregiver might elaborate on the utterance given by the child
• Recasts, repeating a child’s incorrect utterance but providing the correct form
• Politeness features
• Mitigated imperatives, a command is given in the form of a question.

Question 30

Explain Jean Berko Gleason’s theory and why it may not be used today.

Answer 30

Fathers tend to use more commands and teased the children a little more.
Mothers tend to use less complex constructions and are more sensitive and responsive to their children.

This study was approx 40 years ago. A cultural change regarding the roles of females and males within a home. May changed now as women will be working rather than staying at home.

Question 31

How can Grice’s maxims relate to CLA?

Answer 31

Politeness and understanding turn taking.

Question 32

Explain the difference between Catherine Garvey and Susan Ervinn Tripp’s theories on play.

Answer 32

Garvey explains that play is important to language development. The value of pretend play can help vocabulary growth.
Tripp explains that children can learn from each other and have to work collaboratively in a way that does not occur in adult interactions.Imaginative play is critical for children to experiment with language in unfamiliar and different ways.

Question 33

What is the IRF structure (initiation, response and feedback).

Answer 33

Suggested by Sinclair and Coulthard (1975). A three part conversational exchange in which a speaker starts the conversation, a second speaker responds and the first speaker provides some feedback to what the second speaker said.

Question 34

What are Halliday’s seven different functions? (1975)

Answer 34

• Instrumental, trying to fulfill a need (asking for a drink)
• Regulatory, child controls someone’s behaviour (telling mother where to sit)
• International, develop relationships with others (saying I love you)
• Personal, used to express views (me no like)
• Heuristic, used to explore the world around them (what you doing mummy)
• Imaginative, used to explore something creatively or during play
• Representational used to exchange info, to give or receive

Question 35

Explain Katherine Nelson’s theory.

Answer 35

1973. 60% of 18 children’s first words were nouns used to name people, animals or things. Others included verbs, modifiers (adj and adv) and personal/social words (bye bye, please, sorry)

Question 36

Explain the difference between over- and under-extension. Name the two types of overextension.

Answer 36

Overextension: a child uses a more specific word to label a more general noun. (calling all men ‘daddy’). There are two types: analogical which is making links based on similar properties (all round things are a ‘ball’ or everything that holds water is a ‘bath’) and categorical which is making links based on a category (all clothes are a dress)

Underextension: a child uses a more general word for something specific. (child only calls their mothers car ‘car’ but no other cars)

Question 37

What’s the difference between a hypernym and a hyponym?

Answer 37

Hypernym: more generic term (fruit)

Hyponym: more specific terms (banana, apple, lemon)

Question 38

Explain the wug test.

Answer 38

1958 by Jean Berko. This test uses pseudo words like ‘wug’. Berko found that 76% of children responded correctly to adding a plural as ‘wugs’. This suggests that children have the ability to understand grammar rules and use them in other examples. This test also looked at inflections.

Question 39

Explain Ursula Bellugi and her Pronoun acquisition.

Answer 39

1971. Stage 1: Uses a name rather than pronoun. (Chloe go now)
      Stage 2: Uses the incorrect pronoun. (Me go now)
      Stage 3: Uses pronouns correctly. (I will go now)

Question 40

Explain Ursula Bellugi and her Negative acquisition.

Answer 40

1966.
Stage 1: Negative at the beginning. (No like book)
Stage 2: Negative moves to the middle however still incorrect. (Me no like it)
Stage 3: Correct form. (I do not like it)

Question 41

Explain Ursula Bellugi and her Question formation.

Answer 41

1966.
Stage 1: Using intonation. (Bedtime?)
Stage 2: Auxiliary verbs in order to signify a question. (Are you coming?)
Stage 3: ‘Wh’ questions (Where are you going?)
Stage 4: Applying tag questions (You’re coming, aren’t you?)