Test 1 Flashcards
Behaviorism
A psychological theory that all learning, whether verbal or nonverbal, takes place through the establishment of habits. According to this view, when learners imitate and repeat the language they hear in their surrounding environment and are positively reinforced for doing so, habit formation (or learning) occurs.
Auditory discrimination
The ability to distinguish language sounds, for example: minimal pairs such as shipl/sheep.
Chunk
A unit of language that is often perceived or used as a single unit. Chunks include formulaic expressions such as Thank you or What’s that? but also bits of language that frequently occur together, for example, ice cream cone or significant difference.
Competence
Linguist Noam Chomsky used this term to refer to knowledge of language. This is contrasted with performance, which is the way a person actually used a language – whether for speaking, listening, reading, or writing. Because we cannot observe competence directly, we have to infer its nature from performance.
Developmental sequence
The order in which certain features of a language (for example, negation aka the use of a negative word such as not or never) are acquired in language learning. Also called developmental stages or order of acquisition.
Formulaic
Formulaic expressions or phrases that are often perceived and learned as unanalyzed wholes. For example, a child or second language learner may first hear “what’s that?” as a single unit of language rather than as three units.
Function words
Words that are used mainly as linking or supporting words for nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. For example, prepositions (to, for, by) and articles (a, the) are two types of function words. They have little or no meaning when they occur alone but the have an important effect on the meanings of the words they accompany.
Generalization
Extending a pattern learned in one context to another. See also overgeneralization.
Grammatical morphemes
Morphemes are the smallest units of language that carry meaning. A simple word is a morpheme (for example, “book”) but when we talk about “grammatical morphemes” we are usually referring to smaller units that are added to words to alter their meaning (for example, the -s in ‘books’ indicates plural) or function words (for example, ‘the’) which are ordinarily attached to another word.
Hypothesis
A statement of a possible fact that can be tested through research. Most empirical research starts from one or more hypotheses and involves the design of a study that can either show support for the hypothesis or disprove it.
Innatist
The theoretical perspective based on the hypothesis that human beings are born with mental structures that are designed specifically for the acquisition of language.
Input
The language that the learner is exposed to (either written or spoken) in the environment.
Longitudinal study
A study in which the same learners are studied over a period of time. This contrasts with a cross-sectional study.
Metalinguistic awareness
The ability to treat language as an object, for example, being able to define a word or to say what sounds make up that word.
Overgeneralization
This type of error is the result of trying to use a rule or pattern in a context where it does not belong. For example, putting a regular -ed ending on an irregular verb, as in “buyed” instead of “bought.”
Performance
The way we use language in listening, speaking, reading, & writing. Performance is usually contrasted with competence, which is the knowledge that underlies our ability to use language. Performance is subject to variations due to inattention or fatigue whereas competence, at least for the native speaker, is more stable.
Phonemic
Small differences in language sounds that can change meaning within a particular language. For example, the consonants P & B are phonemic in English but not in Arabic.
Register
A style or way of using language that is typical of or appropriate for a particular setting. For example, speaking and writing usually require different registers; the register used in writing a research paper is different than the register used in writing a letter to a friend.
Universal grammar
Innate linguistic knowledge which, it is hypothesized, consists of a set principles common to all languages. This term is associated with Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition.
Variety
A way of speaking and using language that is typical of a particular regional, socioeconomic, or ethnic group. The term “dialect” is sometimes used. Some language varieties are stigmatized as “uneducated” but each language variety has it’s own rules and patterns that are complex and systematic as those of the so-called “standard” language. Among the most studied nonstandard varieties of English are British Cockney and African American Vernacular English.
