Theories of Language Development.

Question 1

What are the major theories of language acquisition?

Answer 1

Learning, nativist, and social interactionist theories are the major theories of language acquisition.

Question 2

According to _________ language development (like the development of other complex behaviors) is the result of __________________.

Answer 2

Learning theory
imitation and reinforcement.

Question 3

In contrast to learning theory, _______proposes that humans are biologically programmed to acquire language.

Answer 3

nativist theory

Question 4

According to Chomsky’s version of nativist theory, humans have a _______ which is an inborn linguistic processor that enables children to understand language and speak in rule-governed ways.

Answer 4

language acquisition device (LAD)

Question 5

Evidence for Chomsky’s theory is provided by studies showing that all languages have the ____________and that all children pass through the _______________ at similar ages.

Answer 5

Same basic underlying grammatical structure
Same stages of language acquisition

Question 6

Finally, ________ proposes that language acquisition depends on a combination of _____________.

Answer 6

social interactionist theory
biological and social factors

Question 7

According to the social interactionist view, “______, a strong desire to _________and to be understood by them, and a ___________combine to help children discover the functions and regularities of language (Berk, 2013, p. 367).

Answer 7

native capacity
understand others
rich language environment

Question 8

One source of evidence for the role of social factors is research showing that caregivers often ________when talking to young children and that this speech facilitates language development (Bukatko & Daehler, 2012).

Answer 8

use child-directed speech

Question 9

_______________is also referred to as parentese and involves speaking slowly and in a high-pitched voice, using a restricted vocabulary and simple repetitive sentences, placing exaggerated emphasis on key words, and focusing on present events.

Answer 9

Child-directed speech

Question 10

LInguists distinguish how many major components of language?

Answer 10

5

Question 11

What are the five major components of language?

Answer 11

Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Pragmatics

Question 12

What is Phonology?

Answer 12

Phonology refers to the rules for using phonemes, which are the smallest units of sound in a language. Each language has a limited number of phonemes. English has about 50 phonemes (e.g., c, t, th).

Question 13

What is Morphology?

Answer 13

(b) Morphology addresses the rules governing the use of morphemes, which are the smallest units of language that have meaning. Free morphemes are minimal units of meaning that stand alone as words (e.g., test, certain), while bound morphemes must be combined with at least one other morpheme (e.g., pre in pretest, un in uncertain).

Question 14

What is Syntax?

Answer 14

Syntax refers to rules that determine how words can be combined into sentences. These rules sometimes vary in different languages. For example, in English, an adjective precedes a noun while, in Spanish, an adjective follows a noun. Syntax allows us to recognize that sentences with a different level of complexity and order of words have the same meaning: For instance, it allows us to recognize that “The client signed the consent form” means the same as “The consent form was signed by the client.”

Question 15

What is semantics?

Answer 15

Semantics is concerned with the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences and focuses on their literal meaning (e.g., the dictionary definition a word). For example, from the perspective of semantics, if a person says, “I’m so hungry, I could eat a horse,” this would mean the person actually wants to eat a horse.

Question 16

What is Pragmatics?

Answer 16

Pragmatics refers to the use and meaning of verbal and nonverbal language in different social contexts. Pragmatic skills include adhering to conversational rules (e.g., turn-taking, staying on topic), using language that is appropriate for the listener or situation (e.g., using different language when talking to an employer or a child), appropriately using and understanding body language (e.g., gestures, facial expressions), and appropriately using and understanding non-literal language (e.g., idioms, slang, humor, sarcasm).

Question 17

What is first way that infants communicate with their caregivers?

Answer 17

Crying

Question 18

How many cries are there?

Answer 18

3

Question 19

What are the types of cries immediately following an infant’s birth?

Answer 19

a low-pitched rhythmic cry that signals hunger or discomfort
a shrill, less regular cry that signals anger or frustration
a loud high-pitched cry followed by silence (which is due to breath-holding) that signals pain.

Question 20

What does a low-pitched rhythmic cry signal?

Answer 20

hunger or discomfort

Question 21

What does a shrill less regular cry that signals?

Answer 21

Anger or frustration

Question 22

What does a loud high-pitched cry followed by silence (which is due to breath-holding) signal?

Answer 22

Pain.

Question 23

What has research produced regarding the best way to respond to an infant’s crying?

Answer 23

Inconsistent results.

Question 24

Bell and Ainsworth (1972) reported that, when mothers in their study responded quickly and consistently to their crying infants during the infants’ first few months of life _______

Answer 24

the infants cried less in subsequent months.

Question 25

Van IJzendoorn and Hubbard (2000) failed to replicate the Bell and Ainsworth study with a larger sample and found that, when mothers ignored their crying infants during a nine-week period, the infants___________

Answer 25

cried less frequently during the next nine weeks.

Question 26

To reconcile these inconsistencies among researchers regarding parents responses to babies’ crying, some experts suggest that the optimal response depends on the

Answer 26

severity of a distressed infant’s cries“If a parent responds quickly to severe distress but less promptly to minor upset, the infant may learn to regulate the latter type of distress on his or her own and hence end up crying less overall” (Siegler, DeLoache, & Eisenberg, 2003, p. 73).

Question 27

What are the Language Milestones as it relates to The development of language? How many milestones are there?

Answer 27

1. Cooing
2. Babbling
3. Echolalia
4. first words
5. holophrastic speech
6. telegraphic speech

Question 28

In terms of Language milestones what is Cooing?
How long does it last?

Answer 28

What sounds do they make?
1. Cooing begins at six to eight weeks of age and involves repeating vowel-like sounds (e.g., “ooo” and “aaaeeeooo”).

Question 29

When does Babbling begin?

Answer 29

. Babbling begins at three to six months of age with the utterance of single consonant-vowel combinations such as “ba” and “goo.”

Question 30

What is followed by Babbling?

Answer 30

This is followed by canonical (reduplicated) babbling, which is the repetition of consonant-vowel combinations such as “mamamama” and “babababa.”

Question 31

What is followed by canonical babbling?

Answer 31

Infants exhibit variegated babbling which is more complex and consists of different consonant-vowel combinations in a single utterance – for example, “bamagubu.”

Question 32

A child’s babbling initially includes sounds from all languages but, by about______, it narrows to the sounds and intonation patterns of the child’s native language.

Answer 32

9 months of age

Question 33

Infants who are congenitally deaf begin to babble at about the same time as or slightly later than hearing infants do. However, they babble ______, their babbling consists of a more______, and their vocalizations ____________unless they are provided with hearing aids or cochlear implants.

Answer 33

less frequently
limited range of sounds
decrease and eventually stop

Question 34

When deaf and hearing infants are regularly exposed to American sign language (ASL) soon after birth, they begin to exhibit _______. It consists of repetitive hand movements that replicate components of ASL (Petitto & Marentette, 1991).

Answer 34

they begin to exhibit manual babbling at about 6 to 8 months of age

Question 35

When does Echolalia begin? What does it involve?

Answer 35

Echolalia begins at about 9 months of age and involves repeating speech sounds and words uttered by another person without understanding their meaning.

Question 36

Children are able to understand words by about _____of age but don’t say their first words to express meaning until_______. First words usually refer to familiar people and objects (e.g., “mommy” and “cup”) and actions such as “up” and “go.” Beginning at about _________, children exhibit a rapid increase in vocabulary, which is referred to as the vocabulary spurt.

Answer 36

8 or 9 months
10 to 15 months of age
18 months of age

Question 37

When do they use holophrastic speech? What is it?

Answer 37

Children begin to use holophrastic speech between 12 and 15 months of age. It involves using a single word to express an entire thought, with the meaning of the word depending on the context and the child’s tone of voice. For example, when a child says “juice,” she may mean “I want juice,” “I finished my juice,” or “I spilled the juice.”

Question 38

When do children begin to use telegraphic speech? What is it?

Answer 38

Children begin to use telegraphic speech between 18 and 24 months of age. It consists of two content words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) and omits articles, conjunctions, and other function words. “Want juice,” “doggie gone,” and “good boy” are examples of telegraphic speech. This is followed by phrases containing three or more words and then complete sentences.

Question 39

Information about a ______________ has been obtained from studies of children who were raised in social isolation and deprived of exposure to spoken language, children who learned second languages at different ages, and children who were deaf or hard-of-hearing and learned sign language at different ages.

Answer 39

critical period for language acquisition

Question 40

Studies have confirmed that there is a _______between age of exposure to spoken or signed language and language proficiency.

Answer 40

strong negative relationship

Question 41

While some studies suggest that the critical period for first-language acquisition may extend into late childhood or early adolescence, others indicate that there are ______________of language:

Answer 41

different critical periods for different aspects

Question 42

Full proficiency with grammar, syntax, and phonetics requires_________, while ____________are less affected by age of exposure (e.g., Newport, Bavelier, & Neville, 2001).

Answer 42

early exposure to language
semantics and vocabulary size

Question 43

For example, Friedmann and Rusou (2015) found that the critical period for the acquisition of syntax in a first language is
_____________

Answer 43

the first year of life.

Question 44

There is also evidence that, with regard to the timing and content of language milestones, the acquisition of spoken and sign language “show____________” (Mayberry, 2010, p. 283). [Note that most investigators interested in language acquisition use the terms “critical period” and “sensitive period” interchangeably.]

Answer 44

parallel developmental trajectories when the acquisition begins at birth

Question 45

Experts agree that exposure to language from _____is essential for language development which, in turn, supports cognitive, socioemotional, and other areas of development.

Answer 45

birth

Question 46

There is _______ among experts, however, about whether the optimal exposure for deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) children is access to spoken language with cochlear implants or hearing aids, access to American sign language (ASL) or other sign language, or a combination of the two (Hall, Hall, & Caselli, 2019).

Answer 46

Disagreement

Question 47

While some professionals conclude that sign language may inhibit the development of auditory and spoken language skills (e.g., Geers et al., 2017), many others argue that theapproach is most effective.

Answer 47

combined (bimodal-bilingual)

Question 48

Professionals who endorse the combined approach point out that (a) studies finding that exposure to sign language has negative effects on the acquisition of spoken language_________, (b) cochlear implants and hearing aids _________for DHH children and can cause_______ (c) cochlear implants are ordinarily not implanted ___________while infants can be exposed to sign language from birth, and (d) there is evidence that sign language______ the acquisition of spoken language (e.g., Hall, Hall, & Caselli, 2019; Humphries et al., 2019).

Answer 48

are methodologically flawed
vary in terms of their benefits
language deprivation
until children are 12 months of age or older
benefits

Question 49

For example, Hall (2017) points out that there is evidence that ____________can have significant language deficits compared to their hearing peers while children with cochlear implants who were exposed to sign language since birth obtain scores on standardized language tests that are comparable to scores obtained by hearing peers.

Answer 49

non-signing children with cochlear implants

Question 50

At about two or three years of age, children make several language______

Answer 50

errors

Question 51

_____________ occurs when a child uses a word too broadly. For instance, a child might use the word “doggie” not only to refer to dogs but to all furry, four-legged animals.

Answer 51

Overextension

Question 52

occurs when a child misapplies rules for plurals and past tense. For example, a child might say “foots” instead of “feet” and “telled” instead of “told.”

Answer 52

Overregularization

Question 53

Language Brokering: As defined by Morales, Yakushko, and Castro (2012)________ “is the act of translating and interpreting within immigrant families by children and adolescents for their parents, other family members, and other adults” (p. 520).

Answer 53

language brokering

Question 54

Studies on the effects of language brokering have produced

Answer 54

mixed results.

Question 55

Positive brokering effects include the development of strong _______skills and high levels of ___________________.

Answer 55

interpersonal
self-confidence and academic self-efficacy

Question 56

Negative effects of Brokering include elevated levels of

Answer 56

anxiety, frustration, and embarrassment.

Question 57

Language brokering has also been associated with role reversals within the family that force parents to become overly dependent on the child and, in high-frequency language-brokering families, with _____________ (e.g., Hua & Costigan, 2012; Umana-Taylor, 2002).

Answer 57

greater parent-child conflict

Question 58

Code-switching refers to “bi- and multilingual speakers’ within a single interaction or conversational turn” (Tseng & Cashman, 2015, p. 1).

Answer 58

use of more than one language or language variety

Question 59

Bi- and multilingual speakers are often unaware of their code-switching but, when they consciously use it, it is often for a specific reason. For example, they may use code-switching to compensate for a ___________ in one language, foster ________, express an ___________, or _____________.

Answer 59

language deficiency
rapport and solidarity
emotion or attitude
strengthen or soften a request