Unit 4 Flashcards
what is communicative competence?
-knowing how to use one’s languages appropriately and strategically in social situations
What is referential communication?
ability to describe an item from a set of similar items so that a listener can identify it
How do children respond to indirect requests?
As requests for action - example ‘is your dad there’ -‘it’s noisy in here’
How do children address requests?
- direct requests to lower status w/ intensity
- indirect requests w/ softeners to listeners of higher status
- more likely to be direct w/ peers & indirect with adults
- social nuances
who are kids more likely to do indirect requests with & then direct requests?
- indirect - w/ adults
- direct - w/ peers
How old are you when you start taking turns in conversation?
- infant
- pause for parents etc.
Are preschoolers good with timing in conversations? Topics/themes?
- no they lack it -wait for obvious cues
- can elaborate on topics/themes
What about giving feedback/repairing convos? Ages?
- 2-3 can repair
- 3-4 ask questions when confused and give more specific responses - don’t repair speech if no question
AAE?
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- African American English -dialect
- decreases over time - own grammatical rules
- characteristic forms, distinct vocab/slang, dropping of consonants -code-switch & adjust dialect for context
- decreases once beginning formal schooling - is related to academic success -those who don’t use it in school settings do better b/c school focusses on formal english
- usedmore y boys than girls, in lower income & before age pf 11
Genderlect?
- girls are more collaborative, supportive, suggest joint activities - boys more controlling w/ peers, action, disruption
- used more w/ peers of same gender & more w/ peers than siblings
Do kids understand that different language is used for different ppl in different contexts?
- yes -change registers -adapt language
- when playing with dolls -use different voice for mom, dad, & kids - mom kids are more direct to, but mom is more indirect - father they’re indirect to, but father is direct - kids sound whinier
When parents speak/correct kids what kind of talk is it mostly? Why?
- indirect
- because it challenges the kids more cognitively
- think instead of parrot
In the family who pushes kids communciation more?
- fathers & siblings -bridges to outside world
- often are less responsive & don’t take in conversational immaturity
What are language scripts?
-abstract knowledge about an event -sequence of actions -kind of language to use in certain settings -familiarity w/ scripts reduces cognitive demands so they can focus on the convo
What about autism?
- lack theory of mind, social orientation, and general linguistic ability -hard to understand others intentions, motivations, beliefs
- trouble starting convos, taking turns, responding
- to help: -change eviro, model behaviors, naturalistic teachings strategies, use their interests, peer training, practice scripts
What about down syndrome?
-have more developed ToM - more sociable -but inability to use advanced languages so harder to infer
What about deaf kids born to hearing parents?
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- have enviro that’s limited in opportunities for rich, communicative interactions
- if exposed early on - acquire like a native -but after 7 it’s harder for them to learn it
What is communicative competence associated with?
- academic competence in reading & math -predictive of later academic skills
- sociable likableness/popularity
What is language?
- system made of symbols used to communicate -combine meaningless elements into structures that convey meaning
- endless combinations
- can be spoken or signed
- have form – phonemes, syntax, morphemes
- content – semantics (meaning)
- use – pragmatics (how we use it to communicate)
What are phonemes?
the sounds of language -those sounds have different meanings
- different languages have diff sounds and phonemes
- ex. l - lake
- r - rake
- l & r have different sounds
What are morphemes?
smallest unit of meaning in language -example - s & ing - s means more than 1
-raking - 2 diff morphemes - rake & ing
What are semantics?
- meaning -what do you mean by the word -to what are you referring?
- in a literal sense
What is syntax?
-rules for combining words into meaningful & interpretable sequences - grammar -diff orders/rules
What is pragmatics?
- the rule for how language is used
- meaning in context of discourse & intended or inferred meanings
Language - nature?
-acquired by all humans - some form of language is acquired - even infants prefer to listen to language over nonlanguage - innately human characteristic
Do only humans have language?
- other species can learn but limited, know some meanings, understand some semantics
- apes can learn new combinations fo words - new syntax structure -rules for combining - but Bonobo Kanzi can’t get beyond 3-5 years level
- dog - 200 words
- parrots - know some words
Language - nurture?
-does require some experience - need exposure - unlikely learn it w/o exposure -
Is there an age range where you need to be exposed to language to learn it?
- easiest before 7 –Ginie after 13 could pick up words but not syntax
- adoption -1st language to 2nd -before 7 became native english speaker - but after struggle to acquire syntax
- the older you are - the harder it is
When does a lot of language acquisition happen?
- infancy
- by childhood can say sentences etc.
- by 10-12months make sounds of their languages
- by 12 months say first words
- by 2 years - have vocab of 200-500 words
- 18months -combine words
- 3 years -longer & more complex sentences
Does language always have the purpose of communicating to someone else?
- no
- egocentric speech/private speech
- 4-6 years old - speak to themselves -for no apparent purpose
What is Piaget’s egocentric speech?
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- they don’t take into account others’ perspectives -speech not meant for others
- monologues (running discourse)
- collective monologues (2 ppl talking together but not for the purpose of each other)
What does Piaget say egocentric speech leads to?
social speech
What does vygotsky say about toddlers talking to themselves?
- it’s private speech
- drives thinking
- serves purpose of self-regulation, planning, direction
- found to be used more in difficult tasks
- then it’s internalized
What does Vygotsky say is the language pattern?
-spoken to by other capable members of society -then private speech -then inner speech
Whose is preferred -Piaget’s egocentric speech or Vygotsky’s private speech?
-Vygotsky’s private speech
What is needed for a successful conversation?
- turn-taking
- taking related turns
- repairing miscommunication
How does turn taking develop?
-begins early on -infants babble & will respond to parents -stilted in children, take longer pauses, use more filler words -by 2 years old their pretty good
How does taking related turns develop?
- poor in childhood (ex. piaget’s collective monologues) -but it steadily improves
- unrelated terms drop over time
- related turns increase over time
How does repairing miscommunication develop?
- 1-3 years initially repeat failed communication
- 3-5 years -more likely to repair failed communication
- throughout development, increase in giving/responding to verbal & nonverbal feedback
When do kids start to repair their failed communication? When do they repeat?
- 3-5 years
- 1-3 years
What is language adaptation?
-adapt our language when speaking to different ppl and when in different situations
Do kids adapt their language?
- yes
- at 4 years old adjust language to younger vs/ older children, vs. adults
- have some perspective taking
- registers
- dialects
What are registers?
– style of language associated w/ particular settings/roles -playing - pretend mommy (more direct) vs/ daddy (more passive)
What are dialects?
forms of language that vary w/ regions or groups of ppl
- all equally accurate forms of language
- ex. AAE
What is bilingualism? Population?
- learning 2 or mor languages
- very common >50% of world’s population
- needs two sets of vocabs, rules, etc.
What are simultaneous/”crib” bilinguals?
-learn 2 languages from birth -hear both languages at home on regular basis
What is a sequential bilingual?
-learn 1 language first then a second
Is sequential or simultaneous bilingualism better or worse?
- neither
- both lead to knowing & communicating in 2 diff languages
Is bilingualism bad?
- in 1920s-50s thought so -thought lower IQ/cognitive abilities
- but tested in english which wasn’t dominant language –maybe not culturally adequate tests
What changed the narrative around bilingualism as bad?
-1962 - Pearl & Lambert hallmark ? - more evenly matched bilingual & monolingual samples -found bilingual children were greater in cognitive abilities -mental flexibility & more diverse set
How do bilinguals use their languages to communicate?
- code-switching/mixing - can alter depending on situation/context -can combine
- conversations – better able to detect conversational violations -earlier or more advanced
At what age can kids code-switch?
-2-4 -appropriately apply languages based on their conversational partner
what was a study about bilinguals and conversation violations?
- had puppets - have bilinguals and monolinguals point out who was the rude/silly one in the group? (ie the puppet who said something off topic) - bilinguals were more accurate for younger & older groups
- maybe b/c used to paying attention to if partner can understand them
What are the advantages to bilingualism?
- 2+ languages!
- easy to travel, can have private convos in public
- read/watch more
- awareness of how languages work, grammatical rules
- perspective taking
- executive functions (planning, managing cog abilities, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, work memory etc)
What is a study that tested perspective taking in bilingual & monolingual kids?
- participants view & ‘director’s view’ -director would ask for an object but certain cubbies were blocking his view -so even tho the kid could see it, had to assume he was taking about the other object which the director could see -have to inhibit owns view & think about the other
- for monolingual kids were 50% correct -but bilingual kids were 80% -including anyone who has been exposed to any other language (like learning french in school) -just exposure helps
Summarize Novack et al reading
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- 3rd graders - aged 8-10 - diverse - experimental -randomly assigned -tested physical action, concrete gesture (mimetic), or abstract gesture on learning a math problem & generalization -gesture is different than action (gestures produced when talking, don’t have direct effect on world, but can on learning & thinking)
- all 3 helped -on a trained problem physical action did best, but on near-transfer problems (same type but diff #s), concrete & abstract gestures were most helpful, & far transfer test (PQR instead of ABC) only abstract gesture was helpful - shows generalizability - action condition had significantly lower odds of success on all 3 problems -concrete gesture in between - abstract shows deeper knowledge -in action could repeat words but didn’t do it right
- could be question specific tho, certain ones might help to have action
- seems have to interpret action symbolically for math
- symbolic/abstract nature seems to make the difference
What is mimetic gesture?
-miming a specific action but not doing it -example: twisting a lid off a jar
What is a monolingual/bilingual executive function task?
- Card Sorting Task
- rules switch - first time colour, second shape -have to inhibit first rule & switch
- young kids struggle
- monolinguals – perseverators -stick with the first rule, can’t switch
- bilinguals – can update, inhibit, & switch to new rule -why? possibly because used to switching languages w/ ppl
At what age do these advantages show up for bilingual children? What does this say?
- 7-8 months
- shows it’s an implicit, unconscious thing
- executive functions are working - have to pay attention to language -inhibiting one to focus on the other
What are the disadvantages of bilingualism?
- vocabulary is smaller w/in each language (might be larger overall, but not within)
- might be slower to access words - take a while to find correct label etc.
What is sign language?
- language using hand & body
- share same properties of language
- can change hand shape, motion, position to change meaning, syntax etc.
- young deaf kids exposed to sign language babble with their hands at same age if hearing
How does being a deaf child exposed to sign language early on affect language acquisition?
-have the same acquisition as if hearing (if exposed to sign language early on)
What percent of deaf babies are born to hearing families?
90%
What is homesign?
-deaf babies in hearing families create own form of language -pointing, gesturing, varies family to family -some structures & regularities -but not complex
Nicaraguan Sign language?
- 1970s -deaf children had no official language - school in 1970s - deaf kids all brought their own homesign - created own language - evolution, took time
- driven by the youngest ids - aged 7 - they added spatial modulations - /grammar -after 10 didn’t have as much spatial modulation
What is spatial modulation?
- building blocks of grammar
- move body to have different grammatical meanings - noun, verb, agreement
- (before or at age of 7 can learn/create it)
What is a gesture?
- not a language - use hand and body but doesn’t have structure or set of rules
- have different cultural meanings -are universal but can look different & mean different things in different cultures
When do gestures happen?
- really early on in development
- deictic gesture (point) -10 months to 2 years
- infants use words & gestures together
What are deictic gesture?
- pointing
- happens around 10months to 2 years
What are symbolic gestures?
-it stands for something else (example - thumbs up or a pretend telephone)
What are pantomime gestures?
-acting something out
example - unscrewing a lid
What are beat gestures?
using your hands to mark the beat or rhythm of your speech (ex. Obama during a speech)
What do the # of gestures a kid does predict?
- a greater vocabulary
- correlates & predicts
What do # of gestures & word combinations predict?
-later complex sentences
What do gesture-speech mismatches tell us?
- may indicate on the verge of learning - have some understanding but not quite there -content of words and gestures seem like two different things
- mismatches before training benefit most from instruction on that task -may be more sensitive to it
- teachers will teach them more intuitively
What happens when children gesture during learning?
- helps lighten the load
- will remember more
Can gestures help you remember? Is it conscious?
- yes
- not a conscious thing
