week 8 Flashcards
define: phoneme
- smallest unit of sound that are important to language
define: phonemic awareness
- ability to parse words into phonemes
- knowledge that words consist of separable sounds
explain: phoneme awareness between japanese and american infants
- higher awareness in american children at 10 - 12mths
⤷ same for both at 6 - 8mths
define: morpheme
- smallest units that convey meaning
⤷ ex. s, ing, suffixes and prefixes
define: semantics
- definitions + meanings of words
- can represent conventions and societal norms
⤷ commonly used language
define syntax
- rules for combining words
⤷ ex. grammar - english = SVO
⤷ 42% of world - majority of world (45% of world)= SOV
⤷ including japanese, latin, hindi, korean - important for understanding context and meaning
**9% = VSO, 3% VOS, 1% VOS, less than 1% OSV
define: pragmatics
- communicative functions of language
- rules that lead to effect comms
- turn taking, nodding, shrugging
question: what language can babies use an infancy?
- birth = crying
- 1 - 2 mths = cooing, gurgling sounds
- 6 mths = babbling
⤷ shows learning phonemes
question: do children recog. words before they can speak them?
- yes
- sensitivity to exposure = attend more to words they are repeatedly exposed to
- have innate bias to attend to speech than other sounds
explain: statistical inference exp. (jusczyk 2002)
- 8 mths = sensitive to statistical regularities in speech sounds
- exposed infants to nonsense words for 3mins
⤷ sound stream didn’t have natural pauses between “words”
⤷ made fake words of 3 phonemes (bamuna, pokita, comida) - after 3mins = presented with random combinations or one of the fake words
⤷ children dishabituated to random combos but “learned” the fake words - overall shows infants can extract regularities
⤷ explains how syntax and SVO are learned
question: do children find it easier to ID a word starting with d or t if it’s preceded by s?
- st = sound combo that can be found anywhere in a word
- sd = sound combo usually found between words
- children have easier
- 9 mths = easier to ID new word if starts w/ a d
⤷ ex. this dag = easier than this tag
question: when do we see the emergence of gestures?
- 8 - 12 mths
- waving, nodding, pointing
define: joint attention
- ability for adult and infant to pay attention to the same tertiary thing/person
- emerges around the same time when first words spoken
⤷ but not necessary for language
explain: timeline of vocab development (starting with 1 word utterances)
- 1 word = 6 - 15 mths
⤷ 50 total words at 18 mths - 2 word utterances = 18 - 24 mths
- 3 word utterances = 2 - 3 years
⤷ showing grammar - novel word combos = 3 - 4 years
⤷ correct combos
question: when and what is a vocabulary spurt?
- stage where infants learn new words much quicker
- 10 words per week
- 18 - 20 mths
- theory = fast mapping
question: what’s a theory to explain vocab spurt?
- fast mapping
- connects new words to objects w/out considering all the possible meanings
⤷ not really learning, more of a description of reference
explain: one to one mapping in word learning
- one word per object
- name refers to a whole object
⤷ second names for smth already learned are understood as subcategory
⤷ ex. dog = learned so labradoodle must be a subcategory
name: cross-cultural differences in word learning
infants learning mandarin, korean, japanese = learn more verbs earlier than english learning infants
⤷ bc asian lang. = SOV
- recency and primacy effects
⤷ V at end of sentences in japanese
name + explain: examples of early word errors
- underextension = defining word too narrowly
⤷ daddy is not just your daddy, others also have dads - overextension = defining a word too broadly
⤷ doggy for all animals - common during ages 1- 3 years
question: when do children show mastery of morphology
- preschool and gr. 1 show understanding of morphology
- understand rules enough to apply them to new instances
⤷ ex. s = plural
name: aspects of optimal language learning (4)
- frequent exposure
- interesting, responsive, interactive, meaningful contexts
- responsive parenting/teaching/modeling
- diversity in grammar and vocab
explain: matthew effect in reading
- good readers will enjoy reading -> read more -> get better at reading
- vv for poor readers
- widens gap between good vs poor readers
- interventions should happen early to make a diff.
question: what is the number 1 predictor of reading ability?
- phonemic awareness
explain: dyslexia
- reading disability
- reading ability = sig. worse than what it should be based on intellectual ability
- best predictor = phonological processing
- neurological basis = likely genetic
⤷ not envrt. - dep. on grapheme-phoneme correspondence
⤷ grapheme = smallest unit of writing representing a sound
⤷ ex. less dyslexia in italian speaking indiv.
explain: phonemic awareness diff. between english and italian
- eng = 40 phonemes, 1120 letter combos
- ita = 25 phonemes, 33 letter combos
- eng has deep orthography
explain: diff. in reading of boys and girls
- girls tend to score higher on reading tests than boys
- absolute diff. = minor
- dyslexia = more prevalent in boys
- boys’ learning = more affected by interest
⤷ girls = more willing to sit through things they don’t like
explain: bilingualism acquisition
- best if before puberty
- early acquisition -> using same brain areas when processing either lang.
- stronger interference from 1st lang. w/ more years of exp.
⤷ older person = more interference
define: critical period (+question: what’s critical period for bilingualism?)
- specific exp. necessary during a dev. period for a beha. to develop
- bilingualism critical period = before puberty
**recent research suggests interference from first lang hinders more than biological clock
explain: effect of critical period in the wild boy of aveyron and genie
WILD BOY OF AVEYRON
- lived alone in woods
- 5 - 11 years
- never learned to comm effectively even after rescued bc missed critical period
GENIE
- prohibited from interacting w/ others until discovered at 13
- never mastered lang. either
explain: critical period in lang. learning for deaf children of hearing parents
- earlier the better
- better mastery of sign language if taught gestures earlier
- too much expertise can interfere w/ sign language acquisition
define: sensitive periods
- flexible time window where exp. has “optimal” effect on beha.
- beha. can still be modified outside the window
- time frame dep. on indiv. exp.
name: benefits of bilingualism (5)
better:
- attentional control
- concept formation
- analytic reasoning
- inhibition
- cog. flexibility, complexity, monitoring
**all from correlational data
explain: myth of bilingualism and how it got debunked
- myth: exposing infants to 2 lang. would harm dev.
- no empirical evi. found that bilingual children have lang. deficits
- bilingual children may start speaking later than monolingual
FROM NON ENG HOMES
- studies showed using native language and eng together = more successful than exclusively in eng
- gives learning a meaningful and fun context -> better learning
explain: langage dev. perspectives (4)
BEHAVIOURIST - SKINNER
- language is learned through classical and operant conditioning
- doesn’t explain novel combinations, under/overextensions
NATIVIST - CHOMSKY
- humans born with neural circuits that allow for language learning
- language acquisition device (LAD)
- semantic bootstrapping: using existing resources to learn new words
- universal grammar: every language has S, V, O
COGNITIVE - PIAGET
- infants/children extract regularities from perceptual environment
- not a universal grammar but powerful cognitive abilities
- evi. = vocab inproves as memory improves
- doesn’t explain William’s Syndrome (low intelligence but high verbal abilities)
SOCIAL - VYGOTSKY
- children master language in context of social interactions
- can incorporate behaviourist, nativist and cognitive POVs (overarching)
name: supports for universal grammar (5)
- part of nativist POV
- have specific regions of brain for lang. processing
- only humans learn grammar readily
- children dev. lang w/ little/no formal input
- have critical period for learning
- dev. of grammar is tied to dev. of vocab
explain: impact of damage of brain regions on lang. (broca’s and wernicke’s)
- broca’s aphasia = difficulty w/ speech production
- wernicke’s aphasia = difficulty w/ meaningful speech
**brocas broken = nothing is spoken, understanding is tricky = damage to wernicke
explain: ability of bonobos and apes to learn language
- don’t have fine voice control so learned sign language and use of symbols
- mostly 2 word combos
⤷ mostly action-object combo
⤷ some 3 word combos but doesn’t indicate understanding
question: is lang. unique to humans?
- yes
- non-human animals can learn words
⤷ assoc. between symbols and things
⤷ but no mastery of syntax - 4 year old humans can use syntax
⤷ kanzi (bonobo) = around 3 year old lvl
explain: how children learn lang. in soundless or sightless envrt.
SOUNDLESS
- learn same way hearing children learn spoken lang.
⤷ from parents
- shows evi. for innate LAD
SIGHTLESS
- same dev. steps as sighted children
- differences in interpretation
⤷ ex. when told to look up: blindfolded sighted children tilt heat up, blind infants raise hands
- blind indiv. reading braille = activating in vis. cortex
⤷ only when exposed to braille for some time
explain: critical and sensitive periods as evidence for LAD
- genie and boy of aveyron couldn’t learn lang.
⤷ suggests innate LAD
⤷ past critical period - another girl = isabelle
⤷ rescued at 6 yrs old
⤷ able to speak at same lvl as peers only 1 year later
question: how is grammar and vocab affected in bilingual children?
- it’s not
- grammar and vocab = correlated w/in each lang. but not across
- don’t confused the grammar
⤷ shows learning of vocab and their place (grammar) at the same time
