Week Eight - Language Acquisition (Research & Theories)

Question 1

Early language acquisition

Answer 1

0-6 weeks = vegetative sounds
6 weeks = cooing
16 weeks = laughter
16wks - 6months = vocal play
6-12mths = babbling
10-18mths = single-word utterances
18-2 years = two-word utterances
2 years = telegraphic speech
2.5 years = full sentences

Question 2

Why is it hard to test infants language acquisition?

Answer 2

Can’t ask what they understand, don’t listen/respond, don’t always reflect knowledge

Question 3

2 types of Parental reports

Answer 3

diary studies and checklists

Question 4

problems for experimenters in trying to gather info from children?

Answer 4

comprehension and production (shyness)

Question 5

Benefits of using parents as experimenters?

Answer 5

they have a better idea of what their children understand and regular exposure to words their children say

Question 6

Diary study?

Answer 6

Parents write down everything the child says

Cons: time-consuming and missing data (depending on context)

Question 7

word TOKENS?

Answer 7

Number of words that the child utters overall

Question 8

word TYPES?

Answer 8

Number of different words that a child produces

Question 9

Checklists?

Answer 9

Checklist of frequent words produced by child, parent ticks the words their child understands

Question 10

Parents are good at ___ but less good at ___?

Answer 10

estimating their child’s production but less good at comprehension (they overestimate it)

Question 11

Reasons for observation studies?

Answer 11

Children don’t always say what the researcher asks, easier to observe

Question 12

Longitudinal studies of children language acquisition? Benefits vs cons

Answer 12

Track people overtime, answers certain questions
ie high SES used more varied words, longer utterances

small samples so need to be careful with generalising

Question 13

Cross-sectional studies of children language acquisition? Benefits vs cons

Answer 13

assess abilities in groups of children in various ages, comparing two groups.

much info in short time, more generalisable

Question 14

two observational studies for language acquisition?

Answer 14

Naturalistic (real-life situations) and controlled (same setting for all).

Question 15

Experimental studies?

Answer 15

Researcher controls the suitatuation to test whether that citrol results in a particular linguistic outcome from the child eg can children use novel words

Question 16

Ways to study speech perception in infants? 3

Answer 16

Habituation
Conditioned head turn
Preferential looking

Question 17

Habituation?

Answer 17

Gradual decrease in response to/interest in a repeated stimulus

• heart rate
• high amplitude sucking
• looking time

Question 18

Novelty preference?

Answer 18

Human preference for anything new of different

Question 19

HAS and simulu

Answer 19

slows and then goes faster when new stimulus

Question 20

Heart rate and stimulus

Answer 20

slight increase when new stimulus

Question 21

Looking time and stimulus

Answer 21

increases with new stimulus

Question 22

Conditioned head-turn?

Answer 22

Present auditory stim repeatedly, then introduce new sound with visuals off to one side.

When a child can distinguish sound, they will learn that change in sound = change in visual display

will start to turn their heard in anticipation when change in sound is heard

Question 23

Preferential looking?

Answer 23

play spoken word/sentence that relates to one image, present two visual images, looking time measures to both stim, longer looking to appropriate image = understanding of sentence/word

Question 24

post-natal children have an immediate preference for?

Answer 24

their mothers voice and familiar stories, by 4 days they can discriminate speech in mothers vs foreign language

Question 25

Very early on infants can discriminate?

Answer 25

Male vs female
speech vs non-speech sounds
voicing
place
manner of articulation

Question 26

infants show early preference for?

Answer 26

language broken by clause boundaries and sounds which are allowed to occur together

Question 27

what must theories of language account for?

Answer 27

rapid acquisition, milestones, mistakes and success, sequences of learning, learning despite fragmented inputs

Question 28

Innatist/Nativist theories?

Answer 28

children learn language quickly so they must have an innate language ability

• spontaneous sign language (no exposure but still developed their own)
• creolisation (new language)
• poverty of the stimulus (couldn’t work it all out just off adults cause they make mistakes)

Question 29

2 parts of the poverty of the stimulus argument

Answer 29

1. degenerate input (adult language is poor)

2. no negative evidence (ungrammatical errors not pointed out)

Question 30

language acquisition device (LAD) allows children to?

Answer 30

attend to language, make hypoth about how it works, derive grammar

Question 31

Universal grammar (UG)?

Answer 31

The system of principles, conditions and rules that are elements or properties of all human language

Question 32

UG believe children are… and match…

Answer 32

endowed with principles and parameters that they set once their hear the language around them

• some universal
• some parametric

match the language they hear with the structures they already possess and start using correct grammatical rule

• during critical period
• in modular fashion

Question 33

Strengths of nativism theory?

Answer 33

explains rapidity of language acquisition
similar across children
brain areas specialised for language

Question 34

Social Interactionist theory?

Answer 34

importance of interaction with others in a social context in lang acquisition.

Language is not part of general cognition

Question 35

things essential for language, according to social interactionist

Answer 35

social interaction and joint attention, child directed speech