3.01 English: Child Language Development Flashcards by Tom Green

Language has a critical period for learning (0-7 years)
• Then there’s a systematic decline to learn language

Babies are ‘citizens of the world’ - they can discern sounds from any language

Before their first birthday, they decide what language they’re going to speak

Adults are culture-bound listeners

Babies listen to the statistics of language
• Become more receptive to the statistics of their own language
• It takes a human being for babies to take on these statistics

Patricia Kuhl: The linguistic genius of babies

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Involves experimenting with noises and sounds

First stage of development: Pre-verbal stage (0-12)

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2-6months

Open mouth vowel sounds: oo, aa, ee

These experimental noises are distinct from crying

Desmond Morris (2008):
Suggests these gurgles and babbles will be the same, regardless of the baby’s nationality or the amount of parental impact they’ve had

First stage of development: Pre-verbal stage (0-12) - Cooing

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Consonant vowel combinations (CVCV): gaga, baba etc.

Two types:
Reduplicated: simpler, appears first and involves a child creating the same sound repeatedly - EG: babababa

Variegated: Emerges slightly later and involves variation in the consonant and vowel sounds being produced - EG: bada, manamoo

First stage of development: Pre-verbal stage (0-12) - Babbling

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Appears around 12-18 months

Ability to say one word

Child conveys a whole sentence of meaning in just one word or labels things in the world around them

Large proportion of first words are nouns

Second stage of development: Holophrastic stage

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Adding an extra vowel sound to create a CCVC structure

EG: Horse becomes ‘horsey’, dog becomes ‘doggie’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Addition

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Leaving out the last consonant of a word

EG: Cat becomes ‘ca’, pig becomes ‘pi’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Deletion

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Repetition of a phoneme

EG: Choo choo, wee wee

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Reduplication

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One sound is swapped for another, easier sound

EG: Rabbit becomes ‘wabbit’, sing becomes ‘ting’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Substitution

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Consonant clusters are reduced to single consonant sounds

EG: Dry becomes ‘dai’, frog becomes ‘fog’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Consonant cluster reduction

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Removal of an entire unstressed syllable from a word

EG: Banana becomes ‘nana’, pretending becomes ‘tending’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Deletion of unstressed syllables

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Substitution - but the sound changes to a sound already in the word

EG: Doggie becomes ‘goggie’, lorry becomes ‘rorry’

Holophrastic stage: Phonological simplification strategy - Assimilation

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• Child referred to his toy fish as a ‘fis’
• When adults asked him, “Is this your fis?” he rejected the statement
• When they asked him, “Is this your fish?” he responded, “Yes, my fis”

Showed that although the child couldn’t produce the /sh/ phoneme, he was able to perceive it as being different from the /s/ phoneme

Demonstrates that perception of phonemes occurs earlier than the ability for them child to produce them

Holophrastic stage: Berko and Brown - ‘Fis’ phenomenon study (1960)

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Found that first words were most commonly nouns (60%) followed then by:
• Action words (EG: verbs)
• Modifiers (EG: Adjectives/adverbs)
• Social/personal words (Bye-bye, please etc.)

Diminutives may also be common at this stage (EG: kitty, dolly, doggie)

Holophrastic stage: Katherine Nelson (1973)

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Around 9-12 months - children will begin to communicate in a way that makes their meaning clear
• Through individuals words accompanied by non-verbal communication

He proposed seven reasons why language is initially used - pragmatics

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday - Functions of early language (1973)

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Language used to try to fulfil a need

EG: ‘Nana’ - gesturing for more banana

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Instrumental

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Language used to influence others - to command or persuade

EG: ‘Come’ - when wanting to enter a playground with caregiver

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Regulatory

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Language used to build and strengthen social relationships with others

EG: ‘Love you’ - aimed at sibling

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Interactional

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Language used to develop a sense of self, express preferences and opinions etc.

EG: ‘No like it’ - describing a new food

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Personal

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Language used to request information from, or give information to, another participant

EG: ‘I eating all my dinner’

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Representational

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Language used to explore the world around oneself

EG: ‘Who that?’ - when hearing a knock at the door

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Heuristic

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Language used to play and be imaginative

EG: ‘Dragon’

Holophrastic stage: Michael Halliday’s functions of early language - Imaginative

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Around 18-24 months

Child puts two words together to convey meaning

Shows understanding of grammar for the first time - see relationships between two words

The two words uttered will usually be content words - that convey essential meaning, rather than grammatical words - that indicate relationships between content words

Third stage of development: Two word stage

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Suggested that syntactical structures of two word utterances follow a limited range of patterns

Study These Flashcards

Two word stage: Roger Brown (1973)

EG: Daddy go

Roger Brown: Agent + action

EG: Make cake

Roger Brown: Action + object

EG: Billy bike

Roger Brown: Agent + object

EG: Run garden

Roger Brown: Action + location

EG: Teddy chair

Roger Brown: Object + location

EG: Granny gloves

Roger Brown: Possessor + possession

EG: Coat soft

Roger Brown: Object + attribute

EG: Here chair

Roger Brown: Demonstrative + object

Usually between 2-3 years old Longer, more complex utterances - clear meaning Includes key content words and omits grammatical words EG: ‘Me going to sleep’ instead of ‘I am going to sleep’

Fourth stage of development: Telegraphic stage

Usually around age 3 Increasingly like adult speech Grammatical words alongside content words • Subtle nuances: irregular verbs etc. Child will be gaining confidence with inflectional functions and understand the ways in which particular words have different endings • According to quantity, scale or time Sentences will be mainly grammatically standard, with occasion ‘virtuous errors’

Fifth stage of development: Post-telegraphic stage

Nurture theory Language is learnt through positive/negative reinforcement (also known as operant conditioning) and imitation Positive reinforcement: Successful utterances are rewarded by parents and therefore reinforced, whilst unsuccessful ones are forgotten

Skinner: Behaviourism

Arguments for: • Any given language is a behaviour Arguments against: • Poverty of stimulus • Linguistic universals • Ineffectiveness of correction • Conflicts with Chomsky’s LAD • Doesn’t account for cognitive factors in language development

Skinner: Behaviourism evaluation

Nature theory LAD (Language Acquisition Device): Children are born with the innate ability to understand and produce language This is based on the idea of a ‘universal language’ • Functions for a limited critical period May occasionally get verb tenses wrong for example - he calls these ‘virtuous errors’ Doesn’t say environment doesn’t matter, just that the LAD is more important

Chomsky: Nativism

Arguments for: • WUG test • Stroke victims • Formation of creole varieties • Studies of sign language Arguments against: • Skinner: no innate ability, purely imitation • Why are mistakes still made if it’s built in? • The term ‘universal grammar’ is vague - different languages have different structures

Chomsky: Nativism evaluation

Children were shown an imaginary animal - a ‘wug’ and asked to produce the plural version Children produced the word ‘wugs’ - shows an innate understanding of grammar rules

Jean Berko Gleason: The WUG test (1958)

Nature theory Says language development will never be greater than cognitive development - always match Language development is dependent on cognitive development

Piaget: Cognition

When children can compare

Piaget: Cognition - Seriation

The child’s realisation that objects exist regardless of perception

Piaget: Cognition - Object permanence

Only think about themselves when using language

Piaget: Cognition - Egocentric

Aged 0-2 We develop the five senses through movement and experiences Labelling takes off Object Permanence Egocentric Increased physical ability increases our cognitive ability - leads to linguistic development

Piaget: First stage of cognitive development - Sensori-motor stage

Aged 2-7 Imaginative function role Learning symbolic meaning/functions of language Thinking is still egocentric Roleplay Around age 4: Intuative age - start asking lots of questions

Piaget: Second stage of cognitive development - Pre-operational stage

Aged 7-11 Finally discover logic Inductive reasoning Brain learns to reverse actions Learning operations have certain cause and effects Gain empathy

Piaget: Third stage of cognitive development - Concrete operational stage

Aged 11-16 Gain the ability to think and reason in more abstract, idealistic and logical ways No longer dependent on concrete manipulation

Piaget: Fourth stage of cognitive development - Formal operational stage

Arguments for: • Some linguistic development seems to match cognitive development Arguments against: • Too much reliance on cognitive ability • There isn’t always clear cohesion between language and cognitive development • Small sample size

Piaget: Cognition evaluation

Nurture theory Parents and caregivers (more knowledgeable others) are key players in children’s language development Child-directed speech MKO’s scaffold children’s language by supporting their language development LASS (Language Acquisition Support System) - In response to Chomsky’s LAD

Bruner: Input and interaction

Features include: • Higher pitch and exaggerated intonation • Repeated grammatical structures • Repetition of the child’s name • Use of many questions and commands • Use of concrete nouns • Fewer verbs, adjectives and function words • Shorter overall mean length of utterance • Recasting - reconstructing the child’s utterance to make it more accurate and developed

Bruner: Input and Interaction - Child Directed Speech features

A more knowledgeable other (MKO) needs to be presents for children to be able to learn language The MKO can move children beyond their zone of proximal development (ZPD) through scaffolding and supporting their language development Child’s ZPD will then broaden - meaning learning can continue to progress

Vygotsky: Input and interaction

Arguments for: • It seems like a child will learn quicker with frequent interaction Arguments against: • There are cultures where adults don’t adopt special ways of talking to children - meaning CDS may be useful but not essential

Bruner: Input and interaction evaluation

Language development and cognitive development are co-dependent

Tomasello: Usage based

When the child understands the semantic meaning of words EG: Understanding ‘more milk’ means drink more milk

Tomasello: Usage based - Intention reading

When the child understands the grammatical meaning of words They understand that they need to put words in a certain order to convey meaning EG: “more milk” in this order conveys to the other person that they want more milk

Tomasello: Usage based - Pattern finding

Says babies are born ready to learn Children living in poverty are behind 2 years Brain neurons are affected by poverty environment (Social economic status - SES) Evidenced a strong correlation between the number of CDS heard by babies and the vocabulary developed by them

Anne Fernald

Victim of severe abuse, neglect and social isolation • Kept in a locked room at approx. 20 months old by father and was tied to either a toilet or crib Little to no interaction with anyone Found at approx. 13 years 6 months

Genie (1970 - America)

Her rate of grammar acquisition was much slower than normal, her vocabulary was okay Linguists determined she was unable to full acquire a language, she was only able to acquire some Supports: Bruner Challenges: Chomsky HOWEVER, She did learn some - proves necessity of both nature and nurture?

Genie findings (1970 - America)

3.01 English: Child Language Development Flashcards

(58 cards)