innate
determined by factors presented at birth
innateness hypothesis
humans are genetically predisposed to acquire and use language
imitation theory
claims that children learn language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
reinforcement theory
asserts that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised, rewarded, or reinforced when they use the right forms and are corrected when they are wrong
active construction of a grammar theory
most influential theory of language acquisition holds that children actually invent the rules of grammar themselves
connection theories
theory of language acquisition which claims that children learn language though neutral connections in the brain.A child develops such connections though exposure to language and by using language
social interaction theory
theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language through social interaction– in particular with older children and adults–and prompt their caregivers supply them with the appropriate language experience they need
linguistic universals
property believed to be held in common by all natural languages
universal grammar
the theoretically inborn set of of structural characteristics shared by all languages
neglected children
neglected by their caretakers
feral children
children who grew up in the wild
homesign
communicative gestures that are invented by deaf children and the people who they routinely interact with where signed language is not available
rules
children exploit statistical information from linguistic input
child-directed speech
speech directed at children
High Amplitude Sucking (HAS)
infants are given a special pacifier that is connected to a sound-generating system
Conditioned Head-Turn Procedure (HT)
infants between five and eighteen months. infants sits on parent’s lap watching display and hearing sounds. infants use to associate sounds with display
Voice onset time (VOT)
the length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the vocal folds start virbrating
articulatory gestures
producing particular sounds by bringing both lips together, opening mouth, lowering the velum to allow air passage
babble
producing sequences of vowels and consonants if they are acquiring a spoken language, or producing hand movements if they are acquiring sign language
canonical babbling
starts around age 7 to 10 months. The repetition of syllables helps the infant practice a sequence of consonant and vowel sounds.
variegated babbling
instead of repeating the same syllables “mamamama”, infants put together new syllables like “bugabimo”
holophrastic stage
child is limited to one word at a time in their production but understands the meaning of more than a single word
telegraphic
says only the words you need and are relevant and not the ones that carry no information
overgeneralization
adding sound to plural form of words. mans, houses, noses, manses
complexive concept
creating a set of objects that do not have any unifying characteristic
overextension
when a child extends the range of a word’s meaning beyond that typically used by adults
underextension
the application of a word to a smaller set of objects than is appropriate for mature adult speech
relational term
large or small constitute a relatively complex concept
deictic expression
words referring to personal, temporal, or spatial aspects of an utterance and whose meaning depends on the context in which the word is used
attention getters
used to tell children which utterances are addresses to them rather than to someone else and hence which utterances they ought to be listening to
attention holders
used whenever they have more than one thing to say for example when telling a story
way
altering the way adults say words when talking to children
bilingual
speakers of two languages
multilingual
speakers of more than two languages
simultaneous bilingualism
learn more than one language from birth
sequential bilingualism
begin learning their second language as young children
second-language acquisition
learn a second language not as a young child but rather later in life
language mixing or code switching
using more than one language in a conversation or even within a phrase
foreign accent
mark from the phonology of another language that are more familiar to the speaker
fossilization
non-native forms, as part of either the morpho-syntax or pronunciation, can become fixed and not change even after years of instruction