Chapter 4

Question 1

What is a theory?

Answer 1

A descriptive statement or principle used to explain a group of facts or phenomena

Question 2

Basic/theoretical research

Answer 2

Generating and refining an existing knowledge base

Question 3

Applied research

Answer 3

Used to address specific issues in society and informs practices relevant to language development

Question 4

What is use-inspired basic research?

Answer 4

Basic research that addresses the useful applications of research findings

Question 5

What do speech perception studies do?

Answer 5

They help explain how children use speech perception to learn language (using auditory stimuli, heart rate/kicking, head turn, sucking)

Question 6

What do language production studies do?

Answer 6

Examine children’s ability to use language expressively

Question 7

What is normative research?

Answer 7

When experts compile data from multiple people on a certain aspect of language and then create a chart showing what time children generally meet a certain milestone

Question 8

In observational studies…?

Answer 8

Researchers examine children’s language use in naturalistic or semiconstructed contexts

Question 9

In experimental studies…?

Answer 9

Researchers actively manipulate the variables of interest

Question 10

What are pseudowords?

Answer 10

Nonsense words used to assess children’s morphological or vocabulary skills

Question 11

What do language comprehension studies do?

Answer 11

They examine what children understand about language

Question 12

What are the questions that language theories should answer?

Answer 12

1. What do infants bring to the task of language learning?
2. What mechanisms drive language acquisition?
3. What types of input support the language-learning system?

Question 13

Attempt to explain how children learn their native language

Answer 13

Language development theories

Question 14

Nurture-inspired theories

Answer 14

Argue that knowledge is gained through experience

Question 15

Nature-inspired theories

Answer 15

Argue that knowledge is innate and genetically transmitted

Question 16

Behaviorist theory (Skinner)

Answer 16

Learning is the result of operant conditioning - behaviors that are reinforced are strengthened, and behaviors that are punished become suppressed

Question 17

Universal Grammar (Chomsky)

Answer 17

Describes the system of grammatical rules and constraints that are consistent in all world languages; language acquisition device

Question 18

What is a language acquisition device?

Answer 18

A language-learning module

Question 19

What is linguistic competence?

Answer 19

The implicit knowledge that children have about language

Question 20

What is linguistic performance?

Answer 20

The actual comprehension and production of language in specific situations

Question 21

Modularity theory (Fodor)

Answer 21

Emphasizes the organization of cognition within the brain in a series of highly specified modules

Question 22

Syntactic bootstrapping

Answer 22

Children use syntactic frams surrounding unknown verbs to successfully constrain or limit the possible meanings of the verbs

Question 23

Semantic bootstrapping

Answer 23

Children deduce grammatical structures by using word meanings they acquire through observation

Question 24

Prosodic bootstrapping

Answer 24

Infants use sensitivity to prosody (the acoustic properties of speech such as pitch, rhythm, pauses, stress) to make inferences about language

Question 25

Interactionist theories

Answer 25

State that language is developed through both nature and nurture-related factors

Question 26

Social-interactionist theory (Vygotsky)

Answer 26

Children learn language through social interactions

Question 27

What is the zone of proximal development?

Answer 27

The difference between a child's actual developmental level and their potential level of development

Question 28

Cognitive theory (Piaget)

Answer 28

States that there are stages of development, and one stage must be achieved before a child can move on to the next stage

Question 29

Intentionality model

Answer 29

Abilities in language, emotional expression, cognition, social interaction, and play develop in tandem, and children must be intentional to acquire language

Question 30

What is intention reading?

Answer 30

A child's ability to recognize the intentions and mental states of others

Question 31

Usage-based theory

Answer 31

Emphasizes the social nature of language for language development

Question 32

What are cognitive principles?

Answer 32

The ideas governing language processing and automaticity and the role of rewards the speaker gains through language use

Question 33

What are affective principles?

Answer 33

The individual’s confidence with language learning and propensity to take risks with language

Question 34

What are linguistic principles?

Answer 34

The role of a native language facilitating or interfering with second language acquisition

Question 35

What is the audiolingual method?

Answer 35

A method of teaching English as a second language that emphasizes imitation, repetition, and memorization to create automatic and habitual language responses

Question 36

What is the silent way?

Answer 36

A method of teaching English as a second language that emphasizes the importance of allowing students to generate hypotheses about language rules, to apply the rules, and discover errors

Question 37

What is prevention?

Answer 37

To inhibit language difficulties from emerging

Question 38

What is enrichment?

Answer 38

The process through which teachers, clinicians, and other adults provide children, adolescents, and adults with an enhanced language-learning environment (anything one can do to enhance their language learning)

Question 39

What do brain imaging studies allow?

Answer 39

MRIs allow researchers to conduct direct, real-time investigations of speech perception by identifying the exact areas of the brain where speech perception occurs

Question 40

What is evidence-based practice?

Answer 40

Practice that involves integrating theoretical knowledge with scientific inquiry to inform decision-making (using scientific evidence)

Question 41

What does fast-mapping measure?

Answer 41

How fast children learn words

Question 42

What is the critical period?

Answer 42

Birth to five years old