Chapter 8 Flashcards
(26 cards)
Innate
Determined by the factors present form birth.
Innateness Hypothesis
A hypothesis that humans are genetically predisposed to learn and use language.
Imitation Theory
Theory of language acquisition that claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what thy hear.
Reinforcement Theory
Theory that says that children learn to speak like adults because they are praised.
Articulatory Gestures
A movement of a speech organ in the production of speech, for example, the movement of the velum for the production of a nasal consonant.
Connectionist Theories
Theory of language acquisition that claims that children learn language through neural connections in the brain.
Social Interaction Theory
Theory that claims that children acquire language through social interaction. specifically with older children and adults.
Linguistic Universals
Property believed to be held in common by all natural languages.
Code-Switching
Using words or structural elements from more than one language within the same conversation.
Critical Period
Age span, usually described as lasting from birth to the onset of puberty, during which children must have exposure to language and must build the critical brain structures necessary in order to gain native speaker competence in a language.
Homesign
A rudimentary visual-gestural communication system that is developed and used by deaf children and their families when a signed language is not made available for their communication.
Complexive Concept
A term used in the study of child language acquisition. A group of items that a child refers to with a single word for which it is not possible to single out any one unifying property.
High Amplitude Sucking
Experimental technique used to study sound discrimination in infants from birth to about 6 months.
Fossilization
Process through which forms from a speakers non-native language usage become fixed and do not change, even after years of instruction.
Voice Onset Time
The length of time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing, that is, when the focal folds start vibrating,
Foreign Accent
An accent that is marked by the phonology of another language or other languages that are more familiar to the speaker.
One-Word Stage
Stage in first-language acquisition during which children can produce only one word at a time.
Holophrastic Stage
See above.
Transfer
The influence of one’s native language of the learning of subsequent languages.
Overextension
A relationship between child and adult perception of word meaning.
Relational Term
Type of relationship between adj. and noun reference where the reference of the adj. is determined related to the noun reference.
Two-Word Stage
Stage in first-language acquisition at which children produce two-word utterances in addition to one-word utterances.
Telegraphic
A phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words.
Second Language Acquisition
Acquisition of a second language as a teenager or adult.
