Language and Communication

Question 1

language vs. communication

Answer 1

language: a system of symbols
- Combines meaningless elements into structures that convey meaning
○ They’re meaningless things that we combine into a word, words carry meanings, we combine those into bigger structure of sentences, sentences have rules about how we can combine individually meaningless parts

Question 2

phonemes

Answer 2

• the sounds of language
• Meaning behind one is language contingent
  § Ex: in english, “luh” and “ruh” are different, but are virtually the same for japanese speakers

Question 3

morphemes

Answer 3

smallest units of meaning in language
- a building block
○ Adding “-s” or “-ing” to the end of a world

Question 4

semantics

Answer 4

meaning
- what a “rake” would refer to

Question 5

syntax

Answer 5

rules for combining words into meaningful and interpretable sequences
- rules for how we combine words; we can’t just put them in any order and assume they make sense
○ “I see the rake” vs “rake the I see”
○ Different languages have different syntaxes i.e. sentence structure

Question 6

pragmatics

Answer 6

the rules for how language is used
○ Tone for which how we use language
○ How we may change our language based on who we speak to

Question 7

language acquisition: nature?

Answer 7

Innate human characteristic - children everywhere acquire language; first days of life they respond the most to language

Question 8

bees: communication

Answer 8

waggle dance
- you can’t combine them into a plethora of things

Question 9

dogs understanding language

Answer 9

Des they have syntax? Do they have the ability to combine things to create endless possibilities?

Question 10

Kanzi (bonobo)

Answer 10

learned a language from when his mother was being taught the language
- Learned over 400 words
- Has some understanding of syntax; is this evidence of language in a non human species?
○ But it stops at this; there’s a “limit” of how much the bonobo can understand whereas children surpass this immensely and continue to grow

Question 11

language acquisition: nurture?

Answer 11

• requires experience & exposure
• importance of timing –> sensitive critical period?

Clearly, we’re not tuned to language in general, we’re tuned by the language we’re exposed to
- You need exposure to acquire language

Question 12

language acquisition: timing

Answer 12

• A sensitive or critical period
  ○ Do you need to get that exposure to language before that age/within a certain time frame

Question 13

forbidden box study (language)

Answer 13

methodology, to measure this, you’d ideally put a baby in a box and don’t expose them to language
- VERY UNETHICAL

Question 14

language acquisition: Genie case study

Answer 14

• Father put her downstairs until she was 7 until she was found
  ○ She was punished when she tried to make noises
• Researchers took her as a case study: will she still be able to acquire language at age 7 if she wasn’t exposed to it before then
  ○ She was able to learn words but struggled with syntax
  ○ Lots of questions about the generalizability
• Does this give us evidence that language needs to be learned earlier in life

Question 15

language acquisition: adoption studies

Answer 15

• Born into one language environment + adopted into another language environment
• Findings: exposure earlier in life makes it a lot easier to acquire that syntax
  –> after 3-7, have a harder time learning the language they’re immersed into

Question 16

linguistic competence

Answer 16

your ability to produce and understand linguistically accurate things/well formed meaningful sentences
- Do you have vocabulary?
- Do you know how to form sentences?

Question 17

linguistic competence: 10-12 months

Answer 17

infants discriminate and produce the sounds of their language(s)
- often producing their first words

Question 18

linguistic competence: 2 years

Answer 18

vocabulary of 200-500 words
- learning something around 3 new words a day

Question 19

linguistic competence: 18 months

Answer 19

begin combining words

Question 20

linguistic competence: variability

Answer 20

Many differences/variability within children and linguistic competence; using morphemes, vocabulary, etc.

Question 21

communicative competence

Answer 21

the ability to use language to communicate with others; to share your messages and understand other peoples messages
- what continues to shift throughout childhood

Question 22

egocentric speech

Answer 22

speech not oriented towards others; reflection of children’s egocentric thinking
- Piaget noticed that children were talking to themselves or to other people, but used language in a way that wasn’t really used to communicate with other people
- Not really understanding what others are saying/how to communicate with them
○ Reflection of children not being able to go outside of their perspective

Question 23

monologue

Answer 23

running dialogue to yourself; using a language but not communicating to another person

Question 24

collective monologue

Answer 24

when 2+ children are speaking together in what looks like a convo, but not for the purpose of each other
- “no desire to influence his hearer or to tell him anything”

Question 25

egocentric speech transitions to...

Answer 25

social speech

Question 26

Private Speech: Piaget or Vygotsky?

Answer 26

Vygotsky

Question 27

Egocentric Speech: Piaget or Vygotsky?

Answer 27

Piaget

Question 28

Egocentric speech: how it works

Answer 28

isn't mechanism for thought (not making you better at thinking) but rather a reflection/evidence of the egocentric thought - As they develop and start to understand others perspectives, they shift from egocentric --> eccentric speech - Now taking other perspectives into account

Question 29

private speech

Answer 29

repeat what they hear adults say to digest it OR to help them with difficult tasks; good for thinking - Helps to regulate and plan - Drive thinking - used more in difficult tasks; move you to understand things

Question 30

private speech: how it works

Answer 30

1: learning speech from others 2: private speech: talking out loud to yourself to work though it 3: inner speech: internalize it - you have an inner monologue

Question 31

research on language: piaget or vygotsky?

Answer 31

vygotsky's inner speech - Talking thru things out loud seems to drive thinking; not just a driver of it, but a mechanism that helps thought

Question 32

turn taking

Answer 32

- Shows up early in development ○ Babbling: some kind of turn taking You vocalize, the baby responds, etc.

Question 33

taking related turns

Answer 33

You respond on the same thing as the person you're talking to - Poor in early childhood, but steadily improve - @7 - 60% are on the same topic - @ grade 5 - most conversations are on the same topic

Question 34

repairing miscommunication

Answer 34

something is said but the listener does not understand; for a good convo, you need to get to that understanding thru active repair

Question 35

repairing miscommunication: young children

Answer 35

1-3 y/o initially tend to repeat failed communication - Sometimes louder and louder

Question 36

repairing miscommunication: older ages

Answer 36

3-5 y/o more likely to repair failed communication ○ If someone doesn't understand you, you change it up/ask something in a different way

Question 37

repairing miscommunication: throughout development

Answer 37

increase in giving/responding to verbal and non-verbal feedback - Increase thru childhood into adolescence

Question 38

language adaptation

Answer 38

we adapt our language when speaking to different individuals and when in different situations - Who we talk to (friends, parents, peers, etc.) - Pitch, vocabulary, tone, etc. may change

Question 39

language adaptation: earliest onset

Answer 39

as young as 4 - children will adjust their language to younger vs. older children; children vs. adults

Question 40

registers

Answer 40

styles of language associated w/ particular setting/roles - even young children seem to adapt their registers while playing - Ex: when Lily is teaching, she uses a more formal register vs. when she's talking to her friends - Even done in young children - If they're pretending to be a teacher or mom, we see the register of speech switch

Question 41

dialect

Answer 41

forms of language that vary with region or groups of people - different structures, words, pronunciations, etc. - All within the same language, but has a different form to it - All dialects are good and accurate forms of a language ex: Canadian English, Australian English, etc.

Question 42

African American (AAE)/Black English

Answer 42

- characteristic forms and rules, distinct vocabulary ○ Has characteristics swaps of constantans Characteristics in syntax (i.e. to be being used differently, like "he done gone to the store") - young children show ability to code-switch, and adjust dialect for the context

Question 43

AAE: children and schooling

Answer 43

- use by black children appears to decrease once beginning formal schooling; this is correlated w/ academic success ○ Kids who decline their use of black English tend to do so only at schools; they get better at code switching = correlated with success

Question 44

language: form, content, and use

Answer 44

form: phonemes, syntax, morphemes content: semantics use: pragmatics

Question 45

bilingualism: rates

Answer 45

>50% of the world's population ~20% of Canadians

Question 46

types of bilingualism

Answer 46

- simultaneous/crib - sequential

Question 47

simultaneous/crib bilinguals

Answer 47

learning 2 languages since birth

Question 48

sequential bilinguals

Answer 48

learn 1 language, then a 2nd

Question 49

bilingualism: challenges in language development

Answer 49

one has to learn two different: - forms - sets of content/meanings/vocab - sets of rules for use ○ have to get the right sounds and grammar, but also know how to appropriately use language with other people/conversation ○ the ways that we use language might be different for rules of use

Question 50

code switching/code mixing

Answer 50

2-4 years - bilingual children appear to appropriately apply languages based on their conversational partner - first step of bilingual communication

Question 51

code-switching: concerns

Answer 51

parents often worry about children mixing up the two languages

Question 52

conversations (bilingual communication)

Answer 52

some evidence that bilingual children are better able to detect conversational violations - Maybe attending to two separate rules can create an advantage - Potentially be able to better at detecting violations of conversations

Question 53

bilingual communication: advantage in younger children

Answer 53

able to detect violations in communication ○ Detecting if someone was being rude, talking too much, etc.

Question 54

bilingualism: early study on IQ

Answer 54

1920s-1950s: studies presented bilingual individuals as scoring lower on IQ/cognitive assessments

Question 55

bilingualism: early study on IQ - problems

Answer 55

○ Mainly conducted in the US; tests conducted in English § Difficulty w/ recent immigrants or recent speakers ○ Confounded w/ socioeconomics § Recent immigrant groups vs. those who'd been in the US for a while We still see the remnants: ○ Many believe raising a kid bilingual will be damaging for their cognition

Question 56

bilingualism: later, hallmark study on IQ

Answer 56

1961 - more evenly matched bilingual & monolingual samples - found that bilingual children were greater in cognitive abilities; seen to do better on tests - led to many studies looking at bilingualism and mental flexibility

Question 57

bilingualism: cognitive advantages

Answer 57

- perspective taking - executive function

Question 58

perspective taking - Director's Task experiment setup (bilingualism)

Answer 58

1. Sit child or adult in front of the diagram; toys in boxes, etc. a. Some squares are blocked off on the back b. Director who's sitting in back has some items blocked of from pov 2. Director asks, "can you give me the small, red car" a. From participants pov: the smallest red car is different from the smallest red car that the director's smallest red car b. Do they take the director's perspective? c. How long does it take them? d. Where do they look in this task

Question 59

perspective taking - Director's Task experiment finding (bilingualism)

Answer 59

bilingual are better than monolingual BUT: those who grow up in communities where there's a large amount of exposure to another language - Suggests that the bilingual advantages in perspective taking, you don't need to be fluent, but just being exposed in your community can convey some of those advantages

Question 60

perspective taking - Director's Task experiment conclusion (bilingualism)

Answer 60

You're often having to take other people's perspectives into account - May be more experience of taking other perspectives and mental states into account

Question 61

executive function (bilingualism)

Answer 61

ability to plan ahead; manage cog abilities; inhibit reactions; use executive control to govern behavior

Question 62

executive function: card sorting task (bilingualism)

Answer 62

- Starting with sorting things by color, and then switching to sorting things by shape ex: first sort pictures by color (a flower or truck), but then change the rules to sort by shape (disregard color of the shape) - Are you able to use a new rule to govern behavior?

Question 63

executive function: card sorting finding (bilingualism)

Answer 63

Bilingual children: better at Card Sorting task Monolingual: less likely to get the new rule correct

Question 64

executive function: card sorting conclusion (bilingualism)

Answer 64

growing up bilingual, you're constantly needing to switch up and alternate between different rules - You're getting practice on task switching - Carries into general cognitive abilities of cognition and task switching

Question 65

bilingualism: advantage or not?

Answer 65

They don't have an advantage for everything - No disadvantages for IQ; doesn't matter for overall intelligence, but rather specific cognitive rules - extend of advantages is still debated

Question 66

types of langauge

Answer 66

spoken and signed

Question 67

sign language: general facts

Answer 67

- 100-300 signed languages - Each has their own set of words, rules, and structure - share same properties of language - rules of form - rules of use - different registers and dialects

Question 68

signed languages: structure

Answer 68

- Also have phonemes ○ Finger shape ○ Where you place things (i.e. on the face, how far you extend your arm - Syntax - rules for how you can combine things together ○ You can have incorrect signs - Pragmatics/rules for use ○ Have different registers ○ Different dialects

Question 69

black ASL

Answer 69

Tends to use two hands for ASL

Question 70

signed language: patterns of acquisition

Answer 70

children exposed to signed language have similar patterns of acquisition to spoken language

Question 71

gestures

Answer 71

- pointing (first in development @10 months) - Symbolic or representational gestures ○ Thumbs up = its all good ○ Shaka near head = phone - Pantomime ○ Acting out something gestures - Beat gesture ○ Accompany speech ○ Gesture on beat to create emphases

Question 72

gesture reflects thought

Answer 72

a "window into what children know" - # of gestures indicates vocabulary acquisition

Question 73

gesture-speech mismatches

Answer 73

we might say something verbally with our words, but give a different thing with our gestures

Question 74

gesture-speech mismatches: what it means

Answer 74

- reflect verge of learning: children who produce mismatches benefit most from instruction on that task - They're starting to understand ○ With their hands: starting to express different ideas ○ words might be wrong but their motions are more similar to what's correct --> might be showing that they're on the verge of understanding

Question 75

gesture: considered language?

Answer 75

NO! it lacks the formal feature - No individual components that you can meaningfully combine to make communication - Not set rules and structure More broad, abstract system of communication than language

Question 76

mathematical equivalence

Answer 76

one of the most common and challenging errors in early math learning we want to make both sides equivalent - Tends to be really hard for kids, even into later elementary school - Predicts their later math performance ○ Likelihood of high school math grades ○ Likelihood of failing math - Foundational math - Likelihood of dropping out of high school

Question 77

mathematical equivalence: looking @ gesture

Answer 77

Looking at how kids explain what they're doing and the gestures they produce - When they get it wrong, they ask what they did to do their work - Sometimes: their work will be wrong but their words and gestures will match - Sometimes: their work will be wrong but their words and gestures do NOT match ○ In their hands, they seem to be acknowledging something on the right side of the equation, but don’t acknowledge it in their words

Question 78

mathematical equivalence: looking @ gesture findings

Answer 78

- children who gesture match have LOWER success post-training - children who gesture mismatch have HIGHER success post training Idea: what we're doing with our hands might reflect that we're starting to learn

Question 79

gestures: changing thought

Answer 79

can help to "lighten the load" in difficult tasks - when children gesture during learning, they remember more

Question 80

gesture limiting: experiment w/ adults

Answer 80

the adults who are allowed to use their hands when working through problems learn more than those who are forced to sit on their hands

Question 81

gesture vs. thought on learning experiment - conditions

Answer 81

3 conditions: taught children how to do mathematical equivalence with different techniques: Physical action: Teach them to either use physical action (physical numbers; instructed to pick them up and move them) Concrete: pantomime; gesturing as if you're picking them up, but not actually moving them Abstract: abstract representation of lumping things together, moving them around, etc.

Question 82

gesture vs. thought on learning experiment - findings

Answer 82

All conditions were good for learning - with the type of they child is trained with, they're all beneficial Once we get into problems where the action is the same but the problem is different (i.e. generalization), only those who had abstract training are able to succeed

Question 83

examined generalizability (gesturing to learn mathematical equivalence)

Answer 83

how well a child is able to apply learnings to different equation - You need to have a deeper, abstract understanding of equivalence abstract gesture can represent/apply to a broader set of things - More deeper, abstract principle - Can apply it to newer things