Language development Flashcards
What are the 4 domains of language
1) Phonology: the sounds and rules by which they are combined (tone, stress, rhythm, prosody etc)
2) Semantics: words meanings and combinations such as vocabulary, understanding meaning of words
3) Grammar:
- Morphology: how words are put together (suffixes, prefixes)
- Syntax: rules that govern how words are combined to make sentences
Pragmatics: appropriate and effective communication, social use of language in contextually appropriate ways, the nonliteral meaning
Empiricism (behaviourism) theory
Skinner and bandura
- Language is learnt though imitation and reinforcement of correct use of language and correcting incorrect language
- Poverty of the stimulus argument
○ Children don’t hear all of the language they produce
○ Adults often give reinforcement for incorrect as well as correct utterances (pinker 1994)
Does not explain consistency in developmental trajectories despite the fact that not all children hear the same languages.
Nativist approach
Noam Chomsky
- Language is innate. This approach has a stress of focus on grammar
- Language acquisition device: innate system that allows child to produce and comprehend grammatically consistent sentences and contains universal grammar rules common to all languages
This is due to the fact that children acquire grammar almost spontaneously even with limited exposure to language
Nativist approach evidence
- Children learn language quickly and well, even when input is limited (deaf children)
○ In the absence of systematic sign language, children spontaneously develop communication systems with vocabulary and syntax
○ Showing they have a drive to create language- There is a time when children are biologically predisposed to learn language- there is a critical period
○ Genie never acquired normal language and had very minimal exposure yet still developed language at age 13 - The brain is specialised for language and younger children recover better from brain damage
○ Ther are areas in the brain dedicated for languages such as Broca’s area, Wernicke area
But they are not solely responsible for specific language functions.
- There is a time when children are biologically predisposed to learn language- there is a critical period
Evidence against nativist approach
- Other species are able to develop language and therefore it cannot be species specific
- When trained in sign language or using visual symbols animals are also able to acquire vocabulary (chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, parrots etc)
Sue Savage-Rumbaugh et al, chimpanzee acquired language and trained a mother in the use of symbols to communicate and could find the object and make sentences
- When trained in sign language or using visual symbols animals are also able to acquire vocabulary (chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, parrots etc)
Critique of nativism/ Chomsky
- What constitutes universal grammar
- Grammar being innately determined is inconsistent with the learning and experimentation we see as children develop (errors children make suggest learning is gradual and not such instantly acquired)
- Ignores the quality of language input
- Does not consider social influences on language development
Is language development the result of interactions between child’s innate capabilities and experience of language/ learning
Are adults or children better at learning languages?
Proficiency determined by age acquisition or age at exposure
- In ASL (Singleton and Newport 2004)
- Foreign language learners (Hakuta et al 2003)
ERP and fMRI indicate second-language processing less lateralised in older than younger learners (Neville and Bruer 2001)
Social interactionist approach
Micheal Tomasello
- Drive to understand and communicate and rich language environment combine to create language learning
- Therefore social competency and language experiences shape development
Language development milestones before words
Sensitive to stress patterns, develop familiarity to phonemes and sounds.
Cooing (typically vowel sounds) and babbling (consonant and vowel)
Joint attention, where child and adult attend to the same object, often with language and labels is important for development
Pre verbal gestures include
1) Protodeclarative: bring object to others’ attention
2) Proimperative: getting someone else to do something
Development of words milestones
Semantic development: comprehension occurs before production (menyuk et al 1995)
And often a vocabulary spurt then begin to form networks of related concepts.
Fast mapping is where child starts with partial word knowledge and it is enhanced through repeated exposures (Swingley 2010)
May have over and under extensions Hoff 2005 and word coinages like plant man.
They then continue fast mapping., Begin learning through reading, more precise, flexible and context independent
Factors that influence vocabulary learning
Cognitive processing
- Working memory (phonological store)
- But the evidence for this is mixed
Strategies
- Mutual exclusivity bias: words refer to non-overlapping categories, if it is a different word, it must be a different thing
- Shape bias: initial sensitivity to shapes
- Syntactic bootstrapping: use syntax to learn new words
Social information
Early grammatical development
Comprehension is stronger than production
- Starts with telegraphic speech between 1.5 and 2 years (putting together 2 items in a sentence)
- Mostly nouns and verbs (eat cake)
Morphemes are also developed: small markers that change the meaning of sentences (suffixes, prepositions, articles)
Overegulisation errors, where rules are applied without appropriate exceptions (breaked, foots)
