Language Development

Question 1

Universal ear

Answer 1

• Babies born with it but gradually tunes into the sounds that matter for their language

Question 2

Babbling

Answer 2

2 months - random noises
10 months - sounds like language
Pointing important to them

Question 3

Dare Baldwin

Answer 3

• when hearing a new word, babies look at the speaker to see what object they’re looking at (JOINT ATTENTION - social cues to understand what words mean)

Question 4

Pragmatic functors

Answer 4

“bye bye”, not naming things, important socially

Question 5

One-word stage

Answer 5

• 1-1.5years
• Babies mostly point and say single nouns, “chair”, “dog”

Overextension error: Baby calls a ball a moon as it’s round (too broad)
Under extension error: Baby calls family dog a dog, but doesn’t use that for other dogs (too narrow)

Question 6

Naming explosion

Answer 6

• suddenly learning 9 words a day), happens for two reasons:
  Nurture view: Kids learn from social interaction
  Nature view: Something happens at 18 months, so they can rapidly learn

Question 7

Overregularization Errors

Answer 7

• “Blowed up” instead of “blew up”
• Aged 3
• From 3-8, learn past tense etc

Question 8

Language learning

Answer 8

Nature (Innate ability):
- Language is in genes
- Overregularization errors support this as they happen without teaching
- supported by CHOMSKY

Nurture (Learned ability):
- Learned through experience/interaction
- Imitation of others (rewards/punishments), copying
- Supported by SKINNER

CHOMSKY THOUGHT TOO COMPLEX FOR IMITATION

Question 9

Nature (Innate)

Answer 9

• Developmental regularity (kids all over the world learn at a similar pace)
• Poverty of the input (Why do kids say blowed up when adults say blew up? Not copying?)

Question 10

CHOMSKY THEORY

Answer 10

• Innate, in genes
• LAD, children can learn quick but make some errors

Question 11

Genie case

Answer 11

Genie was abused, deprived of language.
Genie didn’t learn grammar, made persistent word order errors
Support the nature view