What is language

Question 1

What is Neuroscience

Answer 1

The part of science that studies the structures and functions of the nervous system (Central & peripheral

Question 2

What is the frontal lobe’s function?

What are the parts of the frontal lobe and their function?

Answer 2

Function:

• fine and complex motor activites (speech output, exectuve functioning (problem solving)
• FASD, learning disabilities

Parts:

• Prefrontal cortex: regulator of depth and feeling
• primary motor cortex/premortor cortex: intricate motor movements of body parts

Question 3

What is Broca’s area and where is it located?

Answer 3

Broca’s is in the motor cortex (in the frontal lobe) and is “responsible” for the fine coordination of language production

loose grammar and cuntion words
I’m going to the beach saturday vs. beach saturday

Question 4

What is the occipital lobe?

Answer 4

involved in vision, processing visual info and reception

Question 5

What is the parietal lobe?

Answer 5

language functions, perception and integration of sensory

comprehend oral and written language

mathematical solving

for reading and naming

Question 6

What is the temporal lobe?

Answer 6

processing auditory info and language comprehension

Question 7

What is Heschl’s gyrus? and where is it?

Answer 7

small left temporal lobe region

specialized for processing speech, particulalry its temporal (time) aspects

Question 8

What is Wernicke’s Area/ Receptive Speech Area?

What is Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 8

point for receiving and integrating association from throughout the brain

important for language comprehension and production

Aphasia is problems understanding or creating written or spoken language

Question 9

What is the connectionist models?

Answer 9

to understand how the brain processes work, you need to understand the connections between the areas of the brain.

• numerous areas

Question 10

what is phonological processing?

Answer 10

occurs in Broca’s area - phonetic breakdown into phonemes

Broca’s, Heschl’s, & Wernicke’s inter connected in phonological processing, auditory, and language comprehension

Question 11

what are sensitive periods?

what are the features?

Answer 11

critical time frame during which sensory or motor functions grow and change: signt brain, etc

Features:

• practice
• periods of risk and opportunity
• expsosure

Question 12

What is neural plasticity

Answer 12

brains malleability to take on other skills

younger = more neural placticity and therefore recover quicker

Question 13

Label the brain

Answer 13

• Frontal lobe
• temporal lobe
• parietal lobe
• occipital lobe
• horizontal axis
• vertical axis
• Somatomotor cotex
• somatosensory cortex
• medulla oblongata
• spinal cord
• cerebellum

Question 14

rostral

dorsal

caudal

ventral

anterior

superior

posterior

inferior

Answer 14

up

left

down

right

front

top

back

bottom

Question 15

what is myelin sheath and myelinization

Answer 15

rapid relay of nerve impulses

growth of myelin sheath (slow process)

Question 16

What is the imitation Theory?

Who is the researcher?

Answer 16

learn language threw imitating adults

B.F. Skinner

Question 17

Who challenged the imitation thoery?

Whatevidence did he come up with?

What was his notion?

Answer 17

Noam Chompsky

Evidence:

a. young children are able to follow proper grammar rules
b. generative and productive quality of language (saying things they’ve never heard/said before)
c. young children can use proper word order

Notion of LAD: language acquisition device - born with (biological) uniqe capacity to learn language and grasp rules of grammar

Question 18

What is the interactionist theory?

Answer 18

how environment and biolgical interact

Question 19

What are intonation patterns and what does it help tell us?

Answer 19

David Crystal

intonation carries meaning

helps us know when language development begins

Question 20

What is cry analysis and what does it help tell us?

Answer 20

Barry Lester

Crying is first effective form of communication

1. Different cries = different physiological patterns
2. How caretakers responds impact on early language development.
3. Cries have prosodic qualityies - change in intonation, ptich and melody
4. Peter Wolfe: cries as experimental manipulation: watch reaction of adults

when language development begins

Question 21

What is turn-taking during nursing and what does it help tell us?

Answer 21

Harry McGurk

precursor for turn taking in communication

Baby sucks - passive; pause - active

when language development begins

Question 22

What is categorical Perception? and what does it help children come to recognize?

Answer 22

peter Eimas; Janet Werker

How do infants segment process speech and determine what categories are important?

• Strong Biologial Component (inheritance) They are universal language Perceivers: at 4 days old they know what sounds are important

Recognize that speech they hear is actually made up of separate units

Question 23

What are the rules of language - Grammar?

What is Jerome Bruner’s idea in regards to rules of language?

Answer 23

• Syntax: word order in a sentence
• Semantics: word meaning
• Pragmatics: how to use words in socially appropriate ways (please, thank you)

Jerome Bruner and the Holistic Approach: children learn all 3 of the above together

Question 24

How does social interaction impact language learning?

Answer 24

• Parents reaction to child’s intentionality
• First Words = those useful for social interaction
• We pull intentionality out of precommunicative children - asking baby questions and commenting on sounds
• mother-child book reading: allows analysis of sentences over and over again and may allow to learn rules of grammar
  
  • repetition –> reinforces/strengthens the neural pathways–> leading to automaticity –> cogntivie resourecs available for application and expansion of leart skill in new envronments and new learning
• scaffolding: creating a structure environment we create a scaffold on which the child can acquire language through social interaction

Question 25

Which comes first language or cognitions - beliefs?

Answer 25

1. Andrew Meltzoff: young children language and cognitive develop simultaneiously 2. Catherine Nelson: older children - cognition is crucial for language learning (understanding) 3. Eve Clarke: Construction of compound nones: must know how and when to apply rules

Question 26

What does Dan Solbin say about cross-cultural linguistics?

Answer 26

* Language Universals and universal grammar (UG): universal language rules that govern language behaviour of all chrildren at certain stages of development * Overgenralization: know rule but not exception * teach run go --\> teached runned goed * use correct form before they are taught * segmentation and classifcation - patterns of applying the underlying rules of language

Question 27

What is the goal of the child?

Answer 27

To learn how to communcate

Question 28

What is language?

Answer 28

* communicate, express * collective understanding * share *

Question 29

Why is there difficulty understanding/producing language?

Answer 29

* bilingual * inexposure * structural issues * developmental problems *

Question 30

Language is conventional?

Answer 30

* Strict set of rules, * conventions must be followed * specific, systematic, and rule governed

Question 31

Language is a representational tool?

Answer 31

* tool to think and communicate * Brain uses language as a tool to store information, plan, problem solve, and memorize * therefore, * cognition and language become intertwined

Question 32

What is communication?

Answer 32

* giving or receiving info * conventional system * spoken * gestures * lingustic (follows rules) * non linguistic (sarcasim)

Question 33

What are the 4 basic processes of communication?

Answer 33

* Formation * Transmition * Reception * Comprehension * --\> Sender: Formation & Transmition --\> --\> Shared Means: speech, sign gesture, writing --\> --\> Receiver: reception & Comprehension --\> --\> Feedback: active and dynamic --\> sender

Question 34

How do children learn to talk? In order to master the complicated communication system, the language learning child has to:

Answer 34

1. analyze and segment acoustic signal of speech as it is produced by others 2. Identify the units of language (phones, morephemes) 3. master all of the complexities of the intricate articulatory patterns necessary for producing individual phonemes and sequences of phonems 4. master the set of phonological rules: combinging phones 5. Acquire vocabulary (lexemes) 6. map all of these lexemes individually 7. Acquire set of morphological and syntactic rules 8. master the carious communcative functions of language

Question 35

Strands that are woven into skilled reading are? What is skilled reading?

Answer 35

* Language Comprehension --\> increasingly strategic * _Background knowledge_: facts * _Vocabulary:_ links, bredth * _Language structure:_ syntax, semantics * _Verbal Resoning_: inference * Literacy knowledge: genres * Word Recognition --\> increasinging automatic * _Phonological Aareness:_ syllables, phonems * Decoding: speaking, sound correspondence * Sight recogniton: familiar words * Skilled reading: fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension * _oral language_

Question 36

What is a theory? Why are they important?

Answer 36

* claim or hypothesis that is repeatedly tested - consistent evidence supports a theory it becomes accepted part of the knowledge base * Important: used to make predictions about natureal phenomena

Question 37

What are the componets of a theory of language?

Answer 37

language development/acquisition has these key components: * it must describe a behaviour * generate a testable hypothesis * provide explataion of the acquisition process (none of the language theories satisfy all these requires)

Question 38

What are the questions an adequate thoery must explain?

Answer 38

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

Question 39

What do infants bring to the task of language learning?

Answer 39

* Nativists versus Empericitis * Nativists: nature: knowledge doesn't come from experience alone - Descartes * Empiricists: nurture: mind is blank slate, comes from experiences - Locke

Question 40

What mechanisms drive language acquisition

Answer 40

The processes by which language develops: * Domani specific: processes dedicated soley to language comprehension and production * Domain General: language comprehension and production are the results of general processess used to achieve a vairety of taks (problem solving)

Question 41

What types of input support the language-learning system?

Answer 41

* Internal: hearing more and more language and using knowledge to drive their own language development * * external: social interactions provided by environment increase child's knowlege of communcation conventions

Question 42

What are the nativist Inspired Theoriies?

Answer 42

- Universal Grammar and Noam Chompsky - Modularity Theory and Jerry Fodter

Question 43

What is universal grammar and the limitations?

Answer 43

* Noam Chompsky * _UG:_ System of grammatical rules and categoreis common across all the worlds language * All children have _LAD_: mechanisms with acces to the grammatical rules of all human language (UG) * universal component of language learnning * learn language quickly/efficiently because they know an outline of what languages look like * role of environemtn is just to trigger language acquisition processes * Limitations: untestable; provided feedback on grammaticality of utterances by the environment - parents responses are different: correct vs. agrammatical utterances

Question 44

What is the modularity Theory?

Answer 44

* Jerry Fodter * language is organized as highly specific modules in the brain (interactive to produce combined functions)

Question 45

What are the empiricist inspired theories?

Answer 45

- behaviourists and skinner - cognitive theory/ constructivists and piaget - social interactionist theory and Vygotsky

Question 46

What is the behaviourist theory? and limitations?

Answer 46

* Skinner * learning is result of envornmental foreces * emphais on function of language * behaviour is shaped through reinforcement * limitations: * less often provide feedback - more so for "truth value"

Question 47

What is the cognitive theory/constructivist theory and what are the limmitations?

Answer 47

* Piaget * language is constructed by the child based on inborn abilities but operates on info provided by environment * active particpants in learning, * sequence of cognitive developemnt determines sequence of language development * change in their knowledge through assimilation and accomodation * limitations * cognitive abilites don't match up to language abilities *

Question 48

What is the social interactionist theory and limitations?

Answer 48

* Vygotsky * children and environment are dynamic system * learning occurs through social interaction and scaffolding (removed or changed) * ZPD * limitations * relatively new theory, untested * CDS: necessary? critical?

Question 49

What are the empiricist nativist inspired thoeries?

Answer 49

- connectionists/info processing and david rimelhart

Question 50

what is the connectionist (info processing) theory and limitations?

Answer 50

* David Rimelhart * approximate inner workings of brain * model and stimulate mechanisms for input * pathways model dendrites and axons that connect neurons to the brain * Nodes receive input * connections between nodes vary in strength - continuously transform in response to received input * Limitations * not learning through feedback; its innate * doesn't take into account social aspect

Question 51

What are individual and sex-related differences?

Answer 51

* everyone's brains are slightly different (LH dominant for most) * Small no. of LH dominant and women - language laterized in RH * women are more likely to show bilateral laterization * later language learners rely more on RH * early experiences affect how brain is wired * development is non linear; its rapid and extensive and negatively influenced by stress

Question 52

* what the human brain does best is learn * each new stimulation, experience, or behviour results in some rewiring * to our brain we are either * doing something we already know how to do * or we are doing something new