PSY4313, Chapter 10: Language II: Language Production and Bilingualism

speaking

producing language using mouth or oral features, with time pressure, cannot be revised

writing

producing language using hands, more relaxed, open for revision

three words per second

rate of language production

900 milliseconds

how long it takes to recognize, retrieve, and produce a name of an object

independent access perspective

we do not acquire all kinds of information (grammatical, semantic, and phonological) at exactly the same time

every 500 sentences

how often we make speech errors

slips-of-the-tongue

errors in which sounds or entire words are rearranged between two or more different words

sound errors

sounds in nearby words are exchanged; snow flurries → flow snurries; unlikely letter sequence is not often made

word errors

words are exchanged; writing a letter to my mother → writing a mother to my letter; most likely to be committed

factors that influence slips-of-the-tongue errors

1. being in the same category

2. word errors are most often

3. unlikely letter sequence is less committed

Gary Dells’ theory for speech errors

based on the connectionist approach and spreading activation; each element of a word activates a sound element; incorrect items are sometimes too highly activated and errors happen

Levelt’s stages of sentence production:

1. message planning

2. grammatical encoding (word choice and general structure)

3. phonological encoding

these stages happen so fast that they overlap in time

message planning

mentally planning the gist, or the overall meaning of the message.

grammatical encoding

words necessary to convey the planned message are selected, and the correct morphology is added

phonological encoding

converting the planned utterance into a sound code, which guides the correct movements of the mouth and vocal tract during speaking

prosody

melody of speech production in terms of intonation, rhythm, and emphasis; makes speech production more complex; can be used to clarify an ambiguous message (emphasizing the meaning)

discourse

language units larger than a sentence; when we speak, we typically produce this, not just a single word

narrative

type of discourse in which someone describes a series of actual or fictional events

storytellers

have a specific goal, do not completely pre-plan organization, choose their words carefully, and more entertaining

six parts of the narrative

1. a brief overview of the story

2. a summary of the characters and setting

3. an action that made the situation complicated (conflict)

4. the point of the story

5. the resolution of the story

6. the final signal that the narrative is complete

gestures

visible movements of any part of the body used to communicate; the mental image’s witness (Calbris)

iconic gestures

gestures with a form that represents the concept about which a speaker is talking; manually simulating the event

deictic gestures

pointing to some object or location while speaking; often accompanied by words such as “this” or “that”

beat gestures

matches the speech rate and prosody, helping the speaker maintain flow, but do not convey specific information.

spontaneous motor movement of hands

can help you remember the word you want to produce; when verbal system cannot retrieve a word, a gesture can sometimes help activate the relevant information

facilitating learning

when an avatar gestured during the mathematics lesson, students solved related math problems more quickly

discussing a concept easier to describe with body movements

we produce gestures rather than just words, especially when we had previous experience with relevant physical activity

intepreting better a speaker’s intended meaning

makes communication easier; speaker uses fewer words, listener process fewer words; gestures increase listener’s understanding

conveying information not explicitly stated in speech

when speakers gesture, they may be transmitting information they didn’t know they were transmitting, which influences the new learner’s behavior

embodied cognition

emphasizes that people use their bodies to express their knowledge; connection between motor system and the way we process spoken language (same brain area)

pragmatics

social rules and world knowledge that allows speakers to successfully communicate messaged to other people

common ground

when conversationalists share similar background knowledge, schemas, and perspectives, necessary for mutual understanding;
become more skilled in communicating efficiently by collaboration

directives

sentence that asks someone to do something

direct request

resolves the interpersonal problem very obviously; we typically state a request in a relatively brief, but clear manner

indirect request

uses subtle suggestions to resolve interpersonal problem; people need to be strategic decision-makers in social interactions to avoid consequences

frame

our mental structures that simplify realty; what we construe as facts; language structures our thinking

when people have different views, it’s difficult to talk with them, not sharing a common ground

implications in writing

• few research, more on children’s writing

• adults and employed people write more

• we write in isolation

• we write to communicate to our intended audience

• takes more time, more complex syntax

implications in speaking

• more likely to refer to yourself

• interact more with listeners

• better opportunity to establish common ground

three phases of writing

1. planning

2. sentence generation

3. revising

often overlap, all components strain the limitations of attention

working memory

brief, immediate memory for current processing and coordination of ongoing mental activities; central role in writing; involves phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad in writing

phonological loop

during writing, students required significantly more time to remember the syllables

visuospatial sketchpad

visual part: visual information is relevant when you are trying to define a concrete word, as you are likely to create a mental image
spatial part: writing does not require to emphasize locations

prewriting

begin a writing project by generating a list of ideas; students differ in quality; good writers spends high quality time in this phase

outlining

helps you sort interrelated ideas into an orderly, linear sequence to avoid overloaded attention

sentence generation

translating general ideas developed during planning to create actual sentences of the text

misconception about writing

Students often believe that their writing will sound more sophisticated if they use lengthy words. However, contrary to popular belief, people judge writers to be more intelligent if their essay uses shorter words.

writing errors vs speaking errors

writing errors are usually confined to a spelling error within a single word, whereas speaking errors often reflect switches between words

research on revision stage

college students devote little time in this stage; revising one sentence at a time; overlooking errors and less likely to identify the source of the problem

proofreading

the final caution in revision phase; more accurate if done on someone else’s writing than your own

bilingual speaker

someone who is fluent in two different language

multilingual speaker

someone who speaks more than two languages

simultaneous bilingualism

learning two languages simultaneously during childhood

sequential bilingualism

native language is first acquired then a nonnative language (first language → second language)

more than half of people

statistics of bilingualism in the world; in some countries, at least two languages are commonly used

reasons for bilingualism

• home language (dialect) is different from the language used for school or business

• colonization

• studying in school

• growing up in homes where family members routinely used two languages (simultaneous)

bilingualism in schools

research shows that if a school values a child’s first language, they may become more fluent in English

attitudes and language proficiency

a positive attitude toward the people who speak the language is as important as aptitude and motivation;
learning their language also develops positive attitudes toward them

advantages of bilingualism

1. acquire more expertise in their native (first) language

2. more aware that the names assigned to concepts are arbitrary

3. perform better on concept-formation tasks and tests of nonverbal intelligence

4. better at following complicated instructions

5. excel at paying selective attention to relatively subtle aspects of a language task

6. more sensitive to some pragmatic aspects of language

7. typically develop signs of dementia later than monolingual adults with dementia

metalinguistics

knowledge about the form and structure of language; bilinguals perform better

Stroop test

emphasizing an item’s color than its meaning; bilinguals perform better

frontal lobe

executive attention network; a portion helped developed by bilingualism

disadvantages of bilingualism

1. subtly alter how they pronounce some speech sounds in both languages.

2. process language slightly more slowly, in comparison to monolinguals.

3. smaller vocabularies for words that are used in a home setting.

age of acquisition

age at which you learned a second language

critical period hypothesis

ability to acquire a second language is strictly limited to a period of your life (early puberty) wherein native-like fluency is not achievable anymore

vocabulary

age of acquisition is not related to this measure of language proficiency

phonology

sounds of a person’s speech; age of acquisition does influence;
children had minimal accents but adolescents or adults have stronger accents

grammar (English)

not consistently related; sometimes relate for people whose first language is different from English but there may be no relationship if similar to English

simultaneous interpreters

people who have high levels of proficiency in two or more languages, allowing them to translate across languages very quickly and accurately

translation

translating from a text written in one language into a second written language.

interpreting

changing from a spoken message in one language into a second spoken language.

sign language

changing between a spoken message in one language into a second language that is signed, or else from a signed message into a spoken form