English Language CLA flashcards : Theories

Broomfield

“Learning to speak is the greatest intellectual feat any of us is ever required to perform”

Halliday

Classification of the functions in utterances of a child

• instrumental = fulfil a need on the part of the speaker

• Heuristic = used to learn and explore the environment

• Imaginative = making things up using imagination to explore

Tomasello (2003)

Children learn through their interactions with others

• pattern recognition, imitation and social interaction

• construction grammar = use of cognitive processes to form linguistic structures based on experiences with meaningful communication

Dore

categorisation of the speech functions of 12-18 month old children based on motivations

• labelling = utterances that don’t seek a respose

• protesting = shouting at something unwanted

• practising = words out of context, just for practise

• requesting = (action) asking for help, (answer) asking a question

Cognitive Functionalism

Language development is grounded in cognitive processes and communication needs.

It focuses on language use to achieve social and practical goals, an instrument of communication learned by use in real life situations.

Incremental learning = experience and repeated exposure

Challenges to Cognitive Functionalism

• cannt explain complex grammatical constructions

• doesn't deal wiht the ‘poverty of the stimulus’

• is it universal?

Social interaction (Vygotsky)

Social elements to learning language, children will want to learn from those willing to communicate

• children observe others interacting

• learn best when problem solving

• interaction builds the structure of language before words can be produced

Challenges to Social interaction

• not possible to identify links in structures used by parents and the appearance in a child utterances

• caregiver speech often non-standard (hindering)

Nativism/Innateness (Chomsky)

Children are born with the capacity for language

• LAD = programmed for language, automatic understanding and production of language, provides innate ability to discover grammatical rules through trail and error

Challenges to Nativism (Innateness)

• Abstract concept = not found scientifically

• bases on linguistic competence

• no emphasis on competence of adults

Behaviorism (Skinner)

• language learning is cause and effect, response to stimulus

• imitation

• learnt like any other habit or behavior

• independent system, separate from cognition

Challenges to Behaviorism

• children don't pick up correct forms of imitation

• grammatical stuctures aren't assimilated through imitation

• production of structures that they havent heard

Cognitivism (Piaget)

Language can only be used once it is understood and plays a primary role in development of emotional and behavioral responses

• language acquisition = Intellectual development

• children will only produce structures that they understand

Piaget

sensorimotor stage = learning about physical words, developing motor skills

pre operational stage = think of symbols and form words from ideas

concrete operational stage = logic and reasoning, ideas of others

formal operations stage = fully developed complex language system

Challenges to Cognitivism

• difficult to make connections between cognitive and linguistic developmental stages

• difficult to study the ‘black box’ of the brain

Bellugi (1967)

Stages of Negation

• 2-3 word stage = ‘no’ at start or end of utterances

• 3-4 word stage = ‘no/not’ moves inside the utterances, pronoun use, telegraphic

• 5+ words = Standard form, post telegraphic

Klima and Bellugi (1966)

Stages of interrogative acquisition

• initially expressed prosodically with rising intonation

1. reliance on intonation

2. including auxiliaries, non standard order

3. grammatically correct and imbedded questions

Nelson (1973)

Children's first 50 words studied from 18 children and put into 4 categories:

1. naming things or people

2. actions/events

3. describing/modifying things

4. personal/social words

Words that had meaning to a child more likely to appear in their vocabulary

Aitchison (1987)

Stages of vocabulary acquisition

1. Labelling = link between sounds and the object they refer to

2. packaging = understanding a words range of meaning

3. network building = grasping connections between words

Speed of learning influenced by both abilities and environments

Cruttenden (1979)

Overgeneralizations = over application of grammatical rules which show how children rely on processes like pattern recognition

Chomsky

Universal Grammar = set of principles which all languages build on

Stored in the LAD, enabling acquisition and production of speech

Three things combined into UG:

• ability to learn language

• all languages have certain things in common

• specific linguistic knowledge - born knowing categories

Newport, Gleitman and Gleitman (1977)

The motherese Hypothesis = idea that restrive properties of caretaker speech play a casual role in language acquisition

• BUT parents may imitate babies instead and parents aren't the only influential figures in a childs life, characteristics of parentese may vary

Clarke-Stewart (1973)

Pre speech interaction

Emphasis on the significance of parent-child interactions in promoting vocabulary development

• quality of interaction= varied and responsive conversation (diverse vocab, questions)

• frequency and engagement= regular and meaningful conversations

• contextual learning= incorporation of language into everyday activities (describing actions or naming objects)

Ferguson (1978)

BTR and CDS

Parens will exhibit when taking to children to aid language acquisition:

• reduplication

• non-phonemic sounds

• parataxis

• higher pitch

• exaggerated intonation

• repition

• pet names (hypocorism)

• liquid substitutions

Bruner

LASS = Language acquisition support system

scaffolding = structured support from adults to provide to children as they learn new skills, tailored to their ability and gradually removed

Modelling = Interation with adults and expanding on their language use

Recasting= correcting children supportively which introduces new vocab or grammar

Vygotsky

MKO’s = anyone who interacts with a child who has more experience in speech

Zone of proximal development (ZPD) = gap between what can achieved independently and what they can with a MKO

• language plays a central role in cognitive development, communication and thinking

• social interaction= learning catalyst

Bard and Sachs (Jim)

A hearing baby born to deaf parents who was only exposed to TV and Radio

• his speech was severely limited until he attended speech therapy

• indicated the importance of verbal interaction

Genie (1970)

A girl kept in social isolation and only discovered at age 13

• she was severely behind on language, only being able to make noises but mainly mute

• used to text the critical period theory and see if a nurturing environment could make up for trauma

• she acquired some language but never properly grasped grammactical structures

• eventually put into the foster care system and her language regressed meaning she never acquired language

Lenneberg

Crital period Hypothesis

The idea that there is an ideal window of time to learn language, after it becomes significantly more difficult

Bates

Emergentism = language emerges from the interaction of cognitive development and environmental input

• Children rely on general cognitive abilities such as memory and problem solving to acquire

Brown, Cazden and Bellugi

Truth Value vs Reinforcement

Parents will respond to the truth value of a childs utterance rather than focusing on the standard of the grammar

Macnamara

Children will read meaning into social situations and have an inmate capacity to do so

This is instead of them having an inbuilt language learning device that makes them capable of learning a language

Brown

Study on children acquisition of morphology

He noticed 14 grammatical structure that started to appear at certain ages

• had a similar order of acquisition between children, suggested a universal pattern

Garvey

Sociodramatic play = children will adopt roles and identities, acting out storylines

• allows them to practice Negation and social interaction

• has explicit rules that reflect real world behavior

Crystal

Receptive vocab = lexemes a child can understand, 20-50 words before being able to say 1

Productive vocab = lexemes a child can produce, may be in a non-standard manner

Rescorla

Over-extension = overgeneralization of meaning, linking things with physical or functional resemblance

Under-extension = very narrow meaning, less common

Berko and Brown (1960)

Fis Phenomenon

• concept of phoneme perception occurring earlier than the ability of the child to produce those phonemes

• Child understands the target pronunciation without being able to say it

• Rejecting the word ‘Fis’ from adults

Berko Gleason

The Wug test - research tool designed to test acquisition and application of the morphological system

• researcher shows the children pictures of imaginary animals and teaches the child a nonsense name for them

• Very young children will state the plural for this animal as “two wug” as they become confused

• Children aged 4-5 will answer with “two wugs”

  It also includes questions that explore a child’s understanding of verb inflections and the possession, with additional items to investigate how children handle common derivational bound morphemes (such as -er)

Pinker

Principles and Parameters theory

• By hearing the principles and parameters of a native language, children can define and retain the rules