LIN200 First and Second Language Acquisition

How contested is mental grammar?

Very

When do children typically acquire the grammar of a language?

Age 6

When does most language acquisition occur?

In the first few years of life/development

What is the Mandarin TV Experiment?

Two groups of babies, one with social interaction and one without (adult reading a book vs. watching a TV)

What were the results of the Mandarin TV Experiment?

Group 2 had no learning of Mandarin phonemes — shows that babies need social interaction to learn language

Do hearing babies acquire language before birth?

By 8 months, a fetus’s heart rate increases more in response to their pregnant parent’s voice compared to a stranger’s voice (Kisilevsky et al. 2003)--they have some stores memory of their caregiver’s voice

What is high amplitude sucking?

A method used to study infant perception where babies suck on a pacifier to indicate their preference for sounds, revealing their ability to distinguish different sounds — pacifier is connected to a pressure transducer

When do babies start to lose their universal listening abilitlies?

After 6 months of age

What is the Werker & Trees study?

Wanted to see if babies whose L1 is English can recognize and discriminate English /ba/~/da/ and Hindi /da/~/da/

When was the Werker & Tees study?

1984

What was the result of the Werker & Tees study?

6 months — 80% successful at noticing English and Hindi contrasts

10 months — drops to ~50%

1 year — drops to 10% (average for English-speaking adults)

Why is there a discrepancy between phonology and phonetics in babies?

They develop phonology very quickly, but their bodies lack the ability/control of articulators so they can’t express phonology/mental grammar phonetically

What are the stages of linguistic development in babies?

1. Babbling (7-12 months)

2. One-Word (12-18 months)

3. Two-Word (18-30 months)

4. Telegraphic (24-48 months)

5. Adult Competence (6 years)

What is the babbling stage?

• Vowels and consonants develop first

• Reduplicated CV syllables (C usually voiced stop, V is a low vowel = [bababa], easy to articulate)

• Systematicity — exercising mental grammar

• Syllables have structure (onset + nucleus)

What is canonical babbling?

Babies produce repetitive, well-formed syllables containing a consonant and a vowel — shows there are strong links between phonemes and the speech motor system

What is the one-word stage?

• Words are referential (ex. [wawa] in direction of glass of water = water)

• 18 months old = ~50 words

• Similar across languages

• Often noun-like words, followed by adjectives and verbs

• Most common = mommy, daddy, milk, hot, uh-oh, no, hi, etc.

What is holophrastic speech?

One word stands in for complex ideas or whole sentences

What is the two-word stage?

• Begin to combine words to form mini sentences

• Combinations follow semantic relations between two words

What are some of the semantic relations seen in the two-word stage?

• Agent + action (ex. mommy kick)

• Posessor + possessed (ex. mommy’s ball)

• Entity + attribute (ex. ball red)

• Demonstrative + entity (ex. the ball)

• Action + location (ex. kick park)

*Basically combination of agent, action, posessor/possessed, entity, location, demonstrative, etc.

What is the telegraphic stage?

• Start producing more complex syntactic structures

• Not yet adult syntax

• Most lexical structures including nouns, verbs, some adjectives

What kinds of words/morphemes are dropped in the telegraphic stage?

Most functional words/morphemes (ex. copula, progressive, plural, pronouns, determiners, etc.)

What is the adult syntax stage?

• Full language development

• Possesses mature vocabulary

• Complex, meaningful sentences

• Complete mental grammar

*Usually around age 6

What is overextension?

The meanings of words are too general (or too inclusive) compared to the corresponding adult form

What is an example of overextension?

Apple might refer to apples, but might be overextended to tomatoes

What is underextension?

The meanings of words are too specific (or too exclusive) compared to the corresponding adult form

What is an example of underextension?

Kitty might be underextended to refer only to the pet Persian cat

What is overgeneralization?

Children apply grammatical rules too broadly, commonly to irregular forms

What is an example of overgeneralization?

Run —> ‘runned’

What do first words typically lack?

Grammatical morphemes (appear as base/root terms)

What is the order of morphemes added in children’s speech?

1. Present progressive -ing

2. Plural -s

3. Possessive -s

4. Past tense -ed

5. Third person singular -s

Why are English morphemes acquired in a particular order?

• Frequency in adult speech

• Perceptual salience

• Simple, transparent meanings

What is the Wug Test?

Showed that children could only correctly apply plural, past tense, progressive tense, etc. to novel words

What is ‘motherese’/’child-directed speech’/’caregiver speech’?

A specialized, simplified language when providing input to babies

What is an example of child-directed speech?

“Would you like it if Dad pushed you while you ride the train?” —> “Oh goody, now daddy push choochoo?”

How do different cultures engage in CDS?

Some do, some don’t, some don’t address their babies at all

What are two examples of children learning without CDS?

1. Inuit children in Canada

2. Mohawk children in Canada

What is was the study conducted on Inuit children in Canada by Allen?

• Children socialized to be silent with adults rather than verbally expressive

• Mothers don’t engage in vocal play

• Children surrounded by adults and older siblings who speak

What were the results of the Inuit children study?

• Child acquiring language when they know what they are being asked to do

• Still acquired language same way

How are Mohawk children in Canada taught langugae?

• Socialized to be and appreciated as conversational partners

• Interact with children at normal rate of speech (no CDS)

• Children still learn at same rates

What is true of bilingual children in society?

• More likely to be perceived as less intelligent

• More likely to be misdiagnosed with a developmental delay

How long do bilingual children take to acquire language?

• May take slightly longer (differences in quality of input)

• Catch up by age 10

What is neural plasticity in FLA and SLA?

Babies’ brains are more flexible than adults — keen to make new connections (makes it easier to learn new things)

What are metacognitive skills in FLA and SLA?

Adults are more conscious of language patterns than children (better able to memorize new vocab and morphology)

What is self-consciousness in FLA and SLA?

Adults more likely to be self-conscious about making mistakes than babies

What is input?

What goes in for language (ex. conversations, TV, books, social media, etc.)

What is output?

What is produced in language (ex. speaking, fluency, etc.)

What is intake?

What is understood and processed

How are input and intake different?

Input does not guarantee intake (e.g., noticing a new grammatical pattern)

How is proficiency determined?

• We get to decide what counts as proficient/fluent for our purposes

• General language standards exist, but not solid

• Tricky to define

What is positive transfer?

Overlaps between L1 and L2 might facilitate learning of L2 — easier learning

What is negative transfer?

Differences between L1 and L2 might impact learning of L2 — harder learning

What is an example of positive transfer?

ex. Japanese to English

Phonemes: /p/ and /b/ the same in both

• Lead to allophones [p] and [b] respectively

• Prediction for learning English —> positive transfer, facilitates learning

What is an example of negative transfer?

ex. Japanese to English

• Japanese: [ɹ] and [l] allophones of same phoneme —> /ɹ/

• English [ɹ] and [l] allophones of different phonemes —> /ɹ/ and /l/

• Prediction for learning English —> negative transfer, makes learning harder