Chapter 12 PPT - Language Skills in Adolescent and Adults

• cognitive growth continues ___

• _____ and _____ skills esp. continue to grow

• with aging, slow decline in ____comprehension, understanding ______ complex sentences 

• cognitive growth continues throughout life 

• VOCAB and PRAGMATICS skills esp. continue to grow 

• with aging, slow decline in lang comprehension, understanding syntactically complex sentences 

with aging:

• decrease in ______ - due to cognitive _____ or processing difficulties in ____ memory

• decrease in INFERENCING- due to cognitive overload or processing difficulties in WORKING memory

“MARK CAME INTO BED AFTER A NIGHTMARE”

Although ____factors have a greater influence on language as measured by formal testing and use, ____plays a greater role in language production and in daily use

genetic, environment

As children learn language, researchers believe they form models or ____of the language they are learning

These constructs are used for various ____tasks, such as oral language or listening comprehension

As children learn language, researchers believe they form models or of the language they are learning

These constructs are used for various language tasks, such as oral language or listening comprehension

study in aging, neuropsychology, and cognition (2024)

• assessed 125 participants ages 18-90 years old on tasks such as a picture naming game, describing a complex picture in 60 sec, and standard assessments of mental abilities 

• tested SPEED OF PROCESSING

most adults have jobs that require specific language skills—talking on the phone, writing, giving directives—or terminology, called _____ ____

• T/F : It is even possible to detect political orientation from the adult’s choice of terms

professional jargon

-true

Mature speakers of African American English (AAE) make _____alternations in dialect use characterized as changes within the dialect rather than dialect switching

• ______achievement is the strongest factor related to the less frequent use of AAE

systematic

educational

this 2024 study found that: 

• picture-naming ____ and accuracy ___ with age in all game conditions 

• older adults had increased ____ errors 

• speed at which subjects named pics predicted how fast they ____ in general— this was linked to ____ function 

• picture-naming speed and accuracy decreased with age in all game conditions 

• older adults had increased naming errors 

• speed at which subjects named pics predicted how fast they spoke in general— this was linked to executive function 

  • slow name =slow speak

in assessment of older adults include measures of _____ speed 

• will help predict ___ _____

measures of TALKING SPEED 

• helps predict COGNITIVE DECLINE

Bilingualism- 

• if a ch is exposed to language after age ____, they will have an accent

  • exposure before age 8 leads to better judgments of _____ correctness and native like accent 

• fluent bilingualism has great ____ and cognitive benefits for ch and adults

if a ch is exposed to language after age , they will have an accent

• exposure before age 8 leads to better judgments of grammatical correctness and native like accent

• fluent bilingualism has great linguistic and cognitive benefits for ch and adults 

research in Canada (Ellen Bialystok): 

• bilingual adults (french/english) had ___ - ___ years LATER ONSET of _____ than monolingual adults

• bilingual adults (french/english) had 5-7 years LATER ONSET of dementia than monolingual adults

foundations of literacy

• pleasure reading may ____ in adolescence, especially for ____

• biggest change in adolescents and adults is in ______ FUNCTION— ability to ____ actively with print and to read and read with ____

• pleasure reading may DECREASE in adolescence, especially for boys

• biggest change in adolescents and adults is in EXECUTIVE FUNCTION— ability to engage actively with print and to read and read with purpose 

Paper vs. Digital Books, Social Media, and Screen Time

•Posnick-Goodwin. The great divide: Print or digital? California Educator, 19(7), 37-39.

•Looked at the preferences of current students and research about ____ vs. ____ books

digital vs print 

Ponsnick-Goodwin:

• current middle school students said they preferred ____ to ___ books  for academics

• recent survey of college students: most prefer ____ to digital 

• retain more ____ with print; very distracted reading digitally 

• current middle school students said they preferred print to digital books for academics  

• recent survey of college students: most prefer print to digital 

• retain more info with print; very distracted reading digitally 

Naomi Baron Words Onscreen

• growth of e-books has _____ substantially 

• young adults in the US, Germany, and Japan overwhelmingly preferred ___to ____for academics (studying), assuming the cost of the books was the same 

( preference is international) 

• growth of ebooks has SLOWED

• young adults in the US, Germany, and Japan overwhelmingly preferred print to ebooks for academics (studying), assuming the cost of the books was the same 

Currently, more than half of US teens spend an average of 7 hours and 3 minutes of daily screen time. Considering the amount of sleep teenagers need, that's almost HALF of their waking hours. (2025)

T/F

in 2025: kids today are more anxious than ever, with increased rates of depression and suicide

cyberbullying is increasing

True 

______ _____: speaker is teaching information to others

• ch, adolescents, adults use greater ____ complexity during _______ _____in regular conversation 

  • greater use of ____ devices to provide continuity 

  • greater use of _____ clauses 

expository monologues

• ch, adolescents, adults use greater syntactic complexity during expository monologues than in regular conversation 

  • greater use of bridging devices to provide continuity 

  • greater use of dependent clauses

______ _____: comment on speaker's attitude toward content of the connected sentence 

ex: honestly, to my surprise, in my opinion

adverbial disjuncts 

_____ _____: cohesive and connective devices signaling a logical relationship between sentences 

• is it more common in literature or convo? 

adverbial conjuncts 

• more common in LITERATURE

to conclude, as a result of, nevertheless 

_______: ability to ___ idioms increase with age 

• some older ppl may have more difficulty in word ____and naming and use _____words such as thing in place of specific names 

• decrease in ____ memory

• SEMANTICS: ability to define idioms increase with age 

• some older ppl may have more difficulty in word retrieval and naming and use indefinite words such as thing in place of specific names 

• decrease in WORKING MEMORY

Cognitive-linguistic disorders most common in older adults:

• __BI

• _______ hemisphere brain damage 

• de___

TBI 

right

dementia

T/F

• teen utterances are contingent

  • adults use __ ___

    • this utterance includes some aspects of the preceding utterance but shifts the focus out of conern

true 

topic shading 

When compared to younger adults, seniors use more _____words, such as thing and one in place of specific names

• These deficits reflect accompanying deficits in working memory and, in turn, affect ability to produce grammatically complex sentences

indefinite 

Although the ability to access or recall words, especially newly learned ones, may rapidly decline for some after age _____, lexical items are not lost. In fact, older adults are as able as younger language users to ___words appropriately

70 

define

____ _____, which explain how or describe, are especially challenging because they require production that taps a speaker’s knowledge of the topic—however limited or extensive that may be

expository monologues 

The ___ and variety of your nouns and noun phrase types increased dramatically in ____ and continue to do so into adulthood

• Because older children do not repeat the same word over and over as do infants and toddlers, the greater density of nouns means more variety and higher linguistic complexity

density/adolescence 

narratives:

T/F older adults less accurate answering questions about narrative they just heard/retold 

increase in working memory

narratives of seniors have more words with more irrelevant content

• T

• F—opposite, decrease in working memory

• true 

T/F: Grammatical judgment is not merely an academic exercise. It is part of communication used to make judgments about a speaker’s SES, status, education, proficiency, primary language, and intelligence

true

______ as the collective stylistic characteristics of men and women is called, is well established by mid-adolescence

genderlect

speaking styles

• when speech is listener oriented and used on formal occasions they are using ___ ____

  • slower, more _____, greater variety in ____ range, more precise ____

clear speech

slower, more precise, greater variety in pitch range, more precise articulation

• Older adults may be less sensitive to the _____ presented in the text.

• Decline in working memory may also explain why the narratives of cognitively healthy seniors in their 70s and 80s have fewer ____in their utterances and fewer cohesive ___

• Although the narratives of older seniors contain more ___ and utterances than those of middle-age adults, they also have more _____content

• details presented in the text

• fewer CLAUSES in their utterances and fewer cohesive TIES

• more words and utterances but more irrelevant 

Text comprehension may consist of  which three levels

1. Surface text or wording

2. Meaning or content

3. ability to multitask while reading 

3.  Integration of the text with one’s own background knowledge

1, 2, 4

The overwhelming majority of teen utterances are contingent on—that’s related to—the _____utterance. In other words, the adolescent conversation hangs together

previous

T/F younger and older adults do not seem to differ in their ability to integrate the text 

• a difference does exist in the ability to process the ____ text and meaning, with ____ adults preforming less well than _____

true 

• a difference does exist in the ability to process the surface text and meaning, with older adults preforming less well than younger

Children must acquire relevant social and pragmatic skills before they can develop distinct speaking styles. More specifically, they must be aware that they can adjust their speech to help a listener understand what they are trying to say