Studied by 0 people
Looks like no one added any tags here yet for you.
Innateness hypothesis
Humans are genetically programmed with the capacity to acquire language
Explains a universal grammar and the critical period
Critical period
A period in an individual's life, from birth to the onset of puberty, in which behavior must be acquired
Imitation theory
Children learn language by listening to the world around them and imitating what they hear (wug test supports this)
Reinforcement theory
Children learn to speak because they are praised or rewarded, heavily dependent upon adult responses
Active construction of a grammar theory
Children invent the rules of grammar themselves based on patterns they observe.
Connectionist theory
Children learn language through the creation of neural connections in the brain, expanding networks based on statistical frequency
Social interaction theory
The driving force behind language acquisition is social interaction, particularly parent-child interaction
Babbling
Occurs before a child starts to produce words and involves various stages of sound production
FIS effect
A child’s comprehension of a language is more advanced than their ability to produce language
Pre-linguistic stage
The period from 0-12 months before a child begins to use words, involving cooing and gestures.
2-3 mo: babbling (cooing- velar consonants)
4-6 mo: babbling (marginal- approx of adult-like sounds)
7-10 mo: babbling (reduplication/canonical- syllables repeatedly produced) + gestures
11-12 mo: babbling (variegated + jargoning- sound sequences w/adult like porosity) + gestures
First words
The emergence of the first word around 12 months, symbolization occurs when a word stands for something.
18 mo: symbols w/out referent being present
receptive vocab (approx 500 words) is larger than expressive vocab (approx 150-300 words)
Early Language stage
From 24-36 months, vocabulary grows rapidly (5 words per day), and children begin using syntax and semantic extensions
Pre-school language stage
The stage from 3-5 years where children develop more complex sentences, expand vocabulary significantly, and enhance their understanding of grammar and social language use.
receptive vocab (approx 3000 words) is still larger than expressive vocab (approx 2000 words)
uses morphological overgeneralization of past tense verbs and plurals
School-age Language
From 5-18 years, children show general growth in language areas and begin to develop literacy skills.
Simultaneous bilingualism
Acquisition of two languages from birth, before the age of 3.
Sequential bilingualism
Acquisition of a second language after the age of 3, common for children with differing home and majority languages.
Unitary system hypothesis
Multiple languages share a common cognitive space during acquisition and eventually split into separate systems.
Dual system hypothesis
The theory that bilingual individuals maintain separate linguistic systems for each language, allowing for distinct processing and usage.
Code-switching
The use of phonological, lexical, morphosyntactic, or pragmatic patterns from two languages in the same utterance or conversation.
Intra-utterance code switching
switching between languages that occurs within a single utterance, often involving the use of different linguistic elements from both languages.
Ex) I have been able ensenar Maria leer
Inter-utterance code switching
alternating between two languages at the level of separate utterances or sentences, often in different conversational turns.
Ex) Oye, dime. I need to know
Home language stage of bilingualism
Child uses L1 in L2 environment
Nonverbal/silent stage of bilingualism
Child accumulates receptive knowledge of L2
Telegraphic + formulaic stage of bilingualism
Impression that the child can speak L2 but w/limited use of original phrases
Language productivity stage of bilingualism
Child uses own nouns, verbs, etc. to form sentences in L2
Nature
children are born as a blank slate and are shaped by their environment
Nurture
children are born with basic principles and expand upon them
Fronting/backing
sounds produced in the front (t,d) move to the back and vice versa (k,g)
Ex.) tea —> /ki/
Stopping
word-initial fricatives/affricates become stops
Ex.) cheese —> /tiz/
Final consonant deletion
Ex.) cute —> /kju/
Language attrition (BL dev. phenomena)
loss of L1 when learning L2
Language stabilization (BL dev. phenomena)
L2 plateaus
Language transfer/influence (BL dev. phenomena)
when aspects of langs (morphosyntactic and phonological) influence each others pronunciation/structure
