Language Acquisition and Development Exam 1 Dr. Blake

Language

an agreed upon system of communicating thoughts, ideas, and feelings through arbitrary written, spoke, or signed symbols

-involves more than one person

How many languages are in the world?

Over 7,000

(many are dying)

T/F: All forms of communication are language

False

(but can be a bridge to the language)

T/F: Gestures and picture are not language

True

Symbols

to convey a thing that exists (words are symbols for objects)

Referent

what the symbol is conveying

5 features of language

1.syntax

2.phonology

3.morphology

4.semantics

5.pragmatics

Phonology

a system of sounds within a language

(42-45 distinct sounds in English)

Minimal Pair

two words that differ by only one sound

ex) Bet vs. bit

phoneme

the smallest unit of sound that is capable of distinguishing meaning in a language

digraph

two letters to make one sound

ex) ch, sh

trigraph

three letters to make one sound

ex) waTCH

phonemic awareness

awareness of the phonemes of your language

-comes from listening/daily life

syntax

the system for combing words into sentences in a language

dialect

a variation from the standard in a language

-varies in all 5 areas of language

consonants

sound produced by partial to complete restriction of air in vocal tract

(tongue gets in the way)

vowels

voiced sounds produced by relatively minimal restriction of air in the vocal tract

morphology

the system of forming words in a language

morpheme

smallest MEANINGFUL unit of sound in a word

ex) dogs dog+s--->s has meaning to give #

free morphemes

can stand alone

bound morphemes

must be attached to other morphemes

semantics

the system of find and creating meaning of words and sentences

world knowledge

our experiences and understanding of life events that occur with us and around us (comes first)

word knowledge

the definition that we associate with spoken, written, or signed symbol

Steps for World/Word Knowledge

1. Initial world and word knowledge is rooted in our experiences

2. Word knowledge refined through interactions

3. World knowledge develops from word knowledge

pragmatics

the system of using language appropriately to achieve social ends

Pragmatics includes speakers:

-selecting appropriate form

-abiding by assumed rules

-following conversational rituals

Code switching

switching language/dialect in conversation

nonlinguistic cues

gestures used in speech (smiles/facial expression)

paralinguistic codes

embedded in the language, including intonation and stress

deficit approach

comparing dialogues to the standard

(dealing with dialect)

sociolinguistic approach

all dialects are valuable/equally important

metalinguistic knowledge/skills

knowledge having to do with language

ex) when kids learn to read

ex) analyzing sounds in a word

register

formal vs. informal; how language varies according to situation

theory

a system of ideas, backed by evidence, that can be used to explain or predict something

-not always right

-they change

-based on available data

First Language Experiment

developed by Psammetichus of Egypt. Believed that the real/true language resided in everyone at birth, but is suppressed by other languages as we develop/interact. NOT TRUE. isolated two babies in the desert until they said the first spoken word "bekes"

Victor the wild child

discovered in France, was a feral child, isolated for 12 years, did not learn language though did understand

Critical period

from birth to puberty. child has to be exposed during this time or it is too late to learn language

Baby Biographies

1880-1920 was a fad for parents to observe and document language development of children. Showed trends in language development that we still see today

-lack of control subjects

-does not tell NORMAL age for producing sounds, only patterns

protoword

early word spoken by child that does not sound like and adult word

Normative Study

focuses on ONE questions and would observe 200-300 children and would develop data

-is controlled

-large sample size

-repeated

Speech Perception Studies

how do children distinguish sounds? How early can the brain distinguish these sounds? what part of the brain does this?

-infants are born with the flexibility to learn any language

-child can perceive different phonemes at 8 months but not by 12 months

Language comprehension studies

how much language do babies understand? When? How is it relation to other skills?

Longitudinal study

takes place over long period of time

Expressive language studies

first pronouns, first words, grammar development, expressing oneself, how to encourage expression

Behaviorist

-behavior is determined by physical forces from the -outside NOT from within

-nurture NOT nature

-BF Skinner belief in stimulus/response

LEARNED

empiricism

we have no knowledge other than that which comes from our experiences and senses

Generativist (Innatist) Theory

-Chomskyan revolution

-people are hard wired for language (LAD), we are born with it

-children make use of universal grammar system to generate infinite number of utterances

-only required language input

PASSIVE

Constructivist

-Piaget: Child's thinking development determines language development

-child does more with language input as brain develops

-child directed speech important

DOES SOMETHING IN BRAIN/COGNITIVE

Social Interactionist

-language comes from social interaction

-social communication is important

-social/cognitive abilities facilitate language ability

INTERACTION

Connectionist/Emergentism

-language emerges as our brains make sense of language input

-repeated language necessary for patterns to be created

-simple patterns develop into complex language

-social interactions

COMBINATION

We are born with the ability to talk... just like walking

Generativist

A child's language develops along with his or her cognitive ability

Constructivist

The best way to get someone to learn English is to motivate that person to talk and use language with other in the classroom

Social Interactionist

Language learning is all about a child's brain recognizing the patterns of language

Connectionist

Language learning is largely a function of neural pathways being established in the brain

Connectionist

There's no way a child can learn language from Telletubbies alone. Language can never be learned in a social vacuum.

Social Interactionist

Jonnie learns language by imitating what he hears his mom saying at home

Behaviorist

My language theory is best summed up in the finding of BF Skinner

Behaviorist

Functional mapping

how different parts of brain are responsible for different functions of language

Pierre Paul Broca

French Scientist of medicine. Lebrogne was his first test study because of broken speech. After dying Broca found the left hemisphere had a lesion

Aphasia

damage to the brain resulting in language loss (usually no blood flow to brain)

Broca's aphasia

broken speech, no syntax, minimal content word

Broca's area

area of brain responsible for fluent language production

Wernicke's Aphasia

nonsense speech hard to understand and trouble understanding. Incomprehensible speech, sentences grammatical but make no sense

Wernicke's area

responsible for language comprehension

Language Comprehension

Step 1: Ear ---> Heschl's Area

60% Heschle's on opposite hemisphere

Step 2: Linguistic data ---> Wernicke's area (left side

Parlinguistic data ---> right side

Step 3: Wernicke's area processes the linguistic info

Step 4: Frontol lobe coordinates and evaluates info from Wernicke's area and right side of brain (interpretation of abstract, figurative, paralinguistic)

Language Production

Step 1: Wernicke's area determines underlying semantic structure (words to go with meaning) FINDING

Step 2: Broca's are determines surface structure (which sounds, sequence of words, grammar, syntax) CONNECTING

Step 3: Motor cortex activates muscles for air, voicing, articulation PRODUCING

Invariance hypothesis

left side of brain is specialized for language at birth

Equipotentiality

left NOT specialized at birth but shifts to left maturing

T/F: Children who have damage to left side of brain can still learn language, the right side takes over

True

T/F: Adults who have damage to left side of brain can still learn language, the right side takes over

False: left side of brain develops by puberty

Brain plasticity

ability of a child's right hemisphere to take over and adapt when left hemisphere is damaged

-lost as child matures

-brain growth complete by puberty

-myelination is complete by puberty

Forbidden experiment

intentionally isolating children (specifically for research purposes)

Genie the "wild child"

brain was already completely developed so how could she learn language? She did not know grammar in sign language, just knew vocal words, no syntax. No language development

Problems w/sample: possibility of disability

Left side of brain

-language, math, logic

-syntactic analysis

-phonological & morphological analysis

-language comprehension

Right side of brain

-spacial/recognizing faces

-figurative/abstract language

-some word recognition

-paralinguistic information

-nonlinguistic cues

(affected in autistic children

corpus callosum

bundle of nerves that connects right and left hemisphere