week 9 chapter 8: language

are the smallest units of sound that change meaning, such as /ba/ vs. /pa/.

Phonemes

awareness is the biggest predictor of reading ability.

Phonemic Awareness

are the smallest units of meaning.

Morphemes

Prefixes and suffixes, such as 'pre-' and '-ing', are types of .

Morphemes

Meaning derived from definitions, conventions, and societal norms is called .

Semantics

English commonly follows the word order (Subject‑Verb‑Object).

SVO

Languages like Hindi and Japanese typically use order (Subject‑Object‑Verb).

SOV

Languages like Classical Arabic often use order (Verb‑Subject‑Object).

VSO

Social rules of language use, including turn‑taking and nodding, are studied in .

Pragmatics

Sarcasm and body language are examples of in communication.

Pragmatic cues

At birth, infants communicate primarily through .

Crying

Between 1 and 2 months, infants produce sounds like 'cooing'.

Cooing

Around 6 months, infants begin by repeating syllables like 'ba‑ba'.

Babbling

Infants recognize words before they .

Speak

7.5‑month‑olds listening longer to sentences containing a familiar word demonstrates .

Sensitivity to speech exposure

Infants extract regularities from speech to segment words, a process known as .

Statistical learning

In Jusczyk & Aslin's study, infants listened longer to sentences with the repeated word 'bike', demonstrating .

Statistical learning

Infants dishabituate to random combinations of syllables but not to familiar 'words', indicating they have learned to segment .

Words

Sound streams in statistical learning experiments lack between words.

Natural pauses

Infants distinguish phoneme combinations that occur within words from those that occur between words using .

Statistical inference

Between 8 and 12 months, infants use gestures such as to communicate.

Waving

Joint attention involves shared focus on an , facilitating language learning.

Object

Parents facilitate word learning by pointing at objects and them.

Naming

Humans learn meaning through context and , unlike AI.

Interaction

People learn slang like 'lol' from , illustrating language evolution.

Context

At around 13 months, infants typically produce their first .

Words

By 18 months, children know approximately words.

50

Between 18 and 24 months, children begin using phrases.

Two‑word

Grammar emerges in children aged years.

2‑3

Children form novel sentences by ages years.

3‑4

During the vocabulary spurt, toddlers learn about words per week.

10

The rapid word‑learning process where children associate words with objects without exhaustive analysis is called .

Fast mapping

The assumption that each word corresponds to one object is called .

One‑to‑One mapping

The belief that names refer to whole objects is the assumption.

Whole Object

Children learn general categories like 'dog' before like 'Labradoodle'.

Subcategories

Unique labels for individuals, such as 'Lala' for a pet cat, are called nouns.

Proper

Understanding that words are symbols for objects is known as representation.

Symbolic

Dual representation involves recognizing objects as both real and .

Symbolic

Failing to understand that a model represents something else leads to errors.

Scale

Overly specific use of words, like 'Daddy' only for one's father, is called .

Underextension

Using 'doggie' for all animals exemplifies .

Overextension

Preschoolers applying plural rules to new words demonstrate mastery of .

Morphology

Reading books regularly is an example of exposure.

Frequent

Interactive stories provide contexts for learning.

Engaging

Parent‑child conversations exemplify interactions.

Responsive

Learning through experience is referred to as use.

Meaningful

A social environment with caregiver modeling supports language development.

Supportive

Exposure to varied sentence structures and vocabulary involves grammar and vocabulary.

Diverse

The five components of language are phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and .

Pragmatics

Infants use inference to learn speech patterns.

Statistical

Language acquisition follows predictable developmental .

Milestones

Learning is shaped by exposure, social interactions, and understanding.

Symbolic

The phenomenon where strong readers get stronger and weak readers fall further behind is called the effect.

Matthew

Phonemic awareness is the number one predictor of ability.

Reading

English has a orthography with irregular letter‑sound correspondences.

Deep

Italian has a orthography with consistent letter‑sound correspondences.

Shallow

A reading disability where performance is below expectation relative to IQ is called .

Dyslexia

Dyslexia is closely linked with deficits in processing.

Phonological

On average, girls score higher than boys on tests.

Reading

Boys' reading achievement is more sensitive to interest and factors.

Motivation

Native fluency and accent are best achieved if a second language is acquired before .

Puberty

A specific developmental window during which language acquisition is most effective is called the period.

Critical

A more flexible window where experience optimally affects development is called a period.

Sensitive

Bilingualism enhances cognitive flexibility and attentional .

Control

Early exposure to two languages does not harm language or development.

Cognitive

Integrating a student's native language with English instruction is more effective than using only .

English

Most non‑English home students take about years to achieve proficiency in English.

4‑7

The perspective views language as learned through conditioning and imitation.

Behaviorist

The perspective posits an innate Language Acquisition Device and universal grammar.

Nativist

Damage to Broca's area leads to difficulty with speech .

Production

Damage to Wernicke's area results in fluent but meaningless .

Speech

Apes like Kanzi learned lexicons but never mastered .

Syntax

Sign language learning in deaf infants supports modality‑independent .

Language acquisition

Williams syndrome, with high verbal ability but low intelligence, challenges the perspective.

Cognitive

The perspective emphasizes language learning through social interaction.

Social

Vervet monkeys' alarm calls show that animals communicate but lack mastery.

Syntax

Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia highlight specialized neural circuits for processing.

Language

Even in non‑visual modalities like Braille, typical language‑processing regions are .

Engaged