Child Language Aquisition

Nature

in this context, the inherited genetic and physical makeup of a person - for example gender and ethnicity are inherited and almost always fixed

Nurture

in this context, the sum total of all the environmental influences a person experiences - things like family environment and schooling are important features

B.F. Skinner

Behaviorist that developed the theory of operant conditioning (Imitation & Reinforcement Theory)

conditioning

process whereby behavior is changed or modified due to repeated presence of a stimulus - repetition of the stimulus over time triggers a specific form of behavior (words of praise are a stimulus to learning language)

Noam Chomsky

Developed LADtheorist who believed that humans have an inborn or "native" propensity to develop language in contrast to Skinner

language acquisition device (LAD)

an innate system in the brain which allows the spontaneous development of language in a child from birth, according to Noam Chomsky - this is in contrast to the learning of a second or subsequent language later in life

feral children

children who have lived for an extended period in isolation from other humans, or even reared by animals.

Genie the Wild Child

Raised in isolation and abuse, her critical period had passed by the time she was

rescued and she never reached her language potential.

critical period

an optimal period shortly after birth when an organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces proper development

Jerome Bruner

Develops the Language Acquisition Support System by addressing the limitations to Chomsky's LAD. Includes a social component to language learning.

Language acquisition support system (LASS)

system of support from caregivers to children that helps them acquire language and become sociable, according to Bruner

Jean Piaget

Known for his 4-stage theory of cognitive development in children

cognitive development

the mental process involved in gaining knowledge and abilities through thought, experience, and the senses

sensorimotor stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (from birth to about 2 years of age) during which infants know the world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities

object permanence

the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view (Piaget believed to be a part of the sensorimotor stage)

preoperational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage (between 2 & 5) during which young children are able to think in more definite terms and this is when language develops quickly, although the child only thinks of the world in relation to themselves

egocentric

thinking only about oneself (Piaget believed to be a part of the preoperational stage)

concrete operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the stage of cognitive development (from about 5 - 11 or 12 years of age) during which the child is able to use language for situations outside their immediate experience, and is able to think more logically about specific 'concrete' or observable situations.

conservation

the principle (which Piaget believed to be a part of concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects

formal operational stage

in Piaget's theory, the final stage of cognitive development (normally beginning about age 12) during which people begin to think logically about abstract concepts

Lev Vygotsky

Cognitive theorist who develops Zone of Proximal Development

scaffold

support provided by teacher or peer to help a child achieve something in their ZPD; this support tapers off as the child learns to achieve the thing by themselves

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

the gap between what a child can do by themselves and what they can do with appropriate support

Initiation-response-feedback (IRF)

pattern of discussion between teacher and student in which the teacher asks the student a question, the student responds, and then the teacher provides feedback on their answer.

Pragmatics

study of the ways in which language is used in its social context

Michael Halliday

Children acquire language in order to facilitate developments in life: Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal, Representational, Imaginative, Heuristic.

Instrumental

language used to fulfill a need (food, drink, comfort)

Regulatory

language used to influence the behavior of others - concerned with persuading, commanding or requesting other people to do things you want (Mommy get juice; play with me)

Interactional

language used to develop social relationships and the process of interaction - concerned with phatic communication of talk (you're my friend; here's my teddy; shall we play pirates, love you daddy).

Personal

language used to express the personal opinions, feelings and identity of the speaker - sometimes referred to as the 'Here I am!' function, announcing themselves to the word (me good girl; best stripy socks; tired boy)

Representational

language used to exchange, relay or request information (need to see Granny; finished juice all gone)

Heuristic

language used to explore the world and to learn and discover - children use language to learn. This may be questions and answers, or the running commentary that frequently accompanies children's play (Why is that bird singing?; Why is the sun yellow?; Where does the sea go?; The dolls are having tea in the doll house).

Imaginative

language used to explore imagination - may also accompany play as children create imaginary worlds, or may arise from storytelling (teddy's going to school; farmer in his tractor driving brum brum).

Before Birth Stage

Studies show that newborn babies recognize the language they have heard their mother speak in her later stages of pregnancy

The Babbling Stage

The first year - Pre-verbal stage of language development that includes cooing and babbing. Helps develop organs of speech production.

The Holophrastic Stage

1-2 years - second stage of language development. stage of rapid lexis acquisition and basic syntax development.

The Telegraphic Stage

2-3 years - third stage of language development. Children make limited utterances of 2-3 words which make sense.

Post-telegraphic stage (continuing development)

child acquires the skills to use language in more complex ways. They become able to sustain conversation and speak using more than one simple idea as they combine ideas with coordinating/subordinating conjunctions.

Babbling

stage in child language acquisition in which an infants starts to produce patterns of sounds which have no meaning to the child but which start to resemble patterns of syllables in the child's native language

Reduplication

a syllable structure phonological process that involves the repetition of a syllable of a word (baba, gaga) aka 'cooing'

Reduplicated babbling

babbling that consists of repeating consonant-vowel pairs, such as "da da da"

variegated babbling

babbled sequences in which the syllable & vowel content/sequence varies

Caretaker language

the simple style of speech used by those who look after infants and small children

Phonemic expansion

the baby's capacity to produce sound becomes more wide-ranging and complex

Proto-words

utterances that a child will use to represent a word they might not yet be able to pronounce ("ray ray" for raisins, "goggie" for doggie, "baba" for bottle)

Holophrastic

a single word that expresses a complete idea ('ball' could mean the child wants it, has found it, likes it) - caregivers need contextual clues to interpret holophrases

lexis

all the words in a language

Plosive

speech sound which involves a small explosion of air after the closure of the voice passage

Nasal

speech sound where air passes through the nose to produce the sound

inflection

a change in the form of a word (typically the ending) to express a grammatical function or attribute such as tense, mood, person, number, case, and gender. (grammar definition)

Overextension

when a word is used more broadly than it should be

Underextension

when a word is used in a very narrow context

Hypernyms

words for categories of things, like furniture and primate

Hyponyms

words within those categories (cat, hamster, carrot, cabbage)

Virtuous error

applying regular grammatical endings to words with irregular forms - runned, mouse's, goed, swimmed

restricted code

Bernstein theory (1971), language which assumes a shared understanding amongst the speakers. It is limited and generally uses a limited lexical range and syntax construction, and is used among members of a close-knit community such as a family

Elaborated Code

Bernstein theory (1971), language used more broadly in society which is more complete and often more complex in lexis and syntax

Basil Bernstein

Theorist who says that language is part of class and people use certain codes when speaking.

Adverbs (adverbial phrases)

words and phrases which modify adjectives both in written and spoken form. - Really, absolutely, literally, of course, extremely, and basically are frequently used to add strength and color to utterances.

Back-channeling

feedback in words and sounds which a listener gives a speaker to show they are listening. Often sounds rather than words (um, yeah, right) very important in phone calls as well

Contraction

A word or words shortened by placing an apostrophe where letters have been omitted.

Deixis

words which locate the conversation in a particular space or context which a non-participant would not be able to make sense of. - This, that, these, and those - We will move this over there; we will have one of these is only clear to those present for conversation

Discourse markers

words or phrases which mark boundaries b/w one bit of conversation and another, where the speaer wishes to change the subject. (so, right, I see, well, fine, then, OK - anyway) Can be used to signal the conclusion of a conversation where there are no other cues. Also widely used in phone convo.

Elision

omission of sounds or syllables which are present in the word. Can happen w/i a word (frightening - fright/ning) Can also occur b/w two words, where the new form of the word can be marked with an apostrophe, for example fish 'n' chips

Ellipsis

omission of a word or words in speech or writing, though the sense is still evident through context ('off home now); three dots (...) in a transcription can indicate a silence which is also considered to be an ellipsis

Fixed expressions

A conventional and routine expression in communication (as a matter of fact, basically, at the end of the day), sometimes colloquial and cliched (driving me mad, at the end of the day) Provides predictability.

Hedges (Vague Language)

strategy used when you want to avoid coming to the point or saying things directly (kind of, you know what I mean, actually, basically) Soften force of what is being said, useful for negotiating a POV

Metalanguage

language which talks about language; used when a person realizes they have made an error (I mean to say, I should have mentioned). often the utterance is reformulated for greater clarity and repairs the conversation

Modality

allows us to introduce different options and compromises for negotiation b/w participants (perhaps, probably, normally, slightly, maybe) can reflect hesitancy or uncertainty (may, might, could, should) - often used in conjunction with hedges

Fillers & Voiceless pause (Non-fluency features

fillers which give us time to think and/or to announce that we are going to say something when the sound is extended (mmm) a voiceless pause is when there is a silence

False starts or Repairing

when a speaker realises they have made an error and attempts to repair it through reformulation (I come home/came home very quickly)

Non-standard English features

commonly used where a speaker struggles to phrase utterances correctly (common example is lack of agreement b/w subject and verb - 'we was really tired' or incorrect use of tenses - 'so I sees him yesterday')

Phatic communication

name for the polite 'ice-breakers' used when greeting people in order to initiate conversation (how are you? - often both participants will say the same thing here and a detailed response isn't expected)

Repetition

common in convo. for many reasons - maybe for emphasis, maybe for time to think of a response

Tag questions

when a speaker adds a question to prompt a response from the listener (It's hot in here, isn't it?)

Vague expressions

soften authoritative requests and maintain greater engagement b/w speakers (Can you get me a ham sandwich? vs Can you get me a ham sandwich or something like that?) Sort of, kind of, around, or so allow flexibility

Interactional language

Language focused on social interaction and maintaining relationships

Transactional language

Language focused on achieving an outcome. Purpose-driven interactions

↗

upward intonation

↘

downward intonation

(.)

a micropause--a short pause of less than a second, usually for breath

underlined

underlined

indicate emphasis on a stressed sound or syllable(s)

[ ]

square brackets usually contain information about paralinguistic features, with the feature written in italics, for example [laughs]

• Paralinguistics are the aspects of spoken communication that do not involve words. These may add emphasis or shades of meaning to what people say. ... Body language, gestures, facial expressions, tone and pitch of voice are all examples of paralinguistic features.

( 1 )

indicates a pause denoted by number of seconds

[ Uppercase ]

words spoken with increased volume

contextual information

-social, political, economic, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic conditions that were (or can be assumed to have been) in place at the time and place when the text was created.

°word°

words spoken with decreased volume

/wiv/

phonemic representation of speech sounds

Accent

the characteristic pronunciation associated with a geographical area or social group

Phonetics

the study of speech sounds in the way they are spoken and pronounced

Phoneme

the smallest unit of distinguishable sound which distinguishes one word from another in a language

Intonation

rise & fall of the voice while speaking, which can alter the meaning of a word

High rising terminal (HRT)

( aka HRT, UpSpeak/UpTalk, inflection, upward inflection, or high rising intonation HRI ) - pronunciation rises at the end of a sentence (increasingly popular

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

standard form of transcription, created to represent the standardized sounds of spoken English

Received Pronunciation (RP)

the standard form of British English pronunciation (accent), based on educated speech in southern England. IPA is based off of this (No clear English equivalent - MidAtlantic would be closest)

Diacritics

marks added to sound transcription symbols to give them a particular phonetic value