social interactionism

what is social interactionism (Bruner)

• the way adults talk to children (CDS/child directed speech) is specially adapted to support language development

• coined the term LASS (language acquisition support system) in response to Chomskys LAD

what are the features of CDS

• prosody- sing song voice/rising intonation

• vowel elongation

• open and closed questions

• elliptical utterances (repeating the same phrase in different ways)

• diminutive utterances (making things sound smaller)

• no shouting

• pauses

• slower speech

what is framing

the repeated use of the same word in several contexts

what is expansion

recasting the child’s utterance into the phonological or grammatically correct utterance

what is expatiation

an expansion with extra information added onto a child’s comment

how can this idea be evaluated

• not all cultures use CDS e.g. papa new guinea but children still acquire language

• chosen still all pass through the same stages as long as they are exposed to language