Lenneberg's Characteristics and Language Acquisition

Practice flashcards covering key concepts from Lenneberg's characteristics of language acquisition and the critical period.

Lenneberg's Characteristics of Biologically Controlled Behaviors

Characteristics that define natural language acquisition processes, including emergence before necessity and a critical period for learning.

Critical Period

A developmental window from birth to approximately age twelve during which language must be acquired for normal development.

Behavior Emergence

The process through which language appears before it is necessary for the individual, contributing to species survival.

Conscience Decision

A voluntary choice; in language acquisition, children do not make conscience choices about learning their native language.

Rich Environment

An enriching surrounding that is necessary for adequate language development.

Direct Teaching

Formal instruction; has little effect on natural language acquisition compared to the innate ability to learn.

Milestones

Regular developmental stages that correlate with age in the acquisition of language skills.

Feral Children

Children who grow up in the wild without human contact and face significant challenges in language acquisition.

Imitation Theory

The idea that children learn language by listening and mimicking the words and sentences they hear.

Novel Sentence Production

The ability to create unique sentences that have not been directly learned; not explained by imitation theory.