Child Language Acquisition

Chomsky

Believed the capacity and apparatus of learning language are innate

Introduced idea of innateness

LAD

Language Acquisition Device - an innate tool which controls development of language and allows a child to assemble a set of rules as they hear language being used around them

Assimilation

when the pronunciation of a sound is influenced by the sounds close to it

Substitution

when one sound is substituted for another e.g. “gog” for “dog”

What are the hardest phonemes for a child to pronounce?

’r’ and ‘y’ as well as fricatives and consonant clusters

Stressed syllable deletion

‘Tato’ for potato or ‘nana’ for banana

Reduplication

repeating a whole syllable e.g. ‘mama’ or ‘dada’

what word class do children develop first

nouns - Katherine Nelson (1973) found when categorising first words, she found that 60% were naming things and people, lexical not grammatical words

what is categorical overextension?

when children use one name for all members of that category e.g. apple for all fruit

analogical overextension

where children extend a word to a different category e.g. ball for every circular shaped item

Under extension

When a label or word is inappropriately restricted e.g. using kitty for the family cat only

Eve Clark’s semantic feature hypothesis

Suggests children identify words using some of the components or features associated with the word, so taste/sound/shape/size/texture - applying words one feature at a time

Mutual exclusivity function

the idea that an object cannot be two things at once

Hypernym

a word that is more generic and can have more specific words under it e.g. dog is a hypernym for chihuahua, poodle, dachshund

Hyponym

A word of more specific meaning than a general term applicable to it e.g. daisy and rose for flower

Virtuous error

a mistake that has an underlying logic, showing that learning has taken place

Grice’s maxims

quantity, quality, relation and manner

Critical period

Lennenberg (1976) - an optimal period early in life (5-puberty) where a child can acquire and internalise grammar rules and language readily and with success

Piaget’s 4 developmental stages

sensorimotor (0-2), pre-operational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (12+)

Piaget’s cognitive theory

a cognitive theory which suggested that children cannot linguistically articulate concepts they do not understand - “language comes with understanding”

Vygotsky’s theory

Believed children developed language through social interaction with adults who already know the language (MKO)

Zone of proximal development

the difference between what a leaner can do by themselves or what they can do with help

why did Vygotsky suggest a need for an MKO?

because language isn’t encountered, therefore developed in isolation

Hallidays 7 functions

instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, imaginative, heuristic, informational

What is the ‘fis’ phenomenon?

Comprehension precedes competency - a child was talking to their caregiver about what they called a ‘fis’, when the caregiver repeated this to them, they could recognise the caregiver had said ‘fis’ and not ‘fish’

Who discovered the ‘fis’ phenomenon?

Berko and Brown

Sinclair and Coulthard (1975)

IRF - initiation, response, feedback - social interactionism

Ochs and Schieffelin (1984)

investigated the Kaluli mothers of Papau New Guinea - even though they didn’t address their infants directly, they frequently speak for the infant in a high-pitched voice. They don’t engage with the simplification synonymous with CDS yet the children became fluent speakers

Katherine Nelson (1973)

found that children whose mothers corrected them (negative reinforcement) on word choice and pronunciation actually advanced slower than those with mothers who were generally accepting

Halliday’s functional theory

that language develops according to our developing needs - language use is functional

Pinker’s take on grammar

grammar should be instinctive - if grammar rules must be explicitly stated to be learned, then they can be forgotten

Skinner

behaviourist - language was another form of learned behaviour, suggested chidlren learn through positive and negative reinforcement

Tabula rasa

skinner’s concept that childrens brains are a blank slate ready for them to learn through interaction

Challenging Skinner (behaviourist/interactionist) ideas

If language is a taught behaviour then how can we explain children with apathetic parents (Genie) or studies such as (Wugs)

‘Wug’ test

created by Jean Berko Gleason - children given made up words that required them to change the inflectional endings - proved that children could do thus even with made up words which could not be imitated

Wug test findings

76% of 4-5 year olds correct and 97% of 5-7 year olds correct

Bruner’s theory

that children must interact with caregivers in order to learn how to use language

LASS

language acquisition support system - supports a child’s language acquisition like “scaffolding”

Support for Chomsky (nativism)

all children around the world go through very similar stages - ‘wug’ test

What are examples of Nativism in data?

children more than simply imitating, over/under extensions or virtuous errors which show active language construction, simply not responding/resisting corrections

Genie case study

She was locked in a room by her father and kept there until she was rescued at age 13 (past critical period) - had nobody to speak to so did not speak

Schiff and Ventry (1976)

studied 52 hearing children with deaf parents - 21% of the children had speech and/or language problems

Criticism of behaviourism and social interactionism

Can’t account for children’s creative language and virtuous errors - parents don’t say “I breaked glass”

Bellugi stages of pronoun use

first they use their name in place of pronouns, then use ‘me’ as the subject, then finally use ‘i’ as subject in a standard way

Features of CDS

Overarticulation, simple and short vocab, recasting and reformulating, repetition, expansion, tag questions etc

What Genie tell us about the LAD?

the early stages of development are crucial, LAD must be activated with sufficient input before age 12 to avoid acquisition impairment since her LAD expired

Pinker

Humans learn language primarily through an instinct that develops naturally as infants are brought up in their communities

Expansion (CDS)

Where the adult fills out the child’s utterance

Recasting (CDS)

Where the child’s vocabulary is put into a new utterance

Aims of CDS

To attract and hold a child’s attention, it helps the process of breaking down a language into understandable chunks through a modified manner, and makes the conversation more predictable

Slobin

supports idea of ‘innateness’ - human anatomy is adapted to production of speech, evolved vocal tract allows for precise articulation of wide repertoire of vocal sounds, also Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas

Scientific criticism of Chomsky

his work was solely theoretical, didn’t study real children - called “armchair” theorist by Tomasello

Karmiloff and Smith (2001)

none of these theories are able to explain lang on its own, we need to are them all into account (good for summary)

Criticism of Eve Clarke’s semantic feature hypothesis

Can’t explain understanding of non-object concepts e.g. abstract nouns or phrases like “all gone”

Pre-Verbal stage

0-12 months - vegetative, cooing, babbling, proto word stage

Holophrastic stage

9-18 months - one word utterances ‘holophrases’

Two-word stage

18-24 months - two words only, beginning to form sentences

Telegraphic stage

2-3 years - sentences longer than 2 words but grammatically incomplete

Post-telegraphic stage

3+ - forming full grammatically complete sentences, complex utterances with some errors

Catherine Garvey

pretend play can help lexical and pragmatic growth - pairs of children playing took on different roles fulfilling Halliday’s imaginative function

Pinker’s criticism of Skinner

no two utterances are the same, so a child cannot learn simply through imitation. Grammar is so complete a child cannot learn it just by copying

Piaget’s criticism of interaction

interaction is only of limited value, as children’s brains need to develop to the point where they understand a concept before they can talk about it. Without understanding, talk cannot happen

Halliday’s challenge to nativism

HOW we use language is more important than the rules of language, which children are less aware of. Children develop the ability to use language according to what they need to do.

Bruner and Vygotsky’s challenge of behaviourism

imitation is an overly simplistic way of explaining acquisition, and that interaction is needed rather than just repitition