child language development

communicative competence

the ability to form accurate and understandable utterances, using the grammar system, and to understand social context for using them

proto words

'made up' words that a child will use to represent a word they might not yet be able to pronounce, for example, 'ray rays' for 'raisins'

pre-verbal stage

a period of time that involves experimenting with noises and sounds but without producing recognisable words - usually lasting for the majority of the baby's first year
cooing (2 months), babbling (reduplicated, then variegated 6 months)

cooing

distinct from crying but not yet forming recognisable vowels and consonants

babbling

vocal play that involves forming vowel and consonant sounds, which can be reduplicated (repeated sounds) or variegated (different sounds put together)

holophrastic stage

12-18 months. the point in a child's development when a child uses just individual words to communicate

non-verbal communication

all the ways in which communication occurs that do not involve words e.g. a parent shaking their head at a child will communicate the same meaning as 'no'

reduplicated words

repeated syllables within a word e.g. baa baa for blanket

diminutives

the reduction in scale of an item through the way this word is created

addition

adding an additional suffix to the end of a word to change the way in which the word is pronounced and interpreted e.g. Mummy and dolly, instead of Mum and doll

substitution

the process of swapping one sound for another (that is easier to pronounce)

assimilation

one consonant or vowel is swapped for another

deletion (final consonant or weak syllable)

omitting a particular sound within a word

consonant cluster reductions

reducing phonologically more complex units into simpler ones - from two (or more) consonants down to one

two-word stage

18 months. period of time when a child begins to put two words together (e.g. kick ball)

telegraphic stage

2 years. period of time when a child's utterances will be three words and more; there might still be omission of some words, particularly grammatical words, but the key content words are included

content words

words within a sentence that are vital to convey meaning

grammatical words

words within a sentence that are necessary to demonstrate structural accuracy

post-telegraphic stage

3 years. period of time when a child's language will include both content and grammatical words and more closely resemble adult speech

skinner and behaviourism

through experiments on rats and children, skinner proposed the theory that all behaviour is a result of the conditioning we experience, rather than by freedom of choice. children learn through imitation and operant conditioning. emphasised role of positive and negative reinforcement to point out mistakes, however adults tend to be more concerned with the truth in childrens' speech, rather than the grammatical accuracy.

evidence against skinner and the imitation theory

children do not suddenly produce grammatically complete standard english sentences, which you might expect if a child was imitating those around them. instead, they gradually build up their language

operant conditioning

the idea that either a positive or negative response given by a caregiver can influence the way in which a child talks on future occasions

positive reinforcement

the positive feedback given to a child which is thought to encourage similar performance again

negative reinforcement

the lack of feedback, correction or negative feedback that might prevent a child from making the same error repeatedly

chomsky and nativism

concept of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and that humans have a programmed ability to learn language and work out the systems in terms of grammar and syntax. universal grammar shows how children learn language at similar rates and in similar ways across the world. virtuous errors justify the LAD as children are attempting to apply the rules they recognise. the child is unlikely to have heard these errors made before, therefore it cannot be by imitation

criticisms of chomsky and the LAD

does not place sufficient importance on the role of caregivers to influence language acquisition. evidence shows that children who lack sufficient exposure to language and interaction may never catch up

LAD (Language Acquisition Device)

the idea that all humans are born with an innate language learning capacity

universal grammar

term coined by Chomsky - the notion that all human languages possess similar grammatical properties which the brain is 'hard wired' to be able to decode and use

virtuous errors

grammatical errors that are understandable and logical through an incorrect assumption being made about grammar rules

Genie study

exposed to no social interaction from 20 months to 13 years. when discovered in 1970, she had no speech. despite numerous interventions, she was unable to acquire language beyond a very basic level. reinforces concept of the critical period (Eric Lennenburg)

critical period

Eric Lennenburg. the age at which a child will be most receptive to learn language (suggested by Lennenburg to be up to the age of 5)

piaget's stages of development

cognitive development

exploring and questioning the world around them

need for conceptual understanding to be present before language can reflect this

child begins as egocentric and object permanence slowly appears

cognitive development

a child's development of thinking and understanding

object permanence

an understanding that objects continue to exist even when they can't be seen or touched

Bruner and social interactionism

believed a LAD may well exist, but emphasised the importance of a LASS to develop speech effectively

emphasis back on the social situations

adults providing significant and meaningful input

scaffolding

Language Acquisition Support System (LASS)

system as proposed by Bruner - the caregivers and other individuals who play a key role in a child's language development

scaffolding

the support provided by caregivers through modelling how speech ought to take place, in order to help the child's language development

egocentric

thinking only of themselves, without understanding or regard for the feelings of others

vygotsky and scaffolding

importance of 'doing'

caregiver acts as a more knowledgeable other

directing the child into the zone of proximal development

more knowledgeable other

the older participant in an interaction who might offer support to a child so that they can further their own development of learning

zone of proximal development

describes the area between what a child can already do and that which is beyond their reach. it is the area into which a caregiver might enable the child to progress by offering the necessary support or scaffolding to facilitate learning

tomasello and cognitive linguistic approach

usage-based model

relies on cognitive processes

by 9-12 months children have pattern-forming ability which allows them to learn about forms and functions of words

build generalisations which form larger syntactic constructions or schemas

'bottom-up' approach with the child actively building and using templates for grammatical structures

based on sensory input and interaction with caregivers

Usage based linguistics

language structure emerges from use

linguistic patterns are formed and become grammatical constructions

child directed speech

the various ways in which a caregiver (unconsciously) adapts their speech in order to aid a child in their language development

features of CDS

higher or melodic pitch, more frequent and longer pauses, slower and clearer speech, repetition, grammatically simpler sentences, more question (including tag questions and known answer questions), diminutives, use of nouns rather than pronouns, more frequent use of plural pronouns, expansion, recasts, politeness features, mitigated imperatives

expansion

where a caregiver might develop the child's utterance to make it more grammatically complete

recast

the grammatically incorrect utterance of a child is spoken back to the child but in the corrected form

mitigated imperative

an instruction given in such a way that it does not appear to be a command but a more gentle suggestion

Kaluli tribe in Papa New Guinea

do not use child directed speech and yet the children do not experience late or impaired language development

Erving Goffman 1955

positive and negative face needs

positive face need

a universal human need to feel valued and appreciated

negative face need

a universal human need to feel independent and not be imposed upon

face threatening acts

a speech act that has the potential to damage someone's self esteem either in terms of positive or negative face

politeness strategies

distinctive ways in which speakers can choose to speak to avoid threatening face

positive politeness strategy

addresses the receivers positive face needs whilst still completing the task

negative politeness strategy

addresses the receivers negative face needs whilst still completing the task

the importance of play

piaget and vygotsky both looked at the importance of exploration of environment in cognitive development. vygotsky proposed that social interaction with others was critical in developing understanding and that play facilitated learning

Catherine Garvey 1977

considered the importance of play to language development, in particular pretend play in helping vocabulary growth

Susan Ervin Tripp 1991

considered importance of play to language development, since children can learn from each other and have to work collaboratively in a way that does not occur in adult-child interactions. argued imaginative play is critical for children to experiment with language in unfamiliar and different ways

sinclair and coulthard 1975

IRF structure of analysing educational discourse

initiation

mother asks child a question

response

child provides a response to the question

feedback

mother praises child for giving an appropriate answer

initiation, response, feedback

three-part conversational exchange in which a speaker starts the conversation, a second speaker responds and the first speaker then provides some feedback to what the second speaker said

halliday 1975 seven functions of communication

instrumental, regulatory, interactional, personal, heuristic, imaginative, representational

instrumental

where the child is trying to fulfil a need

regulatory

used to control the behaviour of someone

interactional

used to develop relationships with others

personal

used to express views and preferences

heuristic

used to explore the world around them

imaginative

used to explore something creatively or during play

representational

used to exchange information

nelson 1973

studied 18 children's first words and categorised them by function. 60% nouns

rescorla 2009

link between later vocabulary development in toddlers and continued language issues as they got older. 'overheard speech' is no substitute for real human interaction

overextension

where a child might use a word more broadly to describe things other than the specific item to which the word actually applies

analogical overextension

drawing links between objects according to similar properties or use

categorical overextension

child refers to all objects within the same category with the same name

underextension

where a child might use a word more narrowly to describe something without recognising the wider use of the word

hyponym

the more specific words that can be defined within the more generic specific hypernym

hypernym

the more generic term that is connected to more specific word choices that are all within the same semantic field

the wug test 1958

jean berko. children are often able to deduce what the plural of a noun would be (76% of 4 and 5 year olds responded with 'wugs'). suggests that children have an ability to understand grammar rules and transfer them to other examples

bound morpheme

units of meaning within a word that depend on other morphemes to make sense e.g. -est

unbound/free morpheme

units of meaning within a word that do not depend on other morphemes to make sense e.g. light

superlative

an adjective or adverb that expresses the highest degree of quality e.g. lightest

brown 1973

outlined five stages of language development that focused on the child's grammatical development in terms of morphology and syntax

MLU (mean length of utterance)

the average utterance length of speakers calculated by adding up the total number of words spoken and dividing this by the total number of utterances - it is a broad way of exploring a participant's input and can be linked to discussions of dominance

bellugi 1971

pronoun acquisition. 1 child will use a name rather than a pronoun. 2 child will recognise that there is a difference between subject and object pronouns but will not be able to apply this understanding correctly. 3 child correctly applies subject and object pronouns

stage 1 MLU

15 to 30 months. no bound morphemes. MLU 1.75. word order generally correct

stage 2 MLU

28 to 36 months. bound morphemes start appearing. present progressive tense with -ing suffix. regular -s plurals begin to appear. MLU 2.25

stage 3 MLU

36 to 42 months. possessives begin to appear. MLU 2.75. emergence of adjectives and adverbs. articles a and the

stage 4 MLU

40 to 46 months. regular past tense with -ed suffix. MLU 3.5

stage 5 MLU

compound sentences that are joined. MLU 4.0

bellugi 1966 (negative)

negative acquisition. 1 negative at the beginning of utterance. 2 negative within body of utterance. 3 negatives attached to auxiliary verbs or copula 'to be'

copula verb

a verb that joins a subject to an adjective or noun complement: for example 'i am happy' joins the subject 'i' to the adjective 'happy'

bellugi 1966 (question)

question formation. 1 use of rising intonation of single, then multiple words to signify an utterance. 2 inversion of auxiliary verbs 'are you coming?'. 3 formulaic wh questions. 4 use of tag questions

leslie rescorla

over and under extensions, and mismatch

david crystal

milestones of early developments

jean aitchinson

3 stages of children's acquisition of words and their meanings

braine

Pivot schema - there are key words (pivot words) that children's utterances revolve around

pamela grunwell

phonological sequence